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TRUE BLOOD |
Sookie Stackhouse - Anna Paquin Bill Compton- Stephen Moyer Jason Stackhouse- Ryan Kwanten Tara Thornton - Rutina Wesley Sam Merlotte - Sam Trammell 
OTHER TRUE BLOOD SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 5 OTHER VAMPIRE SHOWS Buffy The Vampire Slayer Angel Ultraviolet Blood Ties Being Human Moonlight Vampire Diaries 
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She's Not ThereSookie's been away with the fairies, literally. They are not what they appear to be and when she returns she finds that Bill is vampire king, Eric the public face of vampires, Jason has sold the house, and a year has passed. A lot has changed in the time that Sookie has been in the realm of the fairies, but the one thing that hasn't is that the show still has far too many stories going on, watering down the narrative drive of the show by flitting between them. The early section is dominated by a quite bizarre and out there interlude in which Sookie finds her grandfather and destroys the fairy realm's glamour in order to escape. After that, we find that Jason is a cop looking after an ungrateful group of outsiders, Lafayette has huge supernatural powers capable of reanimating dead birds, Sam has taken up with other shapeshifters, Sheriff Andy is addicted to vampire blood, Arlene's child might be evil and Tara is a lesbian cage fighter. Previous seasons couldn't tie up half as many disparate threads into a coherent narrative, so it's uncertain tht this one will be able to cope with all these new storylines. TopYou Smell Like DinnerTara visits a coven meeting with Lafayette that Eric gatecrashes with pretty devastating effects. Jason, meanwhile, finds out what the Panther family want of him. The central plot here, that of the coven and Eric and his disastrous intervention is a smart and surprising one, but most of what is going on around it dilutes it seriously. The soap operatices with Jessie and Hoyt and Sam and his brother, the potentially demonic baby and all the other nonsense going on is distracting and not worth the time spent on it. TopIf You Love Me Why Am I Dyin?Jason recovers from the attack only to be sexually assaulted. Eric has no memory and Sookie agrees to hide him until he can be restored. The faerie realm comes calling on Sookie. The show is in a holding pattern with this episode as the aftermath of Eric's memory loss is submerged under the welter of uninteresting side plots with some pointless sex thrown in as an attempt to keep the audience from drifting away. It's not working and the show needs to find its focus again soon. TopI'm Alive And On FireSookie has her work cut out keeping Eric under wraps, whilst Bill continues to search for the amnesiac Sheriff. Jason escapes from the were panthers. The witches' coven learns more about their 'saviour'. The apparently endless stream of characters wander aimlessly along story tracks that are as uninteresting as they are numerous. If any of them are leading anywhere then there is precious little sign of it. TopMe And The DevilTommy kills his parents and brings the bodies to Sam's place. Bill kidnaps the chief witch for some questioning. Tara wants to go home and Lafayette goes to Mexico in search of power. How many flashbacks and dreams sequences does one episode need? Throughout the myriad plot strands that are busy going nowhere, there are so many that it all becomes a bit silly. It also continues to be too diffuse, never concentrating for long enough on any one story for any of them to really matter. Only when Bill finally learns where Eric is does any sort of point emerge and that's in the last seconds. TopI Wish I Was The MoonFinally knowing where Eric is, Bill heads off to kill him. Tommy takes advantage of Sam once more and Lafayette learns about his powers. Love makes people do strange things and Sookie appears to be the fount of all love. Unfortunately, Bon Temps seems to be the fount of all stories, most of which refuse to go anywhere in a forward direction or have any relationship to each other. TopThe Cold, Grey Light Of DawnBill realises that the resurrected witch could drive all vampires into the light and so orders that they all be restrained with silver. There is at least a central plot to this episode, although so many others stories are floating around that it barely manages to keep its head over the parapet and seems to consist mainly of vampires rehashing the plot as they lie down and await the test. It's inevitable that someone will break their chains and even who it will be, which makes the cliffhanger far from surprising. What is surprising is how dull the show is getting. TopSpellboundHaving survived the night against the witch Antonia's spell, Bill sets up a meeting to discuss peace - a meeting that can only end one way. The interminable soap opera that his TRUE BLOOD churns on with uninteresting plotline after uninteresting plotline involving people who are becoming more and more unlikeable with every passing episode. There is little sign of convergence and yet with all these disparate stories meandering on and on there is still time for a pointless fantasy sex sequence in which Eric and Sookie finally make out, apparently in a snowstorm. It might even be hard to follow what was going on if we could bring ourselves to care. Thank goodness then for the one single plotline that is of any interest - the central war between the vampires and the witches. Shame it takes up maybe ten minutes of the running time. TopLet's Get Out Of HereThe witch Antonia has Eric under her spell and the Festival of Tolerance is to be her next target. The story of the ghost of the might-be-possessed baby is finally over and can be consigned to the dustbin of couldn't-care-less. It is one less plotline to worry about though. Sam's troubled lovelife continues to cause problems and his brother just can't help making things worse. Jason and Jessica get it on at last... With all these plotlines going on you would think that there would be no need for filler, but this episode has a whole dream sequence based around Sookie, Bill and Eric that serves no purpose other than to ramp up the sex content and waste some time. When the main plot comes back into focus things move better and faster, but the rest of the show is just becoming more tedious each week. TopBurning Down The HouseFollowing the massacre at the peace conference, Bill determines to destroy the witch Antonia once and for all. Sam loses a brother and Andy Bellefleur is helped by one. The soap opera that is TRUE BLOOD chunters on, but at least another of the storylines is removed as Sam Merlotte’s fairly redundant brother shuffles off the mortal coil. The intervention into Andy Bellefleur’s drug addiction is irrelevant to any other plot and Jason and Jessie’s love situation is equally boring and irrelevant to anything. The central plot at least provides a focus whilst it is being played out, but there is a very strong sense that the plot arc isn’t sufficient to fill out the whole season and so a good deal of filler is being applied to stretch it beyond its natural length. TopSoul Of FireThe vampires decide that it's time to take on the witch once and for all, but now that she has Sookie, she demands that both Eric and Bill walk to their certain deaths. There is only one real distraction to the main plot as the witch Antonia and the vampires face off against each other, so the tension and action of the main plot isn't weakened too much and the inherent drama of a seige situation is maintained. Admittedly, the lack of anyone else happening to notice a war taking place in an urban area makes it pretty unrealistic to say the least. The one distraction comes in the shape of Sam and Alcide finally taking on the pack leader for the affections of his ex-wife and it's really, really hard to care what happens at all. The final scene twist just has too much a sense of 'What? Again?' to be anything other than anticlimactic. TopAnd When I DieLafayette is possessed once more and goes after the vampires. Only raising the spirits of the dead can save them, but will those spirits leave as easily as they came? The action was all over in last week's explosive episode and this finale is something of an extended coda that is neither needed nor particularly wanted. Loose ends are neatly tied up just in time to introduce a whole new set in order to create the cliffhangers for the next season. All in all it's a pretty unsatisfying way to end the season. Top |
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