TRUE BLOOD's third season starts where season two ended.  Vampire Bill Compton is kidnapped by Werewolves who happen to be working for the vampire king of Louisiana, Russell Edgington.   Sookie goes looking for him with the help of a werewolf named Alcide.   Russell soon has his sights set on Sookie as he finds out what she is and Bill discovers it too.   The vampire world will soon have more to worry about as Russell wants to enslave the humans and Eric wants revenge on Russell for what he did centuries ago.   Meanwhile, Sam finds his worthless birth parents and discovers he has a brother, but it all leads to him rediscovering his dark past.   Jason Stackhouse falls in love with a mysterious woman and it leads to new trouble for him.

TURE BLOOD is still very watchable even though some of the homoerotic dreams will make some viewers uncomfortable and the show's storyline plays outs for  a little too long where I think they should have tightened it up instead of trying to make it fit the whole season.   TRUE BLOOD does expand it's world view as it looks further into the world of vampires with giving glimpses into Eric's past and Bill's shocking past.   Also we are introduced to werewolves and were-panthers.   The writing is good when they develop the characters and watch what each of them does.   Still the season's main story with Russell Edgington could have been wrapped up with fewer episodes- it outstays it's welcome.   The best thing about this season are the character development and the world building.  Plus you have Nazis, Vikings, and Faries in addition to lots of other characters.  I loved the flashbacks and wish we would see more of them (would love an episode that takes place in the past).

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentaries for BEAUTIFULLY BROKEN, IT HURTS ME TOO, 9 CRIMES, I GOT A RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES, HITTING THE GROUND, and EVIL IS GOING ON with members of the cast and crew.   They flow with each other and glide through the commentaries comfortably.

Minisodes (totaling about 18 minutes on disc 5) show brief scenes showing a few things not shown in the final season 2 episode and the season 3 opener.   Each episode has a Post-Mortem after it which features funny films (like the Operation Werewolf propaganda film) and also mini featurettes about the character (and series).

ANATOMY OF A SCENE (disc 1) takes a look at the filming of the first werewolf fight at the start of the season including how they used real wolves to help create the scene.

SNOOP DOGG- "OH SOOKIE" music video which has to be one of the oddest extras ever.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  TRUE BLOOD is still very interesting as it expands it's worlds and characters, but the downside is the main storyline plays on for too long.

this DVD review is (c)6-14-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com