True Blood - is nobody watching?

[Solo4114]

I will say that I think we're seeing some interesting character growth from some of the supporting playors. Eric, Lafayette, Sam, Alcide, and Jessica all seem to be getting more interesting to me. Many of the other characters, though, seem to be treading water, as you say. Bill's a bit more ruthless now, but they aren't really exploring/explaining it enough. Hoyt's still a punk, Jason's still a knucklehead, Andy's still a f-up, and Sookie is still annoying, although now she's becoming annoying + slutty. And yeah, Anna Paquin has a nice body but I just find her portrayal of Sookie to be irritating. I've never really liked her as a character, though. My enjoyment of the show has always been about everyone else and the fictional world in which they exist.

 

[Satxer]

I think I tuned in for one episode a month ago to see what the show was about. The only thing I remember was fairies or something, Anna's character(Sookie?) was lost for a year or something and than all these vampires wanted her... I was so confused and I haven't looked back since.

 

[sapper36]

Best scene of third season? - Russell after killing the news guys turning to the weather chick - Pure comedy gold! Made the wifey rewind that part three times!

 

[Betamin]

I'm watching it. I've been watching it since it started, and yeah, it's had its weak moments like any show, but I'm still enjoying it. Tara IS annoying and it wouldn't bother me if her character bit the dust.

 

[firesprite]

I think I tuned in for one episode a month ago to see what the show was about. The only thing I remember was fairies or something, Anna's character(Sookie?) was lost for a year or something and than all these vampires wanted her... I was so confused and I haven't looked back since.

Wow, yeah... So, do you pick up a novel, turn to page 201 and put it back down when you don't get what's going on? By the time Season 3 rolled around there's a LOT of backstory you're missing.

I don't have HBO so I can't watch them as they air, but the minute they hit netflix, they go straight to the top of the qeue. I LOVE Lafayette, though I, too, would dearly love to smack the crap outta Sookie a lot of times. :lol

 

[DoubleD]

The person who plays Lafayette is SUCH a good actor. I think he and the mountain of a man who plays Alcide are two of the best on the show. That being said, I'm not crazy about where they're taking Lafayette this season. He's lost some of his edge and that's too bad since that's what I really liked about him. That, and some of the things he said were hilarious.

 

[Apollo]

Trust me you would HATE this.

That being said I still watch but last season sucked and not in a good way either.

What's True Blood?

I quit watching Vampire stuff when they got feelings.

Do these vampire have feelings?

 

[firesprite]

The person who plays Lafayette is SUCH a good actor. I think he and the mountain of a man who plays Alcide are two of the best on the show. That being said, I'm not crazy about where they're taking Lafayette this season. He's lost some of his edge and that's too bad since that's what I really liked about him. That, and some of the things he said were hilarious.

I absolutely adore his portrayal of Lafayette. He's so sassy! Having read the books, I'm really impressed with how they've taken a character that was barely in the books and made him into such a beloved character.

The books are VERY different from the series and not always better. Sookie's a little more likable in the books and I prefer Erik's backstory in the books compared to the tv series, but I really enjoy the show as a mostly seperate entity.

 

[digger2307]

what i want is
MORE: Bill being bad ass, Alcide being bad ass, Layfette not being a medium, Jessica turning into Pam, more shifters. BOOBS...

LESS: Tara, sookie, fairies (just get rid of them all together), less Buffy the vampire styled magic crap (worked for buffy not for true blood), Erik being a *****.

Really they just need to pump some testosterone into it and have some more humour aswell. drop the lovey dovey emotional crap and lets just get animal on this bad boy.

 

[Satxer]

Wow, yeah... So, do you pick up a novel, turn to page 201 and put it back down when you don't get what's going on? By the time Season 3 rolled around there's a LOT of backstory you're missing.

Trying to determine if this was rude or not... To be honest, I was flipping through channels, didn't know how long it has been on TV(season wise), and figured to see what the show was like, to see if going back to the start would be worth my time. Not to mention, I was avoiding watching it, in fear that it was something like Twilight(thank god I haven't watched that).

And by confused, I wasn't meaning in terms of storyline, that was gonna be a dead giveaway. I was confused by the concept of things. There was Vampires, Fairies, Witches, and whatnot. I was expecting something along the lines of just a modern day vampire show.

 

[DoubleD]

To be honest, I didn't even know there were books. I don't think I'd be interested in reading them, but I suppose it helps to understand why the plot is what it is.

For what it's worth, I also like Pam. She's a grumpy bee-atch who never seems to get her way, but has some good one liners, and in her own way, is hot. Not in your face hot. More like "I'm gonna have sex with you to get you to shut the eff up" hot. Yes, men think that way.

 

[firesprite]

Trying to determine if this was rude or not... To be honest, I was flipping through channels, didn't know how long it has been on TV(season wise), and figured to see what the show was like, to see if going back to the start would be worth my time. Not to mention, I was avoiding watching it, in fear that it was something like Twilight(thank god I haven't watched that).

