What--no interest anymore in True Blood? (Spoilers, obviously)

Cafe Society
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Inclusive of the July 15 episode, as far as I know there has been a post-episode discussion and review thread for every episode of True Blood, since the beginning of the series. But for the three episodes since then, nothing.

What gives?

Admittedly, it is true that the current season started off rather badly in the opinions of many, what with so many types of supernaturals interacting with and antagonizing one another, as well as humans, making it hard to really get a grip on things. But over the last two or three weeks the plot, with only two more episodes to go for Season 5, seems to taken on a very definite momentum towards what will undoubtedly be this year’s cliffhanger. In short, the “big bad” has turned out to be the vampires themselves, as the Authority has been taken over by the so-called “Sanguinistas”, who worship Lilith as a goddess and look on humans as little more than food. You all knew that Russell Egerton is up and about, right? It’s his kind who have taken over.

Surprisingly, former good-guy Bill Compton has been drinking so deeply of this Kool-Aid that he proposed bombing the world’s five TrueBlood factories, in order to force mainstreamers to seek live blood for sustenance, “as they were meant to”. In the most recent ep, several of the factories have been bombed although it’s not clear whether they have been destroyed utterly. At any rate, the shortage of TrueBlood seems already to have begun.

The only sane vamps left seem to be Eric, who is struggling mightily to convince Bill of the error of his ways, and Pam, who is now running Fangtasia and doesn’t want her vamp customers sucking her human customers dry. Bad for business, you understand.

I’m wondering where this will end up. I could see things moving in a quasi-apocalyptic direction. So far most of the series has taken place in out-of-the-way small towns, but what if the action moves to true halls of power, say Washington DC? I could see vampires bullying the nuclear codes out of the human government in Washington, or even merely carrying out a series of highly visible assassinations, say against mayors or councillors of the major cities.

Finally I have to mention the Lafayette’s hilarious response, episode before last, on being asked to help Terry and Arlene contact an evil spirit tormenting them. At the time he says this, most of the humans in the series have gotten pretty damn sick of dealing with the supernatural world.

(Possibly NSFW due to language, and to a drug reference)

I’m in the fuck-off-and-smoke-a-blunt business, and business is about to pick way the fuck up!

Well, there it is. The first True Blood thread in three weeks.

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For me, the last few episodes have moved out of the shark-jumpingly bad territory that the first few episodes this season started in, and squarely into “meh” territory. Usually I go looking for Dope threads on the few shows that I watch, but I honestly didn’t even notice there haven’t been any for True Blood. Maybe it’s because it’s in a perfect limbo zone, quality-wise. Not offensively bad enough that people need to vent in a thread, but not interesting enough to warrant discussion either.

I feel like there are waaay too many story lines going on this season, they’re trying to treat each ensemble member as a main character and it’s really starting to wear thin: The recent turn of events with (ex) Sherriff Bud was really corny for me, I’m not getting much out of the Ifrit storyline, I’m not sure why we’re spending time on the wolf pack at all. I’m really really disappointed in how they’re using Russell, as a second dog to the two female vampires who are running the show at the Authority now (couldn’t even tell you their names, they’re completely generic charcters to me.I do like the tech-head who’s working with Eric, though). Couldn’t care less about Sookie’s search for the vampire who killed her parents. It is ironic that the main character from the books is the character the TV show would be best off without, especially since she’s not tied into the main storyline this year (which I would say is Bill/Eric/The Authority).

That said, I still love Lafayette and Pam. They need their own spinoff. Lafayette growing into his medium abilities has been entertaining. I do, surprisingly, like the story of Tara adjusting to being a vampire, and her relationship with Pam. Tara’s finally become bearable again now that she’s not constantly jumping back and forth from Shell Shocked Tara to Petulant Tara anymore.

Ok, apparently I had more to say about this season than I thought. Thanks for starting the thread. :slight_smile:

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I thought of starting a thread, but what is there to say? There’s nothing to talk about, really. Just what everyone else who watches this show has already stated. “Too many storylines. Terry’s story is unnecessary. Pam and Tara are hot. The wolf pack is stupid. Lafayette is good (actually, he is great)”. Yadda yadda. No funny/shocking/outrageous/emotional moments (except Bill’s visit to his dying adult daughter). The Authority, or what’s left of it, was a big disappointment and now is a big snore. Russell returned but is currently being wasted. The vampire bitches have taken over, and best of friends despite that sickening torture storyline of the pouty younger one?. yadda. I have a mild interest in the Lillith storyline and what is up with Bill - everything else is meh, rather unpleasant, yet dull.

MEH! is hardly the word! :mad: It’s like another tv show imitating True Blood.

And even the music they play out the show with absolutely stinks this season! Sunday’s cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” made me want to search that band down and kick each one of them right in the crotch, they did such an insultingly bad job.

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Sorry - the best part of this season has to be the introdcution of the dragon…poor Bud.

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I’m still enjoying moments of the show.

I always enjoy Lafayette’s moments on the show, and I think Eric is becoming my favourite character.

I think the out and proud approach for vamp’s is pretty idiotic. I presume the ‘power-trip’ from being a vamp would give you a big ego, but still. Apparently in the true blood world killing a vamp is as easy as shooting it with wooden bullet’s, well that’s the suggestion from when Hoyt was ‘rescued’ outside fangtasia. So in a modern world, if any major government decided it needed to take down the vamps, the vamps would be in a world of hurt.

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I wonder if Erik FINALLY took the hint from Bill? “Psst, play along, asshole. We don’t stand a chance of walking out of here otherwise.” I mean, I know Erik’s pretty and all, but never thought of him as DUMB. Right now Bill’s playing the smart one. Right? 'cause there’s no way he could actually be serious.

