Premiere Particulars: True Blood

And so it begins—the final season of True Blood, a staple of HBO since 2008. It’s a little weird to think of the network without its bloody, sexy vampire drama, but let’s be real—it is high time for this show to end. In fact, I’ve been thinking that for the past three seasons. The first three seasons were fun and interesting and unique. The last three seasons…not so much. Things have gotten downright silly, certain characters have become super frustrating, and some of the story threads have been a complete waste of time.  I’m crossing my fingers that the show will end on a high note, but after watching the premiere episode, I’m not so sure….Anyway, here are the particulars.

What I liked:

• Handsome werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello) is just…perfect. I may have already expressed that on my list of TV crushes, but I will gladly point it out again.
• Nelsan Ellis continues to shine as sassy cook Lafayette. Seriously, he IS that character. I think he’s one of the best casting choices on the show. Fun fact: in the book series the show is based on, Lafayette’s role is much, much, MUCH smaller. Thank God that was changed for True Blood. And speaking of Lafayette…
• Lafayette has a nice, genuine moment with Jessica’s new flame, James (Nathan Parsons). It’s a refreshing pause between all the craziness of the episode. I think these two are going to have nice chemistry—and maybe something more? That’s me speculating, but it would cause some interesting drama with Jessica…we’ll see.
• Good ol’ Andy (Chris Bauer) has a really awesome moment in this episode where he totally saves another character’s skin. It’s funny—at first, I didn’t really care about Andy one way or the other. But with each passing season, I have grown more and more fond of him. In fact, Andy pretty much wins this episode.

What I didn’t like:

• I had way too many moments in this episode when I thought, “Why? Just…why?” Several characters (i.e. Sookie, Jason, etc.) make straight up stupid decisions, and that is beyond frustrating. After six seasons, you’d expect them to be a little smarter. But nope.
• This has bothered me for a while: the show completely lacks subtlety. If they wanna flash boob, they flash boob. If they wanna drop an f-bomb, they drop an f-bomb. Whether or not boob and/or f-bomb actually fit into the scene is irrelevant. It’s like the creators are trying way too hard to say, “We’re a grown-up show,” but this sometimes backfires on them, making the show actually appear very immature and sloppy.
• I did not love Anna Paquin in this episode. It’s weird—sometimes I really enjoy her as Sookie (like that episode when she got hilariously drunk and sang her own version of the Piña Colada song). Other times, I find her very…meh. I cringed at the delivery of many of her lines in this one—particularly her speech at the end (which I also thought was poorly written).
• Sorry, Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) lovers—none of the big, blond, Viking vampire in this episode. 😦 I can almost hear the cries of fangirl outrage. Oh, wait—those are my own cries.
• An important character bites the dust in this episode, and it’s odd because the death is completely toned down. The character is just…gone. I think the writers fumbled big time with this one. I even wonder if there was some kind of dispute and the actor left the show suddenly, leaving the writers to scramble to figure out what to do. Yeah. It’s that poorly handled.

The Potential: This show is going to have to improve leaps and bounds to end on a strong note. There are a few things happening that could maybe be interesting (Pam’s search for Eric, the Lafayette/James chemistry, the father/daughter relationship between Andy and Adilyn, a small group townspeople who have been abducted by vampires, etc.), but, frankly, this is not an impressive start. I’ve stuck with True Blood this long, so I’m sure I’ll see it through to this end…but I may not be happy about that.

My Grade: C-