What is the deal with True Blood?

First off I must confess: I have not watched every single episode in every single season of True Blood. But I will comment on it. So if that bothers you, tough luck! The thing is, and I bet I’m not the only one, I couldn’t get past season 2. The middle of the season to be precise.

You see, it all started when a friend of mine sent me the Sookie Stakhouse books. He had purchased them, all teeny tiny paperbacks edition, and because he claims to read over 40 books a year, he throws them away once he’s done with them. (I know, it’s a sin and he should be punished for it. Throwing books away? That’s sacrilege!) But he happened to send me those in the mail as he finished them, so I can’t give him that hard of a time. I read them circa 2006, I can’t really pinpoint when in 2006, but I was very into them. So, I was a pretty hardcore Sookie Stackhouse fan. I tolerated Bill, and I loved Eric. And then, HBO turned the books into a TV series. Oh, joy! Or was it?

I watched season 1 religiously. I never missed an episode. And I ended that season a bit ticked off that they changed SO MUCH in it. I have to be fair, though, I loved that they kept Lafayette alive and turned him into such a fun character. I loved his witty comebacks and he was just faaabulous.

But all the rest, it’s just disappointing and disturbing, to be frank. Sure, they kept the main plot on each of the books, but everything that surrounds it is so ridiculous that you just lose track of what is the most important thing! Bill and Sookie’s comings and goings are boring, Sookie lacks any decision making and follow-through skills, she’s easily persuaded BY ANYONE who just tells her he loves her, Lafayette is a medium/demon thing now so that kind of turns the only tolerable character into a joke. They had a meanad thing wrecking havoc all through the second season, witches in season four, Sookie is a fairy but she doesn’t really know what to do with her new found powers, and she’s just running around like a chicken with her head cut off. And now Bill’s the King of Louisiana, and then he drinks all of Lillith’s blood and starts hallucinating with three naked girls completely covered in blood, Sarah Newlin came back, and her huge teeth scare the crap out of me, and she wants to exterminate all of the vampires, and they came pretty damn close, they even set up a concentration camp type of thing for them and everything.

See what I mean about her teeth??

Meanwhile, Sookie tells this Warlow guy to back the fuck off, that she doesn’t want anything to do with him, just to have him cry and beg for two episodes telling her how he’s loved her for 6,000 years, until she caves and goes “Oh, okay. I love you too, then!” See what I mean with no follow-through?  But why, oh why did they have to make Eric go sunbathing in the nude JUST TO HAVE HIM BURST INTO FLAMES?!?!?!?? And don’t even get me started on how fast over the last two episodes of season 6 it all got turned into a huge clusterfuck.

I am telling you, the books are a thousand times better. Sookie isn’t nearly as annoying. The writing is engaging and you feel some kind of sympathy for the characters. Eric’s truer to himself, and even then you end up wanting him to get together with Sookie. You even want her to get it on with Alcide at one point. But somehow, trying to make it more than it was in writing, they ended up killing it. I know for a fact most of the True Blood fandom is PISSED about all of this.

I don’t know what HBO has in store for the next season of True Blood, but I just think this is whole mess is too far gone to save. Anyway, what I really want to know is, what do YOU think?