HBO: True Blood

[Skin]

I think from a writing stand point episodes 1-4 were fairly solid. It's the last three episodes that have made things so boring. I think had they killed off Bill and Arlene (as shock value deaths), revealed Sarah was the cure sooner and proceeded to give everyone "their last moments" the last three episodes would have had more autthority to them. But basically there has been no weight to the show for going on a month now, and that's unacceptable for a show that's had this much time to prepare for it's last season. As it stands it's boring because nothing is happening and everything is a big WTF, I literally don't think I care about any of the storylines right now, where as I should be excitied about what could happen next.

Adelaine is an idiot running off in the dark when she knows she is a fairy and that all the vampires can smell her and knowing that a vampire killed her other sisters. So no sympathy there for when Violet tries to kill her, which is probably her plan to hurt Jessica for sleeping with Jason. Jessica has lost any and all likability. She is virtually nothing like the person she once was, and her evolution as a character has grown uglier and uglier without Hoyt there to see the beauty in her. Their relationship is ultimately what made her beautiful. Why would I care about her and Jason's future happiness? They are the epitomization of every trailer trash couple in that hick town, and we all know the townies are supposed to be reviled by the audiences. They are just unlikably selfish and stupid people which is exactly what Bon Temps is made out of. They made a huge mistake bringing Hoyt back to remind the viewers of all the pain she put him through, fooling around with Jason. Especially because it just highlights the constrasting relationships and underscores all that Jessica has lost since he left.

Bill and Sookie, never should have been end game, no matter what. I understand that too much of True Blood has been concentrated on Sookie's relationships, but there comes a point when maybe it's ok for Sookie to be alone. I don't want her with Bill, Eric, Alcide or Warlow at this point. None of these men will save this limpet of a character. The character of Sookie is at a dead end at this point and time, and nothing can save her. It doesn't matter what she is, who she does or where she is going at this point. It doesn't get any better for her. She's a dead-end waitress who courts death, so can she just die already? The character has nothing else to offer. I'd be fine with her dying in the next episode. She's provided her usefulness as a protagonist and the show could limp to an end without her for the next two epsidoes. It wouldn't change anything in the show would it?

Eric, Pam and Gus are wasting time -- and Sarah Newlin is too small time to stay in hiding for so long. Arlene and Sam are non-entities and have been for the past five seasons, so who cares about what happens to them and their families? No one. The Lafeytte storyline is bull, and everyone knows it. I would have rather them not give him a story then to have him regulated to digging ditches for two minutes per episode.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Could somebody please tell me what this season is supposed to be about other than watching Beeeeeeeel and Soooooookuh mope around and whine? Seasons 5 and 6 were weak but at least I understand what they were going for even though the execution was pretty poor. But what's the point of any of this? It's blatantly obvious that no character or their fate matters to the writers other than Bill's (UGH). And Bill will die, change his mind and drink from Sara be cured and live HEA with Sookie, or he'll try to die but Sookie's fairy blood will somehow cure him of both HepV and vampirism and he'll be reborn as a human. Big whoop. He'll be an annoying jerkface no matter which scenario they go with. He's been that way as a human, as a vampire, as Billith, and as a vampire who had all his blood drained and replaced with that of Jessica, James, and Sookie. I think I might be angriest if he does die because they could've killed him long before now and put us all out of our misery so to drag it out this long is unforgivable.

Why are they expecting us to care about Bill and Sookie when they're still both such selfish idiots? I liked her smacking him and telling Eric that if Bill didn't care if he died, she shouldn't either but of course that couldn't possibly last. The perfect finale would be that they both die at the beginning of the episode and the rest of the hour is Eric & Pam being snarky badasses as they ice the Yakuza, Lafayette finally gets laid properly, and...that's really all I care about at this point.

Why are they playing musical chairs with relationships out of the blue just inches short of the finish line? If they were going to bring Hoyt back anyway, why didn't they do it at the beginning of the season while Jessica's relationship with James was falling apart? They didn't need to bring Jason into it if he and Jessica weren't gonna be a thing. If they'd killed Violet during the HepV vamp attack early on, they wouldn't have needed Jessica & Jason having sex as a plot point for her stupid dildo-based revenge scheme and the Jessica/Hoyt reunion wouldn't seem so forced. I mean it's not like the writers didn't know the show had been cancelled and only had 10 episodes to wrap things up so why was there so much inconsequential crap earlier this season and now they're forcing things in at the last minute?

The Eric/Ginger scene was absolutely hilarious. Girl finally got herself a piece of Eric Northman after all these years. Pity it lasted 3 seconds.

But I have to ask: Why did they kill a core character like Tara in such meaningless, demeaning fashion while giving bit players like Ginger and Arlene HEAs or a least a pity lay? I really don't want to believe that it's because Tara is a WOC and Ginger and Arlene are white but it seems pretty blatant given the way they'd treated Tara for the previous six seasons. The stereotyping of the Japanese characters doesn't help that perception either.

