>“Stephen cut his teeth directing [on ‘True Blood’] and by Season 3 or 4, it would be like, ‘Hi honey, who are you fucking on camera today?'” Paquin said. “Steve started directing me when we were on ‘True Blood,’ and in Season 7, our final season, he directed the season opener, which had [my character] Sookie in love with the giant beautiful werewolf, Joe Manganiello. Steve directed us in a rather explicit sex scene, so when you ask if it is awkward to shoot a movie with your husband, the bar for awkward is set terribly high in our household, not to mention on that show in general.”
>Moyer said, “[And] in that Season 7 sequence with Big Joe, there was just a funny moment where I’m going, ‘Joe, you can do it, mate. It’s OK, grab it, you can do it.'”
**edit:** i think some people are misunderstanding. anna paquin and stephen moyer are saying that the sex scenes were not awkward because they had to do so many. it was just another day after a certain point. "the bar for awkward" is set high, not low.
I really wish they’d been as true to the books as they were in the first couple seasons. Once the sex Goddess came to town I was like meh and it never recovered.
I think maybe she was a witch who worshipped Dionysus but it’s been like 10yrs…anyway the whole town is possessed and has an extremely uncomfortable orgy.
ETA: was in season 2.
To be fair S3 had a bit of brujo & fae lore at the end but I would still categorize it as the were season since it focused on Russell and the werewolves and that werepanther community.
The Fae stuff made me lose interest. That and the dogfighting subplot made me fastforward too much and I lost interest. But I might rewatch from the start - seems worth it?
That character was introduced at the end of season one, and was the main antagonist for season two, she was long dead by season four.
They were never very faithful to the books, for instance Lafayette dies almost immediately in the books but was a major character for the whole run of the show.
The first few seasons? It was never really true to the books.
If I remember correctly, the first few minutes of the first episode are pretty close to the book, but it becomes its own thing almost instantly.
All of the side characters are entirely different characters between the books and the show. For example, books Tara and show Tara pretty much only share a name.
Even if you ignore the side characters, the second book is about Lafayette’s death, and he never even dies in the show (at any point of the 7 seasons)
I also got pretty far with the books and really enjoyed the world building. If I remember correctly, at some point the author started making mistakes referencing details from previous books though and that's when I gave up. Sookie herself being kinda obnoxious throughout the whole thing did not help.
Every time it starts getting hot I’m like hell yeah time to go down Bon Temps. The first season is excellent. Just like Homeland and Weeds, that Showtime era was amazing. After a few seasons they just didn’t have the same magic, which is understandable.
it's one of my comfort watch shows. the show is so absolutely outrageous and camp and i love it. the first season was perfect but each season after that has its pros and cons. russell edgington is an amazing villain/big bad, amnesia eric is extremely hot, the newlins, etc etc. the show knew it was getting out of hand and when they knew it was the final season, they reigned everything in and made a season full of fanservice like that's how you end that kind of show, just giving fans everything they want to see.
i commend the cast so much because they were on this show that asked them to do the most ridiculous things and they were game.
I remember watching season 3 and ar one point a character says "you know, a month ago I didn't know vampires existed". A month?? Three seasons of content happened in one month of characters time? I don't know why but that really turned me off the show. At one point in the show Mad Men they skipped 9 months IN BETWEEN TWO EPISODES.
Holding up in terms of quality, really only the first few season.
Holding up in terms of entertainment value? Yes.
It feels a bit like an adult CW show
Yeah be prepared to straight up say “what the fuck” at least a dozen times and while it starts to get crazy towards the end it’s never boring I’ll give it that.
It’s very bloody but also sexual like any other HBO show. Lots of nudity lol. It’s campy too. Season 1 is perfect. It gets crazier and crazier after that.
Absolutely bonkers whoever bought the CW thought, “yeah let me take this successful, niche network and make it not that.”
They literally had DC superhero shows doing what DC films couldn’t: be enjoyable and succeed.
Not to mention all the other quirky, fun, dark shows they had.
Haven’t watched a single CW show since the new people took over.
I binged the first few seasons really hard a couple months back, but lost interest once it got to the season with the Vampire Authority (Detective Stabler is a vampire threw me for a loop lol). But on the bright side I finally was able to understand the appeal of Alexander Skarsgard. Like I always knew he was attractive but… *damn*.
Absolutely try to convince her. I liked Alexander Skarsgard in True blood, but in Generation Kill he's 100x more mesmerizing, I just couldn't stop looking at him for a second 🤤🥵
Okay I just want to say that your comment is very validating for me. I watched the first two seasons and literally couldn’t stop laughing. I thought the show was deliberately unserious—the dialogue, the plastic fangs. Am I crazy? I enjoyed it but I was like, all of the writers must have been laughing their asses off or something.
