True Blood 3x12

Alright, Eric and King Russell are charring in the sunlight, while Sookie’s fairy blood is running out. Eric is having a visitation of Godric’s ghost, begging him to show forgiveness. Inside Fangtasia, Sookie is having some kind of close encounter of the fairy kind with a shining chandelier in the woods. When she comes to she uses her power to flash a light bolt from the palm of her hand to break the silver handcuff and drag Eric back in, but leave Russell smoldering outside. I have to admit, that was a nice opening of the season finale. Sookie guards the king during the day, tied with silver chains to a stripper pole, and drains Talbot’s bloody remains down the sink when she grasps that the king is hoping to use her blood to bring his lover back. (Why is it that the king can stay awake, while Bill, Eric and Pam need to sleep?) Russell does put a thought in her mind: can you ever trust a vampire?

The king admires Bill’s restraint and intelligence, but implies that most other vampires would not be able to control themselves after tasting her blood. If it were up to Fellowship of the Sun freak Steve Newlin, of course, you should never trust a vampire, and Russell’s cold blooded murder of a new anchor on live TV shows as much. Nan Flanagan, that hypocritical Vampire League spokeswoman with a penchant for sucking ladies, counters that you cannot generalize from the actions of one mad man. Bill later explains that he will kill all vampires who know that Sookie is a fairy – and will even protect her from a distance if she won’t let him near her ever again. He loves her like he has loved no one before. Eric, though, informs her that Bill was sent from the start to procure her on the behest of Queen Sophie-Ann – and even set those rednecks on her so he could save her and give her his blood. Sookie rescinds her invitation when Bill admits it’s true. He returns home where he attacks Sophie-Ann crouching-tiger, hidden-dragon style.

Sam finally has the guts to tell Tara he is a shape shifter. She freaks the hell out. She’s had enough of all the supernatural stuff happening around her lately, vampires and maenads and werewolves. At the end of the day, she drives off in her car to leave Bon Temps and start a new life. Sam, though, discovers that his brother is missing and his safe is cracked. Tracing Tommy into the woods, Sam raises his gun and when his brother refuses to give him the money, he fires. (And as heartless as it sounds, all I can say is: good riddance. Sam’s whole subplot this season was tiresome.) Hoyt has rented an apartment so he can live together with Jessica, despite his mother’s grievances. He tells Jessica he would like to marry her. Meanwhile his mother is buying an anti-vampire rifle. For his part, Jason has taken it upon himself to protect the Hotshot community, after Felton killed his father Calvin and drove off with Crystal and a box full of vampire blood. Lafayette is still hallucinating and finds some weird comfort learning from Jesus that he’s becoming sensitive to the magic around him – and Jesus himself is a witch (but we already guessed that).

At night, Bill and Eric bring Russell to a construction site of Alcide’s father, and dump the king with silver chains in a bath of cement. Bill takes the opportunity to kick Eric in another pit and pours cement over him as well. (How is it that Eric is able to return, but Russell won’t?) Sookie visits her grandmother’s grave, to be with the one person who loved her unconditionally, feeling all alone on this earth. Then her fairy sisters, and an odd bare-chested fairy brother, invite her to join them to their world. With nothing left to leave behind, Sookie steps into the poltergeist light. In all, this hardly felt like the end of the season. So much has been set up for the fourth season, it’s like we are already there. I’ve given up on worrying too much about all the subplots that have nothing to do with Charlaine Harris’ original. Overall, I guess this season was a little better than the second, but not as enjoyable as I remember the first was.

True Blood 3x11

So, Eric has imprisoned Sookie in his basement. Bill tries rescuing her, but Pam restrains him with the vampire version of pepper spray: colloidal silver. It is one of Eric’s human lovers who releases Sookie and together they overpower Pam with a silver chain. Meanwhile, Eric tells King Russell that they are even: Russell killed the people he loved, and he has had his revenge by killing the person Russell loved. Eric explains that Sookie’s fairy blood allows vampire to become daywalkers. Russell is thrilled. At Fangtasia, Eric and Russell drink from Sookie, while Bill looks on enraged, tied to a chair with silver chains. Eric walks into the sunlight, followed by Russell a few minutes later. Already charred, Eric handcuffs Russell. “Be brave,” he says, “we’ll die together.” Okay...

