True Blood - S4 - this week's episode and a review of Ponyo

[shadowkat]

Not as good an episode as the earlier ones, or as funny. Also, it's probably just me, but Alan Ball has a way of distancing me emotionally from his characters, had the same reaction to Six Feet Under and American Beauty - there's this satirical commentary going on, which makes it hard for me to care what happens to them. I feel at times as if they are a social commentary, as opposed to actual characters.
This was less true with Six Feet Under. Again most likely just me. Mileage varies.

The other issue I have with True Blood - is more or less the same one I had with Charlain Harris' novels (Sookie) , and with Vamp Diaries (Elena) and Twilight (Bella) , and well the Buffy comics...(although I had other issues with those which I will not bore you with again). I can't stand the female protagonist. I keep wanting to smack her upside the head. Seriously, she keeps reminding me of Charles Starkweather's brain-addled girl friend (portrayed by Sissy Spacek in Terrence Malik's classic film Badlands). Yes, I get that you are deeply in love with a vampire who well is addicted to killing people. But - can you at least be understanding as to why everyone else might want your life-sucking vamp boy-toy dead? Hello. Self-preservation and all that. Granted he might give you a happy, but he just tore your best bud's heart out or was that her boyfriend's neck? Let's get a grip. At least (tv) Buffy went after Angel and Spike with a stake on occasion. Granted, she didn't go through with it obviously, nor was it necessarily always consistent but hey, let's at least applaud the occasional attempt, shall we? (This is the problem with making vampire/villain characters hotter/sexier than your human characters - you have to find ways to keep them wandering around preferably boinking the heroine, or your tv show will get canceled.)



*Tara to Marnie: Wait, we are actually killing vampires? We're not just protecting ourselves from them.
*Marnie/Antonia: Do you really think they deserve to live? All vampires must die. Cease. At least in my day they hid, they didn't walk around as if they were human and could do whatever they wanted.
*Tara: Okay, I agree. I'd be much happier if they ceased to exist.
[Can't say I blame Tara. Seriously, this girl has been threatened, raped, almost killed numerous times, and almost turned into a vampire. If I were Tara, I'd want vamps gone too.)

Yet...Sookie is shocked Tara is on the witches side and fighting vampires. Okay, Sook, what part of "I was raped, kidnapped, tied up and almost killed by a vampire" did you not understand? Or that neither Bill nor Eric lifted a finger to stop it? With friends like Sookie, who needs enemies, well unless you are a vampire of course.

Jessica was saved by Jason Stackhouse as I predicted. And Hoyt was kicked to the curb, or rather Hoyt kicked Jessica to the curb. (I'm admittedly Not a fan of Hoyt, I think he's ugly, dull, and bit dimwitted. Sort of Riley without the sex appeal. Don't understand why so many people like him - maybe because he's ugly, dimwitted and dull? And not hot?) Then Jason, in a fit of loyalty to Hoyt, kicked poor Jessica to the curb again. I feel sort of sorry for Jessica, she's actually the only decent vamp in the bunch.

And oddly, I feel sorry for skanky Debbie the Werewolf as well. Doesn't Sookie have enough men drooling after her? Now, we've got Alcide too? Will state that the actor playing Alcide is definitely the best looking of the bunch, although I have a thing for tall blond guys with blue eyes. What is Alicide doing?? What part of - let's stay out of the vampire/witch war did you not understand?
I mean seriously, new were-pack leader dude may be a bit on the creepy biker side of the fence, but at least he's sensible. Getting involved with vamp's is bad news. Also Debbie's right - Sookie has a thing for vampires.

Surprisingly, Bill saved Tara from getting offed by one brassed off Pam. I was in quandry...I adore Tara, more than Pam, but I could see where Pam was coming from on this one. Also, Bill - you couldn't have saved Tara from Franklin Mott while you were at it - granted that was last season, water under the bridge and all that...but. Hmmm, speaking of last season, Tara did sort of aid Sookie in saving Bill's ungrateful ass - so Bill, you frigging owe Tara! So, does Sookie for that matter.

Sookie and Eric make love (again) and share blood - which leads to a really boring trippy dream sequence. (This all happens before the events described above, because my mind refuses to recant this in chronological order for some reason). We do get the hot shower scene (well at least it was hot in the book, not so much here), which leads to the whole snow bit. Then Eric asks Sookie to run away with him. He'll never have to remember. They can live happily ever after - vampire and fairy.
Tra-la-la. But Sookie just can't leave Bill and Jessica and Bon Temps to the mercy of the evil witches. (Apparently witches are evil if they hate vampires and want to kill them, because hating vampires is so unjustified.) Sookie: I can't leave my friends to be killed by hate! (Now why on earth would anyone in their right mind hate and want to kill a vampire? Let me think. It's not like they've killed anyone, or raped anyone, or live forever...)

