Nope, not that post. This is a True Blood post.
So I've started watching True Blood. I don't know what made me look into it, but I figured I've heard some good things (and some bad ones), so why not give it a shot. HBO has not hardly ever steered me wrong (Those two episodes of John From Cincinnati don't count) and I have been known to enjoy a good Vampire tale (though, mostly just Anne Rice books, Blade and Count von Count), so why not give it a go?
What I knew going in.
There are vampires and silly accents. "Sookeh" and "Beel" date both on the show and in real life. Eric is the the blonde. Everyone loves him. Lafayette's rather flamboyant. Someone dates a dude named Eggs. Ben's real-life wife and on-show mom is a redhead named Arlene. That's it. Basically, everything I knew about True Blood I knew from icons and gifs.
The first episode was a bit much. Everything was just too "Too Something". It was all so very big. I guess that's part of being a pilot episode - you have to make everyone real big so that people stand out, and then you kind of tighten it up so that they are more characters and less caricatures. Some of the dialogue is kind of cheesy though. Often someone (usually Bill) says something and I just roll my eyes (and remember that he's from the 1800s). Oh, and Tara's accent? It's like Monica from Heroes only a thousand times worse. Who anywhere knows anyone who actually sounds like that?
Spoilers are not your friend
In my quest to figure out something about someone (it was accent-related), I kind of spoiled myself for the big season one mystery. Luckily I did it at the start of the episode in which the big reveal took place, so it wasn't that bad. Turns out I was not the best judge of character... I actually liked that one.
I am impatient, so I had to look up what the mysterious character from season two was. I understand what she is (in the sense of "I have heard of that, and I know the mythology upon which it's based"), but still don't get what her deal is.
I also ruined the surprise of why that dog was always lurking around. Of course, knowing ahead of time made me appreciate what it was doing even more, so that was not so bad.
Team Who?
Everyone's supposed to like either Bill or Eric, right? I don't know... I kind of like both of them. Bill's kind of sappy sometimes, but he's old-school (for real), so you can't really blame him. For some reason I don't really hate on his back-in-the-day charm. It should be corny, but he's so stiff and awkward that it's kind of endearing. I do like Sookie-free Bill better that Bill-with-Sookie though. He's less sappy and ridiculous.
I was not impressed with Eric's first appearance, but he's been back a few times since and he's gotten better every time. I like his interactions with his entourage. You can tell he's one of those people whose inner monologue's theme is "I'm surrounded by idiots". He's most definitely a badass, yet, he gets all frustrated by a teenage girl. You'd think being that old would increase one's patience. I guess not. [So, how long did it take me to realize that the chick from the door at Fangtasia and Eric's umm.. friend (?) Pam were the same person? Way too long.]
So, so far I have not really made a clear choice between the two. I do like to watch them together though. They're like their own undead mismatched buddy flick.
So, just who do I like?
Sam. He's been my favorite since the first episode. Maybe because he was not "too" anything. He seemed like the only normal character in a sea of crazies. (Of course, in hindsight, I guess he had his secrets too.) The whole time, before that not-as-cool dead guy walked into the bar with the Civil War manners and his lack of brain waves, I was like "Why is no one trying to talk to that guy?" Okay, maybe he's a bit insecure, sometimes he is kind of a jerk, and not the best boss (quit hooking up with the employees!), but he's a good friend and always there when you need him. What I'm saying is Sam is clearly a better catch than Bill and Sookie is crazy.
Oh, and these guys:
Lafayette: From what I knew of him before, I thought I would not like him. (Remember. Everything I learned about True Blood I learned from gifs). It just seemed like he was gonna be too sassy, too Stereotypical TV Gay Guy (see: Jack McFarlane from "Will & Grace", half of the cast of any season of Project Runway). You know one of those character's (or people in real life) whose whole thing is "I'm ______!"? That bothers me. And from what I'd seen, he was gonna be one of those Too Somethings. Turns out, he was not. Lafayette's a hustler and a sensitive dude. I like him.
The Older Sheriff. This guy always just tells it like it is. And sometimes he dresses in a silly costume and goes dancing. I am sure he wakes up every day wondering how he ended up surrounded by so many nutcases.
Hoyt: He seems normal too, and kind of dorky-shy. He's like a bit of Bill and a bit of Sam. Perhaps Sookie should have looked into that. He's like a big kid, like the personification of "Aw shucks!". Every time he stands up to his overprotective mother I want to pump my fist!
Terry. For a while I just knew him as "that dude that just passes through and says crazy things", then I realized that the "saying crazy things" and "someone's veteran cousin" were the same person. I like him because he knows no one takes him seriously, yet he is always saying stuff that, if you actually isten to him, makes a bit of sense. I (obviously) don't know how it's gonna turn out, but I think him and Arlene could be an alright couple.
