HBO's True Blood -- the most preposterous sounding show since...

ya this looks totally weird

carnivale 2 lol

I forgot anna paquin still was around. are they trying to capture the buffy set w/ this?

that buffy fan community is probably actually a pretty valuable commodity, i know a LOOOOOT of people who loooooooved that stuff.

And most of them post here.

HBO is really grasping at straws these days. i cancelled my subscription and don't miss it. they shouldn't have passed on Mad Men when they did

Anyone read these books upon which this is based? Anything to say?

Ha ha yes. They're the type of mystery paperbacks you can read in an hour, so I don't remember much except vampire feuds, and werewolves, and vampire sex.

so this is like stephenie meyer for grown-ups?

Frank Sobotka and E.B. Farnum are not going to be enough to get me to watch this. And I watched (and even sorta liked) all of John From Cincinnati!

so this is like stephenie meyer for grown-ups?

Laurell K. Hamilton cries somewhere.

i went to college in magnolia, ark., home of the author. met her a few times. she attends (attended?) church where my then-gf's parents did. i remember her kids running absolutely wild. she was moderately successful back then (mid-90s) but i never had a notion to read her stuff. still don't. more power to her.

http://trubeverage.com/

I usually give a promising show 3 episodes before I call it quits, so I'll give this show one more try. I know the comparisons to Buffy are probably tired, but this show has not yet been as funny as Buffy nor as heartbreaking. The concept is good and I might give the books a try one of these days, but the dialogue is utter shit most of the time. Oh well.

i usually hate the vampire genre, but i'm still watching this.

I think I have come to the point where I will specifically avoid anything that Alan Ball had anything to do with.

V juice!

I quit in the middle of the third ep. Coincidentally, I quit reading the Twilight series in the middle of the third book too.

Last Sunday's ep was the best so far...it's taken a while for everyone to stop acting like exposition robots. My only complaint: not enough Erik the Viking vampire. Aside from that, wee! Hooray for vamp porn.

I'm actually quite enjoying this show. I know it's very often overthe top and silly and everything but it is fun anyways. And this thing still hasnt reached full silly mode until they finally really acknowledge that there are werewolves (Sam I'm looking at you) and other completely batchit creatures.

Yeah, how long are they going to drag out the Sam thing? I want to see him go full Manimal ASAP.

I can't deal with Anna Paquin's accent.

It really picks up in the 4th (?) episode. The writing is still pretty bad, but it is fun. The vampire bar was really good, and I like how they're (hopefully) laying the groundwork for more exploration of the vampire hierarchy. The flashback in last week's was really poorly handled, though.

i like this show!

Me too! I cant wait to get back home and watch it!

ohman this show gets better and better
even if it does make me feel like a goth in denial
which i am not, neither a goth nor in denial

i can totally deal with anna paquin's accent

LOL at the heroes shout out last night.

I like how they're (hopefully) laying the groundwork for more exploration of the vampire hierarchy. The flashback in last week's was really poorly handled, though.

― Gukbe, Saturday, October 11, 2008 9:53 PM

otm. also those sped-up shots where it's like "vampires can move really fast!!" suck ass.

How are the accents in this "small Louisiana town"?

i bet they're as "fictional" as the vampires

To someone who's never heard a person speak with a Louisiana accent, they sound exactly like you'd expect TV to portray people speaking with a Louisiana accent :D

straight out of central casting's hayseed department (except for the mumbling cajun guy, cherie).

we stopped watching after the 4th episode. it's not quite over-the-top enough to be good camp, so it's just sort of silly, and the acting is truly dreadful.

kind of like real life

i still like it
i srsly don't care if their accents aren't accurate or the acting is kinda bad - tho yeah, it wld be better if more over the top or campy. i am into its fantasy world even if its not really weird enough.
(i haven't watched heroes in weeks though! the sound-image sync has been weird and so, i fell behind)

I watched the first episode tonight and enjoyed it!

Ah do say, well ah say, well ah SAY, good suh

first staking!

sam is a... weredog

just dled the first episode and watched it. (and also started twlight this evening hahah) i rreeeeaaaalllllly like this. anna paquin is AWESOME. rowrlicious

don't feel ANY connection to buffy btw. i mean wtf this is so not buffy. well not yet anyway.

Lots of campy goodness in the show, even if it hinted at things (like the Vampire hierarchy/underground society) that it didn't really follow through on. Good fun though.

I quite like it. Already downloaded the entire season (one). Woohoo! Twilight on the other hand... God almighty. What trite. hah

Watched a couple episodes last year while in New Orleans. Very sexy!

I think this show is hilarious.

