Like riding a bicycle?
I feel like I am working two different full-time jobs at one company right now, with my projects (multiple). However, before Game of Thrones started airing, I subscribed to HBO, and that led to exploring HBO Go (they really need to rethink using a Flash platform, or at least trying to implement something that compresses and buffers video decently), and that led to watching the first few episodes of True Blood, and that led to a certain amount of mainling the whole show, or at least as much of a mainlining as I can do with my current schedule.
I saw a first season episode when asta77 and I were staying together in a hotel, and thought it was terrible. Stephen Root was a vampire tied to a lawn chair in the basement of some drug dealers, and that was the only plot point of the episode that I could actually make sense of.
So, yes, context is everything, and it helps to appreciate that the show is cracked out and ridiculous by design, and that even attempting to explain what happens in a given episode to someone who hasn't seen the entire show will make you sound like a crazy person. I have not seen a show so committed to its own whacked-out internal logic since Farscape. But it is apparently the show I want to talk about now, all of a sudden, and it's nice to have that feeling again.
All vampire stories deal with boundaries--between living and dead, human and inhuman, seduction and attack. It's all there in the invitation, which is such a prominent feature of the myth. But I feel like this season has really set out to push this theme.
Sookie was almost trapped with the faeries because the Queen was about to close the boundary between their worlds. (And can I just say that I'm glad they're going to a scary place with faeries, since it comports so well with my Irish understanding of their danger and their guile.) When she got back, she found out the world had moved on; all her friends and associates had constructed lives without her, and she was going to have to figure out how to insert herself back in them. Except for Eric, who committed the most direct (and creepy, and clueless) boundary violation of all time, by buying her house and very literally removing her ability to keep him out of her personal space. (Oh, Eric, it's a good thing you look like Alexander Skarsgård.) Tara set up a boundary between herself and the entire world of Bon Temps, but ended up crossing over it, against her better judgment. Lafayette texted her the news; Lafayette is the point at which all boundaries between worlds meet, which is why, aside from his general awesomeness, he is such an important character.
It's also the boundaries between the vampire and human worlds, and how much more focus we're getting on the mechanics of the change. The fact that Nan Flanagan (scariest vampire ever) is a regular character this season is a major signal of that focus; Bill's secret long-time involvement with her movement, finally revealed, is another. Nan's getting vampires to film PSAs, and as much as I loved that Pam's was terrible because she's mostly mainstreaming for Eric, I loved even more how charming Eric's was. He can be incredibly charming when he wants to (the other big theme of this show is constructed identities, but that's another post), and that's why his heavy hand with Sookie is such a telling misstep. I adored the way his PSA--"Who would you rather trust, a vampire or a politician?"--was intercut with Bill's ribbon-cutting ceremony, where he was being... a vampire politician, a participant in regular civic life, trying to blaze those other trails.
Randomly, about last night's episode:
* Marnie has invited another spirit in, not just temporarily, but permanently. And that all goes back to the idea of the circle in magic, the boundary. (Marnie's bird was alive in that circle, and dead again once it flew out.)
* I feel so terrible for Jason. He has spent almost the entire show to date trying to be something more than the Bon Temps town manwhore, and now he's... the Hotshot town manwhore. Hotshot defines transgression in a lot of ways--against laws, against incest taboos, against the ideas of personal autonomy and sexual consent, against basic standards of hygeine and dental care. It's the cycle of abuse writ large, so of course Crystal is inflicting her own previous fate on Jason now, and it is icky and gross and horrifying, and I really hope the show deals with Jason's sexual violation seriously, rather than as a tangent to his wacky sexual history, because he is being raped.
* For the first time, I realized that Debbie Pelt is played by Brit Morgan, who was Lacey on The Middleman. Apparently, I didn't recognize her last season because she was acting all crazy and strung out and unrecognizable, as V addicts tend to do, Andy Bellefleur.
* Jessica crosses a line with Hoyt, and it's not the one she thought. You can't sustain love with glamour. Bill tried to warn her, in his own way, about how building a relationship on lies will come back to bite you. He should know. It's interesting, then, to see him do just that to set up his arrangement with Portia, defining specific boundaries, but lying to her that he can't love. I just love Bill and Jessica's relationship. It's incredibly sweet, and a moment of light in what otherwise seems to be his increasingly dark world, but he would not be my go-to guy for relationship advice, ever.
* I am really enjoying the way Eric's creepy stalkeriness at the end of the season premiere has been turned on its head: now he's the one who might need protection. He's gone from "You are mine!" to "Are you mine? Would you like to be mine?" The constant apologizing is both adorable and disturbing. He's like a puppy--a huge, dangerous puppy. I might have rewound and watched that living room scene between him and Sookie (ticklish feet!) a couple of times, because it was just so adorable. The boundaries in their relationship have temporarily shifted. He's siding with her over Pam (!!!!). He doesn't remember he owns Sookie's house; she invites him in before he re-learns that it's his. He literally has a place there now. And if Pam is right, and Eric is in danger from Bill and the VLA--other vampires--then Sookie's ability to maintain a boundary against them might be his best protection.
* I am very pleased to see Tara taking protection of Lafayette into her own hands. Given how awful her experience with Franklin was, it's nice to see that she emerged with more confidence in her ability to deal with them, as well as to recognize her limits. Poor Ginger never seems to come out of these things very well, though.
* It's interesting to learn that Hoyt and Jessica weren't able to get the doll out of their home. I'm sure Arlene's devil baby will fix that, though, because nothing could go wrong with putting those two together. It's hilarious how cute that baby is, and how sinisterly he's filmed.
