True Blood

Vampires have become publicly acknowledged in True Blood, and a Louisiana town has to make room for the consequences. Anna Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse finds the new arrivals considerably harder to keep at a safe distance than a news report might suggest.

The setting gives the series much of its identity: local gossip, work, family ties and supernatural danger occupy the same small social world. Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgård provide contrasting presences among the vampires, while the supporting characters keep pulling the story into fresh complications.

This is adult supernatural melodrama, with graphic violence, sexual material and a willingness to become extravagant. It is not restrained horror. The appeal is the unruly ensemble and the atmosphere around it, provided you enjoy a show that treats an increasingly improbable situation with a mixture of seriousness and dark humour.