True Blood (HBO): Season Five Ancient Forces Reawaken

There have been hints before now that the Authority does not even exist. It does. It's been said that it's toothless and out of touch. It isn't.

Moreover, it's been implied that it's a mere three decades old; an upstart confederacy barely formed before factions would tear it apart. Well, that last bit is true, as far as it goes, but its antiquity is less in doubt.

Let's put it this way. The chamber in which the Vampire Authority meet is Byzantium. Not just in style, but actually from Byzantium. It's been relocated over time. On several occasions, it's been dismantled brick by brick, then rebuilt exactly as it was designed over two thousand years ago.

And the female, whom the Authority serves, makes the room look like it was constructed yesterday. Alongside her, Eric Northman is practically an embryo.

While facing down the Authority is the major story arc of True Blood's fifth season, the theme of the dark stirrings pulling strings continues throughout. We learn, for example, what happened to Terry Bellefleur to cause such debilitating PTSD. He carried his demons back from Iraq and they are not going to stay in the shadows forever.

Plus too there is the secret lying coiled in the depths of the Stackhouse blood-line. The reason that Sookie can hear thoughts and play with light, even as she embraces the darkness. With further insight, the deaths of her parents do not seem such an accident, and that impacts Jason too.

On a much more human level, vampire rights and the end of supernatural segregation has awakened an historical dragon. No-one with powers even so much as touching the preternatural is safe. There are crosses burning and, in place of pointed white hats there are Barack Obama masks. It's war out on the streets tonight and the lynch-mobs will even take out children.

In times like this, everyone has to examine where their loyalties lie. The ways forward tend to constitute the lesser of two evils. Friends and family alike can get trampled in the bid for survival; and love lies smoking in the ruins.

After some uncomfortable scenes for me, as a Wiccan, in season four, my passion for True Blood had simmered slightly off the boil. Season five brought it all back.

It felt different to all the rest. The love scenes were there and, as always, there was plenty of sex, but this one was less about who fancied who. It was more about political intrigue and spiritual wranglings. It wasn't quite the civil rights aspect, which had first lured me into becoming a fan, but it was much closer.

The scale was bigger. Instead of human rights per se, it raised questions about absolute power. It touched the very source of decision-making, and explored the dangers inherent in corruption at the top. To my mind, that was the same thing, approached from a different angle.

It wasn't so much why bad things happened, but who made them happen and how do we stop them making that call.

I've watched the first five seasons of True Blood at white hot speed. If I'd had an ounce of common sense, I'd have eked those last few episodes out. But the story was too good, the action too intense, the philosophical questions too distracting. I saw the final six episodes of season five in a single sitting.

Now, a month away before season six even airs, I find myself caught up with every other True Blood fan. I'm drumming my fingers, tapping my toes, searching the internet for spoilers and clues. I want more. I want it now.