Oh my god, I can't wait to see more of Amnesia Eric. He is the best.
I probably need some icons.
And specially for
sdwolfpup, although these are technically fox pups, not wolf pups, they made me think of your layout.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/152215.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
I saw a first season episode when asta77 and I were staying together in a hotel, and thought it was terrible. Stephen Root was a vampire tied to a lawn chair in the basement of some drug dealers, and that was the only plot point of the episode that I could actually make sense of.
So, yes, context is everything, and it helps to appreciate that the show is cracked out and ridiculous by design, and that even attempting to explain what happens in a given episode to someone who hasn't seen the entire show will make you sound like a crazy person. I have not seen a show so committed to its own whacked-out internal logic since Farscape. But it is apparently the show I want to talk about now, all of a sudden, and it's nice to have that feeling again.
All vampire stories deal with boundaries--between living and dead, human and inhuman, seduction and attack. It's all there in the invitation, which is such a prominent feature of the myth. But I feel like this season has really set out to push this theme.
Sookie was almost trapped with the faeries because the Queen was about to close the boundary between their worlds. (And can I just say that I'm glad they're going to a scary place with faeries, since it comports so well with my Irish understanding of their danger and their guile.) When she got back, she found out the world had moved on; all her friends and associates had constructed lives without her, and she was going to have to figure out how to insert herself back in them. Except for Eric, who committed the most direct (and creepy, and clueless) boundary violation of all time, by buying her house and very literally removing her ability to keep him out of her personal space. (Oh, Eric, it's a good thing you look like Alexander Skarsgård.) Tara set up a boundary between herself and the entire world of Bon Temps, but ended up crossing over it, against her better judgment. Lafayette texted her the news; Lafayette is the point at which all boundaries between worlds meet, which is why, aside from his general awesomeness, he is such an important character.
It's also the boundaries between the vampire and human worlds, and how much more focus we're getting on the mechanics of the change. The fact that Nan Flanagan (scariest vampire ever) is a regular character this season is a major signal of that focus; Bill's secret long-time involvement with her movement, finally revealed, is another. Nan's getting vampires to film PSAs, and as much as I loved that Pam's was terrible because she's mostly mainstreaming for Eric, I loved even more how charming Eric's was. He can be incredibly charming when he wants to (the other big theme of this show is constructed identities, but that's another post), and that's why his heavy hand with Sookie is such a telling misstep. I adored the way his PSA--"Who would you rather trust, a vampire or a politician?"--was intercut with Bill's ribbon-cutting ceremony, where he was being... a vampire politician, a participant in regular civic life, trying to blaze those other trails.
Randomly, about last night's episode:
* Marnie has invited another spirit in, not just temporarily, but permanently. And that all goes back to the idea of the circle in magic, the boundary. (Marnie's bird was alive in that circle, and dead again once it flew out.)
* I feel so terrible for Jason. He has spent almost the entire show to date trying to be something more than the Bon Temps town manwhore, and now he's... the Hotshot town manwhore. Hotshot defines transgression in a lot of ways--against laws, against incest taboos, against the ideas of personal autonomy and sexual consent, against basic standards of hygeine and dental care. It's the cycle of abuse writ large, so of course Crystal is inflicting her own previous fate on Jason now, and it is icky and gross and horrifying, and I really hope the show deals with Jason's sexual violation seriously, rather than as a tangent to his wacky sexual history, because he is being raped.
* For the first time, I realized that Debbie Pelt is played by Brit Morgan, who was Lacey on The Middleman. Apparently, I didn't recognize her last season because she was acting all crazy and strung out and unrecognizable, as V addicts tend to do, Andy Bellefleur.
* Jessica crosses a line with Hoyt, and it's not the one she thought. You can't sustain love with glamour. Bill tried to warn her, in his own way, about how building a relationship on lies will come back to bite you. He should know. It's interesting, then, to see him do just that to set up his arrangement with Portia, defining specific boundaries, but lying to her that he can't love. I just love Bill and Jessica's relationship. It's incredibly sweet, and a moment of light in what otherwise seems to be his increasingly dark world, but he would not be my go-to guy for relationship advice, ever.
* I am really enjoying the way Eric's creepy stalkeriness at the end of the season premiere has been turned on its head: now he's the one who might need protection. He's gone from "You are mine!" to "Are you mine? Would you like to be mine?" The constant apologizing is both adorable and disturbing. He's like a puppy--a huge, dangerous puppy. I might have rewound and watched that living room scene between him and Sookie (ticklish feet!) a couple of times, because it was just so adorable. The boundaries in their relationship have temporarily shifted. He's siding with her over Pam (!!!!). He doesn't remember he owns Sookie's house; she invites him in before he re-learns that it's his. He literally has a place there now. And if Pam is right, and Eric is in danger from Bill and the VLA--other vampires--then Sookie's ability to maintain a boundary against them might be his best protection.
* I am very pleased to see Tara taking protection of Lafayette into her own hands. Given how awful her experience with Franklin was, it's nice to see that she emerged with more confidence in her ability to deal with them, as well as to recognize her limits. Poor Ginger never seems to come out of these things very well, though.
* It's interesting to learn that Hoyt and Jessica weren't able to get the doll out of their home. I'm sure Arlene's devil baby will fix that, though, because nothing could go wrong with putting those two together. It's hilarious how cute that baby is, and how sinisterly he's filmed.
Oh my god, I can't wait to see more of Amnesia Eric. He is the best.
I probably need some icons.
And specially for
sdwolfpup, although these are technically fox pups, not wolf pups, they made me think of your layout.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/152215.html (
comments). Comment at either site.