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You’re giving the writers too much credit.

The idea, I think, is that Bill’s been ensnared by Lillith’s blood (or whatever it really is), like the rest of the Authority. Eric somehow broke the spell by thinking WWGD (What Would Godric Do)… at least, that’s how I choose to see it. Eric literally being visited by Godric’s ghost is just too, too stupid.

Why the female TechVamp isn’t fooled either, I dunno.. was she not invited to partake of Lillith’s blood because she’s just lowly tech support?

Oh, one more thought. This is Alan Ball’s last season with the show, right? How much worse is it going to get when he leaves?? Or is it possible his cheese has slid off the cracker, and the show might improve when he’s moved on?

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I gave up on it an episode or two ago. After the disaster of last season, I’m pretty surprised they decided to go with the “one-hundred and one independent story lines” structure again. As for the actual storylines themselves: the Authority turned out to be stupid, the wolfpack stuff has always been pointless, the fairy stuff is uninteresting enough that I can’t even remember enough about it from earlier seasons to understand whats going on with it this season. The other thirty or so storylines are similarly uninteresting. I don’t even find Lafayette or Pam that funny.

The only redeeming bit from the early part of the season was Bill and Eric acting like they were in some sort of weird buddy comedy. But their bits take up 5-10 minutes of a 50 minute episode, so its not really worth it.

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Yeah, agreed.Very strange that Sookie is ostensibly the main character (she is in the books, for sure), but she seems to have been relegated to being a D-plot this year. Least interesting of a ton of meh stories.

Good call! Someone could probably make a pretty good remixed movie trailer out of their scenes this year, if anyone cared enough about this show anymore.

I remembered a bit that I did like, though: the guy who plays Sam was pretty amusing playing his girlfriend skinwalking as Sam.

So… does anyone care to call a specific shark-jumping moment for this show? Or was all of last season a slow slide into suckitude? I re-watched the last 2 or 3 episodes from last season before this season began, and they weren’t as bad as I remembered.. not half as bad as this season has gotten, anyway.

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I don’t think any season has been as bad as this one! Too many sub-plots, not enough outrageous stuff.

I think Sookie is in the background this season as IRL she is pregnant with twins.

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Yes they’re definitely going with the “shoot from the boobs up” method of pregnancy hiding.

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That sort of makes sense, but it’s not like she was “hide her belly behind the couch” pregnant during filming. here’s a shot from an ep or two ago.

Even if she’s not up to getting nekkid this season (no loss IMHO), they certainly could have put what screen time she’s had to better use.

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There’s nothing really new to say about each episode.

Too many supers, too many characters, not enough interactions among the main people (esp. Sookie and Bill/Eric). We get tired of repeating this stuff.

Note that nothing really happens that would make fans want to head to the Internet and go “OMG, did you see the thing where that stuff happened!!!”

This is a show that’s being done so poorly they’ve decide to add Scott Foley to the cast. A kiss of death actor for a show post-Felicity.

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Yeah, my wife and I stopped watching after about the 3rd or 4th episode. Maybe I’ll catch up, and maybe I won’t.

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Who is the actress that plays the female tech vamp?

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Tina Majorino

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I recently found a columnist on Grantland doing episode recaps. I find them amusing enough to watch the show just to see her take on it.

My opinion of this season is pretty much what others have said above. I will add, though, that there is about 1/10 the nudity this season compared to previous seasons. I don’t think that is a good thing.

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AKA the girl from Waterworld and Napolean Dynamite.

I liked last week’s episode. It felt a bit rushed, but hopefully by wrapping up the “Obamas” plot and the Ifrit plot the show can focus on the vamps and Lilith. And presumably Alcide may get involved with helping Sam and Luna get Emma back from the vamps.

The thing about the vampire that killed Sookie’s parents feels like a set-up for next season.
Best scene in this season so far: Jason and Jessica are fighting, she sinks her fangs into him, he draws his gun and shoots her in the head! :eek: Then Jason wipes some of her blood spatter on his finger and rubs it on his neck to heal the bite wounds. :cool:

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There’s a new sheriff in town… and he looks like an emo pussbag. I hope Eric gets back to Fantasia and sticks a boot up this loser’s ass.

Saw the ex-sheriff as being part of the obamas from the minute Andy visited him for no real reason a few eps before. Otherwise that whole scene would’ve been as pointless as the Terry plot.

Speaking of which, yay, looks like that garbage plot is done.

I’m guessing the vamp that killed the Stackhouses will turn out to be Bill. First that would explain why Sookie could see from the vamp’s point of view, but also it would tie in with that woman telling Bill and Salome that she has kids as part of begging for her life. Mrs. Stackhouse said something similar to the vamper that killed her.

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I really liked tonight’s episode. It looks like maybe they saved the best stuff for the end of the season.

The stuff with Hoyt was really touching, I thought. Even though I liked the character at first, he’s really been kind of pointless to keep around the last couple of seasons, so I’m glad that he’s going.

Sam and Luna searching for Emma was just a small amount of screen time, which was just the right amount. No Alcide tonight at all.

I was sorry they killed Tina Majorino’s character, but it was worth it for Steve Newlin’s gleeful response.

I’m still not really sure what is going on with Lilith and the Authority vamps, but it has me intrigued. Godric still existed on some other plane, but is he dead there now as well because of Lilith? I take it Eric and his sister are just faking their devotion now? I want to think Bill is faking, but he’s selling it pretty good. Somehow it’s all got to hinge on Salome.

I LOVED Russel’s explosion at the end. I knew he wouldn’t be able to play nice for very long. I like how his accent reverts when he’s really mad.

Oh yeah, and I also loved Tara taking out the new sheriff. Badass!

Two more episodes!