True Blood

:

Season 3
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 7, 2008
Season #: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
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Critic Reviews

  1. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tom Gliatto
    100
    Eclipsing even last summer's BBQ bacchanal involving an ancient spirit, the new season feels like one big undead sex party-a kinky alternate lifestyle where vampires and monsters do the nasty (and other violent acts) in roadhouses, backrooms, backwoods and the occasional antebellum mansion.
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  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    91
    True Blood is, if anything, faster, sleeker, more vicious, more fun that it already was. Yum-yum.
  3. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Robert Bianco
    88
    True Blood is worth the work, particularly since the main plot (Sookie's search for her kidnapped vampire lover Bill) is pretty much a self-starter.
  5. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    83
    Silly, gross, soapy, mysterious, intriguing, exotic, erotic True Blood is fun. Even more fun this season.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    80
    The show, as fast-paced as ever, is crammed with subplots this season, some of which will be more engaging than others.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    80
    It's unavoidable that True Blood will fall into some of the same dramas as other vampire shows. It's just got sharper teeth.
  8. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    80
    Many viewers probably come to True Blood for the thrills and the romance but it's the humor that allows the show to rise a step above similar TV fare even as it falls short of HBO's loftier efforts.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    80
    Whatever its chemistry, the show surely knows how to go for the throat. And like its mythical night-prowlers, once Blood sucks you in, its attraction is awfully difficult to resist.
  10. Kansas City Star
    Reviewed by: Aaron Barnhart
    80
    Whatever the reasons, True Blood has become stranger, more complicated and more satisfying to watch over time.
  11. PopMatters
    Reviewed by: Renee Scolaro Mora
    80
    For all the politics, though, what True Blood reveals most consistently is that Arlene is right: all of them—vampire, human, and were—are enslaved in one way or another, by appetites, gifts, power, and family (or pack) bonds, intimating an uneasy commonality across races.
  12. Salon
    Reviewed by: Heather Havrilesky
    80
    While the orgiastic madness of Season 2 might be hard to top, the first three episodes of Season 3 look promising indeed, serving up one juicy twist after another, plus a steady flow of great dialogue, intense conversations, brutality, blackmail, mystery, suspense and, best of all, some wickedly funny moments that are beyond compare.
  13. San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times
    Reviewed by: Chuck Barney
    80
    Initially, these and other fresh characters make Season 3 feel overcrowded--and we pity any new fan trying to make sense of it all. But by the middle of the second episode, the show begins to gain traction and sucks you in with its new set of tantalizing mysteries.
  14. Boston Herald
    Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    75
    The discussion of vampire politics seems toothless at times, but True excels at setting up episode-ending cliffhangers. The episode pacing is superb.
  15. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    75
    The werewolves appear ready to supply some interesting, if rough-edged stories, but certain Season 3 plots wouldn't be missed if they faded away.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Linda Stasi
    75
    And better, this season the vamps and the shape-shifting alcoholics find themselves with too many werewolves on their hands. And the werewolves are pretty terrifying and very vicious. Very. How can you not love that?
  17. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Aaron Riccio
    75
    True Blood lives up to another one of its character's promises: "I can protect you. Or have passionate primal sex with you. How about both?" Both it is.
  18. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Paige Wiser
    75
    There's just nothing else on TV with this level of jubilant satire.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Hank Stuever
    70
    But sprawl it must. "True Blood" is a soap opera at its core, which is why it is so overpopulated with sexy characters.
  20. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    60
    That for those of you who love True Blood for its soapy mix of sex and horror--and occasional flashes of humor--nothing important is missing from the three episodes I've seen of the new season.

Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Best TV Season of 2010
19
#19 Most Discussed TV Season of 2010
61
#61 Most Shared TV Season of 2010

User Reviews

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User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 288 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 234 out of 288
  2. Mixed: 25 out of 288
  3. Negative: 29 out of 288
  1. Kibbles99
    Aug 30, 2010
    10
    The thing that makes True Blood remarkable is the energetic gulf between the supernatural and the mundane. Bon Temps is a fictional town fullyThe thing that makes True Blood remarkable is the energetic gulf between the supernatural and the mundane. Bon Temps is a fictional town fully stocked with the unremarkable and yet the characters are everything but (with only a few rare exceptions such as Marlene). It would be easy to be lulled by the background if someone's head wasn't being ripped off every few minutes. This is a town where a flamboyant, arrogant, homosexual, drug-dealing angry black man's tirade comes off as comic relief. I suppose the fact that every show begins with a woman screaming is just the writer's way of letting us know it's time to pay attention to the TV again. This excellent work functions as both social commentary and horror-fantasy of the highest order. It's as primal as Andy Bellefleur's advice to Jason Stackhouse: Dick on, conscience off. And everything IS alright!… Full Review »
  2. Tubie
    Nov 3, 2010
    5
    What a big disappointment, it was to be expected. The way season 2 ended hinted that the fantasy over the top ride was not slowing down. TheyWhat a big disappointment, it was to be expected. The way season 2 ended hinted that the fantasy over the top ride was not slowing down. They introduced way too many things and the writers now have a tough job of keeping the credibility of this show for next season. The only way they can save it is by focusing on vampires again and putting a stop on all the fantasy creatures. What drew me into this show was the notion of vampires coming out into the public light, but they lost me when they started to focus on other things.… Full Review »
  3. JennetP
    Aug 29, 2010
    5
    When "True Blood" first aired, I worried that soap and silliness would prevail over weirdness and mystery, and it has. Sometimes LafayetteWhen "True Blood" first aired, I worried that soap and silliness would prevail over weirdness and mystery, and it has. Sometimes Lafayette and Sam seem the only characters able to balance comedy and the uncanny, while everyone else devolves into sentimental caricature. Godric raised the bar for a bit in Season Two, then Maryann dropped it again, and it has stayed low throughout Season Three so far. I don't see the werewolves contributing much, and, yes, I get that they represent an existential underclass and so illuminate the social stratification of the supernatural world. The King of Mississippi is a disappointment; with the exception of a single special effect, nothing about the performance reads 3,000 years old or hugely potent, where Godric and 1st-season Eric did give off flashes of ancient power. But the real heartbreaker for me is James Frain, normally a master of intelligent menace, who should have been allowed to raise Rutina Wesley's game and finally make her Tara interesting. Instead, they're locked in competition to see who can make sillier faces, as though the camera is a bored toddler in line at the grocery store. Bill and Lorena are just rehashing the same old grievance (albeit with more blood), and Pam, as usual, is undeservedly relegated to obscurity. Jessica, too, seems wasted, aside from a few pointless hijinks, and Eric's evil charisma has gone the way of his hair. As for our undead Romeo and mind-reading Juliet, I remain bored, as "Angel" and "Moonlight" exhausted what little interest I had in Pinocchio Vampires and their ambivalent human sweeties. Note to writers: vacillation does not equal drama. When I saw Stephen Moyer as a truly eerie bloodsucker in the first episode of "Ultraviolet" the other night, I realized how much more compelling Bill would be with an edge. Yeah, I know: his wickedness in the '30s is supposed to supply it, but it's too far in the past, too thoroughly regretted, and too blamed on Lorena to cast a psychic shadow. The show is supposed to be about a population that has just made peace with humanity after millennia of predation and fear; everything, even the comedy, should be darker.… Full Review »
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