True Blood - Satisfy the hunger inside you.

"I don’t know what it is about me that makes people think I want to hear their problems. Maybe I smile too much. Maybe I wear too much pink, but please remember, I can rip your throat out if I need to and also know that I am not a hooker. That was a long, long time ago." Pam - TB Season Two

Being in full-on 'True Blood' mode I cannot stop devouring every peice of information I can gather whether it be book or show related. Blogs, articles, videos, facebook pages, you name it, I'm on it!

I started watching 'TB' season two last weekend and finished up last night, promptly delving right into three. Wow, It's amazing how I can watch this show over and over and still be surprised, excited, sad or just plain pissed! Season four is still eight long days away. They're right. Waiting Sucks! If I finish up season three before then... well back to season one I go!

I've read the books also, the show is better in many respects. When I first started reading the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries, True Blood was not around yet and wouldn't be for a couple more years. At the time I couldn't see how vampire stories really could get any better than this.

The first book is amazing. It really sets the tone. Vampires have lived amongst humans for... well, forever. They have decided to "come out of the coffin" once a japanese pharmaceutical company has developed a synthetic blood that vampires are able to "live" on as opposed to feeding from humans. (Where is the fun in that?)

Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic barmaid at Merlotte's, seemingly, the only restaurant / bar in all of Bon Temps, Louisianna. She doesn't know why she has been inflicted with this "curse" but she does her best to stay out of the heads of the people she loves. Sometimes it's not so easy. One day a vampire walks in the door and her life changes forever.

Charlaine Harris really did a fantastic job setting the foundation for Alan Ball. She had given him the canvas and a pallette of brilliantly vibrant colors and he created what we know as 'True Blood'.

I get so annoyed with people who say "why can't he go along with the books?" Honestly, what he has done has made the books more alive. Do we really want to see Lafayette die? Hell no! Do we want Jason to actually be a huge asshole? Not even a little. We love his S-L-O-W southern style.

Speaking of Jason, what's with all this buzz about HIS character being the one to come out as gay? I just can't see it. I mean, it would be like Lafayette realizing that he's a hetero! Doesn't work for me. Tara too... I know she has been jilted, but not enough to switch teams. Sam? Well, we know he drank a lot of Bill's blood and he had that dream about him. (When I watched that scene, I thought it was really happening... I was so confused!) But, you could tell how badly Sam wanted to shake it off. No pun intended.

I love Sam, not in the way I love Eric, of course. I love Sam as a big brother. He's dealing with demons of his own right now. Anyone that dealt with a childhood like his, you would think he would be a lot worse off. At the end of season three, he shot (at) his brother Tommy. I'm sure he didn't kill him. If he did though, I don't know if I can handle any more scenes with Joe Lee in his tighty whit... erm, brownies.

See... Sam is another Alan Ball "creation", if you will. Yes, he is in the books, but Ball gave him much more life than just his wild hair. (Something Charlaine Harris always mentions while writing about Sam.) Sams entire past was created through the show. We don't get much information in the books other than yes, he is a shifter and his "go to" shift is a Border Collie... and he, along with the huge plethora of Supes living in Renard Parish.. are in love with Sookie Stackhouse.

Sookie, Sookie, Sookie... I hate to say it, I think Anna Paquin is great and all, but Sookie is not one of my favorite characters in the series. I know, I know, she is the star. Maybe I'm jealous. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it. What has she ever done to me? The whole fae thing, and yes, I know I'm beating a dead horse... but I don't like it. It's exactly what has been turning me off so much in the books. I want vampires and werewolves and shifters... oh my! (That was insanely corny of me, wasn't it?)

The eight minute sneak peak intro I've been fed over and over again... just does not satiate this hunger I have. Queen Mab? She looks like Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus. The whole thing was just too silly for me. I think the only thing I did appreciate out of the whole thing was getting to meet Grandaddy Earl. I thought it was so sad that he had no idea that he had been on the "faery plane" for twenty years.

This does bring me to a question though.. and maybe I'm wrong somehow. But Why would HE be there? In the books they elude to Gran having an illicit affair with (and I can't remember his name now) a fae. So why would Earl, her husband be there? You'd think Sookie would find her father there, right? I'm going to have to do a little searching and see what I come up with.

I just learned something else from our little sneak peak... for those of you who read the books. You remember Claude? Claudine's (Sookie's... pffft... Fairy Godmother... yes, this lameness comes from the books.. the later ones.) I digress, in the books Claude is the sexiest man alive. But gay as they come. (*Sigh... isn't that always the way!?) In this little snippet we see a fairy who is trying to save Sookie and Grandaddy Earl from Queen Mab. That's him! Ewwww.... creepy! At first when I saw Barry the Bellboy's "fairy Godmother" I thought that was him... but I knew as hot as he was he couldn't be Claude. Then to find out that scary looking dude was him was just... weird!

