The first installment of the third series of vampire drama True Blood is an almost ideal opening episode for its legions of fans.  Instead of starting from scratch by re-introducing the characters, they are built on, whilst the previous series wasn't tied up neatly but twisted seamlessly into a new one.

That’s not to say that it lacked ambition: set on a huge scale, the overlapping plots were fast-paced enough to keep even wandering minds locked down.The downside of having a a number of concurrent plots was that most are underdeveloped, with the protagonist’s story suffering the most from this: instead of leading the show, Sookie’s search for Bill felt tacked-on. Not that her plot was unnecessary, if she hadn’t been there the whole thing would probably have fallen apart.

The sweaty southern look, the near constant nudity and the well placed dashes of ugly humour all come together to form the wonderfully ridiculous True Blood universe.

The finale of the opening episode was - as always - incredibly tantalising. Cliffhangers aplenty, from Tara’s overdose and the possible demise of one of the much beloved characters, to the Queen of Lousiana’s cryptic message to Eric. It was an explosive end to the series premiere, and should leave viewers excited for wherever the fangbitingly-tastic series will take us next.