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Tag Archives: True Blood

Total Filler Post for Halloween

October 30, 2010 by Jessica 15 Comments

I really like Halloween.  I can’t say that its better than Christmas because, really, who doesn’t LOVE Christmas? (I mean, you know, for the people who celebrate it). But Halloween is right up there.  I think it’s a combination of just loving fall in general AND being able to wear a costume.  Each year it makes me think about going back to school and how excited I’d get each year.  (Yeah, I know, I’m a dork).   I get to put out all of my fall decorations.  But dressing up is a big part of Halloween and much anticipated in this household. 

Two years ago Alex and I were Darth Vader and Princess Leia (the Jabba the Hut Slave costume).  I didn’t realize until later that as far as couple costumes go, this was pretty incestuous.  But no bother, we won the costume contest anyway(really, ANYONE can wear that Princess Leia Slave Costume and win, its a guarantee, even with the absence of geeks).  Last year our group of friends wanted to do a Storybook theme, so I was Snow White and Alex was Prince Charming.  I thought our costumes were pretty good but I didn’t get very excited about them because I had wanted to be Wonder Woman. 

This year I told the group “Theme be Damned! I’m dressing as Wonder Woman no matter what!”  So I got an AWESOME Wonder Woman costume, wore it to one party last weekend and another tonight BEFORE actually wearing it on Halloween (I told you, I REALLY like Halloween :) .  Alex is Batman.  And this kind of fits with Richard Horne’s latest book, 101 Things to Do to Become a Superhero…or Evil Genius.

I also tried my hand at carving a pumpkin, which is something I haven’t done since I was a kid.  I thought I would try out a stencil I found for Sookie and Eric.  After working on the Sookie pumpkin for much longer than I’d like to admit, it ended up looking pretty good.  I mean, it looks like the stencil.  Unfortunately, the stencil looks mostly like a girl, not necessarily Sookie or Anna Paquin.  So I abandoned spending time trying to make an Eric pumpkin only to have it look like…a guy.

So, did you dress up for Halloween?  Did you carve a pumpkin?  Or just go into a diabetic coma after eating all of the Snickers out of the Halloween Candy? (Not naming any names but you know who you are).

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The Last Drop of True Blood…for a Few Months

September 13, 2010 by Jessica 2 Comments

Watching this season’s True Blood was a vastly different experience than the previous two because now I had read the books.  I found myself incessantly comparing the two; I’m sure if I said “That’s not how it was in the books” one more time, Alex was going to walk out of the room.  I kinda wished I hadn’t read the books because I think I would have then appreciated the television show on its own terms.  Instead perhaps I should have read the books after the series was over.  However, I obviously still enjoyed this season and kept coming back Sunday after Sunday.  And for the last time for a few months, here’s the highlights from the season finale:

