True Blood is based off of a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, which I have never read. Just to let you know.
Sookie Stackhouse is the main character, a telepathic waitress in a small Louisiana town. The season starts when Sookie meets a vampire, the first in the town of Bon Temps. Vampires in this series are "out of the coffin", meaning that they exposed themselves to the rest of the world and are now asking for equal rights - they can live off of "True Blood", which is synthetic blood and now sold in bottles like beer. Anyways, Sookie falls for this vampire, Bill Compton, despite the opinions of her closest friends.
Besides the growing relationship between Sookie and Bill, you learn about the vampire-lore in this series, and there is also another major storyline/mystery throughout the season - someone is killing girls in Bon Temps, and it seems it has to do with the recent appearance of vampires in the area, and the girls seem to be "fangbangers", or women who have had sex with vamps before.
This show has a great range of supporting characters. Tara is Sookie's best friend - one of the few black people in the town, and she's strong, and extremely sassy and callous in a very loyal and sometimes-loving way. Sam is Sookie's boss, and he happens to be in love with Sookie. Jason is Sookie's womanizing brother, and Lafeyette is Tara's gay cousin. There is a lot to love about these characters, however by the end of the season there's plenty of reasons to dislike them too.
Okay, so the things I love about this show (or at least, this season): The characters are all different and humorous. The vampire-lore is interesting. You always end an episode wanting to go on to the next.
That being said, there were some things that bothered me too. Even for an HBO show, there is TOO MUCH SEX. Now, I understand that one of the major plots has to do with fangbangers, so it's slightly forgivable - I just don't think they needed to be so damn graphic in damn near every episode. So, just to warn you - may not want to watch this with family. Also, it reminds me of a soap opera a little bit because there's so much drama between the characters - but of course, that's probably me just being anal and having to find some fault. And again, it is HBO - of course it's dramatic.
I'm definitely looking forward to watching season 2 when in comes out on DVD in May. I wish I didn't have to wait so long!
4 out of 5 stars :o)
~Sarah