Speaking of which, why is Pam suddenly so stupid and weak that she can be captured by the Yakuza for like the fifth time this season? Are Japanese gangsters vampire Kryptonite now? And why hasn't Eric killed them all by now? We've seen him go medieval and take out several heavily armed humans at vampspeed before. He's really good at it.

Given that every single vampire that was introduced or discussed as being older than him is dead, Eric is probably one of, if not the, oldest vampire in the world. That makes him the strongest too. He should be VikingVampireSuperman at this point. The only acceptable answer would be if he's waiting so he can get to and kill the entire power structure at the Yakonomo Corporation so he can run the TruBlood/NuBlood empire himself. Otherwise it's just more OOC BS they've heaped on Eric & Pam in shovelfuls this season.

Why wasn't Sarah Newlin's maiden name revealed to be MacGuffin? Because honestly that's all she is and a lame one at that.

Do they really think that doing these lame scenes that parallel scenes and situations from more popular seasons, like Pam foil highlighting Sara's hair in Eric's office with the exact same hairstyle she wore when she did Eric's hair in season 2 when they were holding Lafayette captive, is an actual substitute for storytelling and consistent character development?

The only thing we learned this week is that Sam is the smartest person in Bon Temps for gittin' the hell out. Godspeed Shifter, Godspeed.

[marceline]

This show clearly went on at least one season too long.

[Cheap21]

It feels like weeks ago but its only been a couple of days since Jessica caught James with Lafayette. Everything on this show is happening WAY too fast. I cant believe those two are already some happy loving, established couple and Jess and Hoyt are back together

To add to this, are we supposed to give a damn that Sookie is about to lose this great love of hers when she literally just lost Alcide, like a week ago in their time? Damn she moves on fast

[Cheap21]

So the finale was last night. It was a disappointment

Hoyt and Jessica getting married makes absolutely no sense considering he doesnt even know her. As far as he is concerned, he just met her a couple of days ago and now he wants to marry her? Beyond dumb if you ask me. I thought he at least got his memories back when he slept with her but that didnt happen making this even more silly

Little Tara's actress was perfect. Her voice sounded just like the original's

Pam and Eric were in the beginning and then disappear for the bulk of the episode till that flash forward. Awful considering the stakes seemed to be higher with them. Just like that they could have killed the Yakuza and ended all this? They were the best thing abut the show but sadly were barely in it. Id rather they had made more about their predicament instead of the abrupt end

I know some speculated that Bill would become human as the dialogue definitely alluded to that, but nope, he got a true death as a vamp. This was the only part I found shocking bc I expected him to be spared. It was cruel of him to ask Sookie to kill him as I didn't get why

Overall a very underwhelming finale. I didnt like how it was all tied up in a perfect little bow and wasn't feeling the two fast forwards into the future. That final dinner was a bit much. I wish this show had just ended with the Billith stuff. They should have made him this big bad which they would need to defeat and call it a wrap.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

I've been watching #EverySimpsonsEver since it started last Thursday and haven't even changed the channel. I finally got around to watching the TB finale on HBOGO.

If you've seen this GIF of Eric confronting the Yakuza in Japanese and then icing them before they can attack Sookie and then jamming in their car with their bloody bodies in the back seat, you've literally seen the only thing in this finale worth watching. I was glad that Eric finally remembered that he's a vampire and thus much faster and stronger than a small group of humans. Pam needs to go back to vampire self-defense class though.

There were so many stupid things that made no sense. Like having Jessica marry a guy she broke up with over a year ago and glamoured every memory of their relationship out of just because Bill wanted to walk her down the aisle before he committed suicide in order to paternalistically save his ex-girlfriend from her obsession with him, an obsession that he deliberatey created and nurtured. It would've been selfish even if he was just a nice guy with no ulterior motives passively dying of an incurable disease but he wasn't. He was a manipulative jerk actively killing himself by refusing the cure making a deranged request of two people he knew were too nice to refuse. And Jessica and Hoyt went along with it. Hoyt doesn't ever remember their relationship or breakup and he agrees to this! Having Andy perform the wedding of the woman who drained three of his daughters to death in the very house where she killed them in order to please the man who procured them for their blood and put them in that situation in the first place was also incredibly absurd. Having Jason end up with Bridget just because she wants kids, cause that's so rare, still boggles my mind. And why couldn't just one person remain uncoupled and/or childless just because they want to be? For a show that wanted to be radical when it started, especially where sexuality was concerned, it became sadly heteronormative by the end and obsessed with 1950's ideals of happiness for all, monogamy and/or babies for everyone, even many of the vampires. Lafayette, the only gay character left didn't even have a single line in the finale.

