The series revolves around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress living in the fictional rural town of Bon Temps, Louisiana.

Sookie's world is turned upside down when she falls in love with 174-year-old vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and for the first time, she must navigate the trials and terrors of intimacy and relationships.

The series revolves around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic human-faerie hybrid known as a halfling (not to be confused with similarly named, but unrelated creatures found in other fantasy works).

Other characters include Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a 173-year-old vampire who has returned to Bon Temps to take up residence in his former home following the death of his last remaining relative; Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), Sookie's tough-talking but insecure best friend; Jason (Ryan Kwanten), Sookie's womanizing brother; Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård), a 1,000-year-old vampire and Sheriff of Area 5; and Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), a short order cook, drug dealer, road crew member, and medium.

The show explores several contemporary issues such as the struggle for equal rights, discrimination, and violence against minorities and homosexuals, the problems of drug addiction, the power of faith and religion, the control/influence of the media, the quest for identity, and the importance of family.

Season 3 loosely follows the plot of the third novel of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Club Dead, and introduces werewolves to the show's mythology through Alcide, a werewolf hired by Eric to help Sookie find Bill.

In addition, some characters from the fourth novel Dead to the World are introduced: Crystal Norris as Jason's love interest, her family of werepanthers from Hotshot, and Sookie's "faerie godmother", Claudine.

The finale is a series of cliffhangers, including a warning from the ghost of Rene that Terry will cause Arlene trouble, the escape of Russell Edgington, the reappearance of Steve Newlin as a vampire, and the shooting of Tara.

Hoyt gets involved with a hate group, then decides to leave for Alaska, just as Andy heads towards life as a family man, and Lafayette tries to deal with the powers given to him by Jesus.

The season ends with the Authority leadership being wiped out during the True Blood crisis, and Bill drinking the entirety of the sacred vial of Lilith in front of Sookie and Eric.

Eric has discovered that Sarah Newlin created a virus that kills vampires, later witnessing Dr. Overlark and Governor Burrell infect Nora in front of him.

[6] The major characters of the first season of True Blood are introduced among various intertwining plot lines that surround the Bon Temps bar "Merlotte's".

The major plot of the first season revolves around the murder of several women connected to Sookie's older brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten).E-1 The women murdered include sexual partner Maudette Pickens (Danielle Sapia),E-1 on-and-off romantic interest and Merlotte's waitress Dawn Green (Lynn Collins),E-3 grandmother Adele (Lois Smith) or simply "Gran",E-5 and girlfriend Amy Burley (Lizzy Caplan).E-11 Though the viewer is always aware of Jason's innocence in their deaths, Detective Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) targets him as the prime suspect in the investigation he conducts with Sheriff Bud Dearborne (William Sanderson) to identify their killer.E-1 Jason's best friends and co-workers, Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack) and Rene Lenier (Michael Raymond-James) provide him with support despite the turmoil he encounters.E-1 Rene, who becomes engaged to Merlotte's waitress Arlene Fowler (Carrie Preston),E-8 is eventually exposed as the Bon Temps murderer and is killed in a final confrontation with Sookie.E-12 A secondary plot in the first season (that later develops as the primary storyline in the second) revolves around Sookie's best friend Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley).E-1 In the first episode, Tara is hired as a bartender at Merlotte's by bar owner, shapeshifter,E-11 and admirer of Sookie, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell),E-1 with whom Tara later has a brief relationship.E-3 Tara's cousin Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) already works as a cook at Merlotte'sE-1 (in addition to several other jobs that include road crew, prostitute, and drug dealer)E-3 with Andy's cousin and Iraq War veteran, Terry (Todd Lowe).E-2 Tara's story is characterized by her relationship with her alcoholic and abusive mother Lettie Mae (Adina Porter)E-2 and her own inner "demons".E-10 During the season, Lettie Mae achieves sobrietyE-8 but Tara's life begins to spin out of control.

