The End of Innocence - True Blood

Well, here I am truly at a loss for words. No, really, I went to edit a post and lost the entire thing that I had spent hours writing yesterday.   In truth it has made me feel a bit sick.

I will try to regain it from my memory, but I can't possibly believe I will regain it's former brilliance.

Three episodes into its third season, a few folks, including me and my husband and a reader or two, have proclaimed disappointment with the HBO series.  Something that held us enthralled for two seasons seems to be missing. After discussion with another blogger, Julia B., I posited a theory that while in the Harris book series upon which the television series is based Sookie maintains her innocence (not her physical innocence) longer and that we were attracted to both series by the innocence of seeing this new world where vampires, and apparently countless other supes have been residing and living side-by-side with us.  It is her eyes we see through in the books, and in the series it takes maybe up to book seven where we suddenly notice that Sookie has been maturing as she experiences the wider world through her association with the supernatural.

Sookie went wide-eyed and trusting into the world Bill Compton offered.  And, like a sponge she soaked up that world.  She began to see her ability as a gift rather than a disability.  And, in the most recent book we began to see that she had become a bit hardened to the terror of fairy tales.


Now, in the series, after just two seasons, she is no longer just the kooky bar maid, she has become jaded.  She is now as jaded in her world as we in ours. And, we miss that trust she had that vampires were just people with different needs. We miss seeing the world that way.  Her innocence was amazing considering what she heard and knew.

 Alcide

Joe Manganiello

Harris's Sookie would not say, "They took someone I love from me, and I was taught to fight back." WHO taught this Sookie to fight back?  Gran? I. Don't. Think. So.  Jason would have taught to shoot then run off with the gun, and her folks are dead.  Gran was just a sweet old southern lady who would have taught Sookie to turn the other cheek and ask the Lord first, and then friends, for help. Harris's Sookie, would not be fearlessly shooting a gun at a werewolf. She may have learned how to use a gun, after all, look what she does to poor Debbie in the book series. Of course, that woman had gone so far beyond the pale that even Gran may have killed her.  But, at that point Harris's Sookie calls on Eric for help, not for information or tactical enforcement of the Vampire-Sheriff code, but help.  This Sookie, the series Sookie doesn't even retch when Eric bites out a werewolf's jugular.  She and he just bury him on top of a fresh grave! She even learns that little trick and cleans the blood out of the parlor rug.

And, I am not so sure series-Sookie is actually all that intent on finding Bill. She was unsure when he proposed, maybe we are actually seeing guilt over that trip to the Ladies' Room, "If I had just said yes, they wouldn't have kidnapped Bill." Anyway, Bill who?  I think I am heading for Team Alcide.  I like book-Eric more than TV Eric. TV Eric is not the Norse God that Ms. Harris suggests; I do think they are working on that though (try some better makeup). But, the urgency to get Bill back isn't really there.

And, I don't know, does Bill have just that one move in bed?  I don't even know how to describe it, chopping wood, pile driving.  It's just Unh, unh, unh and then a bit of blood-sucking.  No foreplay?
And, what is with him and Lorena. Ick.  I wish he had twisted her head right off, but she seemed to like it.

Another problem with the series is that the Sookie story, which is what got us all to to turn to HBO in the first place, is just part of the world of Bon Temp.  In the book series the side stories are on the side; we generally only see them first hand through Sookie, if she is not there they are mostly recounted through her or to her. In the TV series we hardly see any Sookie.  First we see a new bunch of characters, then Tara and another new guy, then the crazy coroner (Dr. Flox for Star Trek Enterprise) , then Jason, then Sookie, then Pam , then Eric and LaFayette, then Bill and another new guy, etc.
From a series that was pretty much about Sookie and through her eyes it has gotten a bit too diffuse.  Fewer stories and fewer new characters are needed.  But, hey, keep Alcide. Maybe the series will coalesce around Sookie and Eric and/or Alcide getting together.

HBO has come up with a few new videos to try to convince us that all is as it should be.  HBO is undergoing site maintenance at the moment (I believe it is just to tick me off), but it would seem the link is at www.hbo.com.  If that link is changed because of the  site maintenance I think you can easily find them by going to HBO's home page and selecting True Blood.  Just continue selecting until you get to videos for True Blood.This site has lots of graphics and cast interviews: http://truebloodguide.com/category/cast-characters/.  It is where I found that nice picture of Alcide.

But, listen up HBO,  this blog's writer and some friends are not too happy with what you are doing with the series.  Sookie's story is the main course and your portions are too small.

Friends, what do you think is wrong with True Blood this season if anything?

blood spatter orig. Ryan Lupin