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True Blood
SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)


8.4

based on 30 reviews
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based on 245 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Official Show Site

Starring Anna Paquin, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, and Nelsan Ellis

Sookie Stackhouse comes to television in the Alan Ball adaptation of Charlaine Harris' Southern vampire series.

GENRE(S):	Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
CREATED BY:	Alan Ball Charlaine Harris (book)
FIRST AIR DATE:	September 7, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Matt Roush

Graphically sexy and scary, and often wildly funny, True Blood, from Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball, turns Charlaine Harris’ rollicking mystery novels into a broadly entertaining, deliciously twisted slice of modern Southern Gothic.

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

After watching five episodes, I can say True Blood stands out as one of the strongest new series in an uncertain fall.

USA Today Robert Bianco

Part mystery, part fantasy, part comedy, and all wildly imaginative exaggeration, Blood proves that there's still vibrant life--or death--left in the "star-crossed lovers" paradigm.

Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport

Bloody, sexy and violent, the show is also both occasionally funny and frightening.

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

True Blood is an unlikely but irresistible mixture of pungent political satire, observant pop sociology and lurid drive-in thrills.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

True Blood is a sexy affair that sets up an entirely believable world where humans and vampires co-exist. It's a soap, to be sure, but a soap with an eye for social commentary.

Washington Post Tom Shales

True Blood isn't meant to be an exercise in good taste. Just a romp and a wallow--and a bloody good one.

Baltimore Sun David Zurawik

True Blood, Academy Award-winner Alan Ball's steamy, sassy, sometimes nasty, but always thoroughly engaging, new HBO drama.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

It's easy to like True Blood, because Ball's episodic smarts are primal, not at a remove, and he approaches supernaturalism by emphasizing the natural over the super.

New York Magazine John Leonard

Although generally witty, always absorbing, and invariably violent, True Blood isn’t really a big surprise until its fifth hour.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

Both Paquin and Moyer do well here. And True Blood is fleshed out with other interesting characters getting to spout well-written lines. But at times the whole thing seems silly.

PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs

When Tara and Sookie speak truth to each other (or seem to), True Blood is almost shrewd.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

My hope is that True Blood will get all of this tub-thumping out of the way in a few weeks and start its tremendous potential as an ensemble drama with hints of comedy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm

The show is ugly and fixated on death and violence. There's lots of lurid sex, too, reflected in other title images. There's also creativity and flat-out breathtaking acting to instill a voyeuristic fascination and perhaps inspire a fanatic.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

Ball's done an entertaining job of turning Harris' stories about life in a small Southern town after vampires "come out of the coffin" into something adults who wouldn't dream of reading her books might be caught dead watching.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

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.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

Even though the second episode of the season isn't structured very well, with lots of rambling talk about nothing, even though the show lacks the tightness and the natural momentum of "Six Feet Under" (and the weight and the intensity, for that matter), True Blood is still odd, unpredictable and off-kilter.

Slate Troy Patterson

Appetizingly pulpy and yet not at all crass, the series presents a new angle on the phenomenon of shows-so-bad-that-they're-good: It sucks hard and thus plays very well.

Variety Brian Lowry

The supporting players aren’t nearly as interesting initially as the intense bond between Sookie and Bill, though they do keep the first few installments busy, including some nicely gratuitous sex, adventures in the Viagra-like effects of vampire blood and a tepid murder mystery.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

You won't be drawn to True Blood if you don't like a heightened, almost cartoonish atmosphere. Paquin, giggly but calmly assertive, is something of an acquired taste as Sookie.

Wall Street Journal Michael Judge

True Blood is supposed to be a sexy, easy-to-swallow mystery, but too often it ends up leaving a bad taste in one's mouth.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

It’s not surprising that Ball gets the mixture wrong a fair amount of the time; what’s surprising is that it’s possible for such a strange gumbo to work at least some of the time.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

Vampire fantasy, murder mystery, star-crossed love story, political satire, True Blood is all and none of the above. Not quite funny, not quite scary, not quite thought-provoking, the show's attempt to question the roots of prejudice is continually undermined by its own stereotyping.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

It’s creepy, steamy and funny at times, and it’s also a muddle, a comic murder mystery that is a little too enthralled with its own exoticism.

