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So True Blood so far....
I feel like there is SO much going on this season and it's all thrown at you at once, so it lacks the almost excruciating slow build of previous seasons leading up to a breakneck frantic pace towards mid-season. This time it hit the ground running (the plot device advancing the story a year was a little contrived but well handled) and hasn't slowed down; there's just too much going on four eps in to really get my brain around and it makes me wonder what the hell is going to happen mid-season if previous patterns hold.
Plotline 1 - Lafayette, the cute boyfriend, the coven of witches, Harry Potter's aunt and Eric: I love all scenes where Lafayette is getting all cute with either Tara or his adorable little squeeze; this overarching plotline started off a little "Oh please" but is shaping up intriguing. I don't like the scenes with the entire coven (too The Craft, and as a lapsed but still marginally believing pagan, depictions of fluffybunny Wicca annoy me to no end), however Fiona Shaw herself? Fascinating and very well acted, as one scene she's a querelous, incompetent old lady hungry for power and the next she's possessed by this Spanish witch and she becomes SCARY AS HELL. Nice to see Aunt Petunia getting work post-Potter.
Plotline 2 - Aftermath of the witches VS Eric: Okay it's cheesy as hell, but Memory-wiped Eric is fucking adorable and just makes me love Alexander Skarsgard even more. I'm a sucker for men that can do the big-eyed kicked-puppy expression when they do something bad, I'll admit it (this may have to do with why![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cell23 can bat his eyelashes and get away with bloody murder). And while Sookeh normally annoys the shit out of me, I rather like her as Eric's beleaguered babysitter. Not sure where they're going with her and Alcide though (I like Alcide and the several scenes of him in the altogether have been, shall we say, deeply appreciated, but I really hope those two just stay friends; Sookie is sucky with a love interest).
Side note: Pam during all this? absolutely fantastic. She's getting the best lines this season so far. "I will personally eat, fuck, and kill all three of you!" is quite the effective threat coming from her, and Kristen Bauer has always done a fantastic job of conveying that this character does not give fuck #1 about anything or anyone in this world except for her Maker. That kind of love is dangerous, and she plays that very very well. Though it's going to be interesting watching her handle her face melting off after this episode. Be interesting to see Pam handles the change in the game.
Plotline 3 - King Beel: Beel has also gotten far more likeable and less irritating since ascending the throne of Louisiana, though the fact that he is essentially the puppet of the Authority is not lost on either him or the audience. Remove Sookie from the picture and apparently Beel's testicles descend. Who'da thunk. Not much of a fan of Sophie-Ann's death though. I loved the old Queen, I thought she could have gotten a classier death than she did. But that's just me. Also the plotline where Beel finds out he's been screwing his great great great great great great granddaughter? Squicky. Though to his credit, Beel seemed as grossed out as everyone else.
Plotline 4 - Speaking of incest: Can the hillbilly drug riddled werepanthers just die in a fire already? I hated Crystal last season, this Ghost Daddy nonsense is infuriating, and Bon Temps doesn't need more supernatural creatures in it, especially not Jason, he does very well as a normal. I hope he just heals up and never changes and maybe have the threat over his head that he COULD shift play out somehow, but never have him actually turn might be interesting. But sheesh, enough already. And Fuck, Jason, grow a brain. You ain't THAT stupid.
Side Note: For fuck sake, Andy Bellefleur, get yourself some actual character development. This V addiction nonsense ain't cutting it.
Plotline 5 - Arlene's Exorcist baby: This plotline mostly just consist of shooting the ridiculously adorable baby giggling and cooing while ominous music plays and Arlene looks at him worriedly. This is actually going somewhere as of this past episode but mostly? Dumb.
Plotline 6 - It sucks to be either Sam or related to him. Tommy getting adopted by Mrs Fortenberry a scary aside, Jesus, Sam can't seem to get much of a break. While I'm "eh" about his budding relationship with Shifter!Woman, the scene where he acts genuinely excited at the prospect of dressing up Barbies with her daughter was so cute I couldn't stand it.
You know who else can't get a break? Tommy. He's a dislikable character but while I want to be all "Good fucking riddance" about his good for nothing parents essentially recapturing him for ring fighting? I can't. Tommy's stupid and shady and ugh, but not even he deserves to be put into a choke chain by his abusive father.