The guy who is playing him is Neil Hopkins. Don't know who he is? Neither did I at first. He played Charlie's brother in Lost. Liam... heroine addict... ring a bell?

Claude as a scary fairy...

Neil Hopkins sans scary makeup...

Amazing what a little make-up can do! I still can't get over this being Claude. Having just learned all this... I know Claude's character is going to be a lot different in the show than the books. In the books... he never looked ugly and moreso... he wouldn't try to save Sookie. He's not a bad guy... er, fairy, he's just super selfish and quite the snob!

Ugh, I've said it once and I will say it again... and again... freakin' Fairies! I hope these eight minutes are not what the whole season is like. I would love it if the show started entirely different and this was just kind of a "fooled you!" from the people at HBO.

Stay True Blood

Here we are, just two weeks and a day away from the season four premiere of True Blood. I planned on cancelling HBO right after the finale last year as I never watch the channel otherwise. I never did though. How else would I be able to watch previous seasons On Demand?? OR get all my juicy little snippets from season four? Tom would highly disagree but the $14 a month is worth it.

Now down to business. I watched the six minute intro to season four episode one and can I just say... I am so freakin' sick of all these faeries! When Allen Ball created this show I (at first) was so happy he stuck with the books. Then with a little creative license, if you will, he turned something already cool into something totally awesome. He went in other directions Charlaine Harris was either too prudent to address or just doesn't have the wildly vivid imagination Ball undoubtedly possesses. Having read all but the last of the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries, I know they become stale and Harris is really reaching... especially in books nine and ten. What turns me off? All this faerie bullshit! Vampires are a given, werewolves, a must, shape shifters... adds a little somethin' somethin'... the fae and the witches? I can totally do without them. Ugh, even the Maenad of season two was just a little too silly for my taste.

If you are familiar with the books, you know that Lafayette's character dies in the beginning of book two. (and if you didn't know that... sorry... but you'll probably never read the books anyway.) Now think about the show and how different it would be without this integral character. He is by far one of the most popular characters in the series. He adds so much color and flavor to the story. He made it ok for a white girl from upstate New York to go around calling people "hookers". (I really love that!)

Do I like the story line of Lafayette and Jesus? Hell yeah! When they tripped out on V and we got an idea of what kind of magic they possess, I'll admit I was enthralled. I do wonder if Jesus is actually evil though. Could he be? He just seems too sweet and I don't want Lafayette's heart to break like his poor cousin, Tara. Did I just say that? Wow, now I know I miss this show!

Tara Thornton is quite possibly my least favorite character in the series. I feel sorry for her sometimes, but, pardon my french, she's a dumb bitch. *Please note.. I don't usually talk like that, especially calling other women bitches, let alone a dumb one. Well maybe I do but I certainly don't blog about it. I digress... Tara is always a victim of circumstance. She never tries to dust herself off, pick herself up and start over again. She gets buried deeper and deeper and at her own hands. She cut her hair off at the end of season three as if the weight was too much. Yeah Tara, THAT'S going to fix your problems.

Aside from all the faerie poo that seems to stink up season four, there are so many other story lines I can't wait to develop. Jason... he went missing at the end of season three. Going by the books, I know where he is and what's going to happen. Will Allen Ball be true to Harris' story? We'll see. This season also brings forth one of my most favorite story lines of the entire Sookie series.... Eric Northman is under a witches spell and remembers nothing of his past, and an unassuming Sookie spots him wandering aimlessly down her road and takes him home. If you didn't love Eric before... there is no way you won't fall in love with him now... or in my case... all over again. Pffft, Bill who?

In Bill's defense, he really does love Sookie. Yes, Queen Sophie Ann sent him to Bon Temps to search for her and try to find out what she is (a stupid faerie!). Was that the only draw though? Vampires are attracted to the scent of faeries. From season three we know that the blood of a faerie allows a vampire to walk in daylight. Not for long... but Russell didn't know that. ;)

Russell Edgington. I do declare! What will come of him? He alone had some of the most epic moments in the show's history. For those of you who have never read the books... guess what? In the books, he hardly makes a huge impact. Yeah, he's there and some of what we see in the shows is also in the books. Very little though. Allen Ball took this flamboyant Mississippi vampire and just stretched him to the limits. The moment where Russell is atop the building with the candy jar of goo that once was Talbot, the music goes all 'Dark Shadows' on us and he vows to honor Talbot by avenging his death. It was so brilliantly corny. If you were able to catch every little homage it truly was such a wonderful scene.

So this brings me to Allen Ball. Choices, Mr. Ball. Choices. You can stray, we know you have this amazing ability to build on otherwise insignificant references within Harris' writings and you have made magic. But please, please do not make this thing with the fae our big plot. I can't deal with it. It reminds me too much of Little Nicky. You remember what heaven was like in that movie? I'd rather be in Hell too.