  • The “Countdown to True Blood,” had been hyped and of course we watched, but it was mostly a glorified advertisement for all of the upcoming HBO shows. 
  • So we’ve all decided that Godric is pulling an Obi Wan because when he met the sun, he didn’t fry like bacon.  Instead, he shot off like a blue star.  (Obi Wan didn’t get cut in half by Vader’s sword; he just vanished into thin air.) Now he’s reappearing to Eric as a ghost-like apparition in a blue haze, spewing wisdom that sounds an awful lot like “Trust your feelings.”
  • Obi Wan’s appearance was followed by Sookie running in a faerie dream where she saw a light that looked an awful lot like E.T.’s UFO.  Did Alan Ball’s writing staff have classic movie night right before writing this episode?
  • Sookie to Russell:  “You watch your fucking language.”
  • Mmmm…I’m going to miss hearing “Bad Things” these coming months.  Just hearing it makes me excited.
  • So Sam tells Tara (while she’s, of course, bemoaning the fact that “everything always happens to ME”) that she can just start all over, get a new life.  Seems like pretty good advice and I’m glad that it looks like she takes it.  She cuts her hair, says good-bye to her Mama and Sookie and looks like she’s driving away at the end.  If she comes back, she better have become a version of Tara that can keep it together for more than one episode.
  • So when the chargrilled version of Russell comes back in from frying in the sun, he’s trying to make deals with anyone who will listen.  Eric punches him and he literally puffs out smoke.  Excellent makeup on the burnt skin, btw.
  • Andy: “You just rationalized away the need for all law enforcement.”  Jason: “I don’t know what that means exactly but you gotta stop those government people out there.”
  • Hoyt’s mama and Summer stage an intervention with Hoyt with the help of the high school counselor.  The sad thing is that in a rural area like that, a high school counselor is probably the closest to a therapist they have.  It’s a shining moment for Hoyt, though; he stands up to his mother and speaks his mind.  He even takes a moment to wish Summer well.  Not a thing to dislike about Hoyt.
  • Sookie to Russell: “Your word is about a good as tits on a turtle.”
  • When Sookie pours Talbot’s remains down the garbage disposal, her maniacal laugh makes me worry about her sanity.  She’s about one step from getting an evil cat to stroke.
  • Ok, Book v. TV moment: I really liked Calvin Norris in the books so I didn’t like that they made him into a meth dealer in the TV show.  Yeah, there’s a lot of inbreeding even in the book, but he’s still a good guy.  Well, imagine my shock when Felton shoots him, point blank, in the head.  BIG difference from the book, as Calvin played a part in all the books after his introduction.
  • Terry’s armadillo, Felix, is doing well, in case you were wondering.
  • Interesting plot twist as Crystal leaves Jason in charge of the Hot Shot people.  With this responsibility apparently comes wisdom as Jason soundly tells Andy that sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing.
  • Tara’s mother’s idea of change, of happiness is being a minister’s wife…after the minister leaves his wife and children.  And we’ll just pretend that his congregation won’t have an issue with his affair.
  • Apparently Tommy couldn’t get the safe open, so he just dragged it out of the office.
  • Why is everyone wearing plaid?  (Sam, Tara, Alcide, Tommy) Does the wardrobe department at HBO think plaid/flannel = Southern fashion?  (This happens every show, but I’ve had enough.  I do not own a single plaid shirt.)
  • Ginger screams, again.  She’s now 6 for 6.
  • Yay Alcide!  I think he was under utilized this season.  And with all of the hype before the season started, I had expected him to be used much more.
  • While Alcide and Sookie flirt, chargrilled Russell rolls his eyes listening to them prattle about their feelings.  Russell has really been so much fun this season.
  • As Alcide and Bill stare one another down, both potential suitors for Sookie’s affection, Eric says: “Well, if you two are finished eye fucking each another, can we go?”
  • Jason trying to state his license plate number using cop alphabet: “Larry, Charlie…Willie”
  • I love when people on TV cut their own hair.  Apparently everyone else is a professional hair stylist.  If I cut my own hair, it would look…like I cut my own hair.
  • So I really like what Eric came up with to punish Russell.  Pretty smart.  But I’m confused why they keep saying he’ll be trapped for 100 years.  What happens in 100 years?  Will they come back to let him out?
  • Bill: “A hundred years in which you will go mad.  Madder than even you are now.  And you are as mad as a fucking hatter.”  Worst. Dialogue. Ever. Really, Bill?  That’s all you could come up with?  Honestly, this whole Bill-Eric “evil-guy-final-speech” is a little tiresome and contrived.
  • I don’t think I really understand how silver works on vampires.  Why does putting a silver cuff on Eric make him not able to get out of the hole?  And while Bill betrays Sookie in the book, trying to also kill Eric and Pam is pretty cold blooded.
  • Yay Hoyt!  He rented a place for him and Jessica and wants to marry her.  But any fool can tell you that when Jessica says, “I don’t know what I’d ever do without you” and Hoyt responds,”Well, lucky for you, you’ll never have to find out, ” that’s just asking for things to go wrong.  We both said “Dun Dun DUNNN.”  And what was with the weird baby doll in the kitchen; are we going to have weird possessed baby dolls running around, a la Chucky? 
  • When vampires are banished from a house, and they blow away in some supernatural wind, it’s just funny.  And when Bill cries, he looks like a sad clown.
  • So I’m guessing that Sam did shoot Tommy, but ” ’tis just a flesh wound.”  We’ve seen that he’s capable of killing, but I think all the news sources have said that Tommy is coming back next season.
  • I do love the Queen of Louisiana’s wardrobe.  I very much want that dress she wore.  Do you think I could find someone to make it for me?
  • UGH!  Something in me said, “Bill and Sophie Ann are going to fight all Matrix-style.”  It was like a premonition.  And sure enough, there they were, flying across the room at one another.  I think I could see the suspension wires.
  • Yay Claudine!  I guess we’ll start next season in Faerie Land.

After the show, Alan Ball thanked the fans and talked a little bit about next season, which will be full of witches and “other supernatural creatures” (and, I hope, an amnesiatic Eric).  He promises more of what we love…which better be sex because this season actually lacked it.

So how did I feel about this season’s True Blood?  I’ll give it a solid B.  It was definitely uneven.  Juggling so many plot lines meant some episodes were about action and others were just spinning wheels.  Like a soap opera, it felt like it took forever for anything to happen because to keep all the balls in the air, each plot line had to be given a little screen time each episode.  I’ll bet even Sookie only got about 20 minutes of screen time this episode, which was pretty average for the season.

The Season Finale.  What am I going to do until next spring?  I had the Sookie books to get me through the off-season last year but I won’t have a  crutch this year.  But thanks for indulging me in these little reviews each week.  I was only 2 classes away from a film minor in college and I guess I’ve always kinda thought it would be fun to be a film critic.  This way I got to play pretend for a little while.

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I’ve Got the Body of a Tired Teenager

August 31, 2010 by Jessica 3 Comments

This week’s True Blood episode is the first one all year that I didn’t watch on Sunday.  We got back from a concert late Sunday night and I went straight to bed.  As it was I had to wait until Alex got home Monday night before I could watch it; I told him if he wasn’t home by 10pm, I was watching without him.  Here’s some highlights:

  • As it was Emmy night, how better to start the night with a “In Memoriam” of all the people we’ve lost since True Blood began, complete with the weepy music in the background?  The body count has been pretty high and there were lots of people I completely forgot about.
  • Can I get liquid silver? Why yes, yes I can. Pam says “Colloidal silver, in stock and overpriced at your neighborhood health food store.”  http://colloidalsilver.com/ but I’d rather have this and pretend I’m using it to fend off vampires, whilst preparing for my career as a stripper.
  • Finally figured out where the Fangtasia stripper (Last week’s “Gold Digging Whore”) is from.  I kept saying Croatia, but apparently she was a cardiologist in Poland….or Holland…I couldn’t tell what she said.
  • I was going to argue with Crystal when she said the only way she could think to tell Jason was to transform from a panther in front of him, but then she’s probably right.  Would YOU believe somebody if they tried to explain they could turn into an animal?
  • Yay for Hoyt and Jessica and YAY more for Hoyt being cool with Jessica when she admits her true vampire nature.  This is probably the healthiest relationship on the show.
  • Russell to Eric:   “To lose the only man I ever loved because you miss your mommy and daddy?” 
  • Eric’s cell phone ring is “Ain’t We Got Fun”
  • There’s a trashy blond woman that’s been a bar maid at Fangtasia for 3 seasons now.  When she gets her script, all it says is “Scream” because that’s about all she’s ever done.
  • I guess I’ve gotten to the point where I expect everyone to be some supernatural something, so Alex guessed correctly before I did that the Football Star Kitch was on V.  I’m off my game:  even Jason figured that one out before me.
  • I’ve missed Hoyt’s Mama.  She tells Summer she’s “Cute as pigs” while Summer doesn’t understand why Hoyt didn’t like seeing her in her “best underwear.”
  • Last week I didn’t like Jason telling Tara the truth about Eggs.  It seemed pointless; it didn’t make her feel better and the only benefit was for Jason to finally get it off his chest.  However, the conversation she had with Andy seemed to be healthier.  Andy was brutally honest, but giving Tara the real truth, that Eggs wanted to die, seemed to help Tara better understand and maybe she can finally start moving on, which she seemed to do pretty well later on with Sam.
  • The exchange with Sam and Tommy was the only time I’ve ever liked Tommy, or at least felt sorry for him.  Tommy to Sam:   “I lost my temper.  I’m sorry.  See?  I’m not mad anymore.”
  • Arlene describing her general well-being: “I’ve got the body of a tired teenager.”  Don’t we all.  Well…at least the tired part.
  • Everyone seems to have been hating on Holly, but I like her.  I’ve never gotten an ominous vibe from her, a la Maryanne.   However, what a cop out to say if the wiccan abortion remedy doesn’t work, then the baby’s meant to be.
  • You think Roger Clemmens is watching True Blood wishing V had been real?
  • Tara’s got expensive taste, sitting at the bar drinking Sam’s Patron.
  • After Hoyt and Jessica, Sam and Tara are probably the best together.  They seem to calm one another and I liked them a lot in the first season.  Maybe they ARE a lot alike.  After the first few episodes of this season being sex, sex, sex, I had been going into withdrawal.  But Sam brought the sexy back.  (By the way, when you’re watching television or in movies and two naked people fall onto the bed together, it seems super hot, but in real life, you know a certain engorged body part would more than likely be broken.)
  • Jason to Crystal:  “We can’t go against the D-E-fuckin-A!”
  • I kinda thought Arlene was overreacting to this “evil seed” theory, but after all that blood and “the little critter is still hanging on,” maybe I should believe a mother’s intuition.
  • The moment between Eric and Pam, father-daughter-lovers, literally brought tears to my eyes.  The best moment of this episode.
  • Who do you think Eric is praying to when he says “Don’t let them see…”?  Maybe Godric?
  • Can you imagine 1000s of years of nights?  I’m a night owl and all, but after that long, I think I’d miss the sun too.
  • The preview for the season finale tries to lead me to believe that Eric dies but I refuse to believe it. 

So next Sunday will probably be a True Blood marathon, leading up to the season finale on September 12.  The preview seemed to show every single cast member still alive (and actually some that aren’t- see: Godric) and with 13 plot lines, its going to be tough to wrap things up in an hour.  I can’t wait…although I should let it drag out because once its over, I’ll have to wait all the way until next Spring, and I won’t even have the Sookie books to get me through this off season.  What is to become of me?

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Blah, Blah, Vampire Emergency, Blah

August 24, 2010 by Jessica 2 Comments

After Russell’s coup de grace last week, it almost seems like everything else would pale in comparison.  Well, this third-to-last episode didn’t pale, per se, but was uneven and had a lot “hurry up and wait.”  Here’s the highlights:

  • Last week’s “cliffhanger” was Bill telling Sookie he knew what she was…and then didn’t tell her.  This week’s first line was delivered by Sookie with “I’m a fairy?  How f***ing lame!”  I knew she was a fairy from the books, but having her deliver the news that way still caught me off guard and made me laugh aloud.
  • You have to appreciate that Calvin Norris hates V so much that he despises that it was what saved his life.  That’s a guy with a code.
  • I was curious and very interested in this new reveal in Sam’s background.  Honestly, I could have done with less Mickens plot line this season, and more about his life as a jewelry thief.
  • Does Sookie HAVE to call Bill by his whole name every time she addresses him?
  • I found this as a comment on another episode review but Pam’s name is ‘Pamela Swynford de Beaufort’.  Katherine Swynford de Beaufort was the third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (son of King Edward III) and thereby the ancestress of every king and queen of England since Henry VII.  Interesting little factoid.
  • We also find out that Eric’s pitch when hiring Yvetta was “a job and good sex,” and that the Swedish (or Serbian or Croatian or whatever language they were speaking) phrase for “gold-digging whore” is … “gold-digging whore.”
  • I had fully expected there to be a large portion of the episode dedicated to the response to Russell’s “little outburst,” but they instead soldiered on with wrapping up everybody’s plot lines.
  • Steve Newlin’s return:  “If I was any less of a Christian, I’d say TOLD YA!  Heh, heh, but, of course, I take no joy in this dark time.”
  • Summer to Hoyt: “It may take some getting used to, me being warm and all, but you may like it!”
  • Let’s talk about the fact that Bon Temps and Sookie’s life has turned into a place where Jason and Tara can walk in covered in blood and wave it off with an excuse that they got into a fight at Merlotte’s and the subject is dropped promptly to go on to other, bigger, issues.
  • While I’ve enjoyed the Lafeyette/Jesus romantic plot line and general interaction, I was NOT a fan of the 10 minute V trip they went on. 
  • Sam to Holly after she gives him some wiccan remedy for rage:  “Thanks.  Do you have anything that works for nosyness and bad boundaries?”
  • I’ve mentioned this before but it stands to be said again: I love, LOVE, LOVE Terry.  How sweet is he!?  He starts out asking super-specific questions about her pregnancy (showing he’s read “the baby books”), then he thinks that Arlene is worried about his parenting skills, and then he replies that he’ll raise Rene’s baby as his own.  The epitome of the perfect man…minus the whole PTSD issue.
  • YAY for Sookie and Eric kissing (and it actually was real and not a dream!).
  • Pam to Eric, busting in on Eric and Sookie necking (Ha!):  “Blah, Blah, Vampire Emergency, Blah.”
  • FINALLY, Russell makes an appearance.  I liked what someone else said in a review that the man-whore that Russell picked up (and eventually staked in his imagined final goodbye to Talbot) probably gets what he deserves if he didn’t recognize Russell as the same guy that pulled out a guy’s spine on national TV.
  • After Eric and Sookie, the couple I want most together is Jessica and Hoyt.
  • I’ve mostly been wanting to punch Tommy in the face myself so when Hoyt punched him without even breaking stride, both Alex and I clapped.  Even better when Jessica runs to rescue Hoyt from Tommy-the-pit-bull and pitches him 50 yards.
  • After 6 or so episodes of “What is Crystal?”, you’re seriously just going to have her appear as a panther in Jason’s bedroom like “TA DA!”?  Sloppy writing, True Blood.
  • My concern with Eric’s final decision to imprison Sookie, apparently to use her as bait to get to Russell, is that it makes it harder to believe that he and Sookie will ever get together.  How can she ever forgive him for that?  (Of course, she seems to be a rather forgiving person, having decided to let it go that Bill tried to kill her).
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Now, time for the weather. Tiffany?

August 17, 2010 by Jessica 2 Comments

or… A Spineless Way to End Things.  I don’t know which blog title I like better so I’ll just use both.

I loved this week’s episode of True Blood.  It was probably my favorite episode so far this season.  They packed so much into one episode – I couldn’t tell you how many times I shrieked with laughter, hid my eyes, and generally bounced up and down out of excitement.  I love this show.  Here’s some highlights:

  • I had to rewind the first scene and re watch it on Sunday because I couldn’t figure out why Pam was in her bra when Eric came in.  On the second viewing was when I realized they were showing Pam getting out of her gothic Fangtasia vamp wear and into her clothing of head-to-toe pink.
  • Very much enjoyed getting to peek inside of Pam and Eric’s relationship and giving both of those characters even more depth.  A lot of people have complained (including me) about the myriad of plot lines and characters running around but you do have to admit that each are well-rounded and (mostly) played by actors that can give them enough nuance to make each character matter.
  • I could really write a whole blog post just about Russell Edgington in this episode.  Dennis O’Hare is superb but I’ll save my thesis for the final scene…
  • Great shower scene with Bill and Sookie but I was initially confused, thinking it was daylight and she was dreaming, when in fact it really was happening and the bathroom light bulb was apparently just very bright.  I’m convinced they film during daylight and explain away the light by artificial lights and the like, because the torture scene with the magister was equally bright and sunny in the basement of Fangtasia.
  • Sookie to Bill: “As much as you want to be human, I think I’m meeting you halfway to vampire.” Says the girl who didn’t bat an eye when she saw the dead were in her living room.  I sometimes have to remind myself that 3 seasons of True Blood have occurred over about 6 weeks.  Sookie has changed a LOT in a short amount of time
  • Vampire women wear way too much eye liner.
  • Terry is finding out the hard way what “normal” life is.  Sheesh, I wouldn’t wish a pregnant Arlene on a dog I liked.
  • Apparently Eric has been doing his homework on Russell, pinning him to almost all major human conflict during the history of man.
  • Tommy to One Night Stand Nicole: “Jump up and down!  Let me see your titties shake.”  What a romantic.
  • Jesus to Ruby Jean:  “We have to go.   You have to bless the Jello so everybody can eat.”  Love, LOVE, LOVE Ruby Jean and Jesus.
  • Still tired of the Jason/Crystal plot line.  All the other slow plot lines have started moving along.  With only 3 episodes left, I can only hope that it’s getting ready to gain some momentum. 
  • When Andy said the V was in “Evidence,” did he mean his desk drawer?
  • After two seasons of wanting to shake Tara, I’m glad to see her turn a corner, actually say something positive, and recognize she needs help. 
  • When Hadley calls Sookie AT HOME and asks ”Why are you home?” it makes me think of that scene in Pretty Woman when Richard Gere tells Julia Roberts not to pick up the phone, only to call her right back to say “What did I say about picking up the phone!”
  • (BOOK SPOILER) I don’t get how Bill got to go to Fairyland, other than he drank a lot of Sookie’s blood.  Of course, they may decide that Sookie isn’t a Fairy in the TV show; we won’t officially find out what Sookie is for another episode I guess, but all signs point to yes.   However, this Fairyland portal is in the graveyard between Sookie and Bill’s and that’s a good tie to the books too.
  • Everytime I see Hoyt’s new squeeze Summer, all I can think about is The Big Bang Theory and the part she played as Bernadette.
  • Lafayette to Jesus: “I just wanted to meet the sick fuck who ordered a veggie burger…with bacon.”
  • You gotta love that the American Vampire League actually allows Eric to seek revenge.  Can’t get that with the human American legal system!
  • In all the cast interviews this season, they kept alluding to Sam’s rage and darkness.  Well, it came out this episode in a big way.  I guess he finally just got fed up with being walked all over by everybody.  Everybody has their breaking point.
  • It was pretty clear that Franklin wasn’t actually dead, but I hate that he came back, only to leave us again so soon.  He was a lot of fun.  RIP Franklin.
  • Ok, so the final scene had me clapping my hands with joy.  Great speech, the bloody hand interleaved with the clean one, and then throwing it off to the weather girl.  I immediately rewound and rewatched the scene.  It was great set up for the last three episodes of the season.

