True Blood: Seasons 1 & 2 In Review
At the heart of True Blood is a mundane romance playing out between the show’s main character Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and history’s most sedated vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
If Jon Bon Jovi and Heath Ledger had a child with the personality of Winnie The Pooh’s Eeyore and the voice of Sling Blade’s Karl Childers, you’d have the equivalent of True Blood’s Bill Compton…
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An energy drink to the the morose vampire Compton is Sookie Stackhouse, a telepath who is suppose to hold a high level of importance to the ongoing saga. Sookie consistently gets sidelined by the show’s supporting characters and short-lived storylines far more interesting than the undeveloped, yet somehow strong relationship which has taken shape between Bill and Sookie. In particular, True Blood’s scene-stealer is Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley) who is dealing with demons both internal and external. Whenever True Blood seems like it might go somewhere, the main characters are there to revert viewers back to the lowest form of entertainment –a cable network soap opera disguised as supernatural vampire story, with nudity and profanity used to distract spectators from the lack of substance in front of them.
There is a collective absentmindedness between director, cast, and crew when it comes to the storyline and dialogue. Towards the end of the second season, the show takes place in Dallas, Texas while the core of characters hail from Bon Temps, Louisiana. Keep in mind a flight from Baton Rouge to Dallas is around 3 hours. Yet in one particular episode, Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack) manages to drive back to the bayou, leaving in the middle of the night, arriving in Bon Temps with time enough to spare before sunrise so he can have a second turn with the virginity (it grows back) of 17-year-old vampire Jessica Hamby (Deborah Ann Woll).
Apparently everyone involved in True Blood lacks a sense of time and distance. This holds true throughout the series as it’s nearly impossible to get a grasp of the show’s timeline. While Sookie is held hostage by the Church Of The Rising Sun for what seems like a single evening, we later learn it was 2 days. This left me wondering what kind of stamina it would take to run for what we now know is 2 days straight as Jason Stackhouse did in an effort to rescue his sister Sookie. This also discounts the fellowship of spectators who gathered together the evening of Sookie’s capture for a lock-in, which promised a sunrise complete with a sizzling vampire Godric (Allan Hyde). It further leaves me wondering why there would still be time left for vampires and humans to join in a mid-evening social at Godric’s place. On second thought, it does make a convenient location for everyone to be should the evening end with a bang by a visiting suicide bomber.
Convenience is at the heart of the ongoing plot and the show asks too much of the audience to suspend certain laws of physics which exist even in places where the mythological have gathered.
There are some other quirks in the show. In the first season, sleeping with Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) is the same as wearing a red shirt in Star Trek. Jason’s latest conquest is there to provide viewers with a little T&A prior to their demise from the series.
Rounding out the supporting cast is Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), who is a gay, drug dealing black man strong enough to kick any redneck white boy’s ass, yet human enough to become fragile after nearly a month chained up in a vampire’s basement. Lafayette is by far the show’s most diverse character. A Fanedit could significantly improve the world of True Blood if told through the eyes of Lafayette and his cousin Tara. As Laura Eaton puts it:
Watched True Blood. Although most of it is awful; I keep watching for side characters/stories which are pretty interesting. Way too many soap opera moments where I want to puke/scream/watch Sookie turned and burned. Sounds harsh, but frustrated that an idea with such potential is again ruined by bad writing/directing/acting. I'm not watching Days of Our Lives. I wanted to see a kick ass vampire show. Fan Edit Anyone?
What inspired me the most to do this review though is Anna Paquin’s portrayal of Sookie Stackhouse. Her constant eye batting and head nodding makes me feel she could go into an epileptic seizure at any moment. I’ve come to despise any scene where Sookie has dialogue in particular because of the absurdity of her comments:
“I don’t know. Maybe cause lately it seems like if I called in sick every time someone I love got murdered I’d never make it in for a single day of work.” Self-centered twit, only her grandmother died. The others were the girls her brother Jason had a roll in the hay with.
“God damn it, Bill Compton. I love you.” Self explanatory.
“You're walkin' in my shoes and it's givin' you blisters.” In response to boring Bill feeling responsible for her and the 17-year-old vamp he made.
“When I get nervous, sometimes I talk too much.” Unfortunately this moment of enlightenment is followed by an onslaught of nonstop Sookie babble. She must always be nervous because she never seems to shut up, though, “Shut up!,” is also a frequent line.
Like Laura, I have wishful thinking for Ms. Stackhouse to be turned and burned. Unfortunately, this would be similar to wishing for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter to die off shortly after book 2, and Charlaine Harris has crafted an entire world around the bland Sookie Stackhouse. I have no desire to read the books because the show has turned me off from anything related to Sookie as well as anything Paquin.
Out of curiosity, I’ll watch season 3 to see if it gets worse. Right now I feel like popping in X-Men and rooting for Magneto to kill off Rogue. In an ongoing series like this, ingesting one scene after another with the same characters, it becomes easy to see Paquin lacks the acting talents for a starring role. As a viewer, I was so filled up with what the show hoped to be secondary character appetizers, I couldn’t stomach the main course.
