True Blood, Season 4

Well, what'd y'all think of the season premiere? A lot of developments and twists. I kinda saw the last surprise from a mile away, but it looks like it'll lead to some fun situations.

Anyone else get a Legend (the Tom Cruise movie) vibe from those faeries? XD

The thing with the fae was just weird, and I'm not exactly sure they are like that in the book series. * I thought they were pre Angelic/Demonic Divine beings waiting to get their wings or horns.*

Haven't made up my mind yet.

I think this is another case of "everything that happened in the missing year is better then what we have for the aftermath". Supernatural suffered the same problem through almost all of Season 6 with what the Evil Sam did seeming much more interesting then what happened after hooking back up with Dean.

Also, the "twist" with Bill wasn't a twist as it was given away less then a minute after he showed up.

I kind of missed these little group reviews.

Thoughts . . .

• Line of the night: "I have a faerie godmother?"
• They totally blew the budget for their first five episodes in the first five minutes.
• The way that the faeries tricked humans into staying in their realm with food really meshed with the same thing happening in the Walt Simonson Thor Ominbus that I finally got around to reading.
• Let's hope that True Blood does a better job of managing the time jumps in terms of characterization and such than other shows (I'm looking at you, Heroes).
• Speaking of time jump characterization, boy am I glad that it looks like we're done with douchey dumb Jason, but let's hope he kept his sense of humor.
• I'm a little worried that we'll get more focus than necessary on Arlene's whole "my baby is evil" sub-plot; I mean her scenes outside Merlotte's were necessary in season one because she was sleeping with the serial killer, but let's let her screentime dwindle gracefully, folks.
• Tara as a cage-fighting lesbian? I guess I'm okay with that, but the further they let her character stray from the main plot, the more her time is going to feel like filler, so let's bring her back into the fold where she belongs.
• I was relieved to see that the fight between Hoyt and Jessica was blown off and they weren't turned into a broken couple purely for the sake of drama.
• Also, I'm wondering if Tara went lesbian because following Sookie's disappearance, she realized she loved Sookie as more than a friend.
• Not sure how I feel about the involvement of the witches this season; I mean, with the faeries at least it was relevant to explain Sookie's powers, but if they keep up like this I'm worried it'll drive some viewers away.
• Got a feeling Tommy is conning Hoyt's mom, but if that's true, then the bad blood between these two is only going to get worse.
• Nice to see that the actors playing Eric and Bill can be charming and menacing in the same episode; they've still got it.
• For a moment there I was thinking Pam's going to hit on Jessica in the bathroom. >.>
• Witch sub-plot > faerie sub-plot, though.
• I'm glad that Sam met some other shifters that weren't complete douches.
• I'm curious if Bill's investigations and such from the books played into his become the king, but I'm glad it looks like we'll get a flashback episode explaining this transition; I just hope we don't divert too much from what's going on now to explain what happened in the missing year.
• Don't think that getting all possessive and rapey so soon is going to win over Sookie, Eric.

Overall, it was very... okay. Nothing thrilling, nothing bad. Just... ok, although it was good seeing everyone again.

Not big on the leap forward of one year. It will be hard to show the characters as having evolved in their relationships while still keeping them familiar and keeping us from feeling like we missed all of the important character development.

Tara as a lesbian? Totally out of left field (I haven't read the books, other than the first, so I have no idea if that is in keeping with her portrayal there). I got the feeling that some producer somewhere said "Hey, know what this show needs? Lesbians!" so they just threw it in there. Made no sense to me and just felt like they were trying to meet a quota for gay characters.

Have to say I agree with you on pretty much every one of your points Foamy. The one exception being that I think the faerie sub-plot > witch sub-plot.

Two reasons.

First the witches remind me too much of the movie "The Craft". A group of witches that like to think they have power but haven't been able to do anything. Then they get an outsider who has power but doesn't believe it to join them. Suddenly the coven gains real power. Hopefully that is as far as the similarity will go but it was the only thing going through my mind during the last ritual.

Second I like stories about the Fae. Not faeries but the actual Fae. Dark Fae, Light Fae, The Wild Hunt etc... And incidentally it's classic mythology that if you eat or drink anything in the realm of the Fae then you are trapped there forever. I would love to see a decent story about the Fae. I have to admit though that the way they did it in this episode reminded me more of Charmed than it did anything else.

According to my understanding of the Sookie Stackhouse mythology, only select Fae become Angels. Not everyone can become an FBI agent and the same applies to Angels. Not sure about Demons, but there was a demonic lawyer and he didn't seem Fae.

For those who haven't seen it, check out the HBO-GO double feature, it sums up a lot of the things from the series premiere, while also adding a little more to it.

Even for True Blood, last night was pretty weird. It's also a little disjointed with Sookie missing a year of time, so there's all this stuff that's happened where I was just going, "Wait...what?"

Lots of things we don't have answers to from the end of season 3 (which I'm assuming we'll get in time).

Loved the twist at the end, though.

Yeah, the whole Tara-is-a-lesbian-MMA-fighter thing is completely new on me. I have enough faith in the show to give this story thread a chance. Hopefully it be for more than just titillation.

After being sexually abused by a vampire, I hope she becomes a Vampire Hunter!

Spoilers




The end of the second episode brings about amnesiac Eric. Have to see if he is just like amnesiac Eric from the book. They are also bringing Werepanther Jason into the show as well.

Yup, Jason's getting kitty cat'd, and Eric is all "Who am I?"

The witch lady is certainly proving to be "goofy evil."

And just like I said, it looks like Lafayette is the only one in the coven who actually has power. This is the second time that the circle was accomplishing nothing until he joined hands.

*Grumbles*

Grrr... I was hoping to be able to discuss one of my favourite shows in here but as I haven't read the books yet, I've already been hit with several spoilers I didn't need to see.

So far, season 4 is slow with nothing really noteable happening other than Bill's rise to power. But then, we're only two episodes in so I'm expecting things to kick up soon enough.

So far, really enjoying this season. I was a little disappointed in the Fae scenes in that I think they seemed to drop Sookie's heritage, but perhaps we'll get back into later. Lafayette as a supernatural necromancer in training is cool. Jessica going total vamp is awesome! I hope she eats Hoyt.

It looks like the new Vampire King is going to lose his main squeeze this season for good to Eric. We can only hope for Stephen Moyer's sake that life does not imitate art.

There aren't any real book spoilers in this thread that I can see. Any mention of the books are about minor plot points but nothing "spoilery" and when those do come up people are usually polite enough to put up spoiler warnings.