<a href=";>Vampire Bill likes to say Sookie... alot</a>

Vampire Bill likes to say Sookie... alot

aww sookie sookie

wr2 true blood, i feel like the ILXor who said he had a hard time watching the venture brothers b/c a friend of his w/ shitty taste loved it. in that everyone i know IRL who likes this show is insufferable in some major way.

also, like Ned I never had any interest in Buffy or any of its offshoots.

Buffy is my litmus test: if someone doesn't like it, I'll honestly question their taste. (That's not to say I have friends who have no clue who/what Buffy is and I'm sure my bestest friend would die if she knew I used this as a test. But if someone has an extensive knowledge of pop culture and doesn't like it, I'll definitely go all o0 when they dislike it. Yes, that includes you, Ned. I just don't get it.) But to compare TB with Buffy is hilarious. The only thing they share is the vampire element and that's where it ends. That said, I watched three eps back to back last night and I'll probably watch another three tonight. It's really trashy and good dirty sexeee fun. The whole point is that it's over the top and sleazy and pervy. The brother (and his eggplant erection) is also fantastic. I even love the silly name for the vamp bar. Twilight, which I'm trying to plough through, is just so exceptionally mediocre. But I'm on a trashy trip lately so what the hell I'll probably finsih this as well.

Buffty is my litmus test too

Hated the were panthers - I'm glad that's done with. Worst villain since the minaed in season2. Also not excited russels coming back.

apparently in the book this season was based on Jason actually DOES become a werepanther, glad they changed that but really they could've just dumped that whole subplot, didn't really pay off in any way besides tying into the Jessica relationship

I mean we did get to see Jason getting raped for two episodes, which was good because there haven't been enough violent rapes on this show, right

Poor Tara. That sucks. Poor Lafayette. Poor Jesus.

It's unwise to be a minority on this show.

ugh, that was like the most cliched season finale ever. not impressed. i'm gonna need to hear rave reviews for the first few episodes if i'm gonna keep putting up with the ever-increasing crap/hottness ratio next year.

I think I've made my peace with the fact that no matter how crap this show gets, if Skarsgard is in, I'm in.

^ sadly otm

I'm not going to watch this. Someone tell me if it gets good though. Or if we get to see Skarsgard's cock or something.

he did have a (non-frontal) sex scene in the season premiere. overall good ep, seems like it'll be an entertaining season.

It was a bit annoying that Bill and Eric ran around for an hour to end up more or less exactly where they started, but it was still fun. Nice to see kickass Lafayette back.

Show is so far up its own ass it's looking out between its fangs. I'd be completely done if not for the promise of Chris Meloni.

i'm actually kind of enjoying it by just accepting it as a pretty ridiculous vampires & fairys soap opera of dubious quality with occasionally really interesting bits and lots of gratuitous nudity and sex. when it starts getting sucky i just roll my eyes then keep watching it anyway.

not entirely surprised were down to 4 comments on here 8 eps into the season though, it's fairly dire at times. that said i wonder if it wont retain a dark shadowsesque ironic-but-loyal fan following as it moves forward

yeah, it's hard to really find anything to talk about anymore because the plots are either SO WEIRD or SO OBVIOUS.. I'm not convinced this Warlow fellow is a new character though, probably someone we know already.. anyway, I am along for the ride and enjoying every ridiculous minute, smoke monster to wolf sex to double Sams and all.

No. # Title Original air date U.S. viewers (million)

48 12 "And When I Die" September 11, 2011 5.05[49

49 1 "Turn! Turn! Turn!" June 10, 2012 5.20[50]
50 2 "Authority Always Wins" June 17, 2012 4.41[51]
51 3 "Whatever I Am, You Made Me" June 24, 2012 4.66[52]
52 4 "We'll Meet Again" July 1, 2012 4.54[53]
53 5 "Let's Boot and Rally" July 8, 2012 4.50[54]
54 6 "Hopeless" July 15, 2012 4.63[55]
55 7 "In the Beginning" 4.46[56]
56 8 "Somebody That I Used to Know" 4.60[57

so apparently about 88% of the audience were in it to see lilith blood orgys and alexander skarsgård necking with his sister, not well written drama and believable characters. who'd have thought?

lol'd at them going w/ Elliott Smith and not Gotye; saw it coming, but nicely played all the same.

Ep 5 and ep 8 way better than the rest of the season so far IMO. I like where the efrit plot finally went; hoyt as murderous redneck was pointless, pls kill him soon.

but he's trying SO HARD to be goth!

anyway, I am along for the ride and enjoying every ridiculous minute, smoke monster to wolf sex to double Sams and all.

― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:36 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

this, fuck outta here with "well written drama and believable characters" being your primary expectation from this show of all shows

I'm kind of losing interest.:-( Not sure why though. Maybe cause it get's to be the fucking same all the time?

this, fuck outta here with "well written drama and believable characters" being your primary expectation from this show of all shows

ha, when did i say that was my primary expectation from the show? what i actually said only a few lines back was

i'm actually kind of enjoying it by just accepting it as a pretty ridiculous vampires & fairys soap opera of dubious quality with occasionally really interesting bits and lots of gratuitous nudity and sex. when it starts getting sucky i just roll my eyes then keep watching it anyway.

i mean i still like the show. its just it was a lot tighter and less silly season 1, perhaps we can agree on this? i mean all the stuff i still like (kinky vampire sex, gratuitous nudity and gayness, "ooh bite me harder!" etc) was there to begin with, and all the southern gothic horniness of it was probably what really drew me to the show in the first place, truth be told. but otoh, for a while there the characters were actually believable, and the drama well written, no? it was never my *primary* expectation for the show, but the show was better when the quality bar was higher.

it's cool, i still dig the blood orgies and what not, and apparently approximately 4 million six hundred thousand people agree :) which bodes well for the show continuing to camp it up for the foreseeable future

Now the vampire sex seems just stuffed into it like it HAS to be there otherwise we will stop looking. True probably but wtf was up with Eric fucking his sister? That was yuck. Ah well, as with the book, the climax was the fourth season for me. (Eric and SOOKEH.) All this supe (?) stuff is getting out of hand. I mean, as if we wouldn't notice? Like suddenly the normal humans seem in the minority.

you realize that wasn't his biological sister, right? fucking someone who was made into a vampire by the same person is more like, i dunno, fucking your college roommate.

Oh god, yeah,only realized after the last ep aired. I didn't realize before. lol

I was 3eps behind, and tried to catch up this weekend -- got halfway through the first backlogged ep and resented the hell out of even having to watch the nonsense. So I cancelled it off my DVR. It's just too much of a chore.

Maybe I'll circle back when it's done but all the extraneous supernatural creatures and bajillion stupid storylines is just getting interminable

I felt that way for a couple of episodes, but then it suddenly went and got good and rompy again. All the Authority chitchat turned into some proper blood lust, Eric and Vampire Mac have joined forces, Pam and Tara are turning into an amusing double act, Jason's stopped whining and started being good police, Lafayette started swearing at people again, it's really picked up.

I'm in the beginning of season 4 and something has coalesced for me and that is how aggravated I am that all of the sex is purely penetrative--they can show T&A but never anyone touching either, no (even off-screen, implied) fingering, really nothing that would indicate anyone is getting a woman off except penetration. But they can be incredibly explicit about PiV, barely short of hardcore porn, so obvs the lines have been drawn: male pleasure is fine but female pleasure is taboo. I guess I already knew that but reading essays about it is different than watching many many scenes from a show and realizing half of the characters' experiences have been erased from show's reality.

Back again and ridiculous as ever!

Good grief! It was always fairly bad, but now it is a lost cause without Ball at the helm.

His input doesn't stop until the midway point of this season, I believe.

There is still no escaping that was even more terrible than usual, so something has changed.

wow this wet splat of a show really should have been put out of its misery three seasons ago.

it's still going?

1st ep of new season really tired and dispiriting.

even the trailers looked dumb & pointless

"dumb and pointless" would be a major step up

It is deep deep into the moribund this-then-that phase of its ontogeny

I just started on the beginning recently due to HBO on am amazon prime. Don't be killjoys!

Is there a season I should definitely quit after?

Just stop when it starts feeling shitty to you. I found some stuff to love last season still.

Jason Stackhouse still delivering at the beginning of the third season.

right around the vampire city council meetings is when i checked out

it's all downhill after like episode 8 of the first season but you could hang on through season 3 without actively hating yourself

imo season 2 was the best but i always thought its decline was gradual (and inevitable) enough that i never really minded it, even at its best the show is super dumb lizard brain entertainment and it still delivers moderately well at that.

also season 4 > season 3

so that's over

igored last two seaons. did everyone finally die?

I realize only three people in the universe will care but... Sheriff Dearborne was played by the same actor that played Larry on Newhart, which totally blew my mind.

I'm just now finally watching the last season of True Blood and the Yakuza shooting up a Ted Cruz rally seems timely and hilarious

So I just dug this up at random (re: Rolling Obituary Thread: 2017 - Nelsan Ellis' death) and it's really depressing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/nelsan-ellis-died-from-alcohol-withdrawal-family-hopes-his-death-will-be-a-cautionary-tale/

god that’s tragic. how horrible. cold turkey is so scary to me.