Hoyt and Jessica are back together. She confesses that she enjoys drinking human blood and has killed someone while they were on their break. He tells her he loves her and doesn’t care. He offers her to drink his blood. Jason struggles with the news that his girlfriend is a werepanther but eventually accepts her. After their trip on vampire blood, Lafeyette still has delusional visions and asks Jesus to leave. What is this weird voodoo stuff about? Still drunk on Jack Daniel’s, Sam throws out all the customers at Merlotte’s. Only Tara stays behind – and they have sex again. It is all a little uninteresting. Unfortunately, this episode did not live up to the expectations set by last week’s. Because of Labor Day weekend, the season finale is next week. It better be good.

True Blood 3x10

So, Bill explains to Sookie that she is a fairy, as if we had not figured that out by now. But he also tells her that vampires think that fairies are extinct – after they had sucked every last drop of their intoxicating blood. Eric, too, knows that Sookie is a fairy and warns her not to trust Bill. In a dream she continues the conversation, intuitively knowing Eric is right. She visits Fangtasia to learn what Eric means. Instead, he takes her prisoner in his dungeonesque basement! He is planning on using Sookie and her fairy powers to defeat Russell. The vampire King has set off a serious backlash by murdering the news anchor on live television. Now he is mourning the death of his lover Talbot by hiring a male prostitute, saying his goodbyes and then staking him.

Instead of driving twenty miles to the nearest emergency room, meanwhile, Lafayette takes Crystal’s father Calvin to his porch and administers him a drop of vampire blood to heal his wounds. Enraged that two gay men gave him “vamper juice,” he disowns his daughter – telling her she should have married her half-brother Felton. “Them fuckers is a whole new dimension of trash,” Lafayette sighs. That same night, Jesus wants to try some V with Lafayette – and together they go on a psychedelic trip into their past watching their ancestors perform rites of witchcraft and black magic. One thing that has always puzzled me is how it can be that people go on a powerful hallucinogenic trip taking just a few drops of vampire blood, but when they gulp blood straight from a vampire, all it does is heal them.

Sam tries to calm his nerves with a bottle of Jack, which induces an interesting flashback to his past when he was a jewelry thief. His partner-in-crime, Charlene, was unaware, of courses, that he is a shifter. She double-crosses him with her boyfriend Jon, and in retaliation he killed them both. Not that I know what to make of the story. I get the impression the writers did not really know what to do with his character this season. Holly, the new waitress at Merlotte’s, we learn is a Wiccan – a practitioner of witchcraft, though not a witch herself. She offers Sam some herbs for his stress, but he refuses. But Arlene hopes Holly can help end her pregnancy of Rene’s child. For his part, Jason withdraws his invitation to Bill, because Bill chides him for not looking after Sookie. Then he hears someone breaking into his bedroom, only to find a beautiful black panther – that shifts into Crystal. Exciting as it is that he now finally knows she is a were, the transformation was disappointingly silly again.

Still, this was perhaps the best episode of the season thus far. And that is fascinating, because True Blood has created something almost entirely unrelated to Charlaine Harris’ source material. Some elements are, actually, preliminaries to the next season, Holly the Wiccan and Crystal the were-panther. In the Southern Vampire Mysteries, King Russell does not meet his true death, so we have to wait what will happen between him and Eric. The story arc this season seems to require that Eric will avenge his human father’s death. Apart from that I am curious what is going to happen with Tara, Lafayette and Jesus, Hoyt and Jessica, and if we are going to hear from Hadley and Queen Sophie-Ann. Well, there only two more episodes left, so we will find out soon.