And by confused, I wasn't meaning in terms of storyline, that was gonna be a dead giveaway. I was confused by the concept of things. There was Vampires, Fairies, Witches, and whatnot. I was expecting something along the lines of just a modern day vampire show.

No, I wasn't trying to be rude with that. It's just that trying to come into a show after multiple seasons, there's bound to be stuff you've missed. Best way to tell if you're going to like the show is to rent the first couple disks of the first season. If it doesn't grab you, it doesn't grab you. I love the quirkiness of the show.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I'm still digging it, but yeah the story is a little WTF? this season. BTW, who cares about Anna Paquin when we have the chick playing Sam's girlfriend!

Speaking of Sam, couldn't je just turn into something meaner, like a Grizzly, to fight that Werewolf guy. Since the werewolves in this are just wolves, I would think a bigger animal would win. My mom, who read the books, says that she thought that Sam could only turn into the last animal he sees. Does anyone know?

 

[JediG60racer]

I just got sorta steamrollered by the swarm of vampire porn, gladiator porn, & what have you that HBO decided to start putting out.

I like vampire stories, and from what I could tell the story writing was interesting, but I like watching things with my wife and family - and this show doesn't lend to that for me. I walked away from it feeling visually assaulted. Sometimes a story requires a good love scene... and sometimes it's just tasteless porn wrapped in a trashy package. True Blood trends toward the latter.

 

[firesprite]

I'm still digging it, but yeah the story is a little WTF? this season. BTW, who cares about Anna Paquin when we have the chick playing Sam's girlfriend!

Speaking of Sam, couldn't je just turn into something meaner, like a Grizzly, to fight that Werewolf guy. Since the werewolves in this are just wolves, I would think a bigger animal would win. My mom, who read the books, says that she thought that Sam could only turn into the last animal he sees. Does anyone know?

He can only turn into a limited number of animals and the easiest are the ones he's seen recently. In the books, he keeps an animal encyclopedia in his office at the bar.

However, also in the books, he did turn into a lion once to save Sookie from some werewolves.

 

[digger2307]

Worst season ever!!!!

 

[Laffo]

I thought I was watching Gentlemen Broncos when they were fighting fairies. Quit watching right then.

Laffo.

 

[Solo4114]

Eh. I thought it was ok. It just seemed....disjointed. A bit too much going on. It also seems like the characters are treading water somewhat. Sookie evolved a bit -- finally (?) getting rid of Bill and Eric, but of course, Alcide is lurking in the background (although maybe not for long, now that his ex-girlfriend's head is hamburger).

Tara, well...she didn't really evolve at all this season. She just ran around doing her usual thing, and then poof. Done.

Bill seems to have changed into a bit more of a badass, which is nice. I was getting tired of him being quite so namby pamby.

And, of course, Lafayette has changed a bunch, but I'm a bit curious to see what'll come of the recent developments, especially now that he has this demon thing in him, I guess.

But Jason? Still an idiot. Jess? Still a nutcase. Hoyt? Boring. Sam? Maybe a bit more of a badass, but not appreciably different.


There's some plot stuff set up for next season, but eh. I think this one's gonna fizzle in another season or two. It's starting to feel pretty samey to me, even with plot shifts here and there.

 

[digger2307]

what the writers need to do is get their fingers out there rears get back to focusing on the vampire politics and upping the tempo in regards to the violence and sex (the one thing that seperated true blood from the normal crap) like they had in the first two seasons.

This whole season just felt so stagnant and didnt really feel like anything developed, and not to mention the half in half out stories like the fairys and the were panthers (which I could happily have lived without).

Why the hell is one of the best programs that was on TV has slowly devolved into buffy without a sense of humour. If this keeps up it will be a total waste of something that could remain to be epic.

True Blood Season 4 = Fail!!!

 

[Solo4114]

Good point on the whole dead-end-plots thing. The Were Panther thing was totally filler. Jason could've been attacked by anything and healed by Jessica to get them to where they were. He didn't actually learn or change at all from the were panther encounter.

The fairies...seriously, why were they appearing AT ALL in the start of the season, and why the hell did Gary Cole show up just to disappear in another episode? What was the point of all that? It went nowhere.

Dexter suffers from many of these issues, and I think it boils down to these optioned properties that come from books where they end up having to deviate from the books to make the shows into full seasons. That introduces a lot of variation in the stories and puts pressure on the writers to come up with plot bridges to get you from one point in the novel to another, all of which simultaneously are irrelevant because in the novel you just go from A to B instead of spending two or three episodes in A.1, A.2, and A.3 until finally arriving at B.

That said, I think Buffy was actually much better structured than True Blood. Its throwaway episodes really WERE throwaway episodes, without ever having any suggestion of being more important. True Blood -- as with most cable series -- tries to make EACH episode part of a greater whole...and sometimes it's really just one of those spots where a network TV approach would be to stick in a "monster of the week" episode here or there.