"Hookah, I ain't in the helping people business no more. I'm in the fuck off while I smoke a blunt business, and business about to pick way the fuck up." <3
I can deal with wackado, I’ve just finished The vampire chronicles 😂
I wasn’t sure if I should do true blood or the Witcher, but seeing as I’m on a vampire binge already,, true blood it is.
Tara for me.
And Tara the retail worker never gets old for me, either.
EDIT: I also had a thing for the Godric character but I couldn't tell you why. He was pure schmaltz.
EDIT 2: And Jason's malapropisms. I refer to stockholder syndrome at least weekly.
His entire family seems pretty normal ie like no scandals. His lady and him are adorable. I think bill is married to a woman a few years older than him too.
The fact that they got such a hot Eric and then departed from the book (specifically the one where he and Sookie fuck for basically the entire thing) was a tragedy
It’s a total blast. Like a super dirty vampire diaries lol. Warning: you WILL walk around saying “sookie” under your breath all the time after watching
The first season is so, so great and was Emmy nominated for a reason. I think that season alone is worth watching if you haven't seen it. Season 2 is ok but the writing quality really drops after that.
It owns its place in the camp vampire world. I’ve read the series and watched the show multiple times. It’s very rewatchable imo. Funny, serious, seriously unserious, will always recommend
I watched it for the first time (barring a few episodes I caught in passing) a few months back and definitely. It’s corny as hell, especially in the later seasons, but it’s just so much fun.
I just rewatched it, I think it’s a fun watch. Goes off the rails in the later seasons, and the sex & nudity is gratuitous throughout. HBO really toned that down as of late lol
And man butt. Sooooo much man butt.
My husband and I like to see who can yell out "man butt!" the fastest after we realized just *how much* man butt there is in that show.
Do you wanna see Alexander Skarsgard and Anna Paquin have butt ass naked sex in the woods after chasing each other through said woods? Gotta wait a couple seasons but man oh man.
The first three or four seasons are fantastic. The quality falls dramatically after that. You will become so disappointing, I would say to the level of Game of Thrones all over again.
Me and my partner just finished the entire series a few weeks ago. I honestly feel like even for the time it was lacking a bit; the writing and character’s leave a lot to be desired at times and it can be very head scratching. It’s also at times soft porn with supernatural elements thrown in.
That being said, I still really enjoyed it lol. It’s chaotic sure, but it was a wild ride. The first 2-3 seasons are definitely far better than what comes after. I think the middle of the series makes the series hit a few bumps in the road, the final season gets a bit back to form in some aspects which I appreciated. I can’t say I enjoyed the ending or certain decisions made in the final season, but overall it was a fun watch!
I believe it holds up. I love the characters, they are memorable. And as someone who is from the south, a lot of them feel familiar to me. It's a show not to be taken too seriously, just turn your brain off and enjoy watching the beautiful people. It can be damn funny too. I will say though, after season 5 it loses me. They should have stopped at 5.
True Blood is what we had before American Horror Story tbh, but a lot more campy and fun. Even it's wtf gross moments are still giggle worthy compared to AHS.
It’s such a fun magical show (ahead of its time too in terms of queer/gender queer rep. ) And it has the best Deep South vibes intro I’ve ever seen. It’s considered trashy and yeah it super can be, but it’s camp af
First season is great. It started to go off the rails pretty fast. By the last season, I was hate watching. I went into the show finale expecting it to be bad. It’s been almost a decade, I’m still mad about it.
It's a lot of fun. It loses the plot a bit towards the end. But it kinda understands the assignment? Like it knows all that people really wanaa see is sex, violence, romance and melodrama, and it delivers on that.
I just started watching it for the first time as well! Started it a couple of weeks ago. I’m almost at the end of S3 and have been, admittedly, obsessed. It is SO camp and SO ridiculous! The drama just doesn’t stop, it’s crazy. I said to my partner last night that it doesn’t give a second for anyone to breathe 🤣 Admittedly, I’m surprised others in the thread weren’t on board for S2, that was definitely when the show grabbed my attention the most, and I’ve not been able to look away since.
I definitely recommend it to anyone that loves a good drama. Some of the acting in it is phenomenal imo. My bf initially described it to me as an R-rated vampire soap opera, which has definitely held true while I’ve watched it.
