‘True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season’ DVD Review
They say everything must come to an end, and although True Blood was definitely showing signs of reaching that point it was still sad to hear that True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season would be the final chapter of the saga that was Sookie and Vampire Bill’s love story. Giving this finality though at least it gave the fans and writers of the show a chance to have some closure.
The seventh season of True Blood had to deal with the dangers of the Hep V virus and how it was laying waste to the small town communities like Bon Temps. With not only Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) but Bill (Stephen Moyer) infected it looks like the end is near for both of the two main male vampires in Sookie’s life. Help comes in the unlikely form of Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp) though who may hold the cure for the virus that she helped create. With the Yakuza on her trail looking for vengeance for the loss of profits from True Blood and Eric also hunting her down, will she survive to provide the salvation in her veins…or will it be too late? Even if she was found, the question still remains just who would take it, or decide instead on the true death.
Closure for a show like True Blood can arguably be done in one episode so to make the whole final season a goodbye there has to be some meat to the season as a whole, before the possibility of a fairy tale ending is even thought of. Using the Hep V story line as a catalyst was an interesting move because to the audience this is a virus with no known cure, and it brings the danger back into the vampire as the bad guy. Proving a way to solve the Hep V problem also gives the chance of the happy ending, so we needed something just a little dramatic to be added to the mix.
The internal struggle that Bill goes through is for me the more interesting side of True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season, because it is much more personal to the character and it brings everything full circle. Bill looks to the past he misses as a human and also to the future that Sookie could have, be it with him or without. His struggle is to decide just what part he must play in it. To have to face his own mortality once again gives him a chance to not only be reunited with his family in death but to also give Sookie something that she has never had, a chance at normality. In that choice, he may be dead but his struggle has more humanity in it than most of the living characters of Bon Temps could ever show.
It does say something about the Sookie character too that she doesn’t allow this choice to be made for her but decides herself. As closure for the show it is nice to see that her love for Bill has never died, even if she is seemingly with Alcide (Joe Manganiello) at the start of the season. As noted though Bill was her first love, and shows like True Blood always cling to the notion that the first love will always last forever.
The choices that are made in the final episode of True Blood, be it Sookie and Bill or any other of the characters are all shaped with a feeling of finality for True Blood. At the end I’m sure fans love that the characters they love have a future, or have a closure that they sought after. Sure there are casualties along the way, but even in death there is peace. True Blood – The Complete Seventh Season may not show the series at its best but with a very good final episode it resolves the story of the residents of Bon Temps and even brings closure to some stories we never thought would be included. What fan can ask for more?
With commentaries for selected episodes and a nice documentary to close off the show True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season is a good release for the fans, because of the closure it gives. The stars get to show their love of True Blood and how it felt working on the show, they even shed a few tears over the thought of it finally coming to an end. This love of the show and the respect they show for the fans makes shows how releases should be treated, even if they are bringing a much-loved series like True Blood to an end.
****½ 4.5/5
True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
