As we return to the festivities as we left them last week, it’s clear that Bill has chosen not to play around when it comes to dealing with the werewolves. The slaughter comes to an abrupt end, however, with the arrival of Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi. I was impressed with what Denis O’Hare brought to the role, if not terribly surprised: the guy’s been bouncing around films for ages, but he’s had quite a bit of TV work lately, including roles on “Brothers and Sisters,” “CSI Miami,” and “The Good Wife,” even an episode of “Bored to Death.” I had to laugh at the idea of a werewolf named Cooter, of course, along with his delightfully redneck comment, “You’re about to get deader, dead ass motherfucker!” It was a shame to see him dispatched so quickly, but, hey, that’s what happens when you drink from one of the King’s guests.
There’s not necessarily a lot of substance to it, but I’m enjoying the saga of Jessica trying to figure out what to do with the body of the dead trucker, what with the excessive Lysol use and the chainsaw. I liked Pam’s explanation about how to feed properly without killing your victim (it’s all in the heartbeat, apparently), and I have to believe that Pam’s the one responsible for the trucker’s body disappearing. I suspect Pam may be seeing a little bit of herself in this young girl. I also continue to be touched by Hoyt’s attempts to resurrect his relationship with Jessica, as he’s trying so hard to understand her, despite her refusing to allow him to be a sweetheart. She may say it’s too late for her to fight her nature, but it’s clear that he has no intention of giving up. Does that mean that he’ll end up being just another victim? We’ll see, but I like to think that her reaction to seeing the picture of the trucker with his son may have re-stirred some of her humanity.
Hey, everybody, “True Blood” is back! And, man, when that show comes back, it doesn’t waste any time, does it? I can’t think of the last season premiere that was quite so action-packed. Whether it’s a response to the complaints over the way Season 2 limped to a conclusion after Maryann was finally taken down in the first half of the season finale or simply a conscious effort by the producers to make sure that the viewers are given plenty to keep ’em coming back, I don’t know…and, frankly, I don’t care. At the very least, I have to say that, although the amount of activity was somewhat dizzying at first (possibly because the advance screener I received wasn’t preceded by a “Previously on ‘True Blood'” segment to get me back up to speed), so much happened that I definitely found myself in a position of thinking, “Okay, I reckon it was worth coming back for Season 3.”
I mean, seriously, here’s what happened in the first two minutes (!) of the episode:
• Sookie runs out of the restaurant, frantic that Bill’s been kidnapped, leading the French woman to decry the world’s vampire population. • Sam’s on the road, heading for Magnolia, Arkansas, looking for some folks named Melinda and Joe Lee Mickens…who are, as it happens, his folks. • Jason’s having an anxiety attack over shooting Eggs. • Tara is beside herself with grief, but Lafayette’s trying to console her. • Hoyt makes Jessica’s heart momentarily melt with the flowers she’s left for him, but although she’s touched, she’s can’t just leave her trucker lying on the porch. • Bill’s kidnappers are a bunch of rednecks who tell him that he can call them the Fuck You Crew.
Talk about making quick work of playing catch-up, huh?
On Sunday, June 13, the blood will once again be flowing on HBO as “True Blood,” the series based on “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” novels by Charlaine Harris, rises from its hiatus and returns for Season 3. Since the show made its debut in 2008, the “Twilight” films have become a full-fledged pop culture phenomenon, and The CW piggybacked on their success by adapting L.J. Smith’s “The Vampire Diaries” into a weekly drama for a fang-friendly demo, but neither offers quite the same blend of sex, blood, and beauty with a decidedly dark sense of humor quite like “True Blood” does.
As you may or may not remember, I blogged my way through Season 2 of the series, but while I enjoyed it as often as not, man, was I annoyed by the finale. In fact, I’d forgotten quite how annoyed I was until I went back read my last blog of the season, which closed with these lines:
Obviously, I’ll be back for Season 3, but when I return, I’ll probably still remember how disappointed I was with the way Season 2 ended. It wasn’t bad, but given how great the majority of the preceding episodes had been, it should’ve been a hell of a lot more gripping from start to finish than it actually was.
Ah, yes, it’s all starting to come back to me now…both the memories of the episode and the aforementioned disappointment.
One of the greatest strengths of the first half of Season Two became one of its most profound weaknesses by the end of the 12-episode run: the character of Maryann Forrester, played by Michelle Forbes. There’s no question that Maryann was a great villain when she arrived, but it soon reached a point where it felt like she was only sticking around to keep other storylines moving along. Given that this point occurred well before the season finale, it got to be a bit of a drag. How odd, then, that it should have felt utterly wrong to have killed her in the middle of the season finale, but it’s true: killing her at that point only served to make the remainder of the episode feel thoroughly anticlimactic.