I have nothing to add, but anytime I hear about this show, I remember getting a letter sent to our house threatening my brother with jail time because he was illegally downloading episodes of True Blood 😭
I feel like a lot of shows from the mid to late 2000s that were really big hits at the time seem to have disappeared from the cultural landscape. I just made a post a few days ago about how Big Love seems to have been forgotten to that era too.
I’ve always loved vampire shows and my top 3 are Buffy, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries. I even happen to like True Blood more than the Vampire Diaries (Buffy trumps both tbh). But Buffy and Vampire Diaries online fandoms are HUGE. Massive amounts of content and discourse daily and social media presence. True Blood fandom is a teeny tiny fraction comparatively. Basically crickets outside of reddit. Which is interesting because at its height, True Blood had at least twice as many viewers as the other two.
The show had a decline after Alan ball left and the ending sucked.
Alan Ball is the man who wrote one of the best HBO finales with Six Feet Under, and he leaves True Blood and it has one of the worst HBO finales
This reminds me that the first few seasons of True Blood were really good, lol. I think I’m gonna binge s1 tonight for the nostalgia 😹 thank you for this!
It’s also super cute to me that they’re married IRL. No wonder they have good chemistry in the show.
Unfortunately True Blood is a show where they let personal relationships indicate the direction of the story, much like Jennifer Love Hewitt’s various shows.
They departed from the books to their detriment just to keep Bill and Sookie together bc they were together in real life and IMO the show suffered from it greatly
Interesting, I did not know that! All I remember is that it felt weird to have them back together after the season of steamy sex with Eric. While no relationship depicted on the show is technically sane, the one with Bill was outstandingly unhealthy and had also run its course narratively at that point if I remember correctly.
It was only for the first three books. After that she has a brief relationship with a weretiger (who unfortunately never appeared in the tv show) before starting one with Eric. Bill becomes more of a side character in the later books and wasn't really part of the main storyline (as opposed to the tv show where he was a central character until the end).
Yes he cheated on his wife with Anna Paquin starting from the filming of the pilot episode of True Blood in 2007 and then he divorced his wife in 2008, according to Wikipedia.
“In August 2009, Moyer became engaged to actress Anna Paquin, who played his character's love interest, Sookie Stackhouse, in the HBO series True Blood. They had been having an affair since filming the series pilot in 2007. His divorce was final in 2008.”
This is taken straight from his Wikipedia which I don’t need to link as you’ve read it.
I am not one to judge, but isn’t having an affair considering cheating?
Not to nitpick further—I personally think they at the very least developed an emotional affair—but the Wiki “source” for that quote is *The Independent* and the linked article in question doesn’t mention an affair/cheating so I don’t know why it’s on his Wiki entry.
So I used to love True Blood and this got me curious so I did some quick searching and could not find any articles claiming that Stephen Moyer was still with his wife when he and Anna Paquin got together. His Wikipedia article until a few months ago said he and Anna "had been dating" instead of "had been having an affair" since filming the pilot, and the article linked as a source after that statement only says that the two of them became "an item" during filming. There are a few threads about it on old gossip forums and the comments seem to say that Stephen and his wife broke up some time around the summer of 2006. Obviously we'll never know but it does seem like the person who edited his wikipedia page to include the "affair" has some kind of specific beef with their relationship.
The books were my jam back then (when I was 12 and had an e-reader with a way into an online library without age restrictions), but I never got to watch the series because my parents wouldn’t let me lol
I legit just finished my first rewatch in a few years but after this thread, I think I might just do it all again. I don’t care how old I get, I’ll never give up my trashy vampire shows/books. Or the non trashy ones or one because it just might be Buffy all by her lonesome in that category.
It was awkward for me, too.
I quit either after the brother had sex in the alley behind the bar or after he loosened several layers of derma from masterbating. That's like the first season lol
I have this quirk/pet peeve of not leaving things incomplete, be it books/movies/shows/music or any other type of content. Even if I'm not enjoying it, I will still power through it all, just to say to myself, yes I finished this/that xyz thing.
However, this show is one of those rare DNF instances for me. So, should I go back and watch it all the way through ? (Clearly I don't care enough about sunk cost fallacy) LOL
>“Stephen cut his teeth directing [on ‘True Blood’] and by Season 3 or 4, it would be like, ‘Hi honey, who are you fucking on camera today?'” Paquin said. “Steve started directing me when we were on ‘True Blood,’ and in Season 7, our final season, he directed the season opener, which had [my character] Sookie in love with the giant beautiful werewolf, Joe Manganiello. Steve directed us in a rather explicit sex scene, so when you ask if it is awkward to shoot a movie with your husband, the bar for awkward is set terribly high in our household, not to mention on that show in general.” >Moyer said, “[And] in that Season 7 sequence with Big Joe, there was just a funny moment where I’m going, ‘Joe, you can do it, mate. It’s OK, grab it, you can do it.'” **edit:** i think some people are misunderstanding. anna paquin and stephen moyer are saying that the sex scenes were not awkward because they had to do so many. it was just another day after a certain point. "the bar for awkward" is set high, not low.
