Thanks Sampiro! I’ll watch the video when I get home. i’ve only got my phone here.
There’s an Al Gore (gore? get it?) joke to be made about Russell and his agenda. I just can’t think of it.
Arlene and Terry – the sad thing is, Terry loves Arlene and he would probably have been fine with raising another man’s child, if Arlene had sat him down and told him. I suspect he can’t do the math. He probably knows it takes nine months, but I doubt he knows much more than that.
Arlene has been struggling over when to tell him. I don’t think she plans to keep it a secret. I also don’t think Terry will have an issue with it. Rene was a good friend of his…if he can focus on the Rene that we all loved and not the murderer.
Responding to a bunch of questions/issues in the thread.
This is kind of off topic, but regarding the actor who plays Russell and his dual citizenship: if at least one of your parents was born in Ireland, you are an Irish citizen. You just have to do some paperwork to make it official. If one of your grandparents was born in Ireland, you can apply for citizenship. (If my cousin ever finishes her application, I’m supposed to get the documentation next.) I think it’s an effort to re-collect the diaspora.
Anyway - the show.
Arlene was still having sex with Rene until the last episode or two of season 1. Season 2 only covered a few weeks’ time. Sookie got attacked by the Maenad, then went to Dallas and went undercover, spent a few days prisoner, then came home and helped kick Maryanne’s ass. That timeline actually makes sense, I think we’re just used to a season of TV covering a lot more time, and it took a long time for us to see it all, so it feels weird.
I think Terry would be able to do the math, once Arlene gave birth, and that’s what she’s scared of. Presumably right now she’s not telling him exactly how far along she is.
Russell talking about global warming was just a reference to humans being as evil as vampires. He was saying, “You’re not superior to us, because you don’t mind global warming or child slavery, if it means you can drive your Hummer and wear designer jeans.” I think his motivations are largely that he’s batshit crazy over Talbot (I too loved him turning the jar to “face” the club!), and just wants to hurt those he thinks were involved.
A couple things I liked:
Jason having the wooden rounds was perfectly consistent - he had loaded up the gun to go after Bill originally, then got distracted.
The shower scene did a great job of showing how disturbing Bill and Sookie’s relationship is, right down to the Psycho reference. 
Finally, regarding cliffhangers, I don’t mind much. Because this show always resolves the current season’s plot, then introduces a ZING to begin the next season’s plotline. That seems a lot fairer to me than what a lot of shows do, refusing to resolve the current issues until after a long break.
Yeah, pretty much. None of the books I’ve read covers more than a month, sometimes only a week or so. Of course, the books aren’t stacked right up on each other, time-wise, the way the show seasons are but instead have a gap of a few weeks or months between them. What you have to keep in mind is that each season is one book, plus the first 10 pages or so of the next one. (Well, in terms of Sookie’s story line, they’ve skipped ahead a few books on some of the supporting characters and deviated from the books utterly on others.) Unfortunately, there’s just not a good way to do that and leave the gaps intact.
The big speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKn7hhgLPes .
Wow, that was one hell of an episode. Nothing mamby-pamby about it!
But I have to say that at this point, if the good folks of Bon Temps aren’t suspicious of every newcomer, then they’re all as dumb as Jason Stackhouse. Witchay-waitress has something up her sleeve, and they should know that.
I’m sort of surprised Sookie isn’t trying to get back to her dream world. I mean, it’s clear that the answer to her secret is there.
Alan Ball has said that he has no intention of following the books in a close way so the timeline isn’t going to be hand in hand with the books.
I think this sequence also set Sam as the Alpha Dog now in his brother’s eyes. I suspect we’ll see a bit more respect or obedience to Sam going forward.
Regarding Russell’s motivation: What I got out of that is this. Vampires trying to pass some sort of equal-vampire rights amendment would be akin to people lobbying to gain equal status with cows.
We eat cows. Cows are food. Why on earth would we ever legislate equal rights with them?
Russell sees people as food. Therefore, he’d prefer that the buffet remain open and he can be the Chief Cowboy controlling the vampire’s food supply. That, and being a 3,000 year old vampire, he is probably also batshit crazy.
Now. Regarding the show going “off-road” in relation to the books. I don’t suppose it really bothers me that characters and plot points from books 7, 8, and 9 are being introduced now. It doesn’t even really bother me how bastardized some of those characters and plot points are (some of 'em are way off in the weeds if your standard is fidelity to the books). What bothers me is that many of the characters and plot points from books 7, 8, and 9 are set up in books 4, 5, and 6… so I wonder, where the hell are they going to go in the next season? Skip ahead to book 7? Combine characters and plot points from 4, 5, and 6? Come up with new shit altogether?
Bugs me.
I also have to say I thought it was cool and surprising the way they treated Tara’s experience with Franklin. Unexpectedly realistic and respectful of what such an experience would be… after all, in spite of all the violence, the women aren’t all being kidnapped and raped, and that is a particularly heinous thing to try and recover from. So good on them for that.
(And I’d always thought that Tara hadn’t bashed his head in sufficiently to kill him)
But it’ll keep you watching, right?
The writers clearly left it open. It kind of bugs me though. The Magister had his head severed at the neck and died when the head flew off. Franklin had his head removed too but in a bunch of pieces. Does the head have to come off in one fell swoop? Does the head have to be far enough away from the body to die? If Tara had scooped up Franklin’s head pieces and thrown them out in the hall, would he have died then?
Franklin’s head was crushed, but it didn’t come off.
The faerie godmother Claudine isn’t anything like Book Claudine, she seems more run-of-the-mill pretty girl than the droll book version. So I’m kinda disappointed in her. (I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by relating an incident in the book where Claudine is crying, hysterically, and someone says: “she hasn’t been the same since the Second Elf War in Iowa”). Talk about sentences you could never imagine anyone uttering!
For the most part I like the changes. But if they change the Sookie-Bill-Eric thing much more, I won’t be happy either. Neither will so many other Eric fans…
It is a TV show. The direction of the show is partially determined by the success of the characters and the audience they build. There is little reason to stay true to the books. Most of the audience has not read them anyway.
I thought Jessica was an annoying aside in the beginning. But she has grown into a great character.
Oh yeah.
Downthread, I see someone said they like most of the changes. I don’t mind either, although I’m 100% with the other poster about Sookie/Bill/Eric plotline. I find Bill completely repulsive and Eric hotter than 1,000 suns, so I’m totally on Team Eric.
I’m not shitting on TB, just wondering where they’ll go from here. That’s definitely enough to keep me watching.
salinqmind, how was that not a big fat spoiler?
Interesting idea. I never would have thought of it that way, but you’re totally right.
It’s a spoiler for the books, yes, but they’ve changed things around enough in the show that I’m not real sure that’s quite where they’re going with the show. And the comment itself is a total throw-away line. But if it bothers you, report the post and get it boxed.