True Blood 3x09

After their fierce bout of strangulation sex, Sookie and Bill take a relaxing shower together, with blood dripping from their naked bodies into the drain. Then it’s time to clean up the mess downstairs – including one dead werewolf. Later she gets a call from her cousin Hadley asking to meet at the aquarium in Monroe. Hadley admits that she told Queen Sophie-Ann that Sookie is a telepath, which is why Eric is so interested in her – and which is why Bill has been keeping a file on Sookie’s family. Crystal has convinced her boyfriend Felton that Jason kidnapped and raped her – just to avoid getting beat up again. But when Felton attacks Jason, she beats Felton over the head and ties him up. Later, at Merlotte’s her father Calvin comes barging in looking for her. Sam loses his temper and beats him to a pulp. Jesus and Lafayette have to rush him to the hospital, and Crystal joins them, despite Jason’s protest. Tara is left on the parking lot, shaken all over again from all the bad things happening around her. Suddenly Franklin appears out of nothing his usual psychopathic self. He’s still alive! But not for long, because Jason shoots him with a wooden bullet from his days at the Fellowship of the Sun.

Eric returns to Fangtasia, but finds the club raided by V-Feds. The whole spiel is a tad ridiculous, what with the storm troopers, the interrogation, the black jacket, and the webcams. With his hand forced by Nan Flanigan (the spokesperson for the American Vampire League, lobbyist for equal Vampire rights, and apparently a high-level bureaucrat in the Vampire “Authority”), Eric exposes King Russell’s quest for world domination, to subjugate the human race by employing werewolves. Eric also confesses that his family was killed by Russell’s wolves a thousand years ago in Sweden. Eric has been after Russell ever since, among the Aztecs, at the Sack of Constantinople, in the Wehrmacht. Meanwhile, Russell collects Talbot’s bloody remains in a glass urn – a disgusting sight. He looks on as Flanigan returns to deliver the Authority’s verdict. They will not persecute him or the king, but instead presume the investigation non-existent. They do expect Eric to eliminate Russell – without any official support. Then Flanigan drives off in her limousine, feeding on a naked woman (in spite of her public claim only to drink synthetic blood), while watching the news. Russell breaks into the studio, kills the anchor, and with the man’s bloody spine still in his hand, berates the human race for their spinelessness – proclaiming to the world his desire to feed on humans and their children.

Waking up from his subterranean sleep, Bill is surprised to enter the fairy glen around the bright-shining pool nearby a cemetery. He walks on the rose-petalled water and talks to Claudine. He ensures her Sookie is safe. She tells him he must have had so much of Sookie’s blood that he can visit their realm. We’re left at the point when Bill is about to tell her what her true nature is. But, of course, y’all know. It’s so nice seeing Lafayette and Jesus making sweet-talk. Fortunately, Jessica and Hoyt share a sweet moment, too. Then there’s Holly, the new waitress at Merlotte’s. (We’ll hear more about her next season.) She has a calming effect on Arlene who is distressed about the possibility that she’s pregnant from her diseased boyfriend, serial killer Rene. The many various minor plots do still distract from the main plot, though.

True Blood 3x08

Sookie awakes from her coma shrieking. She asks to talk to Bill privately and tells him they should no longer be together, because ever since she met him, her life has been in danger. They both cry. Alicide brings Sookie back home and tries to console her. He has to return to Jackson, though, when he hears Debbie has burned down his sister’s shop. Returning to Bon Temps as well, Bill wants to release Jessica from his control, but she feels alone and helpless. To protect her from the wolves and vampires heading their way, they practice fighting skills. Back in Jackson, Mississippi, Talbot complains that Russell is putting Sophie-Ann, Sookie, and Debbie before their relationship. But he brightens up, when Eric suggests he will keep him company when Russell leaves for Bon Temps.