Andy: I go back and forth on him. Initially I was excited that Chris Bauer was on the show, because not only was it the only name I recognized, but he was on The Wire, and I really liked what he did there. Whenever Andy is NOT getting all over Jason (for what reason I have no idea), I like him. He's kind of a sad-sack, but he's pretty funny sometimes too. Plus, Andy dancing will never not be funny.
Characters I think I am supposed to like, but I can't.
Jason: I don't know. He was kind of one-dimensional, which, as stated before, is boring. And when he traded in one gimmick (airhead man whore) for another, it was equally annoying (super-duper Jesus freak). Perhaps one day he will not suck. Today is not that day.
Tara: Fitting that she's here too, right? She got off on the wrong foot with her first scene. Remember how I was worried Lafayette would be too sassy for me to handle? It seems she sucked up all of the sass that was available. I can't do it. Why is she so mad? Bad childhood is no excuse for being insufferably angry ALL THE TIME. Her anger makes me angry.
Sookie: One problem is that she looks like a teenager and Bill looks like a man. So, whenever they are on a date or doing the boyfriend-girlfriend thing, it's just creepy. Plus, the way she went all ga-ga over Bill the first time she saw him was annoying. She uses Sam's feelings for her against him. She rushes into things that she needs to take slowly (Kate Austen, is that you?) And she's also overly sassy. I don't like sassy. All of these things annoy me more than her accent. The accent actually doesn't annoy me.
This is where there should be a new header, but there's not, so let's pretend there is.
You know when I knew this was a show I was destined to watch? Season one, episode ten "I Don't Wanna Know". You know how I knew? Zeljko Ivanek. "Who?" you may ask. Oh, you know him! This dude is everywhere, always playing a jerk. Homicide? Check. (DA Ed Danvers). Oz? Check. (Governor James Devlin). Lost? Yep! (Edmumd Burke). House? Of course. (His name was Jason. The guy who held the team hostage in a office.) Heroes? Uh-huh. (Danko). Big Love? You know it. (Crazy JJ.) True Blood? Obviously! (The Magister). If there is a show, and I watch it, this dude is there. Zeljko Ivanek: creeping me out since 1993.
In closing, pretty good show. I only have seven episodes left, so I will definitely be caught up in time for the season three premier. It's gonna suck having to wait a week for each new episode though. (I don't even have HBO!) and, as usual, I don't really know a lot of people who watch it (I really only just know one, and that's my sister). But the theater where I used to go to watch Lost has decided to continue the trend of showing TV on the big screen over the summer, and this is one of the three shows their going to be airing. (One of the others is Mad Men! Which, I Love, but am not sure if it's the kind of show that you want to watch in a big theater full of people. It's more of a "sit at home and pay close attention, because it's really just a bunch of people talking" kind of show.) I'm not sure if it's big screen material, but I may give it a chance.
What I knew going in.
There are vampires and silly accents. "Sookeh" and "Beel" date both on the show and in real life. Eric is the the blonde. Everyone loves him. Lafayette's rather flamboyant. Someone dates a dude named Eggs. Ben's real-life wife and on-show mom is a redhead named Arlene. That's it. Basically, everything I knew about True Blood I knew from icons and gifs.
The first episode was a bit much. Everything was just too "Too Something". It was all so very big. I guess that's part of being a pilot episode - you have to make everyone real big so that people stand out, and then you kind of tighten it up so that they are more characters and less caricatures. Some of the dialogue is kind of cheesy though. Often someone (usually Bill) says something and I just roll my eyes (and remember that he's from the 1800s). Oh, and Tara's accent? It's like Monica from Heroes only a thousand times worse. Who anywhere knows anyone who actually sounds like that?
Spoilers are not your friend
In my quest to figure out something about someone (it was accent-related), I kind of spoiled myself for the big season one mystery. Luckily I did it at the start of the episode in which the big reveal took place, so it wasn't that bad. Turns out I was not the best judge of character... I actually liked that one.
I am impatient, so I had to look up what the mysterious character from season two was. I understand what she is (in the sense of "I have heard of that, and I know the mythology upon which it's based"), but still don't get what her deal is.
I also ruined the surprise of why that dog was always lurking around. Of course, knowing ahead of time made me appreciate what it was doing even more, so that was not so bad.
Team Who?
Everyone's supposed to like either Bill or Eric, right? I don't know... I kind of like both of them. Bill's kind of sappy sometimes, but he's old-school (for real), so you can't really blame him. For some reason I don't really hate on his back-in-the-day charm. It should be corny, but he's so stiff and awkward that it's kind of endearing. I do like Sookie-free Bill better that Bill-with-Sookie though. He's less sappy and ridiculous.
I was not impressed with Eric's first appearance, but he's been back a few times since and he's gotten better every time. I like his interactions with his entourage. You can tell he's one of those people whose inner monologue's theme is "I'm surrounded by idiots". He's most definitely a badass, yet, he gets all frustrated by a teenage girl. You'd think being that old would increase one's patience. I guess not. [So, how long did it take me to realize that the chick from the door at Fangtasia and Eric's umm.. friend (?) Pam were the same person? Way too long.]