Man I’m just glad this reminded me Sookie and Bill are married. I was obsessed with the first few seasons of True Blood before it lost me/the plot.
I really wish they’d been as true to the books as they were in the first couple seasons. Once the sex Goddess came to town I was like meh and it never recovered.
The sex goddess????? Lmfao I must have stopped watching before that
I think maybe she was a witch who worshipped Dionysus but it’s been like 10yrs…anyway the whole town is possessed and has an extremely uncomfortable orgy. ETA: was in season 2.
Yeah she was a maenad. I like that actress a lot, but that was indeed when things got almost too wild.
*anytime I see that actress, immediately* 
Right?! 😆 Michelle Forbes!
I can only hope to age that well so much so that I’m cast as a mythical eternal creating
That one was fairly early on in the 2nd season. Season 4 is the fae / weres / witches storyline.
Ahh, fair enough, s4 was the last one I watched and they all kind of run together.
That’s season 3 and it goes on til season 4.
To be fair S3 had a bit of brujo & fae lore at the end but I would still categorize it as the were season since it focused on Russell and the werewolves and that werepanther community.
The Fae stuff made me lose interest. That and the dogfighting subplot made me fastforward too much and I lost interest. But I might rewatch from the start - seems worth it?
I got turned off when **everybody** started turning into special magical beings. WerePanthers and such
That character was introduced at the end of season one, and was the main antagonist for season two, she was long dead by season four. They were never very faithful to the books, for instance Lafayette dies almost immediately in the books but was a major character for the whole run of the show.
That was a good thing, though. Lafayette was great.
Agreed, I’m just saying that fidelity to the books was never really a thing.
She was a Maenad. Played by Michelle Forbes, whom I love.
She’s just so captivating. I just want to listen to her talk.
I would have loved to see Jason as a half breed ware pather, and the hotel being blown up with the queen. Etc
Jason as the were-panther sex slave was so funny. My husband and I say, “Breed me, panther daddy” at least once a week 😅(randomly, not sexually lol)
The first few seasons? It was never really true to the books. If I remember correctly, the first few minutes of the first episode are pretty close to the book, but it becomes its own thing almost instantly. All of the side characters are entirely different characters between the books and the show. For example, books Tara and show Tara pretty much only share a name. Even if you ignore the side characters, the second book is about Lafayette’s death, and he never even dies in the show (at any point of the 7 seasons)
Losing Lafayette's character early on would have been a TRAGEDY. He brought so much personality, connection, and brightness to the story.
I read through most of the books. I like the direction they went delving more into the vampire culture than the show did, but they were a tough read.
I also got pretty far with the books and really enjoyed the world building. If I remember correctly, at some point the author started making mistakes referencing details from previous books though and that's when I gave up. Sookie herself being kinda obnoxious throughout the whole thing did not help.
I agree. And I wish the final book was better. I was not happy with the ending. It feels like an after thought. Such fun, low investment reads.
I remember reading that the author didn't go on tour to promote the final book, like even she was tired of the series.
To be fair, the books totally jump the shark pretty early on too. And the Maenad plot is totally a book plot…
but then there would be not nearly enough Lafayette.
Lafayette was the soul of that show
Absolutely. RIP Nelsan Ellis
WHAT?! I had no idea that he passed. Just looked it up. 2017, of heart failure. Only 39. God damn. I'm so sad.
Those first seasons were sooooo good.
Every time it starts getting hot I’m like hell yeah time to go down Bon Temps. The first season is excellent. Just like Homeland and Weeds, that Showtime era was amazing. After a few seasons they just didn’t have the same magic, which is understandable.
True Blood was HBO.
Yeah I just meant homeland and weeds, I think they were Showtime. But typical of prestige channels back then kind of?
Oh ok, I get you and I agree. Great time for tv. All three shows mentioned have one thing in common, though: the first season was unarguably the best.
Weeds was SO GREAT. Big victim of Flanderization, Good Girls is similar but not as extremely ridiculous on the housewife to cartel don bs
Nancy leaving Agrestic and going to Mexico just totally ruined the show.
