No TV show says summer to us more than True Blood, its Southern Gothic atmosphere and pulpy pleasures providing the perfect complement to sweaty evenings spent drinking mint juleps at home after another exhausting day in the hot sun. But while we love the people — and supernatural creatures — of Bon Temps and want them to never, ever change, we’ve noticed over the years that Sookie, Bill, and co. have a tendency to annoy the crap out of us. So, in the spirit of good-natured complaining about a show that we actually adore, every week this season we’ll be shouting out the three characters who drove us craziest, and also anointing the episode’s single most campily awesome character. Find out who made us groan this time, when True Blood got conspicuously political, riffing on McCarthyism and religious fundamentalism in a story line creator Alan Ball says was inspired by Rick Santorum and this year’s Republican primaries, below.
The Week’s Most Annoying Characters
1. Reverend Steve Newlin: Back and full of new-vampire chutzpah, the onetime anti-vamp extremist is now on TV professing that Jesus loves bloodsuckers — but, strangely, he’s still hiding his homosexuality. That doesn’t mean Reverend Steve has given up on Jason, though. He shows up at Jessica’s college party ready to give her $10,000 for him, and allows her to talk him into doubling the offer before she snarls that she doesn’t sell out her friends and sends him packing. Truly, there is nothing worse than a closeted vampire who thinks love can be bought.
2. Sookie: It’s not looking so great for Sookie this season; she has, after all, made this list twice in two weeks. This time, we’re annoyed that she stopped Lafayette from staking Tara — an act of mercy, considering they had turned her into the very creature she hates most. She should really have figured out that when your best friend comes back from the dead as a Tasmanian Devil with fangs, it’s time to put the poor girl out of her misery.
3. Alexander Drew: You may not have caught his name, but he’s the centuries-old vampire in a kid’s body who made a few whiny protestations as part of the Vampire Authority that sits in judgment of Bill and Eric. Few things creep us out as much as child vampires, and child vampires with power are even more irritating. Talk about a Napoleon complex!
The Week’s Most Awesome Character
Pam: She’s never not awesome, but how wonderful was her 1905 New Orleans hooker origin story? It’s taken years to learn Pam’s story, not to mention glimpse a bit of vulnerability in the character, and we hope we’ll see more of this Interview with the Vampire-style background in the episodes to come.
Image credits: Lacey Terrell/HBO