Meanwhile, Jason, wanting to kill Bill because he’s furious for what he’s done to Sookie, gets a visit from Crystal. She’s run away from Hotshot. Happy to be together, they make love. Her father and boyfriend barge into Merlotte’s looking for Crystal. Sam and Tommy pick up their scent, and the Hotshot dealers, too, can tell Sam and Tommy are shifters. Sam’s birth parents have finally left, while Tommy stays with his brother. It’s about time, because this storyline has been tedious from the start. There was another nice scene, however, between Lafayette and Jesus, though I have no idea where all this is heading.

Sophie-Ann’s human lover Hadley, it turns out, is Sookie’s cousin. She’s sent by Eric to warn her of Russell’s coming and not to trust Bill. Before Sookie can ask any more questions, Hadley dashes off. Then Debbie arrives with her werewolves. Fortunately, Bill and Jessica wait for them and attack the wolves. Debbie makes her move and gets into a fist fight with Sookie. It’s an exhilarating scene! Debbie flees after Sookie gushes her with a pair of scissors. Downstairs, Jessica is caught by Russell. Bill demands he lets her go. Russell orders his wolves to attack Jessica, who flies off. When the King is tormenting Bill with his silver spurs, he suddenly has the awful sensation something is wrong with Talbot. In fact, Eric has just killed him. That sly double-crosser is out to avenge his father’s death. It is impossible not to admire his Nordic vigor.

With the threat gone, Bill and Sookie make love passionately on the bedroom floor. A little strangulation sex to release their anger. So, evidently, all is forgiven, and they are back together – despite everything. But what about that hot-blooded Alcide? I can’t wait for Jason to learn more about Crystal, because that is going to be exciting stuff. Lafayette and Jesus would seem to be an item again. (So sweet!) Tara is having nightmares about Franklin, who apparently is stone dead forever now. We’re left wondering what will happen with Jessica and her Hoyt, not to mention Russell and Sophie-Ann. And I haven’t even mentioned Holly, the new waitress at Merlotte’s... I remain curious what is going to happen in the last four episodes of the season as the main plotline – Bill’s kidnapping – has already been resolved.

True Blood 3x07

So, Tara has rescued Sookie from the King’s clutches. But Sookie won’t leave without Bill, who’s been tortured by his maker Lorena. Now Sookie impales Lorena. It’s a disgustingly bloody scene. Sookie is bleeding from Lorena’s attack; Bill is covered in wounds; and Lorena’s guts area spilling all over the slave quarters. Tara and Alcide urge Sookie to get away, but Debbie and Coot try to stop them. After a heated argument and struggle with his ex, Alcide kills Coot. Dashing off in his truck, Alcide kills one of the pursuing werewolves. In the back of the truck, Sookie hopes to save Bill by giving him her blood. It rouses a passionate rage to feed on her. When Tara later finds out, she throws Bill into the sunlight (he sizzles but doesn’t burn), and rushes a ravaged Sookie to the hospital. There, the doctors are puzzled to find Sookie has no blood type and responds violently to type O.

Sookie has fallen into a coma and dreams of a mysterious woman named Claudine, who takes her to a fairy world where scantily dressed men and women dance around a pool nearby a cemetery. When she drinks from the bright shining pool, Sookie says it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted. Then suddenly darkness descends on the fairy glen. Everyone dives into the pool, screaming and yelling that they have never seen a vampire before. Begging her to join them in the pool, Claudine warns Sookie never to let Bill “steal her light.” In the hospital, Jason has allowed Bill to give Sookie a transfusion of his blood. She comes to and screams at the sight of Bill!

Meanwhile, Eric cannot get Queen Sophie-Ann to say why she is so interested in Sookie, but draining her human lover, Hadley, gives him all he needs to know. Hadley whispers in his ear so we can’t hear. It should be obvious by now, though, that Sookie’s a fairy, just like Claudine. The Magister has been unsuccessfully torturing Pam in the basement of Fangtasia. Sophie and Eric arrive, admitting that they sell vampire blood. Then Russel walks in disavowing any allegiance to the Vampire Authority that the Magister represents. He even decapitates the Magister, after he wed Russell and Sophie under the threat of death. For his part, Jason is still dreaming about Crystal. “Never really thought I was smart enough to get depressed,” he sighs to Hoyt, who is still hurt about Jessica. And Sam finally convinces his brother Tommy to quit dog fighting for their parents.

