Paper_Hanger’s Weblog
Performances, movies and book reviews …Archive for Bon Temps
True Blood – Season 1, Episode 5
Dreading what soft-porn might lurk, I made myself watch episode 5 of True Blood as air-ed in New Zealand – on Prime last night. Warning: plot revealed.
It this episode, we find out more about Bill Comptom’s (Moyer) past – how he became a vampire. Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin) stops going out with Bill – end of Episode 4 – and goes out with Sam Merlotte (Trammell) instead. Jason Stackhouse (Kwanten) continues to experiment with ‘V’ – vampire bloody – and sleeping with the women of Bons Temp.
Bill served in a local regiment and fought in the “war of southern Independence”. On his way home, at the end of the war he is bitten by, and drinks the blood of, a vampire – turning him into a vampire. Incidentally, the vampire, in the guise of a war widow, bears a striking resemblance to Sookie’s grandmother – coincidence or plot hook to come.
Sookie, returns home from her unsatisfactory date – with Sam – to find what looks like her grandmother, her throat cut, on the kitchen floor. Oh the suspense …
0.3
True Blood – Season 1, episode 4
I managed to catch the last 80% of episode 4 of True Blood as air-ed in New Zealand – on Prime last night. Warning: plot revealed.
While they are questioning Jason ‘brain in his pants’ Stackhouse down at the police station and town hall (Bon Temps must be a small place), the ‘V’ – vampire blood – Jason gulped down to avoid arrest for pocession of a controlled substance kicks in; Jason suffers the grandmother of priapasm. Jason’s sleeping with women who are about to be found dead – as per the end of Episode 3 – is getting him into hot water with the townsfolk. I hope that Ryan Kwanten is not too type cast by his excellent portrayal of Jason Stackhouse.
The sex theme just keeps on rocking: Jason’s character is completely taken over by his manhood (maybe an attempt to cleverly not take his character too seriously) and Sookie goes undercover in a vampire bar. Paquin’s innocent characterisation reminds me of Susan Sarandon in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Sookie – Paquin – is now deliberately using her power to listen in on people’s thoughts to find the real killer before Jason is lynched by the townsfolk. So she talks Bill – the vampire, Moyer – into taking her to the vampire bar in a nearby town; “it’s not a date!” The bar reminds me of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s video for Relax – leather, bondage, …
Just when the leave-the-heroine-in-a-bad-situation ending was in danger of wearing a bit thin, we see Sam Merlotte – Trammell – basking, cat like, on the bed of the last murdered waitress.
0.3
I am starting to loose interest in this series.
True Blood – Season 1, Episode 1
Episode 1 of True Blood finally air-ed in New Zealand – on Prime . Warning: plot revealed.
The storyline, directing (Alan Ball) and acting is just great. Within half an hour, the main character – Sookie Stackhouse, brilliantly played by Anna Paquin – and the general come-out-of-the-coffin of vampires is introduced. The treatment of Sookie’s telepathy is very effective. The other main character – Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer – has also been introduced: Stookie has to save him from vampire blood traders.
By the end of the episode, Sookie’s world has been built up – its underlying currents hinted at, and the supporting characters introduced. Sookie has also been beaten half to death – a classic ‘come back next week’.
Paquin of course won a Golden Globe for her portrayl of Sookie – and it is well deserved. Paquin, who is a brunette New Zealander, brings the blond southern Sookie to life. Sookie appears to be a person with principles and prepared to stand up for them. There is a hint that Sookie would like to get out of Bon Temps, Louisiana, but can’t at the moment.
I was surprised by the amount and explicitness of sexual content.
0.3
Worth the wait.
