By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
For over 20 years, HBO has been the home to the biggest shows on cable, but in between The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, the network was carried by a very different type of drama that for a few years, was the hottest series on the planet. True Blood, a Southern gothic horror supernatural romance, was unlike anything on television when it premiered in 2008 and there’s still nothing quite like it. Which makes it interesting that from the height of its popularity with blood-soaked photoshoots in Rolling Stone, countless merchandise, and turning Alexander Skarsgard and Joe Manganiello into stars, the series is now, a decade later, a premium cable time capsule that might as well not exist.
True Blood Starts Out Normal And Gets Very Strange
True Blood slowly introduced viewers to the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, a small town in the bayou where there’s one bar, everyone knows everyone else, and nothing exciting ever happens. Until the vampires go public, thanks to synthetic blood that replaces the need to consume humans, and then the town is suddenly a supernatural hotbed when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) a Civil war veteran, moves back into town. Setting his sights on Sookie (Anna Paquin), the wheels are put into motion for what starts as a simple murder mystery that ends up dealing with government conspiracies, the Yakuza, corrupt Churches, a vampire old enough that he met Jesus, werewolves, witches, and a Djinn.
By the time the story reaches the point where vampires are using a RPG launcher to take out a building, True Blood could do no wrong. The absurd soap opera plots, which revolved around different romantic pairings of the entire cast every season, crumble under the tiniest bit of scrutiny but it doesn’t matter because the show is fun from start to finish. While Twilight had teens enthralled and declaring themselves Team Jacob or Team Edward, HBO was presenting the version for adults, with fans championing Bill the Southern Vampire, Eric the Viking Vampire, Sam the Bartender, or Alcide the Werewolf as Sookie’s true love.
Loosely Based On A Book Series
Based on the Charlaine Harris series, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, True Blood followed the plots of the first three novels in its early seasons before finding its own way, dramatically changing which characters lived or died, who Sookie was dating, and even leaving out one of her suitors from the books, John Quinn, the massive hulking weretiger. Across all seven seasons, the series averaged over 4 million viewers, which might not be much compared to NCIS, but for a premium cable series, it was massive. Its success helped convince HBO to adapt another book series that featured lots of violence and blood, even though it’s still incomplete to this day, A Song of Fire and Ice, which became Game of Thrones.
So then, why is True Blood not nearly as popular today as The Vampire Diaries, a series that it trounced in the ratings despite being on premium cable? The problem could be that it was always meant for an adult audience and doesn’t have the same appeal to teens and tweens that other vampire shows do, which helps to perpetuate the fanbase from one generation to the next, and like both The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, the ending left a sour taste in the mouth of many fans. That word of mouth filters down through social media, and with the massive wave of romantic vampire supernatural fiction coming to an end, it’s a show trapped in a very specific era.
You can relive when vampires ruled pop culture by streaming True Blood on Max.
