True Blood season 4 review - I Wish I Was the Moon

Normally I'd be all excited about this week's episode of True Blood, but I'm waiting for a confirmation email for Pottermore and that's totally got my attention this morning, as well as still coming down from the Thundercats series relaunch.

Warning, will contain spoilers for both the episode and the book series if appropriate

OK, no more Potter, time for vamps:

• OH shit!  A previously on True Blood which actually implies something we didn't think of.  Skinwalkers...  Oh, Tommy, oh dear.
• WOOHOO!  Sookie/Eric scenes!  YAY!
• Boooooo!  Eric didn't kill Crap-King Bill.  Bill's face hilarious though.
• Get Crap-King Bill told, Sookie.  Bill, you're a shit.
• Crap-King Bill, you're crossing the line of no return.
• Poor Eric.  
• Hey, where's the goddamn shower scene?!!
• Poor Pam, Poor, poor Pam.
• Crap-King Bill needs to shut his damn mouth and stop trying to kill Eric.  Also stop using skype, I thought I'd signed in by accident.
• Oh Arlene and Terry, where baby serial killer?  
• So is there a ghost black lady haunting the doll?
• LMAO!  Terry's armadillo was saved.
• *dies* Andy and Holly awkward dating talk.  
• Poor Tommy, he's a little broken troll-bird.
• Ok.....  how, why and how did he turn into Sam?
• Oh Tara, just die already please.
• Yeah I don't care about Tara's life.
• Tee hee hee....  the Sam/Tommy is hilarious.
• Aw his little feelings are hurt.
• Bless Jason, he's special.
• Alclide needs to be careful about crossing a line.
• Wow, I actually feel sorry for Debbie.  Never thought that would happen.
• Is no one actually watch Aunt Petunia?
• Flashback rape scene, unpleasant.
• Go on Aunt Petunia, cast that spell and make Crap-King Bill go for a walk in the sun.
• Uh Oh, Aunt Petunia's possessed.  
• Ooh are we going to see the half-were panther Jason?  Probably not.  Stupid show didn't even bother to read that panther meant MOUNTAIN LION!
• And we're back to Tara whom I couldn't care less about at this point.
• OK......  Jess, wth?
• lol!  the Sam/Tommy is going to have sex with Sam's girlfriend.
• Aw Jess came to save Jason.
• Jason's happy place is boobs...  lmao.
• *headdesk*  Jason's special, "Your Mom was a werepanther?"
• Oh Tommy, Sam's going to shoot you again.
• Bless Jess, this is a lovely scene between her and Jason.
• Crap-King Bill, you've got to be shitting me.
• Oh Eric, bless you're little ancient vampire heart.
• That's right, Crap-King Bill, Eric's a better man than you.
• So Jesus's granddad made a snake bite Jesus and now Layfayette is possessed by a spirit, though Layfayette isn't a good enough actor to pull it off.
• Oh no, Tommy!
• Ergh....  why isn't Tara dead yet?
• Aun Petunia's so cool.
• YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
• Eric and Sookie, OTP.
• No.  No.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
• I'd never thought I'd be so angry at seeing Sookie and Eric bumping uglies.
• WHERE'S THE SHOWER SCENE?!?!!!??!!!!!!

 Summary:

 Ok, it was a so, so episode if I'm being honest.  We're getting no where in terms of seeing a plot, there's just stuff happening.  The Aunt Petunia stuff doesn't count as Sookie is the main character and she's yet to get really involved with that.  This is why fucking with the plot of the books is bad for the show.

Nothing really that exciting happens in this episode, it's all little character stuff and while character stuff is nice, I'd like a plot too, because other wise it just turns into a soap opera and if I wanted to watch a soap I'd be reviewing Eastenders instead of True Blood.

Alan Ball recently said that he knows the show has to come to an end at some point.  The books are still going and to be honest, as they've gone on the plot's been getting thinner on the ground.  The last one spent half the book explaining stuff that happened in the other books which was annoying as shit.


That being said, however, it means Alan Ball's thought about how to end the show.  The show isn't a perfect recreation of the books, but some of the stuff is good enough so that I wouldn't want a different show.  Askars is a perfect Eric.  Stephen Moyer is a perfect Bill (I may hate the character, but he plays the character well.)  Anna Paquin is a bit too skinny to be Sookie, who's meant to be a fuller figured woman, but she plays the part well.  Jason is better than in the books, because in the books he's a bit of an arse.  Some of the show's original characters are fantastic, some are not, but some have surpassed themselves.  Russell Edington, Franklin, were excellent ways to go and I applaud that, but just because I'll tolerate changes, doesn't mean I'll tolerate them completely fucking with the source material.

Good stuff:

• Jess and Jason's scene together, sweet.
• Arlene and Terry who need more screen time.
• Aunt Petunia is crazy awesome. 
• Jason again, because he's funny.
• Sookie and Eric, together at all.
• Sam Trammel, being Sam, but being Tommy, some good acting there.

Bad Stuff:

• The skin walker stuff, surely if Tommy killed his parents he would shift into his parents and not Sam.  This doesn't make any sense at all.
• Tara.  I know at this point I sound like a broken record, but look at Tara's scenes so far and think how they have at all contributed to the plot, she doesn't do anything, she's just there.  She didn't tell Bill where Eric was, she's had no repercussions of lying to her girlfriend, poor little Tara's had a tough life and we all have to go to the pity party.
• As much as it pains me to say it, Jesus and Lafayette were incredibly boring this week, I normally like the characters, but they basically just faffed around in a field and the acting was bad.
• The rape scene for the witch possessing Aunt Petunia.  Why?  Why did we need to see a woman getting raped?  We had Jason being raped, now we had the witch being raped, the witch who has yet to be given a name I might add.  Jason's rape was played for laughs and the witches rape has no emotional resonance (apart from the general raping of course) because we barely know anything about her.  It's titillation in the worst way.
• Eric and Sookie having none shower sex.  Anyone who has read Dead to the World will be able to tell you just how important the shower scene is and how it works perfectly for Eric an Sookie to have sex for the first time.  Eric, who's been the vulnerable, child like Eric, seeking Sookie's help for everything, catches Sookie when she's at her most vulnerable, in the shower.  It's not just the setting though, seriously if you haven't read it, why are you reading this post?  Spoliers!  Just go read the book.  Alan Ball's direct quote on this was, “There will be a moment in the show when Sookie and Eric will be in a shower. It may not be exactly what happened in the books. It may be weirder and dirtier.”  We don't want weirder and dirtier, we just want the goddamn shower scene!  In the case on not making idol threats, if they fuck up the shower scene, I am done with True Blood.  Seriously, it's not that good of a show to keep getting angry with.

Next week's preview: