“What are you?”
It’s a question that has haunted Sookie Stackhouse for a few seasons now.
A number of creatures, living and undead, have been tantalized but unable to figure her out. Seems she can hear what humans are thinking; it’s just vampires who leave her stumped.
Followers of “True Blood” already know a great deal about Sookie.
As played by Anna Paquin in Alan Ball’s masterful and hilarious adult drama, Sookie is the small-town girl with the big heart and an ability to stand up for what she believes in, like the civil rights of vampires. She’s a petite blond orphan in Louisiana bayou country who has only her brother as a blood relative. She has an on-again, off-again romance with an undead Victorian gentleman, another Nordic vampire admirer, a job as a waitress and vast resources of inner strength, on which she’s had to rely through unimaginably tough supernatural circumstances.
If she sometimes seems cursed with bad luck, she’s also blessed with magical powers.
In fact, in last season’s “True Blood” finale, Sookie was revealed to be a fairy.
It was an odd revelation, yet it made sense, explaining Sookie’s telepathic abilities.
Dedicated viewers knew better than to fear the series would abandon its fangs-and- blood trademarks in favor of chirpy sprites.
“True Blood” returns today, as sexually explicit and gruesomely violent as ever, true to the novels of Charlaine Harris. With more surprises ahead.
“I have a Fairy Godmother?” Sookie asks in the opening minutes of Season 4.
No spoilers here for one of the most creative, astute, funny and, yes, bewitching series on the tube.
When the new season starts, at 7 p.m. tonight on HBO, it’s with visual references to classic film icons, including “The Wizard of Oz,” Cecil B. DeMille and H.G. Wells’ early science fiction. Consider this Ball’s tip of the hat to magical screen tales that preceded his.
The vampires are still waging a PR campaign to be accepted by humans, even getting into local politics. Undead gentlemen Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) are vying to demonstrate their (version of) humanity to the suspicious populace.
Happily, after the detours of last season, the action is back to Bon Temps, the sleepy but mythically plagued hamlet where Sookie waits tables. Also happily, the story moves away from werewolves and alights in the world of covens.
Must be the season of the witch.
As in years past, HBO has released a snappy online video primer: Catch up in fewer than five minutes on the network’s website.
Judging by the three episodes provided for previews, this season could live up to the previous best season, the emotionally transporting Season 2 with Maenad Maryann (Michelle Forbes) and her ecstatic orgies of bestial sacrifice.
Irish stage and screen star Fiona Shaw (“Harry Potter” films) plays Marnie, a storefront palm reader who is the conduit for the spirit of a powerful witch. Scott Foley (most recently of “Grey’s Anatomy”) joins the cast for this season’s finale. He’s expected to have a significant role in the following season — if there is one.
Expect the usual sly Southern gothic fun, grounded in smart observation. The campy shape-shifting, magical happenings play against the social commentary that Ball sneaks into the story lines. (Freedom of religion is a hot topic in the coven led by Marnie, as you might imagine.)
Just an afterthought: Those creepy opening credits, the ones that dare us not to turn away at the sight of decay and swamp rot, are unchanged.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