I'll admit to enjoying watching Bill become a puddle of TruDeathGoo even though it took sooooooooooooooooooo long to finally get there. I was glad that they allowed Sookie to keep her fae and surprised that they actually killed Bill. I thought they would cop out and make them both human, pretending that it was just Bill's vampirism that made him dangerous and not his abusive misogyny and manipulative behavior. Bill dying in the end did help a few things from earlier in the season make more sense, like the interminable flashbacks and his killing of the lawyer. They were still painful to watch but I can see their purpose now.

Despite all the stupid decisions and dragged out conversations, I think the episode would've been better and more effective if they'd cut out the flash-forward and just slowly faded to black as Sookie walked home from the cemetery in the black dress with Bill's blood all over it. Everything in the flash-forward was redundant, unnecessary, or tonally inconsistent. None of the pairings seen in the FF were a surprise, basically everyone was still together four years after they got together and none of them broke up because that's so realistic. Jason & Bridget got married and suprise, surprise, surprise had a bunch of babies. Yawn. I already figured that one out on my own, show, because I'm not an idiot.The only revelation in the FF was that Sookie was married to and pregnant by some ordinary human guy who kinda looked like Wil Wheaton with a beard, even though we spent 6 years listening to her whine about how she could never be with anyone whose thoughts she could hear but whatevs. I think Sookie's fate was better left ambiguous with the last shot being her leaving the cemetery.

The worst part of the flash-forward though was the fustercluck of Eric & Pam's ending. Alexander Skarsgard and Kristin Bauer Van Straten sold the hell out of the stupid and cheesy infomercial and NYSE scenes but unnecessary crap is unnecessary crap no matter how well performed. Those scenes were strictly DVD easter egg material. Eric & Pam's ending is not happy or triumphant, it's tragic. They're both back to exactly where they started and not in a good way. Every shred of character development either had achieved especially via falling in love with Tara and Sookie, respectively, has been totally stripped away and they're running a sleazy business involving human slavery in Fangtasia, the place that was their prison for decades. Pam might be too shallow and self-absorbed to realize or care but Eric isn't. The final shot we see of Eric in the finale is a recycled clip of him sitting on his throne from the season 3 premiere. In that episode, Eric was lonely, discontented, and worried that the magister knew he was smuggling and dealing V. Five years later and he's right back to where he was in that moment. Lonely, discontented, and probably worried that someone will find out that Sarah Newlin is alive, being enslaved in Fangtasia's basement, and is the real cure at $100,000 a bite while the swill-in-a-can he shills on TV is intentionally weak sauce. The look on his face sitting on that throne is a look of ennui, if not outright misery. If anything, his ending is more tragic than Bill's. At least Bill got what he wanted and is resting in peace with people he genuinely loved. Eric's lost everything that mattered to him: his dignity, his honor, his maker, his sister, and the two human women he loved. On top of all of that, he must know that he's now something that his beloved maker, Godric, would be ashamed of. He used to make fun of the hypocritical mainstreamers like Bill and Nan and now he's their king. He's the most hypocritical of them all and for what? Money? Big deal. Eric was always portrayed as extremely wealthy. He didn't need to sell his soul for more money.

I'm not even gonna dignify the grotesque sex/blood slave fate of Sarah Newlin by analyzing it. Pam's allusions to her fate were more than enough, we didn't need to see it in explicit, misogynist detail, especially when it was at least partially played for laughs with Steve Newlin's ghost taunting her. Sarah's sexualized torture taken together with the strongly sexist and paternalist bent of the rest of the episode was offensive.

[MrPrezident]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm so happy I stopped watching this show after the first episode. Good riddance it's finally been out out of its misery.

[Juliajms]

RoseVioletDaisy- You gave that episode a better thought out analysis than it deserved.

[EricMontreal22]

Apparently that was Alan Ball's original plan with, while Season 5 was a bit of a mess, would have thematically made sense. But HBO wanted to continue the show without him. Buckner proved to be a pretty awful showrunner.

[Taoboi]

Finally watched it.

Alcide died for this?

[Skin]

Well I think the show did a good job establishing that Sarah Newlin wasn't a good person, and never was. She essentially purposely unleashed HIV/AIDS on the Vampire population because she hated them. She was True Blood's own version of Hitler, I don't understand why she should be spared simply because she is a woman. To bring Sarah Newlin's fate down to sexism, misogyny and paternalism sounds illogical considering the text of the show. Other male characters who did less with the same intent of Sarah wound up with similar less than desirable ends. Sarah wasn't punished because she was a woman, she was punished because she was an extremist bigot who unleashed chemical warfare on millions of people -- some of which were innocent. She killed several hundred thousands if not millions of people and caused the entire world to fall into turmoil because of her selfish and nihilistic actions. Decimating entire cities because of her selfishness. I guess one can feel sorry for her, but that's clearly not what was written in the story. Every time the character was introduced, she caused pain and hardship for all of the protagonists everyone from Jason to Eric felt her wrath. True Blood may have issues regarding the things you are arguing, but the treatment and response of Sarah Newlin isn't a strong arguing point. She's a villain, and all of them met their end eventually on True Blood.