We’re just halfway through the season, so I wonder what else is going to happen, as saving Bill from Russell’ Edgington happened toward the end of Charlaine Harris’ novel. Quite a few changes have been made to the original plot. The fanatical Fellowship of the Sun hasn’t returned. Eric hasn’t saved Sookie’s life by sharing his blood, and they haven’t shared an intimate moment. Bill merely ravages Sookie on his mad feeding frenzy, but hasn’t raped and mangled her. I’m not sure whether Tara killed Franklin, as the series keeps changing how vampires die their final death, but her whole subplot is new to the show. Overall, though, I find the season engaging enough even if it’s not always breathtakingly fascinating – what with all the distracting minor characters. Let’s see what will happen in the second half of the season.

True Blood 3x06

The King’s minions drag Bill and Sookie back to his mansion. Another fight ensues, in which Bill stakes one of the King’s vampires, Sookie begs Eric for help to no avail. Bill is taken to the slave quarters where Lorena is to kill him. Then Russell interrogates Sookie, about why Bill has been researching her family for telepaths, what that bolt of light was and what other powers she has, but she doesn’t have any answers. Lorena is loathe to kill Bill (heh, Kill Bill), but tortures him with silver blades and chains. She even allows weres (Debbie and Coot) to feed on Bill’s blood. Tara is also still in the mansion, tied up by Franklin. She deceives him into untying her and giving her his blood. Realizing Sookie is in the house, too, she sends her a telepathic message that she will come looking for her. Later Russell takes Eric to Queen Sophie-Ann, asking her to marry him, in return for which he will settle her debts. She reluctantly accepts. During the day, after crushing Franklin’s skull, Tara is able to rescue Sookie. They rush out. Sookie won’t leave before searching for Bill. Tara bumps into Alcide, while Lorena attacks Sookie – despite the daytime.

Crystal has told Jason to forget about her, yet still he pursues her. He arrives at her house with flowers, only to find she is engaged to some roughneck named Felton. I only have patience for Jason’s storyline, because of the anticipation for what’s to come next. But the whole ordeal with Sam and his blood family remains tiresome. His younger brother hopes to get out of his parents’ clutches through Sam. His mother urges him to realize, though, that his parents won’t be able to survive without him. Then it dawns on Sam that they are using his brother to earn money in dog fights. It was adorable seeing Lafayette fall for his mother’s nurse, Jesus. At first he thought he was “Satan in a Sunday hat,” despite his name, but after they open up to each other emotionally, they lean in and kiss. The two enter Lafayette’s home, talk religion before his syncretistic altar, but then hear men crashing his brand new car with baseball bats. It’s Felton and his crew. The two easily give the men a beating, but Jesus is appalled to learn that Lafayette deals drugs and vampire blood. He walks off. We are already halfway through the season and my enthusiasm starts to wane again. Let’s hope the show is going to up the ante soon.

True Blood 3x05

Freak Franklin has taken Tara to King Russell. He argues with Talbot over her (and finally I get to see Talbot’s fangs – he was human in the novel). When Bill walks in, Tara begs him to rescue her, but he dashes her hopes. Franklin gives Russell the files on Sookie that he found in Bill’s house – and informs him Sookie is actually already in Jackson. Then Viking vampire Eric arrives, requesting to hunt for Bill Compton, who he still blames for dealing vampire blood. Russell pretends not to know who or where Bill is, but when he walks in, Bill turns the tables on Eric. However, the King offers that he may know a solution to all their advantage dealing with the Magister, who he considers a relic of older days. Remember that Russell has been feeding his own blood to werewolves for centuries – and intends on usurping Queen Sophie-Ann’s realm. During the daytime, Tara tries escaping, but is caught by one of the King’s werewolves. That night, Franklin is inconsolable. She tries to calm him down, saying that it’s the other vampires she’s afraid of and that she has human needs, such as food. Franklin offers to turn her into his vampire bride – leaving Tara petrified.

