Even though the season finale was lackluster, the rest of the season was awesome. The season finale did have the greatest line in t.v history though....WORSHIP HIM BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!

True Blood is an excellent example of how to do an adaptation where you're going to take liberties with the source material.  In season two, only the Sookie goes to Dallas plotline came from the original books (and was altered quite a bit); the Jason and the Fellowship storyline is completely new, and the Maryanne plotline has only the barest connection (in the book a nameless maenad slashes Sookie, then disappears for the rest of the book only to pop up a the end to resolve the "who killed Lafayette" subplot (and, of course, the fact that Lafayette is alive on the TV series is another departure)).  

As a fan of the book series, I was prepared to not like this show as some of the characters are rather different from the books (for instance, Andy in the books comes across much better, and Jason in the books is less an idiot than a self-centered jerk), and overall places and characters in the show looked, for lack of a better word, seedier than they seemed in the books (e.g., in the first book Bill fixes up his place when he moves in, but in the series it's still pretty run down, and even Fangtasia seems a bit scuzzier in the TV show).  And yet, as I watched the show, I found that the differences didn't rankle me, because the show was able to create an identity independent of the books, and so the differences are irrelevant.  

It probably also helps that the differences make either served a purpose, plot and/or character-wise (for example, making Tara black and Lafayette's cousin), or otherwise don't seem gratuitous.  The only exception is Sam's back story (in the books he grew up with his biological parents), but I suspect that's only because those differences look to play a major role in season three.  

Gratuitous deviation from the source material was the main problem with the (deservedly) short lived Dresden Files, in which they made major changes from the not just for no other reason than they could, but seemingly with the intent of making fans of the books say "WTF?"  Some of the more notable examples of this were flipping the ethnicities of Murphy and Susan (and giving Murphy a kid), making Ancient Mai a dragon in human form, and making Red Court vampire Bianca one of Harry's former lovers (in the books, Red Court vampires are hideous, rubbery looking bat monsters in a human disguise).  I watched Dresden Files and found myself thinking "wrong" again and again, and I don't do that with True Blood.  It's a tribute to the writers, producers, and actors that they've been able to silence my inner fanboy.  Bring on the werewolves!

P.S.  The fact that the True Blood vamps don't sparkle is also a BIG plus.