Really, there was a LOT I liked about this episode/a lot of important things to note and I probably only touched on about 30%.  What did you think of this episode?  What do you think they could possible squeeze into the last 3 episodes?

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A Dark “Night on the Sun”

August 11, 2010 by Jessica 2 Comments

Two weeks ago I had a stomach flu that knocked me out for the count and made it impossible to write up a True Blood account.  Last week I was attending my grandfather’s funeral.  I really missed doing these write ups, not because I suffer any delusions that my tens of readers were disappointed with their absence but because it actually increases my enjoyment of the episodes.  I typically watch it the first time just for fun, but then I re-watch it to do the write up and typically catch things I missed the first time or got another level of meaning from something someone said.

I missed writing about some exciting things but I’ll just start with this week’s episode “Night on the Sun,” assuming you’ve already seen and/or read reviews of the previous two episodes.  Here’s the highlights:

  • I like my Bon Temps Football t-shirt because it’s a True Blood t-shirt without being obvious; you’d have to be a fan to know.  After seeing Alcide in his Herveaux Contracting t-shirt, I’m thinking seriously about getting one from the HBO store. 
  • After Bill was thrown out of the back of the truck shirtless, where did he pick up a track suit jacket?
  • In a TV series that prides itself on its gore and violence, its three seasons of vampires crying blood has finally gotten to me.
  • Anna Paquin is at her best when she has to cry; good thing Sookie does a lot of that.
  • I’ve mentioned this before but I do LOVE the intro.  I watch it every time.  Alex mentioned out loud something that I had noticed earlier in the season though: there are a LOT more names listed in the opening credits this season.
  • Other people have already mentioned this but I do love Talbot’s outburst about all of the happenings at the Mississippi mansion: “Excited?   Franklin’s brains won’t wash off the guest linens,  I had to bury werewolves under the gazebo, and that Sookie-bitch staked Lorena.  I’ve had enough excitement, thank you.”  Poor Talbot – a housewife’s job is never done.
  • Talbot:  “You can’t buy yourself out of everything!”  Russell: “Of course I can.  This is America!”
  • Debbie:  “They killed my Cooter!”  It’s supposed to be pitiful but I just laughed.
  • Very much love that Eric has managed to stay in his light blue sweater for 4 episodes straight (Although blood has been on it for the last three.  Perhaps its time for a wardrobe change.  When Bill was staying there, it looked like they gave him a magic closet with tailored clothes).
  • While Terry sings to Arlene’s baby-in-the-womb, she dreams its Rene.  I forgot how much I loved his Cajun accent.
  • Sookie-please take like a day to clean your house.  I know in True Blood land its only been a couple of weeks since Maryanne held orgies at your house, but seriously, its got to smell around there, especially with the giant meat statue residue still hanging around.  So while you are laying out on your perfectly manicured lawn (?), maybe think about doing some cleaning.
  • I guess if you are a shifter, you get used to seeing people naked.  Still, seeing your mom standing naked on your porch after shifting from a dog has got to be a little unsettling.
  • I’m going to start calling Lafayette “La-La” like his crazy mother Ruby Jean.  I could do with much more Ruby Jean and Jesus, and far less Sam, Tommy, and the Mickens.
  • Ah, yes, glad to see Tara and Sookie talking/yelling at one another again.  With best friends like these, who needs to worry with vampires and werewolves?
  • Yay for the appearance of Holly!  In the books, she’s a waitress at Merlotte’s from the beginning, so I’m glad to see her join the cast. 
  • Jason:  “Is it a church or cult or something?  Because I did that and they washed my brain.”
  • I’m very intrigued by this idea of Lafayette having “power.”  I didn’t think much of it the first time watching the episode because I just thought it was the rantings of Ruby Jean.  However, Jesus agreed.  I have no inkling how this will turn out since Lafayette died in the first book and was not fleshed out as a character.
  • When Eric grabs Hadley to get her to deliver a message to Sookie, he’s bleeding out of his ears and nose.  This is not acknowledged during this episode and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why he would be bleeding.  (EDIT:  Around the interwebs they are saying this is a mark of a Vampire that hasn’t slept/is up during the Day)
  • I’m disappointed by how little they’ve used Alcide this season; he tended to be just eye candy without much of a plot or many lines.  If he was on screen, it was usually an action sequence or he was brooding over Debbie.  Hope they use him better in the future.
  • I really want to fast-forward to Sookie+Eric but I think they are handling this Sookie+Bill relationship demise really well.  When you love someone, you can’t just shut it off, and in the book, it did seem like Sookie was all about Bill up until they ran into Lorena problems and the whole Bill almost killing her thing.
  • Talbot to Eric (and what every woman has been fantasizing about saying): “I’m bored.  Take off your clothes.”  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the good bit of man action in this episode, but outside of kissing and some suggestive nudity, they really didn’t show as much as I expected.  Considering what they later showed with Bill and Sookie, I think we could have handled more.
  • If I was Sookie, I would have just pulled the trigger, but then again, we would have missed the Girl Fight! 
  • During the rough, on the floor, Sookie on top sex at the end of the show, the only thing I could think was “Oooh, those carpet burns are going to hurt tomorrow!”
  • The “Postmortem” instructional video for vampires on how to kill werewolves was campy good fun.  A nice light moment after an episode that was pretty dark.
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And My Faith in True Blood is Renewed