Plotline 7 - Trouble in Paradise: Oh no. Hoyt and Jessica are having problems. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, I was shipping them so fucking hard because they are adorable. And I feel extremely disturbed by how when Jessica was glamoring Hoyt into forgetting about her infidelity all I could think about was how goshfucking adorable he was while she did it. Puppy dog eyes, man, it will get me every time.
Not really a plotline but must be noted: Oh Tara, please please please get beyond the black best friend with the smart mouth and the issues trope! I love you and your burgeoning kickboxing lesbiannery was actually an INTERESTING development for you. I'd kinda like to see you get back to that or at least find your actual strength and start kicking ass and taking names all by your onesies or something. Right now with all this other shit going on, Rutina Wesley is just getting wasted and that's a damn shame.
A complete aside: For the longest time I was convinced the actress playing Nan Flanagan was the same woman who played TaliaShire Winters in Babylon 5. I was apparently mistaken, though if you google image both Andrea Thompson and Jessica Tuck, you can see why I made that mistake. (They could be sisters.) I had however seen Jessica Tuck before, as ages ago when I was still actually watching it, she played Megan on One Life To Live... and way back when, since Bab5 was airing long before the advent of quick validation via IMDb or wikipedia, I thought Talia Shire Winters was the actress that played Megan! Herp. I wonder if those two ever worked together on anything. THEY SHOULD.
ETA: yes yes yes, I fucked her name up, you can all stop pointing that out now. :P
So long story short, I rather like where this season is going. Except for the werepanthers. Goddamn you True Blood, I liked werepanthers before now, why you gotta ruin them with incestuous rednecks?? Why couldn't they just be cougars? Panthers aint' even native to the US! Whyyyyyyy? I am so sad about that, y'all.
I feel like there is SO much going on this season and it's all thrown at you at once, so it lacks the almost excruciating slow build of previous seasons leading up to a breakneck frantic pace towards mid-season. This time it hit the ground running (the plot device advancing the story a year was a little contrived but well handled) and hasn't slowed down; there's just too much going on four eps in to really get my brain around and it makes me wonder what the hell is going to happen mid-season if previous patterns hold.
Plotline 1 - Lafayette, the cute boyfriend, the coven of witches, Harry Potter's aunt and Eric: I love all scenes where Lafayette is getting all cute with either Tara or his adorable little squeeze; this overarching plotline started off a little "Oh please" but is shaping up intriguing. I don't like the scenes with the entire coven (too The Craft, and as a lapsed but still marginally believing pagan, depictions of fluffybunny Wicca annoy me to no end), however Fiona Shaw herself? Fascinating and very well acted, as one scene she's a querelous, incompetent old lady hungry for power and the next she's possessed by this Spanish witch and she becomes SCARY AS HELL. Nice to see Aunt Petunia getting work post-Potter.
Plotline 2 - Aftermath of the witches VS Eric: Okay it's cheesy as hell, but Memory-wiped Eric is fucking adorable and just makes me love Alexander Skarsgard even more. I'm a sucker for men that can do the big-eyed kicked-puppy expression when they do something bad, I'll admit it (this may have to do with why
cell23 can bat his eyelashes and get away with bloody murder). And while Sookeh normally annoys the shit out of me, I rather like her as Eric's beleaguered babysitter. Not sure where they're going with her and Alcide though (I like Alcide and the several scenes of him in the altogether have been, shall we say, deeply appreciated, but I really hope those two just stay friends; Sookie is sucky with a love interest). Side note: Pam during all this? absolutely fantastic. She's getting the best lines this season so far. "I will personally eat, fuck, and kill all three of you!" is quite the effective threat coming from her, and Kristen Bauer has always done a fantastic job of conveying that this character does not give fuck #1 about anything or anyone in this world except for her Maker. That kind of love is dangerous, and she plays that very very well. Though it's going to be interesting watching her handle her face melting off after this episode. Be interesting to see Pam handles the change in the game.