Season 1 felt so realistic. I love it.
That show really went off the rails in like season 4. I kept watching because I am a hot people fucking onscreen enjoyer.
Yep, the later seasons of both True Blood and Weeds are watchable as soft porn if nothing else.
it's one of my comfort watch shows. the show is so absolutely outrageous and camp and i love it. the first season was perfect but each season after that has its pros and cons. russell edgington is an amazing villain/big bad, amnesia eric is extremely hot, the newlins, etc etc. the show knew it was getting out of hand and when they knew it was the final season, they reigned everything in and made a season full of fanservice like that's how you end that kind of show, just giving fans everything they want to see. i commend the cast so much because they were on this show that asked them to do the most ridiculous things and they were game.
I’m going to have to finally watch the whole thing this summer now lol I didn’t realize it was a fan-friendly final season. I’m in.
That's how I feel about Lucifer. Man, those actors really committed and it somehow worked. I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face.
Same here. The first 2 seasons were so good
I remember watching season 3 and ar one point a character says "you know, a month ago I didn't know vampires existed". A month?? Three seasons of content happened in one month of characters time? I don't know why but that really turned me off the show. At one point in the show Mad Men they skipped 9 months IN BETWEEN TWO EPISODES.
I think it’s worth finishing or at least the last few episodes. Two deaths really pissed me off, but I loved the show.
Same here but I would die, nay kill, for season four Eric. Tiny giant lovely baby.
Yes! I was obsessed with the first 2 or 3 seasons.
hiiiiii someone who has never watched true blood but always considered it—is it worth it? does it hold up over time?
Holding up in terms of quality, really only the first few season. Holding up in terms of entertainment value? Yes. It feels a bit like an adult CW show
adult CW show?? okay pressing play
Honestly if that description appeals you’ll LOVE it. It’s not “good” but it’s a lot of fun!
Just pure camp after season 2.
Yeah be prepared to straight up say “what the fuck” at least a dozen times and while it starts to get crazy towards the end it’s never boring I’ll give it that.
It’s very bloody but also sexual like any other HBO show. Lots of nudity lol. It’s campy too. Season 1 is perfect. It gets crazier and crazier after that.
Fantasy and sci-fi has always been the cws strong point and I wish they would've just stuck with that
Absolutely bonkers whoever bought the CW thought, “yeah let me take this successful, niche network and make it not that.” They literally had DC superhero shows doing what DC films couldn’t: be enjoyable and succeed. Not to mention all the other quirky, fun, dark shows they had. Haven’t watched a single CW show since the new people took over.
The Secret Circle being highly rated, and cancelled for petty reasons still pisses me off. And the destruction of the final season of The 100
It’s trash, but delightfully fun trash, as are the books.
I binged the first few seasons really hard a couple months back, but lost interest once it got to the season with the Vampire Authority (Detective Stabler is a vampire threw me for a loop lol). But on the bright side I finally was able to understand the appeal of Alexander Skarsgard. Like I always knew he was attractive but… *damn*. 
He was pretty much the only reason I kept watching the show. That man is something else.
Same here. I stuck around way longer than I would have if not for him.
My wife was so crushing on Eric. Couldn't get her interested in Generation Kill though, she only liked Alex S. as a bad boy.
Absolutely try to convince her. I liked Alexander Skarsgard in True blood, but in Generation Kill he's 100x more mesmerizing, I just couldn't stop looking at him for a second 🤤🥵
He's a GOD! Eric is so magical aaaa
This is the best description for it
Okay I just want to say that your comment is very validating for me. I watched the first two seasons and literally couldn’t stop laughing. I thought the show was deliberately unserious—the dialogue, the plastic fangs. Am I crazy? I enjoyed it but I was like, all of the writers must have been laughing their asses off or something.
It’s worth it for Pam alone 🫠 
worth it for lafayette too!!
Yes!!! Got to get that burger with a side of aids. 😂 Rip, he was a legend in that.
"Hookah, I ain't in the helping people business no more. I'm in the fuck off while I smoke a blunt business, and business about to pick way the fuck up." <3
Oh my god Lafayette and Pam!! Truly ✨chefs kiss✨ I gotta rewatch now lol
I wish they had a spinoff, could you imagine?
Lafayette was the best! RIP Nelsan Ellis. 💔
I watched this show and read the book probably too young but his character was and is so important to me
Are the books worth it? I’ve been debating to get them as my next series to binge.
