Could you list some examples of shows where they got the local flavor right? I don’t mean ones set in Louisiana, or the South, or any specific location. I mean any show set anywhere that stood up to scrutiny by the locals so well that they say “yeah, nailed it.”
I have yet to see any show set anywhere I’ve lived that didn’t fall short by the metric you’ve set.
Oh c’mon, funerals and sex go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Am I wrong to buy into the notion that a woman can be taken at her word? We can all agree that no means no, right? As in, there is no room for interpretation; when a woman says no you are supposed to take her at her word and respect her decision. This I totally buy into because I consider women to be every bit as capable of making decisions as men.
But you both seem to be saying that yes doesn’t always mean yes. The guy is supposed to interpret the woman’s motives to deduce for himself whether she really means what she says. “Yes I want you to” is now open for interpretation?
You can see how this is a bad road to go down, right? If yes doesn’t always mean yes, then no doesn’t always mean no, either. You can’t have it both ways; either what you say is to be accepted or it is not.
AuntiePam, did I remember correctly that it was you I disagreed with in the Big Love thread? Searching all Big Love threads showed that one to be mysteriously missing, but reading the ones I found made me think it might have been RubyStreak. I just associate your name so strongly with premium cable shows (you have impeccable taste) that I assumed it was you.
That situation was remarkably similar. Here’s the setup: older guy (late 20s) dating a teen virgin. He respects her decision to take it slow. She snoops in his cell phone and finds out he’s having sex with somebody else. When he points out that they weren’t exclusive, she decides to lose her virginity to him right there.
The contention was that he shouldn’t have taken advantage of her. He should not have accepted her word, because he should have somehow known that was she was saying and doing wasn’t reflective of what she really wanted.
I called bullshit on that reasoning by the same logic I did here.
Wait how far off do you think Seinfeld was? Friends was a sad joke, but overall Seinfeld was reasonable. Barney Miller was dead on for both NYC of the time and police work of the time. Odd Couple was reasonably correct. Same with Dick Van Dyke. I guess there are plenty of writers that know NYC at least. I almost forgot All in the Family appeared accurate.
I’ve heard/read several natives of Baltimore say that The Wire came at least very close.
Yeah, that was me. (I’m leaving this part in the quote because I appreciate the compliment. 
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I think it’s taking advantage when the only reason the girl’s having sex with the guy is to keep him from straying. And I can see where that reasoning would make a guy crazy, because in his mind, she’s willing.
I can also see where a girl might say to herself “I have to give it up to him or he’ll leave me” as an excuse to do something she wants to do anyway, sorta like getting drunk on purpose to lower inhibitions.
I don’t think the Big Love situation is analogous to Bill and Sookie, but your point is well taken.
Another way to look at it is that Bill was giving Sookie what she needed right then – not the sex so much as the intimacy and closeness, after that godawful funeral with those mean people and their ugly thoughts.
Damn. I think I have maternal feelings for Sookie. Bill has put Sookie in danger by marking her, and he can’t protect her in the daytime. I’m worried for her.
heh. We are diametrically opposed on that score. I’ve been crushing on Anna Paquin since HurlyBurly.
That’s a damn good question that I think would make an excellent thread in its own right. I’m familiar enough to try to make a judgment with only a few regions. I thought that No Country for Old Men nailed southwest Texas: the clothing, the accents, the attitude, and so on. Not to be facetious, anyone from east or central Texas would recognize King of the Hill as being pretty much spot on in an affectionately humorous way. It would be a fun exercise to try to think of more.
I guess the point I was making in my OP was that, if you know enough about the area to get some of the things right, why can’t you get the important things right? Using the wrong accent seems just lazy. If you can get a generic accent down, why not the right one? In a show that trades so heavily on sense of place, the wrong accent seems jarring. And Anna Paquin, as much as I love her, has one of the worst.
I really didn’t mean to go off on a rant. I guess this is just a pet peeve of mine.
If it makes any difference, I would say the same thing if their genders and/or superpowers were reversed: it’s not nice to take advantage of a person when their decision-making capability is likely impaired.
But another interesting characteristic of “good” vampires is that they are hanging on to their civility by a thread. It’s maybe too much to ask Bill to push away a willing woman he lusts after. Instead, you’re supposed to admire his restraint in waiting for her to come to him.
