“True Blood” is starting to remind me more and more of American Beauty. Things keeps happening – mildly compelling things, in many cases – but I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what they’re supposed to mean. None of it is satisfying, but all of it keeps you strung along in hopes of a conclusion.

It’s hard to tell a vampire story without acknowledging that they’re the living dead, which makes it difficult to place them in the “real world.” So far, vampire/sex symbol Bill has admitted that “magic” keeps them alive, but insists that magic is the source of all life, because even science cannot explain the essence of existence or whatever. I’m paraphrasing.

“Mine” had the potential to really take the show somewhere, but apart from two secondary characters having casual sex, nothing has advanced. Bill and Sookie continue to circle each other like horny vultures, with Bill “claiming” her as his own to protect her, which doesn’t actually seem to entail anything.

The connection between feeding and sex could be made into something really interesting, but it’s not. I know it’s only been three episodes, but I’m beginning to long for some resolution on something – some answers, something that doesn’t skirt around the issues.

So far, nothing on the show has surprised me. Dream sequences are obviously dream sequences, characters hint at their actions well in advance of performing them, and, invariably, everyone except Sookie is a flaming hypocrite.

It’s not clear why they’ve chosen to portray every vampire except Bill as so hateful and terrifying. Even “90210″ managed to create layered and complex characters, why can’t “True Blood?” Bill’s vampire friends are awful and it’s not at all clear why they are friends, and why he lets them scare the living daylights out of Sookie before saving her.

Hopefully, at some point, all of this will be resolved. But we haven’t even been tossed a bone yet, and that’s a bit irritating. This is no “Six Feet Under.”

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