Still, when “True Blood” wrapped up its second season, it did so by unabashedly leaving several storylines fluttering in the breeze, two of which struck me at the time as being more prominent than the others: Sam’s visit to his foster parents, a trip which sends him on a quest to find his real parents, and Sookie and Bill’s date, which kinda sorta results in their engagement but, more importantly, sees Bill captured with a silver chain and kidnapped. When I blogged the season finale, I referred to the latter event as “arguably the least satisfying cliffhanger of the year, since there’s absolutely no reason to think that Season 3 will kick off with the revelation that Bill’s dead,” and although I pride myself on avoiding spoilers, I don’t think it necessarily qualifies as such if I tell you that the season premiere finds Bill still very much undead. As for Sam…well, he’s still on the road, but that’s all I’m willing to say at this point.
We shouldn’t forget, however, about some of the other residents on Bon Temps, LA. You remember, of course, that Jason Stackhouse, in a well intentioned but poorly informed moment, shot Eggs stone dead. Detective Andy, however, covers for him and basically says, “You weren’t here, you didn’t see anything, now move your ass,” but that’s not going to stop Jason’s guilt, nor is it going to serve as a salve for poor Tara’s emotional wounds. Remember, too, that Jessica made the very unfortunate decision to step out on Hoyt in favor of a one night stand…boy, vampires really give that phrase a whole new level of meaning, don’t they?…with a truck driver. Poor bastard. He’s got about as much chance at having a happy ending as Eggs does. And Eric…? I rather expect that he and Sophie-Ann are going to have a serious talk in the very near future.
So what can we expect to see on “True Blood” in its third season, aside from picking up where these stories left off? Well, given that things are reportedly supposed to follow Harris’s Club Dead, it’ll be no surprise to fans of the books to hear that fur will fly in the very near future…werewolf fur, to be precise. I don’t know how much of Sam’s family we’ll end up seeing, but at the very least, actors have been cast to play his father and younger brother; also on the familiar side of things, Alfre Woodard is going to be popping up as Lafayette’s mother. Lastly, there’ll be a bit of royalty this season as well, with Denis O’Hare portraying Russel Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi.
Yes, I was disappointed with Season 2, and, no, I haven’t been nearly as excited about Season 3…but, dammit, the closer it gets, the more interested I find myself in wanting to see how things are going to play out, and this trailer upped my curiosity level considerably.
Are you feeling the same way? Feel free to comment below…and, starting on Sunday night, don’t forget to pop back by after each episode and check out the latest entry in our “True Blood” blog.
(Still not sufficiently jazzed about Season 3? Check out our “True Blood” fan hub!)
“If you’ve got any silver on you, now would be the time to reveal it.”
So sayeth Sheriff Eric to Lafayette, and given that he preceded the comment by throwing a redneck’s severed arm in his general direction, you can imagine that it’s a suggestion that Lafayette would’ve been quite willing to take, if only he had any on him. He doesn’t, though, assuring Eric that, even if he did have any, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and use it. Eric disagrees, but he hustles Lafayette off nonetheless, taking him on a trip to meet Pam. Lovely girl, that Pam. First, she gives Eric a serious “tsk-tsk” for all the blood he’s gotten in his hair, then does the same thing to Lafayette for immediately offering to give up the names of every single one of his clients in order to save himself. His response to her attitude results in the first glimpse of the real Lafayette that we’ve seen this season, and it was so funny that I’m going to quote it verbatim for your enjoyment:
“Oh, don’t get it twisted, honeycone: I’m a survivor first, a capitalist second, and a whole bunch of other shit after that, but a hookerdead last. So if I got even a Jew in an Al-Queda pep rally’s shot of getting my black ass up out of this motherfucker, I’m taking it. Now, what you wanna know?”
Awesome.
Give Lafayette credit for being embarrassed to give up Jason Stackhouse (though he did it, anyway, and it still didn’t do him a lick of good), and Eric for having the sense not to go after Jason. Once Lafayette’s back in the clink, though, he makes a move that’s damned near ingenious…although, if I’m to be honest, I first thought he was starving and resorting to cannibalism. But, no, he used the materials available to him – ewwwwwww – and made a break for it. And it looked like he was going to get away with it, too, until Ginger the Trigger-Happy Waitress took him down for the count with one shot. So do you think Eric’s going to turn Lafayette? Do fish swim…?
You’ve got to respect a show where a pair of character post-coitally discuss the merits of break-up sex versus you-thought-I-was-dead sex (according to Sookie, they’re both pretty good), then drift into a discussion about the surprising lack of differences between being a vampire and being a teenage girl. Sookie’s sympathetic about Jessica’s plight as a newly-turned vamp who’s just lost forever the chance to grow up, and when she sees the plea from her parents, it only gets worse. The two of them bond, possibly over their mutual ability to not laugh at Jessica’s pitch-perfect Bill impression, and the next thing you know, Sookie’s driving Jessica over to her parents’ house. C’mon, is there anyone who didn’t think this was going to end badly?
