Reviewed by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com
If you're an avid fangbanger (that is to say, True Blood fanatic) than one possible way to pass the time until the sixth season premieres would be to grab True Blood’s crazy fifth season on DVD or Blu Ray and once more catch up with all the sex, blood, magic and everything that’s in between that the show is now well known for.
As far as storylines go for this set of 12 episodes, these plots are as intricate as ever, with each character getting their time to shine throughout the season in various different adventures, which range everywhere from Lafayette’s surprise trip to Mexico, exploration of Terry’s past and further exploration of this Vampire Authority we’ve been hearing so much about the past four seasons.
The fifth season of True Blood is so crammed full of sub plots and introductions of new mythologies that it’s always busy and has something new to explore each new episode to keep things interesting - with an extra serving of gore and sex of course – although I think they’re cutting down on the nudity but that’s probably just my imagination, right?
You know, for all its many sub plots going on this season, I found that a lot of them came off feeling stretched out thin and a little weak, or, when they were wrapped up towards the end, anti-climatic.
True Blood has an awesome ensemble cast, it really does, but I’m not really sure they need their own individual season-long sub plots that unfortunately end up falling a little flat in the end when they could be pushed to the background and left for a little scene here or there.
Other times, certain character transformations feel contrived and completely go against what made that character so great in the first place - all for a storyline that, while certainly intriguing and promising at first, still feels a little frustrating to learn about and follow.
Technically, True Blood is as impressive as it’s ever been, with some great CGI showing new creatures and impressive explosions of gore while some standout cinematography captures the setting and/or mood wonderfully and then there’s that gorgeous soundtrack, featuring surprise hits from Paul McCartney and Wings to Foreigner.
I really cannot fault this cast, they all play their parts to near perfection, from Anna Paquin’s always endearing Sookie, Alexander Skarsgård’s gruff Eric, Ryan Kwanten’s goofball Jason, Deborah Ann Woll, Joe Manganiello – who should stop growling all shirtless before he steals my lady away from me – Nelsan Ellis, who has more to chew on this season, – hell, this is starting to feel like one of those Oscar award acceptances speeches so I’ll stop here as I could be here for some time giving praise to the cast.
True Blood’s fifth season was a mixed bag of goodies, with not every character development or subplot working for me personally, but that being said, it never quite stopped being the bloody watchable television that it has provided these past years – there’s an undercurrent of horror and fantasy there that I dig and hey, these stars are good-looking people, so why not indulge in some eye candy along the way, right?
True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
True Blood – Season Six begins on Monday, June 16th.