True Blood - Season 4

Witches in Bon Temps?
We've had vampires, fairies, werewolves (and were-panthers) and shape-shifters, but True Blood 4 will add witches to the mix. The decidedly witchy-looking Irish actress Fiona Shaw (she played Harry Potter's Aunt Petunia) will arrive as Marnie, a timid palm reader possessed by the spirit of a powerful witch. Look for Lafayette and his boy toy Jesus to join the coven.  

Sookie hearts Eric?
With his shorn hair, velour tracksuits and Nordic cool, Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) should steal series four as he readies to steal Sookie from under Bill's nose, buying her house when she goes off with the fairies for a year and thus declaring her his property. Skarsgard will also get to dust off the comedy skills he used so adroitly in Zoolander when a witch's curse erases his memory. Will a hotter-than-hot shower scene with Sookie bring it all back?  

"V": organic or orgasmic?
In Season 4, horn-dog Jason Stackhouse (Sydney's Ryan Kwanten) realises his dream of being a cop... alas, being held hostage as a potential sperm-donor to were-panthers bums his stone. Meanwhile, police chief Andy Bellefleur succumbs to 'V', an elixir Kwanten says is "a mix of valium, V8, viagra and Vicodin X 1000", but that series creator Alan Ball told us is "a volatile organic force – an aphrodisiac and mysterious fountain of youth."  

Arise, King Bill
As befits any royal and ancient family, there's plenty of regal bloodletting in the fourth season but vampires are trying to win back human trust after Russell Edgington's extrication of a newsreader's spine on live TV was deemed "media-unfriendly". Bill is front and centre in this baby-kissing enterprise, deposing the Queen of Louisiana to take the throne and, with Eric, launch a blitzkrieg of positive spin via TV ads.  

Fang Bangers: hot yet cold
Witches stay bitches but foxy boxing gets foxier in Season 4. Tara is now a New Orleans cage-fighter named Toni and dating a fellow fighter, Naomi. Unlike the rest of the TB cast, Tara's knickers don't twist for vampires. Why do cold-blooded critters get folks so damn hot? "People love to fantasise about being ravished by powerful supernatural creatures," Ball explained to Time Out. "Vampires make dark impulses safe – they're hot, sexy, dangerous outlaws who transcend morality and conformity. They never say ‘no' to themselves."  

True Blood 4 screens on Showcase from Thu 18 Aug at 8.30pm

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