TRUE BLOOD - Season 7

[lovepuppy]

>>Those explanations for the Bill flashbacks still seem vague to me, especially for a show which traditionally makes every parallel, metaphor and allusion crystal clear... :P

Oh, I agree, Eric! I was just glad to see someone posit *some* kind of explanation for these vague flashbacks, because, yes, it's not quite so clear, so quickly, with these, as they usually are. I guess they figure they've got us hooked for 5 more episodes, so they have a finite time in which to reveal everything. :)

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed with all of that. I definitely think they are going somewhere (like I said before, I somehow think they'll lead to some realization about how to solve the disease crises... I suppose when you're as old as Bill, it takes you a long time to sort your memories out...) I remember when the show first started showing flashbacks to Bill's pass (season 1? Definitely by season 2) and I found those parts the highlight of the show--it's just disappointing how dull I find them now.

[lovepuppy]

It was just on again, and since there's nothing else on, this summer... I noticed in the first flashback of last night's episode, Bill was triggered to that particular memory because Jane Bodehouse was talking about making changes in her life, and in the flashback, the man who said "Get out of my bar, Mr. Compton," was a Mr. Bodehouse. With a drink in his hand. So, Bill knew one of her ancestors, but obviously the content of the flashback had more to do with Bill's conscience...the point of which hopefully will be revealed soon!

[EricMontreal22]

http://www.out.com/entertainment/popnography/2014/07/22/nathan-parsons-thinks-true-bloods-gay-romance-important

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Mmmm, what's so "important" about telling this story? The only thing I find remotely interesting is that they had Lafayette as a top. Otherwise, it's just so run of the mill, as is pretty much every storyline not involving Eric/Pam. The show is just so so so awful at this point, this episode in particular read like fan fiction more than an actual episode. Yes, Pam's priceless line made it almost all worth it, but Bill's flashbacks were as truly awful as Pam's line was truly brilliant. The characters I probably can stand the least are Sam (who really should've died with Alcide) and that terrible wife, oh and Violet, who is that? Why is she there? Ugh!
I wish the season was 7 episodes instead of 10, I can't believe I have 5 more episodes of this to watch and feel like I've made it too far to stop watching, but at this point that feels more like a challenge than anything.

[EricMontreal22]

Oh, actors always say crap like that any gay story is "important." Ho hum. I did think it interesting that Lafayette's actor seemed to have no time for Grimes--even if they had to do the obligatory "it was kinda weird kissing a guy" thing (wouldn't it be kinda weird kissing any actor for the first time?)

And I pretty much agree with your other points.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

There's a little more context to the quote if you go to the Hollywood Reporter, although even with more said, I'm not sure what exactly is important? I can't tell if he's saying that telling the story of a bisexual is important or... actually I just have no idea.

We just had to be really careful about how we went about it. We didn’t want it to be uncomfortable to watch or over the top. It has to be something that is seemingly organic and loving, instead of just having sex for the sake of having sex. I think that was the difficult line to walk. It comes out of nowhere and we have to do it tastefully, and we all have to be comfortable with what’s happening. But Howard [Deutch], the director, was great about it. Nelsan and I just went along for the ride, and I think it turned out really well.

And this story is important and should be told and needs to be shared. It’s a story that’s being told all over the place, and TV doesn’t pay enough attention to it. The "Do I love this guy or love this girl?" and "Is this right or is this wrong?" becomes more important than the act itself, and that I think was really well done by the writer [Craig Chester] and Howard and Nelsan and myself.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

that I think was really well done by the writer [Craig Chester] and Howard and Nelsan and myself.

Well, I'm glad he's not self-congratulatory at all!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

He's also part of the bandwagon that doesn't realize "myself" is not interchangeable with "me."

[EricMontreal22]

Wait--a sex scene shouldn't be over the top? On True Blood? Thanks for pointing out the longer link.

I love that Howard Deutsch is directing for the show now--going from directing Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful to directing American Horror Story and TB... He should get his wife Lea Thompson a cameo before the finale...

[javero]

"He's also part of the bandwagon that doesn't realize "myself" is not interchangeable with 'me.'"

When did that practice become so popular? I come across it all the time now in both print and conversation with some folks who hold doctorate degrees.

[lovepuppy]

And also, there's a point when Jess is talking to Jason and says "[something something] James and I." Grammatically it should have been "James and me." I hate when people do that. Whether it was written or she improperly improvised it, it does not make you sound more fancy, though people think it does. I don't like it when regular people say it in regular conversation, either.