Bill scoffs at the files Franklin brought to the King, but Russell suggests that he has been tracing Sookie’s family tree in hopes of finding other telepaths – something that apparently has something to do with Bill’s human past. Then the werewolf who caught Tara interrupts their conversation and later taunts Bill that Sookie is sleeping with a were right there in Jackson. When Talbot leads Eric around the mansion, Eric notices a crown. In an fascinating flashback we learn that Eric’s human father was killed by werewolves on the order of a dark, hooded figure. Eric has sworn to avenge his father’s death. For her part, Sookie wakes up in Alcide’s apartment to the sound of Debbie’s angry voice. She’s warning Alcide not to tell anyone about the King’s appearance at Lou Pine’s. The were has to drag his hot-tempered ex out when she sees Sookie – but not before the telepath has probed her mind about Bill, to no avail. Sookie has only one option left, to find Russell, but Alcide must first confer with his packmaster Colonel Flood. The packmaster let’s Alcide know that Russell has had werewolves at his behest for centuries. Sookie catches that the Colonel is too scared to do anything against the vampire king. Later Bill arrives to warn Sookie about Russell. Before he can convince her, however, the King also arrives. When a were tries to grab Sookie, she suddenly bolts a flash of light at him to the King’s great delight!

Back in Bon Temps, Sookie’s brother shows up for his first day at the police station to everyone’s consternation. Andy Bellefleur just doesn’t have work for him, other than filing documents and answering the phone. Jason still needs to pass his physical and written exams. Eventually, Andy lets Jason wash the police cars. Then the blonde from Hotshot drives by and Jason chases her in one of the cars. He asks for his license and registration; she just laughs – Jason is shirtless, has no badge or gun. He introduces himself, asks her name, and invites Crystal to Merlotte’s. She refuses. That night, though, Jason finds her outside the bar and persuades her to go for a walk. They evidently bond, but she has a secret she dares not share with him. They’re adorable! Meanwhile, there’s trouble in Sam’s birth family, but no one tells him what exactly, but his father and brother keep fighting. Lafayette is approached by his mother’s male nurse, ironically called Jesus, who has a crush on him. Jessica learns to charm humans, but is jealous when she spots Hoyt with a new date. There are still too many distracting plotlines, but overall the episode was entertaining enough. The season is starting to shape up nicely with sufficient promise interesting developments.

True Blood 3x04

As the plotlines are starting to entwine, things are becoming a bit more interesting on True Blood. While Sookie is in Jackson, Mississippi, with werewolf Alcide, she receives a call from Bill – post-coitus – telling her to forget him because he is with Lorena now and has only caused Sookie harm. Although she is distraught and finds comfort in Alcide’s warm body, she disbelieves Bill. It is too much out of character for him to break up over the phone. He must be held against his will. So she continues her search to find him – and uses a were’s initiation rite to learn more about Bill’s kidnapping. Actually, it’s Alcide’s ex-girlfriend, Debbie, and to look like she could kick some serious ass, Alcide’s sister gives Sookie a full biker-chick make-over – except it makes her look like Angelica Houston to these eyes. During the ritual in Lou Pine’s (yes, I get it now, it’s a pun on “lupine”), King Russell makes an appearance to offer his blood to the biker-wolf pack. Soon all weres start to change and Sookie needs to make sure she gets out alive fast.

