True Blood

[milan kyuubi]

8 minute sneak peek in s4

Personally I am not that big fan of 'fairies' plot.

[james0246]

The fairies definetly seem more tongue-in-cheek, but the upcoming season promises something darker, so I'm hoping for the best. That being said, I'm more interested in Jason and Lafayette's stories (a more grown up Jason just sounds odd).

[milan kyuubi]

New trailer for season 5 XD

[james0246]

New season starts June 10th so here are some thoughts on Season 04:

What I liked -

-Season finale was great. There's no if and or but about it.

-Fiona Shaw's Marnie was a wonderful antagonist. The character was wonderfully complex, and I often found myself rooting for her victim-turned-aggresor. Marnie is easily the most interesting villain in the series (and her end was great), and her entire storyline is probably the best of any villain in the series (the politics of the victims of vampires is probably the most interesting discussion in the entire series).

-I loved Bill's storyline. From his advancement to King, his constant politicking, and his relationship with Sookie and Jessica, everything Bill did in season 4 was fun and exciting.

-Along with Bill, I loved Jessica's and Jason's storylines. The natural evolution of Jessica's relationship with Hoyt was well done and believable, and her eventual relationship with Jason was fun. That beng sad, I disliked Jason's initial storyline (though his wandering around in the Forrest thinking he was becoming a were cat was hysterical), but everything beyond the hillfolk episodes was a lot of fun (especially the scenes were he is confronted with a new athlete who is beating Jason's old football records).

-Lafayette and Jesus also were a lot of fun this season. I really liked Lafayette's powers and found the resulting story concerning the powers to be quite interesting (and a wonderful setup for the great finale).

What I disliked-

-I didn't like Sookie or Eric's story line. The whole Fairy soryline seems to have been wasted just for a timeskip opportunity. And Eric's memory wipe took up too much of the season. I also found their constant sex to be extremely humorous, and I am unsure if I was supposed to find it funny or not.

-Tara...Tara's just become annoying over the years. I appreciated her choice in girlfriend, and, as I said previous, I loved her season finale moment. Otherwise, her entire involvement in the season was fairly tedious and boring. Pamela, Andy and Arlene's stories also fell into this category.

-While I like Alcide, I found all the werewolf politics to be excessively boring and uninteresting. And the character of Marcus, the packmaster of Alcide's new home, was so unattractive that I found it so unbelievable that any woman (even a wolf woman) could have chosen the sleazebag over Alcide's beautiful body .

Neutral-

-I'm fairly neutral with everything else from Season 04 (specifically Sam and Tommy's storyline, though I did love Tommy's scene with his parents).

[james0246]

After coming down from a very powerful 4th season (with probably the best villain in the series thus far, and definitely one of the best season finales if not the best), True Blood stumbles through the motions as constant pacing issues, strange or just plain boring character arcs, and a truly uninteresting main season storyline trouble the series. While the good does still outweigh the bad, Season 5 is really the weakest of the series to date (though, some interesting set-ups are supplied for Season 6 (which will only be 10 episodes due to Anna Paquin’s pregnancy)), which will be the first without series creator and showrunner Alan Ball). So, here’s my run down on the season’s best and worst moments/ideas/arcs/etc…

Spoiler for Season spoilers...:

The good-
- Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten). What a difference a season makes. In season 4, Pam was a complete waste of space, easily the most boring and uninteresting character of the season. But now, nearly every moment with Pam this season has been a complete delight. From her nicely done flashbacks (which provided one of the best emotional moments of the season when, during her flashback, she is shown “convincing” Eric to turn her into a vampire), to her growing relationship as mentor (and more) with recently turned Tara (more on her later), Pam really owned this season from the start to the finish.

-Hoyt (Jim Parrack). Hoyt has really gotten the short end of the stick the past season and more (Jason, Hoyt’s best friend, sleeping with Jessica (Hoyt’s girlfriend), may have been one of the best moments of Season 4, but it was definitely awful for Hoyt ), so this season was a great turnaround for the character. From almost falling in with an anti-supernatural hate group (run by their very own KKK-inspired Dragon), to his eventual decision to abandon Bon Temps for the wild white yonder of Alaska, Hoyt really went through all the stages of grief over his break-up with Jessica. And, while his method for moving on was not very helpful for his psyche, having his memories erased of both his ex-lover and ex-friend made for, quite possibly, the best singular moment of the entire season (and one of the best in the entire series).

-Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Jason’s (Ryan Kwanten) growing relationship. As Hoyt fell into darkness over Jessica’s infidelity, Jessica and Jason slowly grew closer together. In fact, this storyline, which has gone on for a little over 2 seasons now, is some of the best storytelling in the series (as Jessica and Jason make a far more interesting (and just plain fun) couple over the main couple of Sooki and Bill/Eric). Individually, as well, the characters are easily some of my favourite and their storylines are generally always fun and exciting (Jason’s continued quest for maturity is still hilarious while also inspiring, and Jessica’s continued quest for meaning and acceptance is always a delight, and both storylines work because even as the characters constantly fail, they always continue to try).