Phyllis, as to your question:
>>There's a little more context to the quote if you go to the Hollywood Reporter, although even with more said, I'm not sure what exactly is important? I can't tell if he's saying that telling the story of a bisexual is important or... actually I just have no idea

...My thoughts are these: 1) The article, itself, is fluff, and whoever wrote it probably had an assignment to write on the latest episode and got dispatched on this new young hot actor. He was only answering questions he was asked. The article is short. The topic has been covered before, and was once "important" to dramatize, and arguably still might be. 2) I personally wonder why they had to show Lafayette and James actually doing the deed; I mean, if you were getting to know someone over the course of several days, and finally started making out at a party on the porch, wouldn't you...go get a room, or go back to one of your homes and do private things...there? Not in a car, 20 feet from someone's front door, with the car door open, so that anyone coming in and out of that house can see you OUTSIDE. If they had stolen away behind a tree in the yard, or even that SUV, to continue making out, sure. But the time-lapse from porch to sex-at-the-car was only several minutes at the most. Showing them screwing, already?? Sure, plot device to get Jessica mad and break up with him. But I'm sure the same could have been accomplished more realistically even by showing them kissing. The fact that Lafayette and James would be seen even that intimately, would get her made, and get the gay storyline across.

The point is--the scene and the article are the problems here, not the contrived gobbledy-gook the actor said to the reporter, to sum them up. He gets a pass.

[EricMontreal22]

Well, to be fair, the show shows straight sex scenes, sometimes after two characters just meet, much more graphically...

[lovepuppy]

Sure, it's HBO. But when was the last time that happened?

[EricMontreal22]

Well there was this party last Friday... oh, you mean on the show?

[lovepuppy]

D'oh!

Lol

[Wynbish]

Anna Paquin - "I'm gonna do what I want to, and I'm gonna dye my hair blue."

[javero]

Not that it matters but Anna, I approve.

Question for all the straight-haired among you: why does the character Bill Compton always look like he's sporting a very bad toupee while Stephen Moyer is usually well-groomed? Perhaps it's the lighting on the set.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Yeah, Stephen Moyer looks so much better in real life than he does as Bill, especially in the later seasons.
Okay, had to share this, just about the dumbest reason I can think of for having those awful flashbacks, but I'm just really not on board with them at all so maybe others will think it makes sense. Quote from the EP:

And in case you’re wondering why there have been so many flashbacks this season — besides the fact that it’s the final season — Buckner said it’s all about helping the characters find themselves again.

“With Bill, we got a character who we turned into a vampire god, and he wasn’t that nice,” Buckner explained. “The thinking there was, as Bill tries to find his way back to himself, let’s give him a little help by flashing back to his human life.”
TVLine.com

[lovepuppy]

Dear "True Blood,"

Thank you for getting hilarious again:

QOTD: "You cannot just dye your hair, and blow a guru, and absolve yourself of all the horrific s#!t that you've done in your life." - Sarah Newlin's sister.

[FindingNamo]

I find myself savoring every episode this season, something I haven't done consistently since the first season.

"Yeah, Stephen Moyer looks so much better in real life than he does as Bill, especially in the later seasons."

Oh god. He was on Conan the other night and he looked like, I have no idea what the politically correct term is nowadays… a midget? A mini-midget? And apparently the gawd-awful toupees are not limited to Vampahr Beeyul but also his real life.

[lovepuppy]

Something's up with that preacher.

[FindingNamo]

He's a buddah!

[javero]

"I find myself savoring every episode this season, something I haven't done consistently since the first season."

That makes two of us. I'm really happy that the Violet character finally has a purpose on the show. I like it when we get a healthy dose of vampires with a lil' Sarah Newlin on top. It's the vampire/human couplings that nearly bore me to the true death.

"Something's up with that preacher."

Yup. I have a sneaking suspicion that Tara's ghost is trying to lead Lettie Mae and LaLa to the old house so that they can unearth some dirt on Reverend Daniels. Does anyone remember what happened to his first wife? And where is Willa?

[lovepuppy]

Hm, interesting theory about the Rev. I hadn't considered that he might be hiding something, for some reason. But if he were, when Lettie Mae got serious (even the audience believes her now) about "not ignoring what Tara has to tell her," she said it with such conviction that the Rev nodded and got out of her way. If he were hiding something, wouldn't he have gotten even more pushy?

Violet has a purpose now? To what--put Adilyn in danger just so she can, say, "save" her and look good in the eyes of Jason? I thought she'd go after Jessica--after all, she's much older and more powerful than Jessica. Wouldn't it be easier to harm a younger vampire than to go after a half-fairy human who your boyfriend and his friends care about? (That's not to say they don't care about Jess, now, too, but...)

[Wynbish]

Since the end of last season, it has seemed like the Reverend had his hand in things without getting his hands dirty, if that makes sense.

Maybe it's because I am subconsciously readying for True Blood being over, but again, this was another "well... that happened" meh episode for me. Better than last week, for sure, but still meh, in my opinion. We have four episodes left, and some of it seems to be cruising and some of it seems to be grasping at straws to find something enticing. I know that Eric and Pam finding the cure for Hep-V will eventually affect Bon Temps (he sacrifices himself and lets Bill have it so Sookie can be happy?), but right now, their story, while entertaining enough, seems disjointed. The odd man out of the "we're going to focus on Bon Temps!" direction of this season.

Speaking of the Hep-V cure, is it a virus, as well? If it was something that just got in her blood stream, wouldn't it be mostly gone in 6 months?