The same style of interconnected storytelling used in the first season is repeated, with the foremost plot focusing on Maryann Forrester being revealed as a maenadE-19 with the power to influence humans.E-15 She begins by manipulating Tara and Eggs to achieve her goal of summoning her god to earth,E-20 and eventually takes control of almost the entire population of Bon Temps.E-22 While Maryann begins establishing her hold on Bon Temps, Sookie is recruited by EricE-15 to investigate the disappearance of his two-thousand-year-old maker and the Sheriff of Area 9 in Texas: Godric (Allan Hyde).E-17 While Sookie is absent from Bon Temps, Sam hires Daphne Landry (Ashley Jones) to join Merlotte's staff.E-13 Daphne (who is revealed to also be a shapeshifterE-17) begins a romance with Sam,E-16 but is later exposed as working for Maryann.E-18 Jason also leaves Bon Temps for Dallas to join the Fellowship of the Sun,E-14 which Reverend Newlin has steered in a new militant direction despite the protestations of his wife Sarah (Anna Camp).E-13 Godric is discovered in the custody of the Fellowship,E-17 and one of Godric's lieutenants, Isabel Beaumont (Valerie Cruz),E-17 sends her human boyfriend Hugo (Christopher Gartin)E-18 to assist Sookie in infiltrating the church.

Meanwhile, back in Bon Temps, Lafayette embarks on a relationship with his mother's care nurse and brujo Jesús Velasquez (Kevin Alejandro) and learns about his own special powers as a medium, while Sam hires a new waitress at Merlotte's, Wiccan Holly Cleary (Lauren Bowles).

[7] Joining the cast for season five was Christopher Meloni, who previously starred on another of HBO's own original series Oz as well as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for 12 years.

[14] Rutger Hauer, who starred in Blade Runner and Batman Begins, was announced as a series regular playing Macklyn, a character with "strong ties to Sookie and Jason.

Also upgraded to regulars are season six guest stars Amelia Rose Blaire as Willa Burrell, Bailey Noble as Adilyn Bellefleur, Luke Grimes as James and Karolina Wydra as Violet Mazurski.

[1] Production on the series began later that fall,[21] with Brook Kerr, who portrayed Tara Thornton in the original pilot, replaced by Rutina Wesley.

[24] True Blood's Emmy-nominated title sequence is composed of portrayals of the show's Deep South setting, and runs to "Bad Things" by Jace Everett.

Rebirth is represented by an image of a woman being "washed clean" from her sins in a lake, and a preacher blessing and possibly performing an exorcism on a member of his congregation.

[26] The opening sequence of TRUE BLOOD contains shots that are composed of original documentaries, tabletop photography, studio and found footage which are completely handmade.

[25] Eight different typefaces, inspired by Southern road signs, were created manually for cast and crew credits, as well as the show's title card.

[30] Gary Calamar, who supervises the series' music, said his goal for the show's soundtrack is to create something "swampy, bluesy and spooky" and to feature local Louisiana musicians.

Composer Nathan Barr writes the original score for the series, which features the cello, guitar, prepared piano, and glass harmonica among other instruments, all of which he performs himself.

For example, episode ten of season four is titled "Burning Down the House", and the end credits feature a cover version of the classic Talking Heads song performed by The Used.

[37] This included setting up multiple websites,[38][39][40] encoding web address into unmarked envelopes mailed to high-profile blog writers and others, and even performances by a "vampire" who attempted to reach out to others of their kind, to discuss the recent creation of "TrueBlood", a fictional beverage featured in the show.

[52] In June 2010, HBO held a special event at a number of movie theaters around the U.S.,[53] complete with red carpet, searchlights, and swag bags.

[73]Robert Bianco of USA Today concluded: Sexy, witty and unabashedly peculiar, True Blood is a blood-drenched Southern Gothic romantic parable set in a world where vampires are out and about and campaigning for equal rights.

In his review, Brian Lowry of Variety remarked: People can debate when “True Blood’s” creative rigor mortis officially set in — somewhere during that stretch when the show began piling one supernatural creature upon another (werewolves and witches and faeries, oh my!)