Many fans of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse book series will complain that the series has deviated from the original source. The first book followed it very closely but as of late it's drastically deviated to follow it's own trajectory. After all, many characters were added and some were spared the deaths that they were accorded in the book. Season One followed the love story between Sookie and Bill and a serial killer in the small town of Bon Temps. Season Two had many more stories to add to the mix, there was the arc of the Light of Day ( an uber religious cult of sorts that hated vampires, that Jason Stackhouse fell in to), there was Maryann, a very ancient creature who tore through Bon Temps and nearly destroyed it in the process. Season Three was a mixed bag of sorts. It introduced Russell Edgington, the vampire king of Lousiana and his crusade to practically tarnish the good guy personas that the vampires have been trying so hard to hold up all these years.

Then, there was the fact that Sookie learned that she was from a long-line of fairies and that her blood was the key to walking in the sunlight. The season ended with Sookie vanishing into the land of the fairies, Jason attempting to become a deputy sheriff, Bill and Eric Northman both having there invitations rescended from Sookie's home.
So, we pick up with Sookie being in the land of the fairies and her seeing her grandfather and the friendly bellboy from season two when Sookie and Bill had their sojourn in Dallas hunting for missing vampire sheriff Godric.

Things go south almost immediately when the fairies reveal that they want Sookie dead because they fear that Bill will ultimately steal her "light." She escapes from the land of the fairies during a pretty neat little war scene (if you could call it that) and ends up back in Bon Temps where things are most defintely different.

Plus, thirteen months have passed, so...

The gambit of having thirteen months pass could have been a tricky situation but the writers handle it well. It feels real, like we went away for a while and now we come back and our friends have changed a whole lot. Just like life can be. A lot of the loose ends from the season three finale are wrapped up by most of the characters. It gave Jason a reasonable amount of time to become deputy sheriff and for Andy Belfleur's Vee addiction to fully take hold of him. Hoyt and Jessica's seemingly bucolic relationship is increasingly getting frayed, not including the fact that his mother wanted to shoot her and attempted to do so. The people in this world are very torn up and broken. This show is about broken people. We try to fix things but we can't and things turn out very messy and violent in the aftermath.

This season introduces witches into the mix and they have very dangerous powers, up to and including necromancy, and so Lafayette who finally gets a meaty story other than being stuck to resident drug dealer/male hustler gets involved with the witches thanks to his boyfriend, Jesus. I love that Tara is very much more empowered than she has been since season one..after all, last season she was kidnapped and raped and beaten by a psychotic vampire and the season before that put under a dangerous spell by a monster.

Although, the lesbian MMA chick thing is a bit much..

Eric and Bill and Pam, for the most part are constantly reminded by Nan Flanagan and the VLA that this is a post-Russell Edgington world and the scenes of Bill and Eric trying to appeal to the living is quite funny.

I've never read the books and I can say that I enjoy the show throughly because I can seperate myself from the two. Most shows I watch, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, follow the books very closely but I love the ride that True Blood affords me.

The very bloody ride. Bring it on.


True Blood: Episode 401 "She's Not There" gets an A

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