True Blood: Season 2

After a glib but promising first season, the vampires-among-us Showtime series True Blood really clicked in this second effort (the season three premiere was June 13), finding the perfect mix of comedy, sci-fi and Southern gothic. Based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, this Alan Ball series expands on the adventures of mind-reading waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin, perky and appealing) and her courtly, “out of the coffin” vampire lover Bill (Stephen Moyer), eschewing the first-season murder plot for a more pungent satire on American fear and bigotry. While Sookie and Bill grow closer, she attracts the attention of the slithery vampire “marshal” Eric (Alexander Skarsgård), her dopey brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten, excellent) joins a ministry of anti-vampire zealots, and a sexy shape-shifter (Michelle Forbes) slowly turns the Bon Temps, Louisiana, townsfolk into orgiastic demons.