True Blood

[Ezee E]

Spoil me.

[amberlita]

Glad to see the show doing a little bit of house cleaning. Trim that fat, Alan Ball!

[amberlita]

SPOILERS...

Well, as exciting as all the deaths and cliffhangers were, I'm overall bothered by the finale. The season was enjoyable for the most part but ultimately sloppy and unevenly written, with the finale being no different. It was all over the fucking place and instead of creating a narrative that makes sense for some of the finale's events (Nan's death, Steven fucking Newlin coming back as a vampire), it was all just thrown together for shock value. Extend some of these stories over the season and ditch the boring pointless shit (e.g. Hotshot) and this would be a better show. But we've had fantastic season finale cliffhangers before only to be disappointed with where they take it all.

I'm irritated. The finale introduced a lot of stuff I'm eager to see play out, but I'm pretty sure they'll screw up about 80% of it.

[Lucky]

Spoil me.

[

Show Spoiler

Well, like Amber already said...

-Preacher man from S2 found Jason and he's now a vampire
-Bill killed Nan
-Jesus was killed
-Tara was shot through the freaking head by a shotgun
-Subsequently, Sookie shot Debbie in the neck with a shotgun
-But best of all...Russell has apparently escaped his cement prison

...and Pam proclaimed, "I'm tired of Sookie's fairy vagina!"

]

[Lucky]

But we've had fantastic season finale cliffhangers before only to be disappointed with where they take it all.

I'm irritated. The finale introduced a lot of stuff I'm eager to see play out, but I'm pretty sure they'll screw up about 80% of it.

I know, and you think I would have learned this by now. But I need Sookie's fairy vagina in my life.

[Russ]

My overall impression of this season can be summarized thusly:

[number8]

You know, if a season of True Blood could be about as awesome as their season finale cliffhangers, it would be the best show on television.

Highlights, in order of YES-ness:

1. Jessica's red riding hood outfit.
2. Russsellllll Edgingtoooooooon!
3. "I am so over Sookie and her precious fairy vagina!"
4. Bill and Eric wearing matching bathrobes.
5. Bill and Eric chained together shirtless.
6. "Baby, don't leave!" "Dude, I'm dead."
7. Rene's ghost still faking a cajun accent.
8. "We are nawt pahppy dawgs!"
9. "You can't trade magic like fucking Pokemon cards!"
10. "I get it. It's like hookers and kissing. Not that I'm saying you're a hooker."

[[ETM]]

[EvilShoe]

Haven't seen season 4 yet, but season 5 should be good:


Meloni, back on HBO. Can't go wrong.

(In all likelihood: it probably will, as True Blood tends to do that. But let's remain positive.)

[amberlita]

Bored now.

[Milky Joe]

Well I'm engaged.

[Lucky]

The werewolves have been lame for two years now.

[Henry Gale]

Maybe my memory has only retained the most unique and entertaining moments of seasons past, but has this show ever had a premiere this boring?

I mean last year's wasn't particularly good, but it at least threw us in and out Fairy World in the first fifteen minutes and then followed that up by telling us Sookie had missed a full year in Bon Temps. Tonight we were introduced to Eric's "sister", the reverend guy from Season 2 showed up to express his love for Jason (who otherwise just has Hoyt and Jessica issues), we saw almost every other character either grieve or get blamed for killing someone else, and then it just ends by following through with what the first five minutes had us assume was going to happen to Tara.

Aside from the levity of things like Eric's fast-forward clean up, Jessica picking that Foreigner song to play in Guitar Hero, and a handful of funny Lafayette and Jason lines, everything just kind of slogged along. Even worse, I read that Russell Edgington barely shows up at all for the first four episodes.

This show realizes it can just be dumb fun, right?

[Milky Joe]

This show realizes it can just be dumb fun, right?

I would modify this and say, "this show's fans realize it can just be dumb fun, right?" It's the same story every year, seems to me that TB fans are incredibly hard to please. And yet they continue to watch? I don't get it.

[Henry Gale]

I would modify this and say, "this show's fans realize it can just be dumb fun, right?" It's the same story every year, seems to me that TB fans are incredibly hard to please. And yet they continue to watch? I don't get it.

Well I mean it used to at least feel like a intelligently crafted horror-soap with campy thrills and a humourous liveliness infused in almost every character. Now it sort of feels like it's veering towards becoming more and more self-serious, unconsciously moving away from, or maybe just slowly forgetting, what used to make it work.

I didn't hate last night's episode, but for the kick-off to Season 5, it was considering more dull than I would've hoped, and didn't really lay the groundwork for storylines that seem all that interesting.

Also, so many butts! Where have all the boobs gone!?

[number8]

God, I love this stupid shitty fucking show. And I never realized how much I missed it until it's back.

[[ETM]]

Here I was, rolling my eyes, when... *pop* naked werewolf chick!

And all is good.

[EvilShoe]

I was excited about this season because it seemed like
[

Show Spoiler

Tara would finally get written off. Alas, that doesn't seem like the case. Bah! Awful, awful, awful character.

]
I'd like this show better if Lafayette was the lead. Just have a love triangle between him, Eric and Bill. (Chemistry between Lafayette & Eric during season 2 was quite good actually.)

[Russ]

I don't think there's any doubt that humor has always been this show's strongest suit, and in that regard, last night's episode delivered in spades.

[Henry Gale]

I don't think there's any doubt that humor has always been this show's strongest suit, and in that regard, last night's episode delivered in spades.

As much as I agree with that for the show in general, I just didn't think this newest episode showcased that side of it very well at all. If anything, I thought it fell further victim to my fears about it starting to take itself too seriously, particularly with the ongoing wolf pack, Terry, and even the Tara storylines, along with big, wacky Authority scene at the end.

But it wasn't completely devoid of humour. I liked scenes like one with Jessica and Newlin, and the brief, hilarious moment where Jason sees him on TV and leans forward when he talks about being in love, only to look oddly betrayed when he lies about it being with a woman. There was probably a couple more, but not sure what parts you might be referring to.

The problem for me is those lighter moments just don't add up to much and seem like they've almost become afterthoughts instead of being the consistent, self-conscious diffusions of all of its preposterousness that they used to be.

[number8]

I haven't seen Meloni that engaging on screen since his Oz days.

Well, maybe the first Harold & Kumar.

[number8]

Apparently Alan Ball is leaving the show after this season? This is news to me.

[Henry Gale]

Last night's was probably my favourite of Season 5 so far, which wasn't a surprise to me since I saw Alexander Woo wrote it. He (along with Nancy Oliver, who's seemingly left the show) usually scripts the strongest episodes. But it still had its share of weaknesses that seem to stem more from the overall mechanics of this season than where this episode took it, but things like the hilarious death near the end is right up there with the stuff he came up with in Season 3 like Bill's head-twist sex and Edgington's news interruption.

I also liked this episode's way of finally putting Sookie in her place, even if it seems to apologize for it by the end of the hour.

[Raiders]

God I hope Meloni isn't a one season-and-done character. He's easily the best thing about this season so far, even only averaging about five minutes per episode.

[number8]

This show has way too many subplots going on at once. Weird that I usually don't mind that in David Simon shows or Game of Thrones, but here it just feels all over the place.

And I second the motion to keep Meloni. He's been absolutely fucking awesome (not surprisingly).