‘True Blood’ series finale: The legacy of Sookie Stackhouse … and the show itself

Tomorrow night on HBO, you will have an opportunity to say farewell to “True Blood.” This is a show that premiered back when the vampire sensation was kicking into high gear, and since that time, it has taken a back seat to dystopian thrillers like “The Hunger Games” and more and more superheroes. The ratings have fallen, and there have also been complaints over quality.

Still, what will be the lasting legacy for this show? Is it something great, or something that really missed the mark? We’ve at least laid out some possible ones below, and there’s a poll at the very bottom for you to make a choice of your very own.

The “real” vampire show – This was the one vampire production that was not afraid to make vampires violent, sexual, angry, and also extremely dangerous. They very rarely spent anytime moping, and for the hardcore, this may be the best of the show.

The Sookie Stackhouse factor – Is Sookie one of the most likable heroines we’ve had for a show like this? We don’t know if we would say that, but she was captivating mostly in that she started out an outsider with a secret, and ended up being the one character who tied the entire world together.

A discovery of great talent – Before “True Blood,” who had heard of Ryan Kwanten, Joe Manganiello, or Alexander Skarsgard? This show made their careers, even if they had some credits before this. It also brought Carrie Preston to new heights, gave Chris Bauer another fantastic series to be on, and hopefully set the stage for Rutina Wesley and Nelsan Ellis to get some other great work moving forward.

A show that lasted too long? – This is one of the two unfortunate marks on the show’s resume. It didn’t need to last for seven seasons. We feel like six would have been fine, or even five it meant that we had Alan Ball for the entire show.

Too much confusion – The one really negative takeaway from the final two years of “True Blood” is that the creative visions were all over the place. You had Mark Hudis at the helm briefly in season 6, and his story separated all of the main characters so much that it took Brian Buckner flashing things forward to get them all back together. Even now, characters like Sam Merlotte have drifted too far into the background as we near the end.