Bill is still held in the King’s estate and intimates to Lorena he feels nothing for her, punching her against the wall to prove his point. She only enjoys his rage. The King promises Bill they will get rid of Lorena once Bill succeeds in helping Russell usurp Queen Sophie-Ann’s kingdom. Bill informs him that Sophie uses Eric Northman to sell vampire blood to human addicts – which is considered a blasphemous sacrilege punishable by a second death. Soon, Eric’s club is raided by the Magister, but Eric blames Bill and pretends that must be why Bill is missing. Meanwhile, scumbag Mott is prodding Tara for information about Sookie, mesmerizing her to call Sookie and get her whereabouts. But Sookie is too distraught about Bill to talk to Tara. Mott ties Tara up for the day and kidnaps her the next night – driving her, you guessed it, to King Russell in Jackson, Mississippi. Then there are several minor subplots that still distract the Cricket from the main story arcs: Sam and his family drama; Jason trying to become a cop by blackmailing the new sheriff, Andy Bellefleur; and Jessica working as a new waitress in Merlotte’s. Over all, though, the episode was more focused than before this season. And the more entertaining it gets, the less I’m worried whether or not they strayed from Harris’ original.

True Blood 3x03

A werewolf stalks the Stackhouse residence back in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie shoots at the wolf, but Eric dives in front of the bullet. He may know where Bill is, Eric explains, but the were refuses to talk. When Eric notices the rune in his neck, he can no longer restrain his fury and kills him. The only thing Sookie could make out was something about Jackson. “Jackson, Mississippi,” Eric adds. Meanwhile in Mississippi, King Russell continues his conversation with Bill, while Lorena cools off from the burns sustained by Bill. Russell intimates that it is Lorena who wants Sookie dead, and that the only way to save her life is by joining the King. After Bill pledges his allegiance, Lorena seething with anger taunts Bill until he rapes her in his rage, twisting her neck until its facing backwards. Sam has returned to Bon Temps after his awkward reunion with his birth parents. Tara and Franklin enjoy a one-night stand at some seedy motel. Later Franklin visits Jessica to ask her about Bill and Sookie, and then he shows up at Sookie’s house, not knowing that’s where Tara is staying. He charms her with his mesmerizing glamour. And then there’s Alcide Herveaux, finally, the handsome werewolf sent by Eric to protect Sookie on her mission to Jackson. Once there, Alcide takes her to a bar frequented by werewolves, where she telepathically picks up a lead from one of Bill’s kidnappers.

I’m a little puzzled by some of the minor changes the series has made to Charlaine Harris’ original. Lorena’s last name in the novel, for instance, is “Ball” (not very imaginative, I admit, but still) which is changed to “Krasiki.” The bar in Jackson is originally called “Josephine’s,” although in the shape-shifting community it goes by the name that gave the title to the novel, Club Dead, but for whatever reason it has been changed to “Lou Pine’s.” Fortunately, though, they skipped the part about the goblin bouncer. And I’m glad they have left out vampire Bubba. Overall, I am still unconvinced the series is improving on the original, or even if it’s better than the previous season. There are, again, too many distracting subplots – and the two main plotlines are at the moment not particularly fascinating either. The situation between Tara and Franklin might become more interesting, but I have no clue where Sam’s subplot is going, or Jason’s. The scene of Sookie and Alcide in the bar went much too fast. She picked the brain of the right were in two seconds flat. And the rape scene was, well, gruesome. I know they need to establish that Bill was forced to have intercourse with Lorena against his will. I am enjoying the chemistry between Sookie and Eric, though, and I remain having high hopes for Alcide.

