Maybe you’ve read the Charlaine Harris novels on which it’s based. Maybe the premise — publicly outed vampires fighting for acceptance as a race of people in modern-day New Orleans — intrigues you. Maybe you simply have “Twilight”-instilled vampire fever.

There are numerous reasons to give the first season of “True Blood” a chance. Problem is, there are numerous reasons to give up on it as well.

Even by HBO’s standards, “Blood” is fearlessly divisive, stacking a brick wall of sexuality, attitude and crudity that some will find too wide to circumvent. Shows with this level of temperament don’t exactly lighten up as the storylines stack up and the stakes (pun not intended) rise, and it might take a full five or six episodes before enough humanity seeps through or you simply get used to the tone enough to let the concept take precedent. As perhaps is no surprise, that’s where “Blood” shines brightest. Few shows could afford the luxury of taking that much time to let viewers get comfortable, but there’s more than enough intrigue to make that a possibility here.

Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Ryan Kwanten and Sam Trammell, among others, star.