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Aug. 31st, 2011 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat*Fairly quiet work week - due in part to a lot of folks being unable to get in or busy elsewhere because of the Hurricane or Tropical Storm. Depends on where you were. If you were in NYC or Philly or DC, it was barely a tropical storm, if you were in upstate NY, south shore Long Island, New Jersey, or Vermont, Massachustus and Connetitcut? Worste Disaster EVER! Roads, 100 year old bridges, and towns have been washed away, and still 38 million without power. In short, everyone in the city, myself included, dodged a bullet, I don't know about the rest, but I'm personally very thankful.
Posting from work, because quiet here and the day is slugging by..which is actually a good thing. I need a quiet week to decompress and recuperate, since next couple of weeks will be hectic.
* True Blood - picked up TV Guide and read the latest non-spoilerish teasing from Alan Ball regarding True Blood.
1. Ball keeps teasing that there will be a shocking character death - a beloved character will die. Yeah right.
Now, here's the thing - it all depends on whom you consider beloved and which character's deaths would be shocking - which varies viewer to viewer. There really is no consensus.
For me? I only really like a handful of characters, and there's only two that are deal-changers. (Eric and Tara - yes, I'm basically watching for Eric and Tara, if either or both left the show, I'm done. While I'd be upset if anything happened to Pam, Lafayett or Jason, I could still watch. But Eric and Tara would be game-changers.) As for shocking? The only shocking character deaths that I can see are Sam, Bill, Sookie, Eric, Tara, Jessica, or Lafayette. I can more or less see them killing everyone else off willy-nilly. As for characters that I sort wish Ball would kill off and are most likely "beloved" by other people, including Ball, indicating they NEVER will be killed off? Vampire Bill, baby. And well Sookie and Sam (I used to like Sam, but the past two seasons have made it rough going, that damn Minskes storyline). Those three characters aren't going anywhere, (unfortunately).
It sucks when you and the writers don't quite see eye-to-eye don't it?
2. The tease about the dreaded character coming back and the beloved one?
Obviously King Russell as the scarey/dreaded one - he's not really dead after all. As for the beloved one? Again depends on the definition. I'd say Godric, but we've already seen him on several occassions, he's not exactly "gone", dead maybe, but not "gone". He came back at the end of last season and made an appearance in this one already. This leaves Gran...(was she beloved by anyone but the characters? ) and, I'm drawing a blank. Who else have they killed off that was beloved?
3. Sookie chooses between the two vamps. Okay, the predictable choice is of course, Bill. But where can you go with it that you haven't already gone??? No, better to either go in the opposite direction, have her try both (which doesn't quite work either) or have her not choose either (which opens her up for a new love interest - but has the negative side-effect of making Sookie a bit too desirable to be real (aka Mary Sue), this is the problem with shows/books like this - after a bit the heroine looks like a piece of meat that all men fall for and desire.). Because regarding the Bill romance? Been there, done that. For about three years. What else can they say? She can always go back to Bill at series end of course, but to do so now......you are painting yourself into a corner. Whedon ran into the same problem with Buffy and Angel - he tried putting them back together in S3 and painted himself into a corner...there's no where to go. (happily ever after or marriage from hell isn't something writers do well in this particular trope - if that's your thing as a viewer - you are watching the wrong story! Or that's well, Arelene and Terry.)
I'm not a Sookie shipper (see number 1), or really a Sookie/Eric shipper, I just don't find Bill/Sookie to be interesting, predictable yes, interesting no.
They've done that trope so many times, they actually ran out of new story angles.
* Saw the first three episodes of the Australian series Rain Shadow last night, courtesy of netflix. Quite poignant. Stars Rachel Ward as a wizened veterinarian and Alison Thorne as her young and new assistant. They are veterinarians struggling to concel and remedy a serious sheep blight in the dry Australian Outback. It's a quietly moving drama...with a heavy focus on scenery and character. Worth the rental.
Posting from work, because quiet here and the day is slugging by..which is actually a good thing. I need a quiet week to decompress and recuperate, since next couple of weeks will be hectic.
* True Blood - picked up TV Guide and read the latest non-spoilerish teasing from Alan Ball regarding True Blood.
1. Ball keeps teasing that there will be a shocking character death - a beloved character will die. Yeah right.
Now, here's the thing - it all depends on whom you consider beloved and which character's deaths would be shocking - which varies viewer to viewer. There really is no consensus.
