If you love the Sookie Stackhouse vampire book series, then I would not recommend HBO’s True Blood. Both are filled with graphic sex and violence (duh, HBO), but the book series always retained a sense of good-natured community only evinced in the final season of True Blood whereas the majority of the tv show made it more trashy and base without the fundamental cornerstone relationships which made the book’s characters likeable-I’m looking at you, Sookie and Jason. Any character development for Jason was usually wiped clean every season for him to start at square one the following season. It was easy to get confused if you read the books and watched the series because True Blood was like a parallel universe with most of the same characters and initially the same events, but wildly departed from its origins as the show progressed until it was almost unrecognizable by the end of the first season. True Blood was as good as its big bad. I adore Michelle Forbes in everything so I enjoyed a good portion of the second season. Season 3 was salvageable only because the big bad was a terrifying ancient vampire, Russell Edgington, played convincingly by Denis O’Hare. My favorite season was the fourth season: a supernatural, historical and understandable war between vampires versus witches. True Blood jumped the shark in Season 5. You promised a show down between two ancient vampires, one of which is Stabler from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, television’s favorite anger ball, but all I got was a nude woman covered in blood. Lillith was the most boring big bad for me: all the fun of a theological debate, but now with vampires. Yawn. The sixth season was more interesting because there were finally two strong story lines: vampire persecution and faeries, but there was a sudden unearned character shift to create tension that didn’t exist for the majority of the season. Also Rutger Hauer appears, which generally makes everything better. The seventh and final season initially appeared to be understandably evil vampires and fear-fueled hateful humans versus vampires and human allies. Instead the final season was basically everything that we initially wanted the show to be about: the development of a strong, loving and caring supernatural/human community in a small town. The final season wasn’t flawless: I’m still horrified at how Tara’s story was handled in comparison to Terry Bellefleur’s and Bill’s demands were unreasonable and melodramatic, but overall True Blood finally gave us what we always wanted: a happy Lafayette, a decent Jason, the perfection of team Eric and Pam, a hopeful Arlene, a strong Andy and a mature Jessica among others. I’m so glad that True Blood ended so we could finally get what the show needed: character.