Monsters of Television

“You’re going to invite me in so I can protect you. Or have passionate, primal sex with you. How about both?”

The ties that bind us to the people in our lives are extremely important. Be it family, friendship or protecting you from a group of werewolves who have kidnapped your boyfriend (I hate it when that happens) the people in your life are there for a reason. As revelations lead to more questions, True Blood sets alliances as season 3 continues to waste no time getting down to business.

Give Nelsan Ellis an Emmy right now. He played his scenes with so much emotional subtext under an unusually calm exterior. After stopping Tara from swallowing a bunch of pills Lafayette lays into her, telling her he’s not ready to plan her funeral so she can’t leave him yet. Then he takes her to see his mother, Ruby, who’s been in a mental institution for 6 months. Lafayette walks into the room like a scolded puppy as Ruby announces her son is dead, “God killed him because he’s a fagot”, but he keeps on showing up. Tara thinks they’re there to have her committed as well but Lafayette wanted to show Tara to emphasize the darkness in their family. The two of them have to stick together to ensure they don’t end up like their mothers. Here we also learn this is why Lafayette engages in some of the…less than legal activities that he does. Keeping his mother there is very expensive but he pays for it because he doesn’t want to take care of her himself. Read more »

“I’m in no mood for lesbian weirdness tonight, Pam.”

The wait is finally over! After 9 months True Blood is back and wasting no time jumping right in. The first few minutes were dedicated to “remember this character and what they were doing?” which is always an appreciated season premiere tactic. But it wasn’t just story we were being reminded of, also tone and style. “Remember how much True Blood loves violence and tits?” As if we could forget. From a group of werewolves chowing down on Vampire Bill to Eric’s 6 hour sexcapade with new Fangtasia dancer Yvetta (6 hours!?) it didn’t take long for us all to say “Why yes, I remember you, True Blood. Welcome back.” Read more »

Note: This is a retrospective of a television season in preparation for an upcoming season premiere, like one of those “previously seen on” sequences before the show starts (maybe with a bit more snark), basically a reminder to those that have already watched. I warn you: there are spoilers below. If you want to catch up naturally, now is your time to leave and pick up the recorded media of your choice and catch up. Then come back later.

Let’s just get this out there off the bat: I had a huge aversion to True Blood initially. It’s not because I hate vampires. Interview with the Vampire is a favorite book and film of mine. I’m even somewhat interested in the Twilight films. But the huge and rabid fandom of the show was off-putting to me. And I don’t like Anna Paquin. But when it was given to me as a summer assignment for the blog, I put all that aside and actually gave it a try. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Read more »