True Blood 3x02

Bill Compton ably defends himself from the pack of wolves that attacked him. Except, they’re not regular wolves, they’re werewolves! And they do the bidding of His Majesty the King of Mississippi, who has recruited the weres to escort Vampire Bill to him – not, allegedly, to kidnap him, drain his blood, and assault him. On his white steed, the King takes Bill to his estate and proposes he becomes a sherriff in his kingdom. The King would like to marry Queen Sophie-Anne and hopes Bill may facilitate the process. To put pressure on Bill the King threatens he’ll hurt Sookie – and when that doesn’t convince him, in walks Lorena. In his anger Bill throws an oil lamp at her, setting her ablaze. Tracing Bill to the car crash, with Jessica’s help, meanwhile, Sookie found a tattoo on one of Bill’s assailants that is supposedly associated with some Nazi werewolf command force. She shares the information with Eric Northman, who pretends not to recognize the rune. But suddenly a flashback takes us to Augsburg, Germany, 1945, where SS Vampires Godric and Eric intervene when a female werewolf attacks an American soldier – she bears the same mark. Other plotlines involve Lafayette saving Tara from committing suicide and taking her to see his institutionalized mother; Sam finding his birth parents who left him alone with his shape-shifting nature; and a new vampire (the actor James Frain, who played Cromwell in Tudors, and Barenboim in Hilary & Jackie), who we see going through a file full of clippings about Sookie, and later helps Tara beat the crap out of two racist bigots.

There is little that reminds me of Harris’ novel in this episode – I have to force myself not to let that bother me – well, the King’s human lover, gay Talbot, they kept that part. For his part, His Majesty is a fun new character, with his eighteenth-century aristocratic demeanor. The opening scene with the wolves was exciting, but their transformation to human form is a little silly; the same applies to Sam’s shape shifting. I am sure glad that Sookie’s brother Jason has left that fanatic Fellowship of the Sun (although those zealots will be back). I don’t think I’m giving away anything when I tell you that the blonde Jason spotted in Hotshot will be back. In the first season, I found Jessica perfectly annoying, but this thing with Hoyt is actually rather endearing. Sam’s storyline is in my opinion too sappy. Maybe they’re trying to tap it for emotional depth, or they just didn’t know what else to do with his character. And this leads me to my biggest complaint, that there are too many subplots involving the minor characters, which do not seem to contribute to the main plot. This, of course, is inherent with such a vast supporting cast. But it makes for unfocused storytelling – and with the plot wandering off the point, so goes my interest. Fortunately, I still have high hopes for the new characters, the King and Lorena, Franklin Mott and Alcide Herveaux – and I continue hoping they will stick close enough to the main storyline of the novel. Let’s tune in again next week!

True Blood 3x01

When we return to Bon Temps in rural Louisiana, you know you’ll get your fair share of rednecks and southern drawls, cretin bigots and fang-bangers. That’s right, it’s time for the third season of True Blood, the HBO series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. While I was much enthused by the first season, the second season mostly annoyed me, because of the many deviations from the novel I had just read. I will do my best to keep an open mind – it’s been a while since I read Harris novels anyway. Well, then, our beloved telepath Sookie Stackhouse has just been asked to marry 173-year old vampire Bill Compton. When she returns from powdering her nose, Bill is gone – and from the tell-tale signs Sookie is sure he has been kidnapped. Unfortunately, the local police are uninterested helping her find her vampire, as the whole town is still ravaged by the violent orgy inspired by Maryann the maenad.

Tara is mourning the death of her boyfriend “Eggs” Benedict and finds solace only with her drug-dealing, omni-sexual cousin Lafayette. With no help from the police, Sookie turns to the vampire sheriff of the area, Eric Northman (an eyeful of Nordic vigor). The Viking vampire nearly loses it when he hears Bill is gone. Making matters worse for him, the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne, pays him a visit with a Magister addressing the issue of excessive v-draining (illicit trade of vampire blood for human substance abuse). The intriguing part, however, is that her highness is in such financial duress that – after the Magister walks out – she urges Eric to sell his entire supply of blood overnight so she can handle her debts. On his journey to find his birth parents, former diner-owner Sam Merlotte has a weird homo-erotic dream about Bill. For his part, Bill has been kidnapped by some rowdy v-juice junks who strapped a silver chain around his neck. He manages to get the car tumbling off the road, but after sleeping and feeding, Bill finds himself in the Mississippi woods, surrounded by wolves.