Waiting on the Undead: Five Things to Look Forward to in 'True Blood'

Pop Culture is full of monsters — zombies, King Kong, werewolves — but people seem to have a soft spot (located right around that neck area) for vampires.

From being horrifyingly depicted in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and 1922's "Nosferatu" to seeming more hip, romantic and noir-like in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Angel > Spike) or "Twilight" (Edward > Jacob), vampires have taken up a solid corner of the action and horror film genres ("30 Days of Night," the "Blade" series) while also continuing to ooze sexuality.

In fact, the poem "The Vampire" by Rudyard Kipling — which he wrote in 1897 — isn't about a bloodsucking fiend at all; instead, it's about a woman who scorns a man's love and leaves him "so some of him lived but the most of him died." Tragic.

But if you go back to that oozing sexuality thing, HBO's "True Blood" is pretty much where it's at. The most popular series on the network since "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City," it's based on the bestselling "Southern Vampire Mysteries" books by Charlaine Harris and stars Anna Paquin (who recovers from her disappointing turn as Rogue in the "X-Men" series) and Stephen Moyer (one word: dreamy) as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, and Bill Compton, a centuries-old vampire, who fall in love.

True love never works out with vampires, though, right? One viewing of "Interview with the Vampire" would be enough to figure that out.

So we wouldn't be all that shocked if all kinds of obstacles launch themselves into Sookie's and Bill's happy-sometimes-violent life in the fake Bon Temps, La., or if some of those obstacles include Bill's former love interests, or maybe Sookie thinks she can't handle it all, blah blah blah. If you've prepared yourself to pore over the show's first season now that it's out on DVD, we can't blame you — we have, too.

Here's the five things we're most looking forward to about the next season of "True Blood," which debuts on June 14.

THE CHEMISTRY
Paquin and Moyer may play lovers on TV, and now they are in real life, too — Moyer confirmed in February that the two co-stars are dating. On-screen romances that turn into off-screen ones are kind of the best kind (for example: Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams from "The Notebook"), and when Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz did it on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," screaming fangirls everywhere liked to pretend they could notice a different kind of intensity in all those illicit kissing scenes. Granted, any good actor or actress (and considering Paquin has an Oscar, she definitely falls into this category) can fake it ‘til they feel it, but here's to hoping the sex scenes get even sexier.

EVAN RACHEL WOOD
Marilyn Manson's current (or ex; who really knows with those two?) girlfriend has a pretty good track record for melodrama ("Thirteen;" Green Day's "Wake Me When September Ends" video; that Beatles musical "Across the Universe;" and "The Wrestler"), and thanks to her Dita Von Teese-copying image choices of late (dyed hair, lots of make-up, uncomfortable amounts of cleavage), imagining her as a vampire isn't that bizarre, actually. Wood will join the cast this season as the all-powerful Sophie-Anne Leclerc, the vampire queen of Louisiana, and while that sounds a little campy, we can get behind it. Though she's kind of obnoxious as a person, Wood does that whole pained-young-girl thing pretty well (in fact, she's made a career out of it), so we figure she'll probably be believable. Plus, she did have all that training writhing around in blood in Manson's video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses" ... don't watch it. It's gross.

JESSICA
Just when it seemed like all the threats toward Bill and Sookie's relationship were gone — Rene's dead, Sam's finally beginning to realize he doesn't have a shot, etc. — Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) shows up, thrusting her existence between them like a clove of garlic or something. A young vampire that Bill had to create as part of his punishment for murdering another vamp, Jessica is pretty much the Drusilla to Bill's and Sookie's Angel and Buffy, and we wouldn't be surprised to see some awkward love triangle action going on. We can't help but miss Spike, though.

HEP D
Hepatitis D is nonchalantly mentioned in a few episodes of the first season — especially in "Mine," in which Bill lays stake to Sookie so his other bloodthirsty vampire friends will back off — but horrifies the vamps as the only blood-borne pathogen that can actually hurt them. Bill states that Hepatitis D can make a vampire weak for a few weeks or so, during which anyone (such as those dastardly Rattrays) can stake them, steal their blood or hurt them in any other way. While the science of this doesn't make too much sense (can't Hepatitis D only make a person sick if they already have Hepatitis B?), this has to be a plotline, right? A swine flu-like Hepatitis D outbreak among the vampire community? Broadcast news channels in Bon Temps would have a field day.

JASON
Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) is all kinds of messed up (his love/hate relationship with vampire victims, for example), and he seems primed to be a character similar to Matt from "Nip/Tuck" — essentially annoying, unnecessarily angry and vaguely immoral. What other screw-ups will he get into, aside from the murder-suspect shenanigans of last season? We're guessing a lot ... and we'll be waiting and watching.

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi

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