July 20, 2010 by Jessica 0 Comments

Ok, so my post on last week’s True Blood episode was nowhere near glowing.  After I gave it some more thought, I realized what I was really dissapointed in was the lack of humor in the episode.  Sure, I love the titilating scenes but at the heart of True Blood is campiness and humor and there was little to be found last week.  This week, however, more than made up for it. 

  • May I just say that in the time of DVRs, True Blood’s is the only opening credits I actually watch every time, rather than fast forwarding through. 
  • I finally began like Franklin Mott’s character in this episode.  The character in the book was not very well developed and all we were given to think was that he was this especially evil and controlling vampire.  The characterization in the show instead leads us down a wonderfully crazy path of obsession and misplaced emotion.  It was a lot of fun to see Franklin alternately woo and threat Tara, under the impression that this is a normal way to have a relationship. 
  • Have you ever eaten wings?  Did you manage to get sauce all over your face?  Did you leave it on your face and walk around with it in public?  No, of course you didn’t.  You used a napkin.  But apparently after feasting on a stripper, its within vampire etiquette to walk around and complete business transactions with blood smeared all over your hands and face. 
  • Russell to Talbot after being chided for ‘bringing work home’: “Darling!  King!” pointing to himself.  He-looo!
  • It is chilling to see Bill refuse to help Tara.  Perhaps he really has lost all of his humanity.
  • Russell: “The last time you had any real money you ended up at the slot machines in Biloxi, slaughtering a church group of elderly women!”  Franklin (petuantly):  “They wouldn’t let me have a turn!”
  • Russell to Franklin:  “You’re a huge freak!  I like your work.”
  • Sookie to Alcide as Alcide is racing away from the were bar: “I’m NOT going to die because of YOUR shitty girlfriend and a Mississippi pothole”  The way she spits out Mississippi pothole was the clincher. 
  • Eric’s sexuality affects us all.  Even Talbot is not immune.
  • How “old world” of Eric to ask to hunt Bill on the King’s land.  No one has manners anymore.  It was all so beautiful once.
  • A particularly trashy side of me really loves Debbie.  The hair!  The clothes!  The threats of “I will cut you!”
  • Praise God for progression on the Sam/Family plot line.  After 5 episodes, I’m actually interested.
  • Is it possible that Terry Bellfleur is one of my favorite characters?  His soliloquy on what is ‘normal’ – making each other laugh, fighting about money, growing old and fat, is what he wants most in life.  *HUG*
  • I AM still tired of the Jason/Police Job plot line. 
  • I got all fluttery seeing the Lafeyette/Jesus interaction.  I’m all giddy for him.  Ah…the nervousness and uncertainty during the first days of new love.
  • Ok, at the first notes of banjo and bass, did anyone else think Dukes of Hazzard during Jason’s little police chase of Crystal?  And not to be mean, but the casting for Crystal is perfect.  She looks just like a whole group of girls I grew up with here in North Carolina (and several of them were actually named Crystal).  Its that skinny, inbred look of hard features jostled together on slight frames.
  • You know, when I waitressed, I LIKED being the only waitress on the floor.  The more tables=more tips.  So what is Arlene bitchin about?
  • Everyone that comes into the King’s palatial home must automatically be given a brand new, fashionable wardrobe full of pastels.  But I’m not complaining.  I wouldn’t mind helping Eric out of that tight fitting Carolina blue v-neck.
  • I love that Sam and Tommy are watching Animal Planet.  What are they doing?  Getting ideas for their next shape shifting episode?
  • It was initially funny that when Tara requested food, they gave her daylillies (and arranged so artfully too), but then I thought, I know that Vampires don’t eat anymore, but they do remember food, right?  Well, at least Franklin is going to take her for a special meal at a fancy restaurant: Shoney’s.
  • Tara: “We need to talk.” Franklin: “Don’t say that.  Women say that, everything goes black and I wake up surrounded by body parts.”
  • Talbot to Eric: “There’s nothing new except someone new”  Ain’t that the truth.
  • Yay for Viking flashbacks!  Apparently even after 2,000 years, Eric hasn’t stopped being the horndog he was back in the days of yore.  My only question is: Has Russell known who Eric was all along?
  • There is no way to describe Russell’s inflection when he delivers his lines, but they are just so full of the awesome, it makes me giggle.  Coot’s Southern emphasis on most of his curse words are fun too.
  • In the “Post Mortem” I wonder how there isn’t already a “Disaster Network” The tagline of “Mother Nature is a Bitch” would be perfect for it. 

I guess combined with the reappearance of humor, it was also the momentum of most of the plot lines that last week seemed so stagnant that made this episode terribly enjoyable.

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They can’t all be winners, can they?

