The series got better as it went along, and initial reviews were mixed:

Time Magazine said:

… while writerly honor forbids me to use a "suck" or "bite" joke, the early episodes of True Blood are, shall we say, drained of interest. … Ball's characters, living and dead, are caricatures. He once said the only meddling HBO ever did on SFU was to ask him to make it less conventional, and he could have used that kind of intervention this time. …

The Wall Street Journal said:

… a campy attempt at Southern Gothic that too often passes over the truly macabre or grotesque for gratuitous sex and violence. Mr. Ball is clearly trying to lighten the mood and reach a younger audience. But his new characters lack the depth and complexity -- if not the humanity -- of the darkly comic Fisher family from "Six Feet Under." … "True Blood" is supposed to be a sexy, easy-to-swallow mystery, but too often it ends up leaving a bad taste in one's mouth.

Entertainment Weekly gave it an “C” and said:

… Ball has never seen a comic-dramatic premise he can't flatten with leaden metaphors. He pumps up a tedious subplot about vampires campaigning on TV for antidiscrimination laws. And he makes so many heavy-handed comparisons between vampires and homosexuals that you wonder if he's really never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Lost Boys. …

USA Today gave it three and a half stars (out of four) and said:

… Sexy, witty and unabashedly peculiar … Ball is a man of many talents, but subtlety does not appear to be one of them, and viewers should keep that in mind. Many of the twists on the vampire minority metaphor are clever — a church billboard reads "God Hates Fangs" — but you do wish Ball would hammer his points home with a slightly smaller hammer. Even so, for a network that has lost its way of late in series, Blood is a much-needed infusion of new, well, blood. Drink up.

TV Guide gives it a nine (out of 10) said:

… Graphically sexy and scary, and often wildly funny …

The New York Times said:

… The tale gets more engrossing as it goes along, but the first five episodes, at least, don’t quite live up to the fierce score and the amazing, hallucinatory opening montage. …

The Los Angeles Times said:

… a heavy-handed political fable … Borrowing heavily from many genres, "True Blood" aspires to transcend them all but instead quickly deposits the viewer waist-deep in a literal and figurative swamp. …

The Chicago Tribune said:

… doesn't seem quite as steamy as it should be. Not a bad show, just not the home run HBO needs. …

The Washington Post said:

… isn't meant to be an exercise in good taste. Just a romp and a wallow -- and a bloody good one. …

The San Francisco Chronicle said:

… Both Paquin and [Stephen] Moyer do well here. And "True Blood" is fleshed out with other interesting characters getting to spout well-written lines. But at times the whole thing seems silly - it's often a default reaction when portraying vampires - and there's still the issue of tone: Will it settle or will the disparate mix continue to clash? At this point, "True Blood" appears to be a creative experiment. Ball should at least be given the chance to prove further whether he can slay viewers with his vision.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said:

… lands squarely in the B+/A- realm inhabited by HBO's underrated polygamy drama, "Big Love." Like "Big Love," "True Blood" entertains without moody navel-gazing. …

The Boston Herald said:

… Most viewers will find the slow pace bewildering and the attempts to establish atmosphere mystifying. … Not quite a parody and not quite a supernatural thriller, “True Blood” will probably just leave you cold.

The Boston Globe said:

… You won't be drawn to "True Blood" if you don't like a heightened, almost cartoonish atmosphere. Paquin, giggly but calmly assertive, is something of an acquired taste as Sookie. To me, her overdone Southern accent has a comic emphasis, in the same way Kyra Sedgwick speaks with almost campy delight in "The Closer." I kept imagining Amy Poehler from "Saturday Night Live" mocking Paquin's drawl, but that never detracted from my enjoyment. Alas, Moyer, a Brit, has less luck with his accent, as well as with his characterization. He makes Bill too dreamily ethereal, and I hope his performance grows more vivid and grounded with time. If we're going to be emotionally engaged by this couple, in the way we were by Rachel Griffiths and Peter Krause in "Six Feet Under," we need to see him as more than a vague specter. There isn't enough Buffy-Angel charge between the pair, yet. …

Variety said:

… while the show is a trifle hokey, its soapy elements, gothic atmosphere and cliffhanger endings -- coupled with Anna Paquin’s knockout performance -- do reel viewers in, laying the groundwork for what may be the cultish, undemanding romp HBO needs to inject much-needed life into its lineup. …

The Hollywood Reporter said:

… with its constant profanity, gore and banal cruelty, will have a limited appeal. It might become appointment viewing for genre fans even as the rest of us steer clear of Bon Temps. …

EXTRAS:

* Commentaries on six of the 12 season-one episodes.

* “In Focus: Vampires in America” mockumentary.

* French and American “Tru Blood” beverage ads.

* Ads for vampire-friendly hotels, lawyers and dating services.

* Pro- and anti-vampire PSAs.

EXTRAS:

* As per “Lights” tradition, the new DVD set contains an extraordinary number of entertaining deleted scenes (including an entire lost storyline involving Matt, Julie, Matt’s mom Shelby and some season-two artwork).