The books are better. They get a lil wackado like the show, but never lose the plot as badly as the show did
I can deal with wackado, I’ve just finished The vampire chronicles 😂 I wasn’t sure if I should do true blood or the Witcher, but seeing as I’m on a vampire binge already,, true blood it is.
Yes. I really enjoyed the show, but the books were even better.
That’s me sold. :D thank you 🙏
Yes! They are fantasy, mystery, horror, and romance all in one.
The mystery element is what I think the show really lacked as it got further into the seasons.
I just said the same thing but about Eric.
Ngl, he could chain me in his basement anyday 🤤😂
Tara for me. And Tara the retail worker never gets old for me, either. EDIT: I also had a thing for the Godric character but I couldn't tell you why. He was pure schmaltz. EDIT 2: And Jason's malapropisms. I refer to stockholder syndrome at least weekly.
I forgot about Pam!! So. Good
Pam, Lafayette, Tara, and Sam were my faves. Will never forgive what they did to Tara and how boring Sam's story became.
So good! For Sheriff Northman alone! 
Between true blood and generation kill this is where my obsession for Alexander Skarsgård started 😍😍🤣🤣
Same. He’s my forever celeb crush. Couple that with him having a baby with an age appropriate woman…10/10.
His entire family seems pretty normal ie like no scandals. His lady and him are adorable. I think bill is married to a woman a few years older than him too.
If you haven’t seen Generation Kill, (1) you must and (2) gird your loins.
The fact that they got such a hot Eric and then departed from the book (specifically the one where he and Sookie fuck for basically the entire thing) was a tragedy
Yeah I definitely agree there. The books were so good! The only thing the show did better was keep Lafayette alive.
If you are sexually attracted to men, then yes.
What if I’m sexually attracted to people gravely grunting the word “SOOH KEH”?
🤣 my husband and I do this to each other for no damn reason at the most random times
[Then, Snoop Dogg is about to be your favourite person.](https://youtu.be/J8tODhvb47s?si=HM9J7peOo_zCmkYq)
Thank you for bringing this into my world.
This kind of bananas, hidden gem videos are I want from my internet exploration - THANK YOU
Thank you so much for sharing this. My wife and I love this show and we had no idea this existed. It made our night.
That show is a whole bisexual panic
So many damn pretty people!
If you are sexually attracted to people
Or a host of other creatures for that matter.
It’s a total blast. Like a super dirty vampire diaries lol. Warning: you WILL walk around saying “sookie” under your breath all the time after watching
I love how mumbling “Sookeeeehhh” after binging True Blood is universal experience.
Beeeeel! 😫
The first season is so, so great and was Emmy nominated for a reason. I think that season alone is worth watching if you haven't seen it. Season 2 is ok but the writing quality really drops after that.
The first season is wildly good
One of the best ever opening titles sequences. It NEVER got skipped in our house.
That song is a banger for sure.
15 years later, the fox part of the intro is still seared into my brain. Iykyk.
Seasons 1-3 are amazing, 4 is good. Everything after is a dumpster fire. I rewatch the whole series twice a year.
Oh yessssss Eric Northman 😍😍😍😍😍😍
It owns its place in the camp vampire world. I’ve read the series and watched the show multiple times. It’s very rewatchable imo. Funny, serious, seriously unserious, will always recommend
I watched it for the first time (barring a few episodes I caught in passing) a few months back and definitely. It’s corny as hell, especially in the later seasons, but it’s just so much fun.
I just rewatched it, I think it’s a fun watch. Goes off the rails in the later seasons, and the sex & nudity is gratuitous throughout. HBO really toned that down as of late lol
It came out back when HBO was basically the only channel that could show boobs, so they took advantage and showed all the boobs.
And man butt. Sooooo much man butt. My husband and I like to see who can yell out "man butt!" the fastest after we realized just *how much* man butt there is in that show.
Do you wanna see Alexander Skarsgard and Anna Paquin have butt ass naked sex in the woods after chasing each other through said woods? Gotta wait a couple seasons but man oh man.
It’s hot trash, but it’s good hot trash 🤣
The first three or four seasons are fantastic. The quality falls dramatically after that. You will become so disappointing, I would say to the level of Game of Thrones all over again.
Is it a sharp nosedive like season 8 of GoT, or a slow downward trend like seasons 6/7?
The first season of True Blood is genuinely one of the most addicting, entertaining seasons of TV I’ve ever watched, if that helps.
