A very positive review of the first four episodes of True Blood’s fifth season has been written by Variety. It has us more excited than ever for this Sunday!

They write:

After “True Blood’s” extended dead-end detours involving faeries and witches, the HBO drama’s fifth season finds it back on the true (if not righteous, thank goodness) path, sinking its teeth deeper into arcane vampire politics while adding several strong new characters and squandering less time on subplots that make you want to zap past them. While the show has always been something of a guilty pleasure, the first four episodes suggest a welcome return to pleasure far outweighing guilt.

Without giving too much away, the crux of season five involves the interaction involving Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) with the Vampire Authority, the shadowy governing body to the bloodsuckers in author Charlaine Harris’ beastie-laden world. The Authority’s senior leadership includes Roman (Christopher Meloni, reminding us what a first-rate badass he played before his “Law & Order” stint); and Salome (Italian actress Valentina Cervi, who goes far enough beyond the customary nudity clause to merit some kind of flesh-baring bonus. She is, by the way, indeed that Salome — as in John the Baptist — and thus possesses enormous power, since the more centuries they hang around, the stronger Harris’ vampires become.)

Suffice to say the two familiar vampires must do the authority’s bidding or face the “true death,” which provides strong forward momentum to these early episodes, even as they deal with a dizzying number of loose ends from season four.

Admittedly, the past edition of “True Blood” almost veered off the rails as it layered one fantastic creature on top of another, with werewolves, shape-shifters, witches and faeries eventually adding so many horror and fantasy denizens to the tiny New Orleans town as to feel like the folklore contingent outnumbers the conventional human population.

Still, series creator Alan Ball and company have assembled a solid ensemble and instilled such a cheeky attitude the show remains great fun, and clearly benefits from being back on a better-directed course.

You can read more of the review over here (subscription required). One of our main concerns with season 4 was that too much emphasis was placed on the werewolves and shape-shifters. If this review implies what we think it does, this season is all about the vamps.

Season 5 premieres this Sunday, June 10 on HBO.