• Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 7, 2008
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6
True Blood Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 564 Ratings

  • Summary: Sookie Stackhouse comes to television in the Alan Ball adaptation of Charlaine Harris' Southern vampire series.
  • Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 30
  2. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. 90
    After watching five episodes, I can say True Blood stands out as one of the strongest new series in an uncertain fall.
  2. Although generally witty, always absorbing, and invariably violent, True Blood isn’t really a big surprise until its fifth hour.
  3. The core characters, including Sookie's best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and bartender Sam (Sam Trammell), who has a thing for Sookie, all have interesting features and are well-played. The rest of the locals don't come off so well, mostly having few brains and a big shortage of couth.
  4. 38
    HBO's new series from death-obsessed Alan Ball, creator of the legendary "Six Feet Under," whose new show True Blood, won't so much make your blood run cold as it will leave you cold.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 34 out of 227
  1. RonP.
    10
    Brilliant, lurid southern Gothic soap opera. in its own way, it's as groundbreaking and masterful as ball's "six feet under." the first show to have me completely hooked from the first episode since "sopranos." Expand
  2. JennetP.
    8
    I was trying to ramp up my enthusiasm for this show when I came across another reviewer's mention of "John from Cincinnati," which scuttled the effort by reminding me of what REAL innovation looks like. In the wake of "Buffy," "Kindred," "Angel," "Blade," "Blood Ties," and "Moonlight," not to mention forebears such as "Dark Shadows," today's tv vampires must hack through a forest of cliches. I'll admit I don't love TB's "out of the coffin" premise, first because culture war jokes stopped being funny in the early 90's, and second because the need to kill or injure--and the conflicts that arise from it--is one of the most resonant features of vampirism. And because what I don't love is the central premise, I suppose there's a pretty low ceiling on my potential enthusiasm for the show. Unless Eric and his ilk become more prominent, that is--and, I must admit, my interest skyrockets whenever he shows up. Don't get me wrong: I like Bill and Sookie (though I disagree that they have chemistry, as a good part of their 150-year age difference is evident on-screen, giving their love scenes an unpleasant whiff of pedophilia, for me). And, cartoonish as it is, I like the southern gothic atmosphere, with its unusual integration of the uncanny into daily life. What gives me most hope for the show, however, is moments such as Bill's emergence from the graveyard soil, which tweaks a horror film cliche into a profoundly novel love scene, at once arousing and sad, warm and terrifying. More of such boldness (and more Eric), and the show will realize its considerable potential, for me. Expand
  3. RionaD.
    5
    This show has SO MUCH potential, but it gets lost in it's attempt to sell itself better by sticking in a ridiculous amount of sex and nudity. I honestly felt like I was watching a porno with a plot thrown in as an afterthought. It has it's good points, though. It got some laughs out of me with it's cheesy humor, and the characters are generally likable. As I said earlier, it has the potential to be absolutely great. They just need to realize that people will still watch it if they don't include a sex scene every ten minutes. Expand
  4. AntonioM.
    2
    Boring, lame. slow paced, terrible acting. PAris Hilton scary House of Wax was a masterpiece compared to this. we were 4 in a room and we all agreed, that it sucks... Very disappointing Expand

See all 227 User Reviews

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