There has been at least one very bad season of True Blood, which season six is not, but there have also been some very good seasons which this sixth season also is not one of. It is hard to remember all those years ago when the show was so simple and had real atmosphere, space and heat to it. It gradually lost this and instead what now remains is frantic story-telling with lots of drama, events, excess and of course weekly dramatic cliff-hangers so that you will be left with a sense of wanting to come back next week. None of this sounds like a bad thing and generally it must be said that on this level the season works well.
The plotting sees Bill struggling to work out who he is; the vampire that killed Sookie's parents coming back for her; werewolves and shifters getting drawn in more and more while the government crackdown on vamps with some very covert and cruel methods. All of this and more produces plenty of things happening and in any given moment you will not be bored, but outside of that moment you cannot help feeling that the atmosphere of the show, the space it once had to draw you in, all of this is gone and been replaced by frantic delivery. There isn't really anything behind the events - no commentary, no intelligence, they are just events and they will entertain as disposable events but they do feel a little hollow. The season closes with a jump away from events of this season and heads instead to set up the next season and this is typical of the season as a whole; it feels like it is so focused on what it is doing right now and what is coming immediately next, that anything more solid is forgotten or simply not given room.
The cast continue to go with it and they all look beautiful doing it, but there are noticeably a lot fewer characters that I care about here, which was not originally the case - now they are almost all players on a stage rather than people in a story. The production values remain high as you would expect from such a highly watched HBO show, and these values help it feel more important and "proper" than it actually is. It isn't a bad season but it isn't particularly good either - and comparing it to the earliest days of the show really makes it look even weaker. It works for what it is, and the frantic delivery of "moments" can be entertaining, but it is not what it once was and, while I will watch the final season (and hopefully enjoy it), I will be totally fine with it finally drawing to a close in this form.