-Tara (Rutina Wesley). Much the same as Pam, Tara had an awful season 4. Besides her emerging bi-sexuality, her season story arc was boring and uninteresting. But, with her conversion to the undead, Tara has been reborn. While I was initially upset by Tara becoming a vampire (since she has a deep seated hate for vampires), the entire character arc was done very well, and her interactions with Pam were simply great.

The okay.
-Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe) and Arlene Fowler (Carrie Preston). This is one of many story arcs set up in the last seasons season finale, and it is one of the weakest storylines of this season. Both characters simply cannot sustain an entire story arc, and I can’t help but think the producers/story writers agree since this story arc feels like it was aborted half way through production. Still, Carrie Preseton’s Arlene shines during one key emotional moment (in which she watches her Wedding Video), and the emotional oomph of their relationship is always very solid and fun to watch.

-Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer). Andy didn’t have much of anything to do this season, but his growing relationship with Holly Cleary (Lauren Bowles) is fun to watch, and his series finale moment was killer.

-Alcide (Joe Manganiello). Again, with very little to do, Alcide goes through the motions this season. Still, he is fun to watch (Manganiello is ridiculously hot), and I liked his interactions with his father in later episodes of the season. Plus, there is some great set-up for next season.

-Sam (Sam Trammell) and Luna (Janina Gavankar). Some stuff happened to Sam and Luna. Sam becoming a hound dog for the police in order to catch supernatural bigots was exciting and fun, and their later infiltration of the Authority to rescue and adorable were-puppy was a lot of fun (mostly because they are both very attractive, and always naked , and of course one of the most epic death scenes in the entire series (which is actually the second time Sam gets to kill someone in a epic fashion).

-The season finale. A huge mixed bag of ideas thrown together somewhat haphazardly. There were bad ideas (Jason becoming “evil” for no real reason, though it probably has to do with something next season), good ideas (the series main storyline ended quite strong, with a great set-up for next season), and the just plain wacky (a group of Bon Temps residents watching a Fairy give birth = Amazing, and the fact that they were getting drunk while watching the event pushed the entire experience over the edge into Pure Awesome), overall though there were simply too many ideas being thrown at us that the overall experience was never as fun as it should have been.

The Bad.
-Sookie (Anna Paquin). I’m starting to think that the showrunners simply have no idea what to do with Sookie if she isn’t lusting after one supernatural creature or another. This entire season was just her wandering around trying to find something to do. Help Bill and Eric? No, that’s too much of a hassle. Bring back my dead friend Tara even though she will hate me and never speak to me again? Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do. Hide the death of a werewolf bitch that tried to kill me even though I was perfectly within my rights to kill her? Sure, I always need more excitement in my life. Etc. Sookie existed purely to add context to other characters this season. Thankfully, her story arcs for next season (finding and defeating the vampire who killed her parents, and, of course, dealing with Bilith the Bill+Lilith vampire) look a lot more fun and interesting.

- Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). What a boring season for Lafayette, especially after the great storylines he had last season. Lafayette simply had nothing truly interesting to do this season. Whether it be dealing with Tara’s rebirth as a vampire (which he simply gives up on after 3 episodes), covering up for Sookie’s crimes (which he gives up on after 3 episodes), or dealing with the aftermath of his boyfriend’s death (which he gives up on after 3 episodes), Lafayette just wanders around doing nothing at a very slow pace.

-The Villains. Nearly every villain this season is boring and uninteresting. The concept of Lilith and the resulting religion within the universe is potentially interesting, but the pacing involved in describing the character and the religion is fairly mind-numbing. Additionally, the inclusion of Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare) while fun to watch was essentially meaningless. He did nothing that couldn’t have been done by other characters, and was ultimately a waste of a great nihilistic character. Werewolves, beside Alcide, continue to be boring. And, the Vampire Authority is extremely pedantic and boring (Christopher Meloni as vampire leader Roman was fun, but he was killed off to early).

Ultimately, the real problem is the fact that there were no real antagonists this season. There were individual moments for bad characters to do bad things, but there was never a central figure that could lead...well anything (there is Lilith, but in the end she was simply a hot lesbian supermodel covered in blood (I only mention her sexual identity considering how often the series has drawn connections between Vampire rights and Homosexual rights)).

-The Main storyline. The Authority takes center stage this season, and they are pissed. They are also very boring. I like that True Blood heavily relies on metaphors and allegories. Vampires have been comparable to everything from the civil rights movement (whether Black or Homosexual), to Nazis, to the Government, and now finally the Religious Right. And while all the metaphors and allegories are interesting, this most recent is also the most troubling, mostly due to the simplicity of the storyline (there is no arguing with the Religious Right, which sadly makes for uninteresting character and plot development). It certainly doesn’t help that Bill and Eric’s convoluted storylines are completely intermingled with the Authority.