BLOODY GOOD
Jason: Law Enforcement Officer
There are more bizarre career trajectories, but that many. Still, the appeal of Jason’s plotlines aren’t so much the logic as the child-like wonder he brings to every new twist and turn in his life. Moreover, his slowly fading sanity is being played well, perfectly balancing humor with disturbing. I’m not sure where his PTSD-ness is heading, but it’s a good path to set. -Z
[I too enjoy Jason's delightfully dimwitted persona, the more I think about it though the more I fear Jason and Andy will quickly turn into every buddy cop storyline in history, I hope there's more to it than this! -D]
Franklin
Ok, so on the one hand, his plot is going to involve a lot of Tara, which isn’t always a good thing. It’s especially a bad thing when it has lines like “you lost yourself in the void”. Plus, let’s face it, the dude isn’t exactly dashing. On the plus side, he seems to have some good Bill vengeance going on and heck, I can’t dislike anyone who pretends a severed head can talk. I’m sentimental like that. -Z
[I declare Franklin to be the most interesting thing to happen to Tara in three seasons! Sure, it's yet another character taking advantage of Tara, but if we have to rehash this storyline every season, at least it's with this dastardly vampire enemy of Bill Compton --D]
Good Pacing
If there’s one thing I didn’t like about last season, it’s that Mary-anne and her orgies became, well, boring. They happened so often that they ceased to lose all meaning. This season, the show is putting plenty of coals in the fire, without overloading too much. There’s a lot going on, but they’re handling it well and clearly building to something. Possibly a giant vampire/werewolf fight. -Z
[I thought this episode was the best paced episode yet this season! As we note below, Alcide finally showed up, and we're starting to at least get some of last week's myriad mysteries answered. Glad to know Franklin "helped" Jessica find where that pesky body disappeared to. --D]
Alcide: Doesn’t Care About Sookie Either
More eye candy! Plus, specifically eye candy that doesn’t care about Sookie beyond general human compassion and who goes into awesome bars and trusts her to take care of herself, to some extent. A misplaced trust, to be sure, but it’s nice to see a guy on the show treat Sookie as if she was a capable human, rather than something made of glass. -Z
Pam!
‘Bout time this show got its girl on girl action. Props to the lady who can take care of business and steal part of the show with one scene. -Z
Sookie and Eric
No offense to real life loves Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, but True Blood’s best chemistry comes from Sookie and her bad boy bullet-laden blood buddy (say that five times fast!). The show seems to be really amping up the Eric/Sookie/Bill love triangle (sorry Lorena, until the writers uh, flesh your character out in anyway, I can’t bother to consider you a part of a “love square”) and I think Sookie and the show are better for it. -D
[Amen to this. I mean, I am enjoying Alcide for his decided non-interest in Sookie, but man. Team Eric, guy. And, more importantly, team Anti-Lorena. -Z]
SUCKED
Tara’s Issues
I really don’t like to beat up on Tara too much, because the character’s issues stem from a lot of places. That said, man, her one night stand speech was irritating. Like, there are better, more nuanced ways for a guarded woman to display/talk about her issues and I hope the writers find it soon. -Z
Bud’s Quitting
If this is the way to write the character off the show, there were better ways to do it. And if this was just a filler scene so that Andy had contractually obligated screen time…it could have been better used. Plus, I like Bud. -Z
Sam’s Family Issues
Wow. I’m all for there being something more here, but until this stops being a standard “white trash long con” sort of plot, I’m going continue to be hella bored during their scenes. They’re drunks! It’s sad! Amgst! I. Do. Not. Care. -Z
[It's weird, I like Sam's brooding baby brother Tommy, and could watch them play a murderous cat and mouse, or dog/bird/mack truck game as the case be, all season, and Sam's mother seems nice enough, but I dunno why the dude needed a whole insta-family. Couldn't they have just brought one of these family members (my vote being Tommy) on? --D ]
Bill Not Contracting
I get that this is a character trait. It has always annoyed me on a level of historical inaccuracy. However, it is particularly annoying (and noticeable) when Bill is in the middle of rage and hate-sexing and still never contracts. It makes him a lot less menacing and a lot more…affected. -Z
The Ending
Ok, I didn’t actually think this sucked, per se, I’m just very ambivalent about it. On the one hand, I like disturbing imagery (see: this week’s photo), on the other hand, I get squicked out by consent issues pretty fast and this scene touched my buttons. On the third hand I just grew, it’s nice to see Bill be evil. Actually, it’s been nice to see Bill be charming and different and all sorts of emotions in Mississippi. Anything other than mooning for Sooks. On the back of that hand, this will only give us more Lorena. I’m just not sure. -Z
[Yeah I'm equally as torn about the ending. We know my displeasure for the 1-dimensional Lorena, and I dug the episode's pacing enough to almost want to give ti a pass. And they tried to explain it away with olde tyme Bill flashbacks demonstrating that vampire is, as vampire does (evil!), but I also sort of feel like it's a plot contrivance to get Sookie and Eric into the sack faster. Eh, hell. If that's the main reason: bring it on --D]
Each week Dennis and I assemble a list of our favorite (and least favorite) moments for the latest episode of True Blood.