Comments on: Review: True Blood

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:02:41 +0000

In the pilot, there’s a moment with the chain she picks up that is… either TK or badly done effects. There’s also a moment in the following episode that suggests TK. As Svenja said, they seem to have decided not to go that way with it, and chose to never explain it. It’s just… weird. And badly done.

I haven’t read that books! Not sure I ever will, after seeing that season.

By: Rissa Watkins

Rissa Watkins — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:35:22 +0000

What telekinesis? Which episode was that- she doesn’t have it.

Have you read the books by Charlaine Harris? The books are awesome and explain more about why Bill moved there. They also didn’t have the brother doing the religious stuff – that was added by the TV show. Ditto with Tara, heck I don’t think she was even mentioned much in the first few books, and she is never very central.

I brought a prejudice about Bill from the books. I can’t stand him. So I am not found of him in the TV show. I think their relationship has no chemistry, which is funny since they are a couple in real life.

By: Svenja

Svenja — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:26:20 +0000

I don’t watch much TV at all… I think that shows do suck you in, though, whether they’re crap or good. I call it the Soap Opera Syndrome, you just want to know what happens next! It’s a shame about this one though. The whole concept does have a lot of potential, as do some of the characters, it’s just somehow not realised. Which is a pity, given that vampires really DO need a better portrayal again one of these days.

Psst, there are ways of seeing the second season without paying for it… ahem.

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:21:47 +0000

So I didn’t imagine the vanishing telekinesis? Good to know. ;) Way to fail to account for things, writers.

I know whwat you mean about the crappy shows we love, Svenja. I watch much crappy TV and love it to bits. Good characters are what tend to hold me, I think, and interesting stories.

I wish True Blood was better. It’s a show of missed chances and fumbled balls. I’d be curious to see the second season, just to see if they manage to suck less, but I don’t know if I’d actually want to spend money on it. Sad.

By: Svenja

Svenja — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:29:40 +0000

I’ll admit to having seen all of this show… meaning the first two seasons, I think that’s all that’s out so far. Your review is pretty on the mark, though. It kind of felt like they wanted it to be gritty and a bit dark, but they had to overdo the blood and gore because they under-did it on the character front. Bill annoys me, Sookie frustrates me because she moons over him and she could be interesting but isn’t, Sam could be awesome if he just got over Sookie, Jason – well, I like Jason as a character, except yeah, the sudden attack of religion is really random and kind of spoiled his arc.

That said, I do like Eric. I don’t think he’s much of a character in the first season, and he has his shortcomings as well, but he’s interesting.

And totally, totally agreed on the porn thing. You could cut half of the sex out and not lose anything. A lot of it just seems gratuitous, kind of like the overabundance of gore. If they’d focused more on the characters and their struggles, maybe made some of them be less NICE, it’d work better. And yeah, Sookie accepts all the terrible things that happen far too easily, I think… and stays nice and lovely and concerned about everyone despite it. It annoys me. And Bill… don’t get me started. Could he get any more bland and boring? :D

Sookie’s telekinesis, though… I don’t think that was her. I read somewhere that they’d initially written someone else to be in the scene, hiding in the bushes or whatever, but they cut that out because it would’ve got too confusing.

Nice review. I think you’ve pretty much covered it all here. I’ll probably be watching the next season, though, once it’s online… I kind of want to know what happens next. What is it about some shows or stories that sucks you in even if they’re badly done, and other well-done ones just fail to hold your interest? At least, that seems to happen to me sometimes…

By: Jai Lee

Jai Lee — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:43:12 +0000

I don’t feel comfortable drawing further comparisons to Twilight without reading the books and watching the rest of the series. I do feel that it would be worth suffering the pain of both just to find them though.

Having grown up with the likes of Buffy & Angel as well as Rice, Stoker and (more recently) Harrison, Hamilton and Evanovich, I was lead to believe that Vampires are (often) evil, soulless killers. Perhaps this new culture of fluffy bunny vampires is something that needs to be stomped all over.
To be honest, I find myself wanting to walk away from vampire related things because of how ridiculous they have become over the last five years.

Reviews on True Blood have been in the shows favour from what I have seen as far as media and on Facebook, which begs the question: How is the writing team getting away with this garbage? Or perhaps the viewers expectations have dropped since the days of Whedon???

~JL

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:13:37 +0000

I completely agree about the issue of overpowering a vampire and draining their blood. Bill must be a useless vampire if those two twats in the pilot could overpower him so easily. It makes no sense, especially considering their next encounter. And why did he go outside with them in the first place?

Too often, the big invisible hand of the plot-driving writers fails to be invisible. Events and characters feel forced and illogical. Inconvenient facts are forgotten so they don’t get in the way. Sorry dudes, your viewers will notice.

As for Tara’s mooning over Jason – I didn’t mind that (though you’re right, Sam’s was very annoying) because it showed how broken she was. What did annoy me was that it never went anywhere. Where was her reaction when he was claiming to be actually in love with someone (Amy)? When it looked like he was growing out of Fuckadoodle into someone who might be attainable (as a boyfriend)?

I was just pondering the comparison to Twilight, and it makes me wonder something. If Twilight is a teenage girl’s fantasy, is True Blood for the boys?

By: Jai Lee

Jai Lee — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:53:13 +0000

In my personal opinion, I find this fairly well in the ball park as far as True Blood is concerned. Having only seen the Pilot (with you as it were) I found the whole thing weak and very 2D.

How those nut job’s manage to over power the vampires and drain their blood leave me with huge question marks hanging over my head. It’s the only instance where I see Twilight’s vampires having actual balls (and I refer to the non-vegetarian types ie. The Volturi)

Tara’s blatent desire to bounce all over Jason was annoying, as was Sam’s to bounce all over Sookie. I am not saying that every day people don’t walk around wanting to dig their fingernails into someone elses back, but I don’t thing there is any need to make it two thirds of a plot line and I use the term ‘Plot Line’ loosely.

I very much enjoyed your likeness of True Blood to a drunken sister, kudos on that one. Comparing the show’s sexual aspect to “Porn coming to fix the dishwasher naked” also deserves high praise.

All in all, I feel that just watching the Pilot has ruined reading the book(s) for me. However, I will probably attempt to at least start the first, no promises on finishing it though.

I just wan to know how on Earth this show ended up becoming so popular… Obviously it wasn’t the witty dialogue or thrilling adventures… must have been the sex, especially since the most thrilling thing I could see was the opening credits.

*sigh*