Monday, June 17, 2013

True Blood S01E01 "Who are you, really?" Recap

Caution.


First question: Did I like it? 
Well, the first half was actually kind of terrible, to be honest. The second half was better, though I'm not quite sure if this is due to better quality or the champagne that I had to drink to get through the first minutes.

Within the first minutes of the show, we loose the first main character, Luna. I'd love to say I'll miss her, but I probably won't. She was always a little annoying to me and didn't bring much into the show. To be completely fair, I think Ball didn't handle very well the werewolf storyline. Alcide is okay, but overall we have either characters that nobody cares for or that are plain dislikable. Maybe her little daughter in combination with her guardian-to-be Sam will build a bridge between this part of the show and the one that circles around Sookie.

Apart from that, the first 10 minutes of the episode are filled with painfully bad special effects and make-up and the action doesn't feel agitating at all. It's actually so bad I started to regret spending my time watching this episode. I don't care for Billith, don't care for Jason. Actually, Jason... What were they thinking? He is just annoying. I don't feel him at all. I don't feel his reasoning or his pain. He's always been like a stupid teen, but somehow he was charming or you could relate to him in some way. He's not even that anymore - he's just plain dumb. Not even his conversation with Warlow (Niall?) could change that for me. IMO it would've been much better to introduce Warlow through another character of the show, but not Jason.

Coming to yet another character, that I didn't care about: I never was very interested in Eric's sister and Pam's weeping and wailing doesn't really help much with that. Where is the strong Pam that we saw in the first seasons of the show and that would've never feel intimidated by another female she just met? What's the purpose of Nora anyways (maybe I'm just annoyed, because I didn't want Eric to jump from Sookie right next to his sister)? Anyways, thanks to Pam for the best line of the episode: "I hate the beach. Fish piss and sand in your cooch." 

Okay, after so much hate, I also want to appreciate the good things about this episode. The strongest character of this episode for me was Jessica. I really understood her. I could feel her pain. Her loss. Her fear. Her reasoning. (Again: contrast to Jason). She had the best scenes - first her talk with Sookie, then her conversation with Bill after she chose him over the other vampires. 
As for Bill. I think he delivered quite well and I'm quite intrigued what will become of him, though I'm not really a fan of religion and its shortcomings. 

I liked, when Sookie staked Bill. Not because I want to get rid of him, but it finally creates some real tension between characters. It was also put into perspective within the following minutes when we watch her rescinding Eric's invitation. By that, you clearly see her being sick of all the vampire sh*t (and not just Bills transformation) and her need to get back to "normal" (whatever that means for her as a half-fairy). The same scenes include Eric showing his affections (indirectly) for Sookie, which might or might not be just for the fangirls at home to keep them on the hooks. (Yeah, I feel betrayed by Charlaine Harris' end of the book series' and I'm suspicious.)

What might be interesting plot-wise in the following episodes: Warlow being Lillith progeny has some potential. Also, the buy-in of Louisiana governor Burrell into the TrueBlood factories and the relationship between Bill and Jessica. In contrast, not interesting for me at all are the werewolves, which are just bat-shit crazy and not connected to the vampire story-line at all and the Jason/Sookie relationship.

Oh yeah, and I won't ever comment on Andy Bellefleur. I just couldn't care less.

On a scale from 1 to 10? Probably a 5 for me (given that it was the season's premiere).


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