True Blood: The Complete Second Season

The 2009 second season of HBO's Golden Globe-winning Southern gothic melodrama about vampires in the Louisiana bayou town of Bon Temps—adapted by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) from Charlaine Harris' series of novels—continues its winning mix of horror pulp and social metaphor. Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer star as telepathic roadhouse waitress Sookie Stackhouse and soulful vampire Bill Compton, one of the many undead bloodsuckers who “came out” with the invention of synthetic blood and is now attempting to find his place in “normal” society. Complicating their love affair is a supernatural beast on the hunt for Sookie, while the town itself is caught up in demonic orgies, and a religious cult war against the vampire nation engulfs Sookie's gullible brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten). Sporting nudity, violence, and assorted debauchery, True Blood is both primal and feral (in regards to the humans as well as the vamps), with a mix of prejudice, predators, and local color that has helped make it a pop-culture fixture (the first season was the top TV-on-DVD seller in 2009). Compiling all 12 episodes, DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentaries and a trio of mock-doc featurettes. The “Enhanced Viewing Mode” exclusive to the Blu-ray edition offers a somewhat distracting collection of tongue-in-cheek character comments and pop-up trivia-style facts. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)