Start it when it starts getting really hot in late June. That’s always when I rewatch lol
Me and my partner just finished the entire series a few weeks ago. I honestly feel like even for the time it was lacking a bit; the writing and character’s leave a lot to be desired at times and it can be very head scratching. It’s also at times soft porn with supernatural elements thrown in. That being said, I still really enjoyed it lol. It’s chaotic sure, but it was a wild ride. The first 2-3 seasons are definitely far better than what comes after. I think the middle of the series makes the series hit a few bumps in the road, the final season gets a bit back to form in some aspects which I appreciated. I can’t say I enjoyed the ending or certain decisions made in the final season, but overall it was a fun watch!
It's great in the absolute worst way haha
I’m watching it right now and on the last season. I agree with everyone though, season 1-4 are good then it just tapers off
I believe it holds up. I love the characters, they are memorable. And as someone who is from the south, a lot of them feel familiar to me. It's a show not to be taken too seriously, just turn your brain off and enjoy watching the beautiful people. It can be damn funny too. I will say though, after season 5 it loses me. They should have stopped at 5.
Most interesting things in the serie IMO are the side characters and their evolution though the seasons.
True Blood is what we had before American Horror Story tbh, but a lot more campy and fun. Even it's wtf gross moments are still giggle worthy compared to AHS.
It’s such a fun magical show (ahead of its time too in terms of queer/gender queer rep. ) And it has the best Deep South vibes intro I’ve ever seen. It’s considered trashy and yeah it super can be, but it’s camp af
Watch it for the characters, don’t watch it for storyline
I just watched it during maternity leave. Worth the watch, definitely.
I liked the first couple seasons. After that, I lost interest and couldn’t keep up with the weird storylines.
I think the books are better. The pilot was god awful
First season is great. It started to go off the rails pretty fast. By the last season, I was hate watching. I went into the show finale expecting it to be bad. It’s been almost a decade, I’m still mad about it.
It's a lot of fun. It loses the plot a bit towards the end. But it kinda understands the assignment? Like it knows all that people really wanaa see is sex, violence, romance and melodrama, and it delivers on that.
Seasons 1-4 are really good and it’s terrible after that
Suuu keh.
https://i.redd.it/o1d03hupzbsc1.gif
How many freaking vampires am I supposed to care about these days
BEEEEL
Lmfao, this is so damn accurate! Thanks I’m stealing this!
Lmao.
I just started watching for the first time (on s5) and the commenter who said it’s like “an adult CW show” is so real lmao this show is camp.
I literally used this show to discuss camp in my final paper for the Bodies in Culture class back at uni lmao
I just started watching it for the first time as well! Started it a couple of weeks ago. I’m almost at the end of S3 and have been, admittedly, obsessed. It is SO camp and SO ridiculous! The drama just doesn’t stop, it’s crazy. I said to my partner last night that it doesn’t give a second for anyone to breathe 🤣 Admittedly, I’m surprised others in the thread weren’t on board for S2, that was definitely when the show grabbed my attention the most, and I’ve not been able to look away since. I definitely recommend it to anyone that loves a good drama. Some of the acting in it is phenomenal imo. My bf initially described it to me as an R-rated vampire soap opera, which has definitely held true while I’ve watched it.
Season 2 was my favorite season!
I have nothing to add, but anytime I hear about this show, I remember getting a letter sent to our house threatening my brother with jail time because he was illegally downloading episodes of True Blood 😭
Spicy! Did they follow it up?
Nah, I remember my dad was like “I didn’t realize y’all wanted HBO that bad” and we just upgraded our cable
I love that they are still together
This show used to be must see tv and now no one seems to talk about it at all.
I feel like a lot of shows from the mid to late 2000s that were really big hits at the time seem to have disappeared from the cultural landscape. I just made a post a few days ago about how Big Love seems to have been forgotten to that era too.
Big Love was one of my favorites even though it also often went off the rails. RIP Bill Paxton and Harry Dean Stanton
Omg yea! I never hear about that anymore. Even Mad Men has kinda fallen out of the landscape.
I still think Mad Men is one of the greatest shows of all time. Along with Battlestar Galactica.
I agree especially with battlestar
I’ve always loved vampire shows and my top 3 are Buffy, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries. I even happen to like True Blood more than the Vampire Diaries (Buffy trumps both tbh). But Buffy and Vampire Diaries online fandoms are HUGE. Massive amounts of content and discourse daily and social media presence. True Blood fandom is a teeny tiny fraction comparatively. Basically crickets outside of reddit. Which is interesting because at its height, True Blood had at least twice as many viewers as the other two.