Plotline 3 - King Beel: Beel has also gotten far more likeable and less irritating since ascending the throne of Louisiana, though the fact that he is essentially the puppet of the Authority is not lost on either him or the audience. Remove Sookie from the picture and apparently Beel's testicles descend. Who'da thunk. Not much of a fan of Sophie-Ann's death though. I loved the old Queen, I thought she could have gotten a classier death than she did. But that's just me. Also the plotline where Beel finds out he's been screwing his great great great great great great granddaughter? Squicky. Though to his credit, Beel seemed as grossed out as everyone else.
Plotline 4 - Speaking of incest: Can the hillbilly drug riddled werepanthers just die in a fire already? I hated Crystal last season, this Ghost Daddy nonsense is infuriating, and Bon Temps doesn't need more supernatural creatures in it, especially not Jason, he does very well as a normal. I hope he just heals up and never changes and maybe have the threat over his head that he COULD shift play out somehow, but never have him actually turn might be interesting. But sheesh, enough already. And Fuck, Jason, grow a brain. You ain't THAT stupid.
Side Note: For fuck sake, Andy Bellefleur, get yourself some actual character development. This V addiction nonsense ain't cutting it.
Plotline 5 - Arlene's Exorcist baby: This plotline mostly just consist of shooting the ridiculously adorable baby giggling and cooing while ominous music plays and Arlene looks at him worriedly. This is actually going somewhere as of this past episode but mostly? Dumb.
Plotline 6 - It sucks to be either Sam or related to him. Tommy getting adopted by Mrs Fortenberry a scary aside, Jesus, Sam can't seem to get much of a break. While I'm "eh" about his budding relationship with Shifter!Woman, the scene where he acts genuinely excited at the prospect of dressing up Barbies with her daughter was so cute I couldn't stand it.
You know who else can't get a break? Tommy. He's a dislikable character but while I want to be all "Good fucking riddance" about his good for nothing parents essentially recapturing him for ring fighting? I can't. Tommy's stupid and shady and ugh, but not even he deserves to be put into a choke chain by his abusive father.
Plotline 7 - Trouble in Paradise: Oh no. Hoyt and Jessica are having problems. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, I was shipping them so fucking hard because they are adorable. And I feel extremely disturbed by how when Jessica was glamoring Hoyt into forgetting about her infidelity all I could think about was how goshfucking adorable he was while she did it. Puppy dog eyes, man, it will get me every time.
Not really a plotline but must be noted: Oh Tara, please please please get beyond the black best friend with the smart mouth and the issues trope! I love you and your burgeoning kickboxing lesbiannery was actually an INTERESTING development for you. I'd kinda like to see you get back to that or at least find your actual strength and start kicking ass and taking names all by your onesies or something. Right now with all this other shit going on, Rutina Wesley is just getting wasted and that's a damn shame.
A complete aside: For the longest time I was convinced the actress playing Nan Flanagan was the same woman who played Talia
ETA: yes yes yes, I fucked her name up, you can all stop pointing that out now. :P
So long story short, I rather like where this season is going. Except for the werepanthers. Goddamn you True Blood, I liked werepanthers before now, why you gotta ruin them with incestuous rednecks?? Why couldn't they just be cougars? Panthers aint' even native to the US! Whyyyyyyy? I am so sad about that, y'all.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:08 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:09 am (UTC)From:As an aside, I KNEW you were gonna be the first person to reply. I was all "I'll walk away from my screen for ten minute and Bella's gonna comment..."
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:12 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:13 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:18 am (UTC)From:Go here: http://tex-nyc.livejournal.com/profile and add her so you can read her stuff; I love it and I'm hard to please with fanfic, but there's D/s between Eric and Sookie that's just plain yummy ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 02:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 04:58 am (UTC)From:I find True Blood wholly ridiculous, I'm in it mostly for witty/sassy one liners from Pam and Lafayette and selected gratuitous nudity. Well, and I find Hoyt/Jessica completely adorable and I hope they live happily ever after.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 05:50 am (UTC)From:and I hear you on the wholly ridiculous bit. It's totally a soap opera with supernaturals. THIS IS WHY I LOVE IT SO.
and yeah, I hope Hoyt/Jessica work their issues out. They're too damn cute.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 05:47 am (UTC)From:Talia Shire is the actress from the Godfather movies.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 05:50 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 10:08 am (UTC)From:I am enjoying most of this season except for the whole kidnapping and rape scenario (you would think after last seasons run of it they would not do it again so soon).