For me? I only really like a handful of characters, and there's only two that are deal-changers. (Eric and Tara - yes, I'm basically watching for Eric and Tara, if either or both left the show, I'm done. While I'd be upset if anything happened to Pam, Lafayett or Jason, I could still watch. But Eric and Tara would be game-changers.) As for shocking? The only shocking character deaths that I can see are Sam, Bill, Sookie, Eric, Tara, Jessica, or Lafayette. I can more or less see them killing everyone else off willy-nilly. As for characters that I sort wish Ball would kill off and are most likely "beloved" by other people, including Ball, indicating they NEVER will be killed off? Vampire Bill, baby. And well Sookie and Sam (I used to like Sam, but the past two seasons have made it rough going, that damn Minskes storyline). Those three characters aren't going anywhere, (unfortunately).
It sucks when you and the writers don't quite see eye-to-eye don't it?
2. The tease about the dreaded character coming back and the beloved one?
Obviously King Russell as the scarey/dreaded one - he's not really dead after all. As for the beloved one? Again depends on the definition. I'd say Godric, but we've already seen him on several occassions, he's not exactly "gone", dead maybe, but not "gone". He came back at the end of last season and made an appearance in this one already. This leaves Gran...(was she beloved by anyone but the characters? ) and, I'm drawing a blank. Who else have they killed off that was beloved?
3. Sookie chooses between the two vamps. Okay, the predictable choice is of course, Bill. But where can you go with it that you haven't already gone??? No, better to either go in the opposite direction, have her try both (which doesn't quite work either) or have her not choose either (which opens her up for a new love interest - but has the negative side-effect of making Sookie a bit too desirable to be real (aka Mary Sue), this is the problem with shows/books like this - after a bit the heroine looks like a piece of meat that all men fall for and desire.). Because regarding the Bill romance? Been there, done that. For about three years. What else can they say? She can always go back to Bill at series end of course, but to do so now......you are painting yourself into a corner. Whedon ran into the same problem with Buffy and Angel - he tried putting them back together in S3 and painted himself into a corner...there's no where to go. (happily ever after or marriage from hell isn't something writers do well in this particular trope - if that's your thing as a viewer - you are watching the wrong story! Or that's well, Arelene and Terry.)
I'm not a Sookie shipper (see number 1), or really a Sookie/Eric shipper, I just don't find Bill/Sookie to be interesting, predictable yes, interesting no.
They've done that trope so many times, they actually ran out of new story angles.
* Saw the first three episodes of the Australian series Rain Shadow last night, courtesy of netflix. Quite poignant. Stars Rachel Ward as a wizened veterinarian and Alison Thorne as her young and new assistant. They are veterinarians struggling to concel and remedy a serious sheep blight in the dry Australian Outback. It's a quietly moving drama...with a heavy focus on scenery and character. Worth the rental.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 06:54 pm (UTC)They still have the Jason/Jessica/Hoyt love triangle to exploit - so I think those three characters are fairly safe.
Same with the Alcide/Debbie/Sookie/Packmaster/Luna/Sam quad.
Which leaves Pam, Nan, Lafayette, Tara, and Jesus (all of whom I'd miss more than the characters listed above (with the exception of Jason).) Well and Holly. Holly is disposable.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 07:06 pm (UTC)I got Andy vibes because they've made Jason take his job and they gave Terry the family connection. But I may just be going Joss PTSD because Andy had a sympathetic scene so it must mean that he dies. He may be prefectly safe.
I came to the same conclusion as you about Jason/Jessica/Hoyte. I think that Jason is what finally (thank god!) did Tommy in. And it's amazing how the shift works. They tried to do a triangle last year with Tommy/Jessica/Hoyte and it did not work. But throw Jason into it, and suddenly it gels because Jason actually has a relationship with both Hoyte and Jessica and that is why it works.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 07:38 pm (UTC)Never really thought of it - that way. But you are right.
In a way the Jason/Jessica/Hoyt triangle got rid of two annoying characters - Tommy and Crystal, neither of whom, quite gelled. Bad casting and bad writing. Both came across as far too cliche and stereotypical of the Southern Hillbilly trope.
Not sure about Andy...they'd have to go out of their way to kill him.
And...they still have a ways to go with the whole Andy/Terry/Arlene story, plus the Bill connection which Andy still doesn't know about.
And well, Andy's v addiction and Andy's conflict with Jason..
I don't want Pam gone - because her backstory in the books is one of the few things I actually liked and they can do some stuff with her. But I'm not sure about Ball.
Nan - there's conflict there between her, Bill and Eric and she knows about Sookie now. So dumb to kill her off.
That leaves Lafayette, Tara and Jesus, unfortunately...I honestly don't know where they can go with those three. Really worried about Tara.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-31 09:22 pm (UTC)The only characters who seem absolutely safe are Bill, Sookie, Eric,
Jessica, Jason, Hoyt and possibly Sam/Luna/Packmaster/Alcide/Debbie...because I think that is next season's story thread.