Summer favorites

“True Blood,” now in the midst of its second season on HBO, has officially made the transition from a guilty pleasure I loved to hate into one of the hours I most look forward to watching each week.

I (mostly) love it, and I just can’t help it.

While Jason’s subplot with the vampire-hating cult, Fellowship of the Sun, has been a snooze (and a workout for my fast-forward button), everything else seems to be gelling this season, especially the increased screen time for Alexander Skarsgard’s Eric, the smoking-hot vampire sheriff who presides over all the bloodsuckers in Bon Temps.

I love anything and everything to do with that man.

Tell me you didn’t die laughing when he was revealed as Lafayette’s captor, stalking downstairs with his hair done up in highlighting foils (while we’re at it, let’s also give a big thanks to the writers for not killing off Lafayette).

But the dye job wasn’t about to stop Eric from enjoying a meal in the form of one of his other prisoners. Cue the bloodbath; the show’s gore factor has definitely been ratcheted up yet another notch this season.

The relationship between Bill and Sookie, which I’ve been super-critical of in the past, has also gotten better with time. Maybe that’s due to the presence of Bill’s vampire offspring Jessica, a hellion teenager with whom he butts heads in a very fatherly way.

He, Jessica and Sookie have developed a twisted family dynamic that’s very entertaining. (I’m also a fan of the bizarrely sweet romance brewing between Jess and Hoyt, whose mother is, you just know, going to freak).

The trio’s trip to Dallas offers both a nice change of scenery and a glimpse into the vampire culture that exists beyond the city limits of little ole Bon Temps. It’s a place where jet-setting vamps can arrange for travel coffins and stay in high-end hotels that cater specifically to their lifestyle.

The Dallas adventure is also getting us into the meat of this season’s storyline: Eric wants Bill and Sookie to find missing vampire Godric, whom he fears has been abducted by those kooky Fellowship of the Sun people.

Meanwhile, back in Bon Temps, everything is going to what could quite possibly, literally, be hell under the influence of the mysterious Maryann. I’m still confused about what she is and what exactly she does, besides turning everyone who attends her parties into black-eyed, sex-crazed lunatics.

Bill and Sookie better get home quickly, or who knows what will be awaiting them.

Here’s what else I’ve been watching this summer:

Harper’s Island
CBS’s experiment — a 13-episode series about a serial killer stalking a group of island wedding guests — worked in my book, for the most part.

But not so much in the network’s. They cancelled “Harper’s Island” shortly after it began airing, but were kind enough to air all the episodes for dedicated fans like me.

The show was good, scary fun from the beginning, but really picked up steam once the wedding guests realized what was going on and started running for their lives.

But my goodwill was tested after watching the series finale, a real clunker that revealed that Henry was the illegitimate child of best friend Abby’s mother and serial killer John Wakefield, and Wakefield’s island accomplice all along.

His wedding to Trish was a sham, just an excuse to get Abby back to the island, where she hadn’t been since Wakefield murdered her mother there seven years earlier.

Henry and his father then proceeded to kill off the entire wedding party, with two different goals in mind.

Wakefield’s was to terrorize and kill everyone, while Henry’s endgame was to get them all out of the way so he could be alone with Abby forever. I guess he didn’t realize that there are easier, less devious ways to do this, like, say, just telling her that?

His logic at keeping Abby’s old flame, Jimmy, alive to sign a confession didn’t make sense either, though I’m glad he did it. Their relationship was among the show’s best.

What made the two-hour finale even more disappointing was that it came on the heels of the series’ most poignant deaths, that of Chloe and her fiancée Cal.

Cal died at the hands of Wakefield, and Chloe on her own terms: “You can’t have me,” she told Wakefield before plunging to her own death to get away from him.

I wasn’t particularly attached to many of the show’s characters, so it wasn’t a big deal to watch them get offed in increasingly more creative ways each week. But Cal and Chloe were the first two deaths that really made me sad.

“Harper’s Island” was a show you couldn’t examine too closely; otherwise, you’d exhaust yourself counting all the plot holes (I’m talking Swiss cheese here, people!).

The survivors had several opportunities to kill Wakefield — scenes where he was right in front of them, unarmed and vulnerable — yet they did nothing. I guess it’s a complaint that can be leveled at many horror movies. You know, “Scream’s” classic line about the heroine running up the stairs to evade a killer instead of out the front door?

Still, I loved the idea of this show, even if its execution was sometimes lacking.

And you really couldn’t go wrong with the cast. Katie Cassidy adeptly cried her eyes out as doomed bride-to-be Trish, and her one-time “Supernatural” costar Jim Beaver, who played Abby’s haunted father, is always a welcome face on my TV screen.

As Henry, Christopher Gorham, an actor best known for playing good guys, did what he could with a poorly motivated character, while the cute C.J. Thomason, as Jimmy, joined the ranks of my TV boyfriends. I was prepared to totally trash the show if Jimmy didn’t survive.

The real find here was Elaine Cassidy as Abby. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Top Chef Masters
I wasn’t a big fan of this show at first.

It’s one thing to watch a bunch of up-and-coming chefs compete in ludicrous challenges, a la the original “Top Chef.” It’s quite another to watch established, renowned chefs, who already own their own restaurants, scrambling around and, in some instances, embarrassing themselves. It just felt wrong.

But “Masters” has been growing on me, thanks to interesting challenges and fantastic guest judges, like “Lost” creators/writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and the always-great Neil Patrick Harris.