Sookie to Eric: All we do is make love.
Eric: What's wrong with that?
[Outside of it being really boring to the viewers? Nothing much.]

On a positive note - Sookie's light power is somewhat effective. Unfortunately she's not that great at fending off bullets, quite yet. Vampires and supernatural dudes - no problem. Bullets - a problem.
And placing Eric in Marnie's hands - not the best idea - considering.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, we go back to our other sub-plots, which still have no bearing whatsoever to the vampire/witch subplot that I can see. (This is typical of soap-operas by the way, so no big surprise).

* Sam is still mooning after Luna. Unfortunately Alcide and Debbie's new pack-master is Luna's ex-hubby, and he's none too pleased to see Sam hanging about making nice with his daughter and wife.
The daughter, Emma, is clearly terrified of her Daddy and asks Sam to stay. While Luna threatens him with talking to his parole officer.

* Sam swears Tommy's left town. He threw Tommy out. While he can forgive Tommy for killing their parents, who admittedly had it coming and are not missed by anyone including the audience, he can't forgive Tommy for pretending to be Sam, sleeping with Luna, and treating her like shit. (Can't say I blame him. That was just skanky.) Did Tommy leave town and therefore the show? We should be so lucky.
Because nope - he shows up again, this time as Hoyt's mom, and manages to swindle her out of her home, then gets predictably sick in the woods. OTOH - watching assorted actor's do impressions of Tommy is not all bad - there's a certain entertainment value in that. To date - the actress playing Hoyt's Mom gets the reward.

* Lafayette has gotten possessed by the Creol Woman Ghost - who is haunting Arlene and Terry, because demon voodoo baby doll is in reality the doll she bought for her baby ages ago. So it's not demon voodoo baby doll after all, so much as baby doll possessed by sad Mama spirit. Mama's baby was killed by nasty white guy that she was having an affair with back in the day. And something happened to Mama too...because she's clearly dead and haunting Bon Temps - in search for her baby. Discovering that she can possess Lafayette - she does and uses Lafayette to grab the baby. (Poor Lafayette, he has about as much luck in personal relationships as Tara. He was doing quite well until Jesus popped up and awakened his ability to commune with spirits - now he's almost as bad as Marnie. Also aren't spirits supposed to get permission first? No, wait, that's the Dresden files. True Blood's rules are a bit more sketchy.)

At any rate...let's all say a fond farewell to the demon baby voodoo doll storyline, which apparently existed only in the audience's minds. Much preferred it to the ghost story line. But that's just me.

* Back to Sookie and her friends...they are in the grave-yard, stupidly fighting the witches. Sookie can you be any dumber? First you decide to give your blood to silvered Eric, not only give it, but share blood with him - god that must be some great sex. Next, you talk him into helping you fight witches for Bill - after your Gran warned you to stay away from Marnie and away from Eric. Why she bothered, I've no clue. Finally, you are shocked to see Tara fighting vampires....?? Are all fairies this dumb or is this just a Stackhouse trait? Having met Jason, and Grand-daddy, I'm guessing a stackhouse trait.

I almost applauded when Sookie got shot. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving heroine.

Tara on the other hand, I keep worrying about. Tara, Pam, Eric, and Lafayette. Jason needs to get rid of that goatee...it is not flattering on him.

Favorite part of the whole episode - the closing song, Spellbound, which I really must locate for my ipod.



In other news? I watched True Blood tonight, because I watched Ponyo courtesy of Netflix last night - which was a sweet little twist on The Little Mermaid. Japanese anime often addresses fears of natural disasters and ecological themes. In this children's film, directed and created by the same guy who did Princess Monoyoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away, Ponyo is a little mermaid who wishes to be a real girl and live with boy she has met and fallen for. She throws the earth out of wack in her desire to become human and give up magic. To give up what she is to join his world. There's a dozen odd themes in this story, some that make me uneasy, and some that are quite joyous.
The men in the film are captains, ruling or controlling the sea, the women float within the sea or live on land without fear of it. The earth out of balance - which causes the tsuanmi, the female character wanting to leave home and joining the male home and his ability to love her as she is...without magic, the test...it works and doesn't work. Much like the Hans Christian Anderson tale upon which it is based. I rather love how a tale created in one land, can be reinterpreted in another, yet contain the same uneasy themes. This tale ends happier than Anderson's fairy tale did.
But most re-interpretations of Anderson's tales do. I've only seen one version that followed Anderson's take to the letter.

At any rate, I recommend Ponyo with a caveat. It's not as good as either Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away. And it's themes are well...a bit chauvinistic and gender biased. Other than that...a good flick.

Off to bed.