True Blood

CHICAGO – “Game of Thrones” is over and you’ve already binged “Orange is the New Black,” what are you supposed to do now? There are a few interesting new programs this season – FX’s “Tyrant” & “The Strain,” HBO’s “The Leftovers,” CBS’s “Extant,” and a few more – but it’s also a great time to catch up what you may have missed with new Blu-ray and DVD releases. There are five TV-to-Blu-ray releases this month that might warrant a look.

CHICAGO – It’s a Happy Birthday for Joe Manganiello. The “True Blood” hunk was born on December 28th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has a red-hot career after co-starring last year in “Magic Mike,” with Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey. Manganiello was in Chicago recently meeting fans and signing his new book.

CHICAGO – Does anyone else remember when “True Blood” was fun? When it was about a special girl falling for a brooding vamp and not ALWAYS about the fate of the entire world? When it had a sense of humor, especially in characters like Jason & Lafayette?

CHICAGO – I’ve talked to a number of people who think the fifth season of “True Blood” is when it jumped the bloodsucking shark, although there are certainly legions of fans of this HBO smash hit who will never give up on Sookie Stackhouse and her neverending parade of supernatural friends and foes. HBO Home Video knows how faithful viewers for a program like “True Blood” will become even more so with great home releases and so have turned the “True Blood” line into one of their absolute best. The latest, “True Blood: The Complete Fifth Season,” is no exception.

CHICAGO – There’s a reason why the terms “Christian” and “filmmaker” don’t seem to go together. Pictures that push religious agendas tend to sacrifice complex plots and characters in favor of amplifying its message. These films fail not only as entertainment but as quality storytelling. Whenever an aspiring artist attempts to speak for a group rather than oneself, it’s almost always a recipe for tediously preachy dreck.

CHICAGO – HBO just announced that they have renewed “True Blood” for a sixth season and “The Newsroom” for a second season. Both shows are currently airing on HBO on Sunday nights.

CHICAGO – HBO used to be a company that kind of let the quality of their TV shows speak for themselves. They would release DVD box sets that often included nary a special feature. Bonus material? Look to one of those “lesser” networks. Our shows are bonus enough. With the advent of Blu-ray however and an increasingly competitive collector’s market, HBO has gone in the complete other direction, releasing increasingly impressive TV on Blu-ray sets. The one just launched for their massive hit “True Blood,” the fourth season, is one of the best to date. It’s a shame the actual season is the worst yet for the show because the Blu-ray set is spectacular.

CHICAGO – “We done with all the supernatural bulls**t, you heard me?!?!” — Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). Does a pissed off Lafayette speak for you? Are you tired of all of the chaos on HBO’s “True Blood”? Do you wish the show would stop with so many cluttered subplots and settle down?

CHICAGO – As much fun as that headline might make it sound, “Bedlam,” premiering stateside tonight, October 1, 2011, on BBC America, is pretty goofy. A little bit of supernatural behavior mixed with cheesy soap dynamics might have made for a fun Autumn diversion but nothing in “Bedlam” is “little.” Everything is so far over-the-top that it can’t even see it any more and the ridiculousness of it all sinks the entertainment value.

CHICAGO – The trend of vampire culture in movies and television seems to be continuing strong in the entertainment and pop culture world. The HBO hit series “True Blood,” which is currently on the air in its fourth season, has been renewed for a fifth season set to begin production later this year. The fifth season is scheduled to debut in the summer of 2012.