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

True Blood, with its constant profanity, gore and banal cruelty, will have a limited appeal. It might become appointment viewing for genre fans even as the rest of us steer clear of Bon Temps.

Slant Magazine Brian Holcomb

There's certainly enough story here to develop into a strong series were it centered around interesting characters, but Ball has populated it with one stereotype after another.

Time James Poniewozik

True Blood makes little effort to rethink genre conventions.

Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker

I'd say that the author is more vivid, subtle, and funny in her portrayal of Southern life; I'll be surprised if her fans aren't disappointed by this adaptation. The best thing about Ball's shows is their opening credits.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

True Blood looks terrific, especially whenever it has to depict a vampire in action, as they can move almost too fast for the naked eye (but not the high-def camera) to see. But unless the thought of vampire/human love makes your pulse quicken--or, even better, makes you wish you didn't have a pulse to quicken--most of it is not really worth seeing.

New York Post Linda Stasi

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.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 245 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Magicmann gave it a10:
The best show on Hbo. Filled with suspense, great story line, action...this show has drama.

derek w gave it a10:
I love this show to death. every episode i am at the end of my seat on what will happen next. first i think the acting is great. all the characters have there own thing going in the series. second so what if it is over the top with f bombs and death. that is what makes it even better. this is going to be one of the biggest cult series ever and i hope more people will come to appreciate its original story telling.

Andrew N gave it a3:
This show is painfully weak in character and dialogue, nothing close to the powerhouse that 6 Feet Under was. I watch because I have nothing better to do and it gives me confidence in my own writing abilities that something so poorly crafted as this can actually get produced.

Stephanie S gave it a2:
Quite possibly the worst adaptation of book to show I've ever seen. The story line is not even close and major changes are made to the lore Harris created in the book. About the only similarities are the overarching thread of season one to book one (murders of fangbangers and vampire enthusiasts) but other than that the only things that are the same are the characters and the settings. Sookie is nothing as I imagined to her to be (and the acting is terrible) except for blond. The only accurate casting was possible Eric and Pam but acting still leaves something to be desired as does the special effects. C'mon people! Buffy didn't have great quality graphics but yet they were more believable than this show's. I am truly disappointed.

Kathryn M. gave it a0:
I HATE this show. I'm sick of being hit over the head repeatedly with what bigoted, homophobe I am and America is. Nothing like the books. They were fun. Too bad the director can't tell a story without bashing America and overloaded with sex and profanity.

Emily S gave it a2:
This show seemed like it might be good, but it just seems to have gone down hill with each episode. The writers apparently have no idea how to deal with problematic characters other than just killing them. It follows Jason for much of the show simply having hallucinogenic dreams and sex and being far too stupid to live. There was no foreshadowing as to who the murderer might be, even though the main character can read minds- it seemed like they just picked him as the killer in that episode and made it obvious in the first couple minutes of the episode. Now it seems for the next season Jason has joined an anti-vampire church and so will continue being more stupid than ever and taking up time where we could be doing so many better things, like throwing salt in our eyes.

Michael Emerson Fan gave it a0:
The first episode of "True Blood" is an absolute train wreck. Where do I start? 1- The dialogue is unbelievably stupid and every word- instead of advancing the plot and allowing for character development- is astronomically expensive filler. Gratuitous F-bombs fizzle damply in every other line, although it seems as though the audience is supposed to be shocked by these fu-nannigans. Yes, we know.. it's HBO. People say "F-" and don't get bleeped out. What's new? 2- The actors take the most cliche interpretations imaginable, resulting in lifeless performances. In spite of this, the actors still manage to overact each sequence so painfully that it makes me want to shove forks into my eyes. 3- Above, I had mentioned such trivial things as "plot advancement" and "character development." I'm sorry. 4- I would have to say that the melodramatic musical sequence that plays whenever Suckie sees the vampire must be what they refer to affectionately as "comedic relief." Every show needs it. And this show needs something. Like an axe.

True Blood SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)

True Blood
SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)