So, so far I have not really made a clear choice between the two. I do like to watch them together though. They're like their own undead mismatched buddy flick.
So, just who do I like?
Sam. He's been my favorite since the first episode. Maybe because he was not "too" anything. He seemed like the only normal character in a sea of crazies. (Of course, in hindsight, I guess he had his secrets too.) The whole time, before that not-as-cool dead guy walked into the bar with the Civil War manners and his lack of brain waves, I was like "Why is no one trying to talk to that guy?" Okay, maybe he's a bit insecure, sometimes he is kind of a jerk, and not the best boss (quit hooking up with the employees!), but he's a good friend and always there when you need him. What I'm saying is Sam is clearly a better catch than Bill and Sookie is crazy.
Oh, and these guys:
Lafayette: From what I knew of him before, I thought I would not like him. (Remember. Everything I learned about True Blood I learned from gifs). It just seemed like he was gonna be too sassy, too Stereotypical TV Gay Guy (see: Jack McFarlane from "Will & Grace", half of the cast of any season of Project Runway). You know one of those character's (or people in real life) whose whole thing is "I'm ______!"? That bothers me. And from what I'd seen, he was gonna be one of those Too Somethings. Turns out, he was not. Lafayette's a hustler and a sensitive dude. I like him.
The Older Sheriff. This guy always just tells it like it is. And sometimes he dresses in a silly costume and goes dancing. I am sure he wakes up every day wondering how he ended up surrounded by so many nutcases.
Hoyt: He seems normal too, and kind of dorky-shy. He's like a bit of Bill and a bit of Sam. Perhaps Sookie should have looked into that. He's like a big kid, like the personification of "Aw shucks!". Every time he stands up to his overprotective mother I want to pump my fist!
Terry. For a while I just knew him as "that dude that just passes through and says crazy things", then I realized that the "saying crazy things" and "someone's veteran cousin" were the same person. I like him because he knows no one takes him seriously, yet he is always saying stuff that, if you actually isten to him, makes a bit of sense. I (obviously) don't know how it's gonna turn out, but I think him and Arlene could be an alright couple.
Andy: I go back and forth on him. Initially I was excited that Chris Bauer was on the show, because not only was it the only name I recognized, but he was on The Wire, and I really liked what he did there. Whenever Andy is NOT getting all over Jason (for what reason I have no idea), I like him. He's kind of a sad-sack, but he's pretty funny sometimes too. Plus, Andy dancing will never not be funny.
Characters I think I am supposed to like, but I can't.
Jason: I don't know. He was kind of one-dimensional, which, as stated before, is boring. And when he traded in one gimmick (airhead man whore) for another, it was equally annoying (super-duper Jesus freak). Perhaps one day he will not suck. Today is not that day.
Tara: Fitting that she's here too, right? She got off on the wrong foot with her first scene. Remember how I was worried Lafayette would be too sassy for me to handle? It seems she sucked up all of the sass that was available. I can't do it. Why is she so mad? Bad childhood is no excuse for being insufferably angry ALL THE TIME. Her anger makes me angry.
Sookie: One problem is that she looks like a teenager and Bill looks like a man. So, whenever they are on a date or doing the boyfriend-girlfriend thing, it's just creepy. Plus, the way she went all ga-ga over Bill the first time she saw him was annoying. She uses Sam's feelings for her against him. She rushes into things that she needs to take slowly (Kate Austen, is that you?) And she's also overly sassy. I don't like sassy. All of these things annoy me more than her accent. The accent actually doesn't annoy me.
This is where there should be a new header, but there's not, so let's pretend there is.
You know when I knew this was a show I was destined to watch? Season one, episode ten "I Don't Wanna Know". You know how I knew? Zeljko Ivanek. "Who?" you may ask. Oh, you know him! This dude is everywhere, always playing a jerk. Homicide? Check. (DA Ed Danvers). Oz? Check. (Governor James Devlin). Lost? Yep! (Edmumd Burke). House? Of course. (His name was Jason. The guy who held the team hostage in a office.) Heroes? Uh-huh. (Danko). Big Love? You know it. (Crazy JJ.) True Blood? Obviously! (The Magister). If there is a show, and I watch it, this dude is there. Zeljko Ivanek: creeping me out since 1993.
In closing, pretty good show. I only have seven episodes left, so I will definitely be caught up in time for the season three premier. It's gonna suck having to wait a week for each new episode though. (I don't even have HBO!) and, as usual, I don't really know a lot of people who watch it (I really only just know one, and that's my sister). But the theater where I used to go to watch Lost has decided to continue the trend of showing TV on the big screen over the summer, and this is one of the three shows their going to be airing. (One of the others is Mad Men! Which, I Love, but am not sure if it's the kind of show that you want to watch in a big theater full of people. It's more of a "sit at home and pay close attention, because it's really just a bunch of people talking" kind of show.) I'm not sure if it's big screen material, but I may give it a chance.