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True Blood: Season 3 (2010)

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Overall Rating 74%
Overall Rating
Ranked #730
...out of 20,196 movies
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Connections: True Blood

Set in modern times, vampires roam the earth and are humans mortal enemies. However, a substitute has been found for human blood, a substitute that vampires can consume with the same effect as human blood. This is True Blood. Now humans and vampires can coexist in harmony, and even form relationships. But there will always be rogue elements on both sides ready to exploit the uneasy truce. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: October 15, 2010
Son of a bitch. Those were the words coming out of my mouth when the season finale wrapped up on my television screen just a few moments ago, and this is coming from someone who has read all of the books and kind of knows where the storyline is going to be headed in the next season. I can't imagine how it must have felt for those of you who haven't read the source material, as I'm anxious for more even knowing some of the answers to the questions that said finale presented. Yes, as has become a bit of a tradition with the series, the season finale leaves us with plenty of unanswered questions and one hell of a huge cliffhanger, but how was the season as a whole? Well, let's see...

Once again, standard disclaimer. I'm probably going to spoil things from the first two seasons, so if you're new to the series, you may want to stop reading now. Also, I am going to spoil a few of the events that take place early on in this season, as it's a bit difficult to describe twelve hours worth of programming without talking about a few of the plot points, and nearly all of said plot points could be considered a spoiler as this is a show that relies heavily on grand revelations. Fair enough?

So, at the end of the second season, Bill (Stephen Moyer) proposed to Sookie (Anna Paquin) but was kidnapped before she could make up her mind. Who could have done it? Well, let's just say that he winds up in the house of Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare), the vampire king of Mississippi, a king who is quite happy with his status, his gay lover Talbot (Theo Alexander), and of course, his pack of werewolf henchmen. Oh, did I mention that there are werewolves in this season, and that one of them - Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello) - has been assigned the unenviable task of protecting Sookie while Bill is unavailable? So, what's going on with Bill? Well, I'll leave that to the virgin viewer, but let's just say that it's a huge chain of events involving Russell, Bill, Eric (Alexander Skarsgård), Louisiana Queen Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood), and yes, Sookie Stackhouse.

Meanwhile, there are a half-dozen other storylines going on involving the lesser characters. Let's see... Sam finds his biological parents and discovers that he has a shifter brother in Tommy Mickens (Marshall Allman), a young man that he quickly takes in only to discover that the boy has some severe issues. After the death of Tara's boyfriend Eggs in the previous season, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is now set on making things right... by becoming a cop. He also meets a young lady in Crystal Norris (Lindsay Pulsipher), but this little lass may have a few secrets of her own - for starters, what's the deal with the inbred town of Hot Shot? Tara (Rutina Wesley) gets "involved" with a psychotic vampire in Franklin Mott (James Frain) who kidnaps her and plans to turn her against her wishes, while Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) falls in love with a man named Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) who has a special connection with the Reynolds' family. As if that wasn't enough, Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) are still trying to make their vampire / human love relationship work, with mixed results. Suffice it to say that the little town of Bon Temps is seeing a lot of action in this season.

Yes, there's a lot going on in this season, and personally, I loved almost every minute of it. Each of the story arcs leaves the viewer wanting more from it, and when we switch from one arc to the next, we're left screaming for just another minute or two of the previous arc to see where it goes from there... until we realize that we're going to find out more about this other arc that is now playing out. There is some damned fine writing on display here, and anything that can keep a viewer hooked for twelve hours (especially a viewer who has read the books and kind of knows what's coming) must be doing something right.

I did say that I loved "almost" every minute of it, didn't I? Well, I hate to say it, but I despised the storyline that Lafayette's character got saddled with. I love Lafayette's character and the actor playing said character is beyond great, but this little piece of the storyline did absolutely nothing for me. I had zero interest in his companion in love, I had zero interest in seeing them get together, and the final pay-off with the two was weak at best. Honestly, I would have preferred to see Lafayette - again, a character that I loved in the previous seasons - reduced to a bit part who shows up only to drop a one-liner here and there over what we got in this season. I can see how this build-up may pay off in the next season, but watching it build up over the course of these twelve hours simply wasn't much fun.

That's really my only complaint about this season. As mentioned, I knew a lot about the characters and events before they actually played out on the screen courtesy of having just read the entire series of books, so even seeing some minor detail such as "they're going to Hot Shot" prompted me to tell the old lady about what's really going down in that town, the interesting characters that we are about to meet, how they interact with the main characters, and the ultimate pay-off of this town. Oh, there's a gal named Holly who shows up as a new waitress? "Yeah, well, she just so happens to do this and that, and she gets involved with so-and-so, and this happens, and..." - I knew a lot of the stuff that was going to happen, let's just say that.

Even after saying that, I simply loved seeing it happen on my screen. There are enough differences found here that readers will be in for a shock or two, but the writing is so strong that it's impossible to turn away even when we're rehashing things that we already knew about. It's sort of like being a kid again, and even though you snuck a peek in your mom's closet and know that you're getting a Nintendo for Christmas, you're still anxious as all hell to open that present on Christmas morning. If you haven't read the books, you're still getting what you really wanted under that tree even though you didn't peek and don't know what you're going to wind up with.

How about the new characters that we're introduced to? Russell Edgington and his boy-toy Talbot are far and away the best of the best here, as these two characters play off of one another as well as the main characters in such a way so as to cause viewers to fall in love with them... even though they're supposed to be the "bad" guys. I dare you not to smile when Russell gives his little speech on the nightly news in one of the latter episodes. Alcide is another strong addition to the series, and I was extremely relived to see that the actor portraying him turned out to be a perfect choice. I saw some pictures of him when it was announced that he got the role and didn't think that he would work, but boy was I wrong. Huge thumbs up, and I can't wait to see more of him. Franklin is another great addition, and Crystal should provide plenty of surprises in the next season.

This is a damned strong season of a fantastic show, and even though I wasn't a fan of the Lafayette storyline, I still had a great time with these twelve episodes and can't wait for season four. If you haven't checked out this series yet, what in the hell are you waiting for? 9/10.
Mojokc #1: Mojokc - added October 16, 2010 at 8:22am
I loved this Season just as much as the first two seasons and completely agree with the review. However also having read the books my one complaint is how some of the characters were handled. I think the writers completely butchered the Calvin Norris character and the Holly character. Holly isn't so much of a problem but Calvin Norris was a really great character in the books and to see him reduced to what he was in the series was quite a let down. Beyond that I got no real complaints. 9/10
Crispy #2: Crispy - added October 16, 2010 at 11:01am
A huge fan of the first two seasons, this season was starting to lose me at the end. It's just spiraling out into the fantasy world a bit too much for my liking. It's too much
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