Mostly setup but still alot of fun. The weekly too-many-plotlines-criticism: I could do without Terry's Balrog or speciest, supes-hunting hicks.
^^ While I too have been getting tired of the too many plotlines, I found this week's episode to be damn good, if not best of the season so far... The previews for next week look like we're really going to see some serious stuff go down
Haven't seen this one yet, but I gotta say I'm finding this season a LOT more fun than the previous couple. I was very close to giving up on the show after all that boring and tedious crap with the witches, fairies, werepanthers and demons. Putting the focus much more on vampires again has really made a gigantic difference.
Marked down to poor for the montage with Christopher Meloni preaching coexistence to the vampire choir. The ifrit/Iraqi atrocity storyline could actually be dramatic, which would stick out on this show like a dancing cow. Sorry, but it makes the what does the Authority want/what are Nora's true loyalties/who released Russell?/will anyone ever feel the slightest tension over whether Eric and Bill will meet the true death? mess seem trivial, therefore boring. The counterparallel stories of the shifter lynchers versus Jason's revenge plus the counterparallel stories of Jessica mentoring Tara's coming out versus gay Lafayette's torment by demons of guilt make it perfectly clear that they are seriously trying to go back to the fangs=fags. The internal tension of the vamps really being monsters has already broken that slender reed. There's nothing strong enough to build a serious drama on. The plots themselves are meandering at this point, but this episode did highlight how thematically unified so many of them are. Still, Meloni droning on and on while we flitted from scene to scene was just downright painful. I think it was suppposed to be an awesomely thunderous shout out. Didn't work for me.
Meloni would be more convincing if he'd get out of the bunker. He has all the menace of Pope Benedict right now. This is what needs to happen...Lilith. I know I've said it before. They keep talking about her, so I'm going to assume she's still around. She needs to show up and have a little chit-chat (read, kill off) a bunch of characters. Have "our heroes" band together against her like they did last year, and pare down the cast from there. No one except Sookie should be safe. Since Tara isn't that important in the books, I'd just send her off into the night or demote her to a p/time cast member, not a regular. I can think of a few others. BTW, IMO, Liltith's the one who rescued Russell, and I'm going to speculate it's going to be "Salome" is really her in disguise, playing one side of her brood against the other for some reason. If not, then it's somebody new (yet another new cast member), so it'd better be some damn good stunt casting.
I think it's a safe bet that Salome freed Russel but I'd rather they keep Lilith mythical. I hated it when they introduced "Originals" on The Vampire Diaries, I like my vampire origins mysterious...
Crap. It looks like Luna has been killed. I liked her. I also like the techie girl at the Authority. "Peace out!"
I'm still enjoying the season so far, and this episode was another good one. I thought the Terry story turned out much better than I expected. I wasn't sure where it was going at first, but after last week's revelations and now the appearance of the Ifrit it adds a horror feel that perhaps ironically has been missing on a show about vampires. Perhaps there are too many story lines all running at the same time, but for once, many of them I find interesting. I hope that Luna doesn't die. I was liking her character and her relationship with Sam. Regarding Meloni, I don't have a problem with him. Though it wouldn't hurt to move the story along a little further. We really haven't seen too many Sanguinistas and I would like to see and hear more from them. It would be nice to see who Roman has in mind to be the new Nan. Is it the reverend?
Enjoying it far more than the previous 2-3 seasons (season 1 is still the best and most likely will remain so). However i agree with some here that the cast needs thinning right now.. at least a third could go without an impact on the show i guess, first amongst these is Terry and his problems. While i really like the actor and the character he doesn't really add much to True Blood as he and his family are quite separate from the main cast of Vampires and they rarely intersect. It's nice to see some other supernatural elements that are not related to Vampires but it's a miniseries and time is very scarce so i'd like them to concentrate on the main plots. Second would be, and don't kill me , Lafayette. I love the character (maybe my favorite in season 1) but he's become the male Tara of the show.. still human (somehow) but basically a victim for everybody. His sass and attitude from season 1 is mostly gone and he's just pining/in deep sorrow after Jesus and doing weird things with his magic he can't control (he'd be awesome as a true mage/shaman/whatever who goes to kick some ass and restore order to Bon Temps). Tara is also someone who could go.. she was grating in past seasons when they took the victim aspect to the extreme but after they turned her it's still not the thing since we already have Jessica to explore the angle of what it means to be a newly turned Vampire (however i loved the fight between them at the end of the episode ). However what i believe is the biggest flaw of the show is the scope.. everything world changing or powerful is apparently concentrated within driving distance of Bon Temps. The main ruling body of the Vampires, its most powerful (political/physical) subjects, their enemies, basically any variant of supernatural finds its way to that little village. I'd hate to see New York in this world.. you'd maybe not be able to throw a rock without hitting a supernatural. We now know that there are millions of Vampires around the world (i seem to remember that the chief of the Authority mentioned something like that) but we are still confined in storytelling to the Louisiana territory. I know that part of its charm is the Southern US setting but the show has moved past the books so why not expand occasionally, especially when you introduce the worldwide Vampire government/organization. Speaking of books.. how close is the show to the books? I have only read the first one and it was pretty close (with the omission of a particular funny and disturbing Vampire.. i'd really have liked to see him ) but have read that with season 2 and 3 they've made some major changes and deviations.
^^^The show kept the idea that Sookie (but not Jason) is part fairy, and that she goes from Bill to Eric. That the Belefleurs are descendants of Bill. That Sookie kills Debbie Van Pelt. That Crystal was a werepanther (but in the books, Jason does turn into a werepanther.) That one of the waitresses is a Wiccan. And so forth. By now the books and the show are only vaguely related experiences.
^^ Which is fine by me... As a fan of the early novels, I've found the recent editions to be pretty cookie-cutter with forgettable plots... The one thing that is starting to bug me a little is the seemingly ramped up use of the "F" word... Seems like EVERYONE is punctuating their sentences with "FUCK!!!" I'm no prude and I'll use the word when the time calls for it, but it's almost like how "Frak" became overly used in BSG simply because they could... Like I said, it doesn't really bother me badly, but it just seems like it's thrown in much like the old SNL skit about needing "more cowbell"...
I was about to bail off the show, but this episode was pretty damn good. Probably one of the best since the second season.
You're not the only one. I held off until last night, finally watching this week's episode. I was surprised to see Alfre back so soon - and Jesus as well - but will they bring anything to the table? We'll see.