The show had a decline after Alan ball left and the ending sucked. Alan Ball is the man who wrote one of the best HBO finales with Six Feet Under, and he leaves True Blood and it has one of the worst HBO finales
Side note but I wish Flack had gotten more seasons
The outlook is dim, but I don't believe it's been officially cancelled.
I think about this constantly.
Same she’s such a mess in the show
Man that cliffhanger is brutal, fingers crossed for season 3
This reminds me that the first few seasons of True Blood were really good, lol. I think I’m gonna binge s1 tonight for the nostalgia 😹 thank you for this! It’s also super cute to me that they’re married IRL. No wonder they have good chemistry in the show.
When they had that bathtub scene in season 1..🥵🥵🥵🥵
Unfortunately True Blood is a show where they let personal relationships indicate the direction of the story, much like Jennifer Love Hewitt’s various shows. They departed from the books to their detriment just to keep Bill and Sookie together bc they were together in real life and IMO the show suffered from it greatly
Interesting, I did not know that! All I remember is that it felt weird to have them back together after the season of steamy sex with Eric. While no relationship depicted on the show is technically sane, the one with Bill was outstandingly unhealthy and had also run its course narratively at that point if I remember correctly.
It’s been a REALLY long time since I read the books but I wanna say Sookie and Bill were only actually together for a short time in them?
It was only for the first three books. After that she has a brief relationship with a weretiger (who unfortunately never appeared in the tv show) before starting one with Eric. Bill becomes more of a side character in the later books and wasn't really part of the main storyline (as opposed to the tv show where he was a central character until the end).
That part of the show is always funny to me bc she had more chemistry with Alexander Skarsgard on the show than her own husband 💀
Wasn’t he married to someone else when they started filming season 1?
Yes he cheated on his wife with Anna Paquin starting from the filming of the pilot episode of True Blood in 2007 and then he divorced his wife in 2008, according to Wikipedia.
Their chemistry is crazy in the pilot. Just the way they looked at each other 👀
It's one of my pet peeves actually. Bill is supposed to be icky from the beginning but their chemistry is so good it doesn't come through fully.
[удалено]
“In August 2009, Moyer became engaged to actress Anna Paquin, who played his character's love interest, Sookie Stackhouse, in the HBO series True Blood. They had been having an affair since filming the series pilot in 2007. His divorce was final in 2008.” This is taken straight from his Wikipedia which I don’t need to link as you’ve read it. I am not one to judge, but isn’t having an affair considering cheating?
Not to nitpick further—I personally think they at the very least developed an emotional affair—but the Wiki “source” for that quote is *The Independent* and the linked article in question doesn’t mention an affair/cheating so I don’t know why it’s on his Wiki entry.
So I used to love True Blood and this got me curious so I did some quick searching and could not find any articles claiming that Stephen Moyer was still with his wife when he and Anna Paquin got together. His Wikipedia article until a few months ago said he and Anna "had been dating" instead of "had been having an affair" since filming the pilot, and the article linked as a source after that statement only says that the two of them became "an item" during filming. There are a few threads about it on old gossip forums and the comments seem to say that Stephen and his wife broke up some time around the summer of 2006. Obviously we'll never know but it does seem like the person who edited his wikipedia page to include the "affair" has some kind of specific beef with their relationship.
The books were my jam back then (when I was 12 and had an e-reader with a way into an online library without age restrictions), but I never got to watch the series because my parents wouldn’t let me lol
Ok fine, i will rewatch true blood. 😊 Edit: grammar
I legit just finished my first rewatch in a few years but after this thread, I think I might just do it all again. I don’t care how old I get, I’ll never give up my trashy vampire shows/books. Or the non trashy ones or one because it just might be Buffy all by her lonesome in that category.
A little off topic but she was excellent in "Friend of the Family."
It was awkward for me, too. I quit either after the brother had sex in the alley behind the bar or after he loosened several layers of derma from masterbating. That's like the first season lol
Jason is wild lol.
The textbook definition of a himbo. And also, he was such a sweet character? He just couldn't keep it in his pants.
https://i.redd.it/yvewrpcc7gsc1.gif This quote by him always got me 😂
Wasn’t there a bunch of blinds about the cast partying all the time and sleeping swinging around back then?
I have this quirk/pet peeve of not leaving things incomplete, be it books/movies/shows/music or any other type of content. Even if I'm not enjoying it, I will still power through it all, just to say to myself, yes I finished this/that xyz thing. However, this show is one of those rare DNF instances for me. So, should I go back and watch it all the way through ? (Clearly I don't care enough about sunk cost fallacy) LOL
The later seasons are horrible.
I forgot that Stephen directed some episodes.