HBO's "True Blood"

Alan Ball knows what he's doing. The creator of the beloved TV series "Six Feet Under" topped himself when he created True Blood last year for HBO.

Based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, Ball took us into a world that was mysterious and compelling while filled with delicious amounts of death, prostitution, drugs and a hell of a lot of humor. Let's not forget the vampires.

As the second season unfolds this weekend, it's easy to see from the first moments that all the marketing attention for the show is not all for naught.

Questions from the finale are answered such as is Lafayette the dead body found by Sookie and Tara? Have you noticed that his portrayer (and super sexy) Nelsan Ellis has been absent from most of the press attention on the show?

The relationship between Sookie (Golden Globe winner Anna Paquin) and Bill (Stephen Moyer) continues its up and down trajectory but become a sort of set of surrogate parents to Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), an unruly teen vamp.

And their relationship looks to be further intruded upon by Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), the Nordic vampire who is Bill's boss but also has his eyes on Sookie and not only for her mind-reading abilities.

That's a good sign since the desire may be for Sookie and Bill to be together but once they are, the show seems to stall just a bit. Keeping them apart for inventive reasons is the best way to keep them interesting and Ball seems to be aware of that.

There's a new romance for Tara (Rutina Wesley), who meets another tortured soul (hunky Mehcad Brooks) at the home of MaryAnn (Michelle Forbes), who suspiciously is up to something and also has ties to Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) that are slowly revealed.

And then there's that prone-to-wearing-clothes Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten), who has found religion and is coerced into joining an anti-vampire religious sect called the Fellowship of the Sun.

While he is trying to atone for sins and has sworn off sex, drugs and booze, make sure to catch the second episode for a lovely slo-mo scene of Kwanten on the flag football field, which only shows that Ball is, just as we are, enamored beyond belief.

Based on the first few episodes of the new season, "True Blood" is even better than the first season, expanding the world more while not tinkering too much with what made this show one of the biggest hits HBO has had since "Six Feet Under."

"True Blood" airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.