How was he taking advantage of her? As I said upthread, sex and funerals seem to go together. Something about a reaffirmation of life, I think.
She dolls herself up, and comes running over with the desire to lose her virginity. Seems to me she made a decision, and it would be insulting to reject her on the grounds that she is incapable of making that decision.
If it’s just about the bite…well, when you pick up a spider, you can’t be mad at it for biting you. That’s what they do.
Your funerals are a lot more fun than mine. 
I’m not nuts about this week’s episode. I have no sympathy for Jason or his addiction, and from the previews, it looks like I’ll have even less sympathy for him next week. Setting up his sister? Really? His new girlfriend reminds me of Dexter’s soulmate from last season, physically, and in her enabling behavior.
Also not nuts about Bill killing Sookie’s uncle.
I’m into Tara’s story though, and her mom’s. I’d love for the exorcism to work. And Tara and Sam had a nice moment.
The show is beginning to wear thin on me. This was a poor episode. The three obnoxious vamps were very stupid pushing the humans that far in the bar. Why don’t they have some sort of protection or at least stay wary enough to hide their lair.
The Uncle killing was obviously to show us again that Bill is not human and can barely contain his humanity. I am sure by his logic he did the right thing. It seemed like heavy-handed writing to me.
Jason is a bad piece of work but then so is Lafayette. On top of screwing up Jason, what the hell did he put in the dish for the redneck asshole?
It looks like Sam is not the collie at least and yet we saw him streaking through the marshes. I wonder how long that will play out. Maybe he is a straight out werewolf and they just haven’t done the reveal yet.
I thought he just heated the spoon so it’d burn the guy’s mouth.
Yeah, that was stupid, the obnoxious vamps instigating trouble at the bar and advertising where they live.
There aren’t many likable, sympathetic characters on the show.
A hot spoon, well at least that is not quite as bad as what I thought he might have done. Still another petty thing for a petty character.
For some reason I like Sam, but he might be about the only character. Even Sookie is a little hard to take.
I agree, this was a bad episode. I’m really tired of Jason.
I have liked the subplot about Tara and her mom until this episode - I didn’t enjoy the exorcism stuff. Although Tara’s line, “Are you telling me I just paid you $400 to drown a possum?” was pretty funny.
I’ve read the first 5 of the Sookie books, I think there are 8 total now? What really killed me about this past episode is that Bill showed Sookie exactly where his “hidey-hole” location is underneath the house. In the books this crucial bit of info. is never revealed to Sookie although she does know where he has a secondary “hidey-hole.” Also several episodes back they showed her using her own cell phone. In the books she doesn’t have a cell and this lack of a cell does play into the plot sometimes. As others have said on here before and I agree, Eric has been grossly miscast. Although I do think they’ve done a good job w/Pam. I’d like to see more Pam the cold suburban looking vamp.
Poonther, who’s Pam? The bouncer at the vampire club? She reminded me of Kristen Johnson in Third Rock from the Sun.
I don’t like Sookie knowing Bill’s hiding place either, and I’m surprised he gave it up. Did the books give a reason for Bill keeping it secret from Sookie?
That actually annoyed me. If you heat up a stainless steel spoon and place it in a much cooler liquid bath, aka soup, before serving, what you wind up with is a redneck with slightly warmer soup, not a screaming redneck.
Hey Auntie Pam! Yes Pam is the bouncer at Fangtasia. There’s a lot more to her , but that will be revealed later.
As far as I’ve read in the series, it’s implied that Bill’s main hiding place is kept a secret for security reasons. Even if Sookie didn’t want to give up the location, someone or something could use a mind trick of sorts to get it out of her.
So, last night’s episode was a little better, yes? I’m glad we’re finally getting more Eric, and he looked good.
I think Bill looks and sounds very sexy, but I don’t think they’re doing a good job with the blood sucking. It just looks horribly painful, the way he strikes at her like a snake. And Sookie and Bill having sex right after Bill crawled up out of the ground was just gross.
I’m glad Jason’s hippie girlfriend turned out to be a crazy vampire drainer, because she was really boring up to that point. And I thought Lafayette’s vampire lover looked like Stephen Root, but it wasn’t him.
Has anybody else noticed that the music cuts in and out during the closing credits? It can’t be a glitch, it happens after every episode.