July 11, 2010 by Jessica 2 Comments

 Thoughts/highlights from “9 Crimes,” the fourth episode of True Blood this season:

  • As Sookie is tending to Alcide’s battle wounds, she chides him for not purchasing new furniture in the month’s time since his ex-fiancee left him.  I’m sorry Sookie, but how long ago did a Maenad wreak havoc to your grandmother’s house and it still looks like something being taken over by a swamp?
  • Bill’s break up call to Sookie is rather cold-blooded (ha!  I made a Vamp joke!).  In the book, Lorena had kidnapped him and he was under her control, so it’s particularly interesting that in the television version, they’ve made this his decision.
  • Critics tend to go ga-ga over Anna Paquin’s acting ability and plenty were upset about her being overlooked for an Emmy nomination earlier this week.  She personally bugs the hell out of me with her OVER-acting and horrific Southern accent.  However, her scene after Bill’s call was a pretty realistic crying jag.
  • Ok, we’re finally getting somewhere with the Sam and his no-account family plot line.  Let’s keep moving it along or move on PERIOD.
  • There were several outdoor scenes that were clearly filmed on a set in this episode.  Disappointing, especially since filming on location in the rural South couldn’t be THAT expensive.
  • “Well!  That was the best sex I’ve had in decades!” as Lorena cracks her neck after an especially “twisted” romantic interlude.
  • TEASE!  Eric flies over to Jackson to visit Sookie and we get some very hot Sookie/Eric foreplay…until Eric wakes from his day-dream (can you really call it a DAY dream when talking about Vamps?)
  • Alcide is kinda a jerk.  In the book, he’s clearly still hung up on Debbie and is stand-offish and uncertain as to what to think about Sookie.  In the television series, he comes off as just rude and hateful.  He better get thoughtful and endearing, fast.
  • Speaking of Alcide, his sister Janice isn’t exactly what I pictured.  When reading the book, I thought she was a sweet, Southern gal who had a family and did hair.  This Janice, while still sweet, is kinda trashy. 
  • Also, I don’t like that they’ve changed the Were/Shifter mythos in the TV series.  In the books, weres/shifters are only the first-born and are only from “pure bred” parents.  However, Sam and Tommy are both shifters (when Sam is oldest and should be the only one and has a human father and shifter mother) and Janice is older than Alcide in the TV series but isn’t a were…I don’t think (in the book she isn’t anyway).
  • I didn’t comment on this for the last episode because I just thought he was upset, but Bud Dearborne is actually retiring.  I don’t know how I feel about that yet.
  • Ha Ha…Sookie got to Alcide.  He went out and bought a frying pan.
  • I’m digging Sookie’s new biker look!  I like her as brunette.
  • Can vampires smoke cigars?  They don’t breathe.
  • Is it just me or is Bill’s wardrobe significantly improved this season?  It must be the living in a mansion full of men with good taste.  Actually, he looks less pale and has a sexy new swagger too (see: walk through strip club).  This is a Bill I could get used to!
  • Apparently people love giving redheads tips.  Did you know this?  Neither did I.  Arlene was once good comic relief; right now she’s just annoying. 
  • I REALLY don’t like what they are doing with the Calvin Norris character.  Sure, it’s an inbred community, but they aren’t supposed to be racists and meth dealers.  DISLIKE!
  • Honestly, the Franklin Mott-Tara  relationship was a throwaway plot line even in the book.  Regardless, I’d like to see it move along towards a conclusion sooner rather than later.
  • I haven’t seen hair like Debbie’s since the early 90s.  Yay for bangs!  And is EVERYONE trashy in Jackson?
  • Oh no Pam!  But give it up to my girl for clear-headed thinking whilst being tortured.
  • The glasses the Weres use for Russell’s blood remind me of church communion glasses (my church always uses little individual plastic ”shot glasses” of grape juice for communion)
  • When Bill’s stripper gave her name of “Destiny,” Alex and I both said aloud the next line in the script “What’s your REAL name?”
  • I’ve heard a lot of criticism of the special effects but they’ve never bothered me until tonight.  When Coot the Wolf starts to howl, it’s almost laughable.

Of the 4 episodes this season, this was my least favorite.  Lots of naysayers have been down on the sheer number of plot lines going on this season but I haven’t derided it until tonight.  Some of the plot lines are dragging so much, I actually began to become distracted, my mind wandering off and, once, I even picked up the laptop to check email.  I understand the need for set up, and the next episode looks very enticing, but I’m in favor of concluding or wrapping up the Sam/Family, Franklin/Tara, and Jason/Cop plot lines.  Unfortunately, we’re getting ready to embark on a Lafeyette/Jesus story too.

And just a final randomness:  Did you know the beer used at Lou Pine’s is Wilmington’s own Wolf Beer?  Here’s a link to a story all about it, as well as all of True Blood‘s connections to North Carolina:  http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100626/ARTICLES/100629758/1177?p=1&tc=pg

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This week on True Sex…ahem…I mean, True Blood

June 27, 2010 by Jessica 4 Comments

Highlights from this week’s True Blood:

  • After Eric kills the werewolf that has come to attack/kidnap Sookie, Eric, looking at the quickly growing pool of blood, states “Your rug is wet.”
  • At the end of last week’s episode, Bill threw a gas lamp at his maker Lorena.  I fully believed he was daydreaming and I didn’t think much more of it, but he actually did it!  This week we return to the King of Mississippi’s plantation home to find them using a 14th Century Celtic Tapestry to put her out.  Of course, Talbot is rather upset about the burns in the tapestry and yet again, Bill forgets himself and allows his fangs to run out in someone else’s home.  How rude!
  • Eric chides Sookie for not being able to detect a Mississippi accent when she hears one.  “Can’t you people tell the difference?”  You people?  What do you mean YOU people?!
  • The first of three sex scenes for the episode are between Tara and newly introduced vampire, Franklin Mott, where apparently Tara has the best sex of her life.  At least her fluttering eyelids, a la demonic possession, implies so.
  • Second sex scene of the episode is Pam performing a “special kiss” with everyone’s favorite Estonian dancer.  Does this dancer ever actually work?  Or is she just Fangtasia’s official plaything?
  • “The legal blood alcohol limit in the state of Louisiana is…?”  “When you’re drunk?”  There are a lot of Jason-isms in this episode, but this is my favorite.
  • Sookie uses some of the Dallas money to pay for a funeral for Eggs.  It’s an olive branch to Tara, which, for once, she takes.  For “best friends,” they’ve spent much of the last 2 seasons mad at one another.  This is one of the first times they’ve actually acted like they like one another.  Actually, Tara was almost likeable all around in this episode; I could stand to see more of this version of Tara.
  • A LOT of back story with Bill and Lorena.  Breaks your heart to see Bill try to return to his human family, only to discover that he could not, and can not, co-exist with humans.  Slightly different from the books as it makes Bill’s eventual forsaking of Sookie easier to digest, but either way, I’m Team Eric all the way.
  • Yay!  Alcide Herveaux makes his debut!  I can be a sub on Team Alcide too.
  • Mmmmm…Bill is looking mighty fine in his designer duds at the King’s.  Why didn’t he wear more suits back in Bon Temps?
  • He may have spent his human life in the Dark Ages but Eric’s adaptability to modern business never disappoints.  When he gives Lafeyette a brand new car, he still plans to have Lafayette pay for the insurance and he is officially selling the car to Lafeyette for $1, you know, to avoid that pesky gift tax.
  • *Hug Terry* time.  When Arlene tells Terry she’s expecting a baby (Rene’s), she lets him assume its his.  Terry says, “Thank you so much for making my life mean something.”  Do you think Felix the armadillo will adjust to having a new baby around?
  • So I haven’t really mentioned anything about the Sam plotline but that is because I simply don’t care.  Some stuff happened, Sam gets to know his family better, blah, blah, blah.
  • Ha ha!  the name of the were bar is Lou Pine’s.  Yeah, say that out loud.
  •  The HBO producers had promised that there would be a sex scene in this episode like none other ever televised.  The third and final sex scene was the one they had been talking about.  Not in my wildest dreams could I have thought it would be Bill and Lorena and furthermore, that their fornication would involve Bill twisting Lorena’s neck Exorcist-style to  result in the strangest, most unsettling sex scene I’ve ever witnessed.  It will haunt my dreams.

Well, there won’t be an episode next week (July 4th) although there is supposed to be something, so I guess I’ll report on that.  What did you think of this episode (ESPECIALLY that last scene…)

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Even Snoop Dogg Loves SOOOOOKIE!

June 21, 2010 by Jessica 5 Comments

Highlights/my favorite parts from this week’s episode of True Blood:

  • First, the video above played at the end of the episode and I was rolling on the floor; I mean, how did that conversation go? HBO Exec: “Um, Mr. Snoop or is it Mr. Dogg?  We would love for you to do a rap video about how much you love Sookie.  No, Anna Paquin will not actually BE in the video with you and although we’re on HBO and show full frontal regularly, we need to bleep out your saying p***y.  Yes, you may make a reference to weed.”
  • On what other show can you start right out the gate with someone soaked in blood, having just bitten off an ear.  Only True Blood.
  • Stephen Moyer’s atrocious Southern accent has gotten better.  When he says the name “Cooter” it almost sounds like the way we say it in my own family when we’re calling for my Uncle (and I wish I was joking about that being my Uncle’s name – I actually didn’t know his real name was Walter until I was an adult).
  • Alex really liked Godric and hated when he met the sun last season.  So YAY! for flashbacks that include him and Eric in battle against Nazi Werewolves.  How many times in life do you get to write a sentence like that?
  • HBO acknowledges and makes light of how much has been made of Stephen Moyer’s way of saying “Soo-keh” by actually having Anna Paquin mimic the way he says it.  Few other shows are this plugged into their fan base.
  • Conversation between Jason and Sookie where Jason naively and sweetly asks/hopes Santa is real after discovering there is a such thing as werewolves.
  • Alfre Woodard makes her appearance as the wonderfully crazy (like, actually in an asylum) mother of Lafeyette. 
  • So far, not a big fan of the Sam-searches-for-his-family-to-discover-his-identity plot line.  In the book, he wasn’t adopted and knew who/what he was all along, so this trumped-up plot line just to give Sam something to do doesn’t feel genuine yet.  It is appropriate that his new-found, no-account brother Tommy would shift into a pit bull and is involved in dog fighting rings.
  • “Chilled carbonated blood, cruelty free, freely donated.  Notice the citrus notes.  This donor only ate tangerines for weeks”  The haute cuisine of Vampire Royalty includes blood gelato and warm blood bisque infused with rose petals.  Also, apparently it is bad manners to bring your fangs out in someone else’s home.
  • Eric to Sookie: “You are going to invite me in so that I can protect you…Or have passionate, primal sex with you.  I want both.”  Sookie, choose B!
  • Calvin Norris, the patriarch of the Hot Shot community, makes an appearance for the first time.  I really like Calvin’s character from the books, so I hope to see much more from him in the coming episodes/seasons.

And for Miranda (and any other Glee fan), here’s a photo I found of Artie (? – I don’t watch Glee) in the first season of True Blood at Fangtasia.

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