I Think True Blood Has Met The True Death

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HBO, jump the shark, Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood, TV Shows

I watched HBO’s True Blood this past Sunday. I was giving the show another chance after its lousy fifth season last year, and I thought the writers were doing well at cleaning up the mess from that season.

But now I think True Blood has officially jumped the shark. It is beyond redemption now.

Last week, I was getting the feeling the show was once again losing direction. Firstly, the storyline with Terry’s death was being dragged on longer than it needed be. The idea of Sookie considering becoming a faerie vampire wife to Warlow was absurd. Bill being Lilith’s prophet was boring. Jessica hooking up with James isn’t an interesting turn (though that actor is quite hot! I could see him play Daniel Bertrand if my book were to ever be made into a movie). Finally, having Sam get into a relationship with Nicole within days after his girlfriend Luna dies is, to be frank, poor storytelling. And what’s the point of Adilyn Braelyn Charlaine Danika, besides being a helpless target of vampires?

I knew things were getting bad, but I tuned in this week just to see what was going to happen.

Ugh.

Meh.

Seriously, what is everyone involved with True Blood thinking?

First off, Sarah Newlin is an unlikable villain. Sounds contradictory, but Russel Edgington was a villain who was fun to watch. Sarah is just a solid bitch. I can’t hate to love or love to hate her. She’s annoying and boring. That scene where she killed Ms. Suzuki was overdone and silly. I turned away in disgust because it was so ridiculous. It would’ve been seen as comical to me if I didn’t think True Blood was trying to take itself seriously.

And that’s the problem with True Blood now. For the first four seasons, it was fun, funny and sexy. It was a show for good laughs that was not meant to be taken seriously, even if it was a metaphor for LGBT rights. But now, it is trying to be somber by dropping the “edy” of the term, “dramedy” and appears to be focusing on being a drama with a few quips here and there (Lafayette and Pam never fail to have great one-liners).

This season is supposed to be about the vampires fighting for survival after humans got fed up with them. But this fight is running around in circles, taking twists that do not make sense (Nicole being pregnant? Sookie suddenly wants to be with Sam?), and being dragged out much longer than necessary. The once likable characters have become annoying, and the plot seems to be one big mess.

And the show has been renewed for another season next year. Really? The show has fallen apart, the writers seem lost on what to do, and acting talent is being wasted (harsh, but I’m being blunt here). I get it that as long as True Blood brings in the ratings (alias: money) for HBO, it will stay on air. Which is both sad and absurd because there’s nothing left to salvage the show.

As for me, I’ll watch the final two shows of this season, and probably hurt my eyes by rolling them too much. But I won’t be as focused. I’ll be doing other things while the show is on. Sadly, this is what True Blood is turning into for me: background noise on a Sunday night.

Will I tune in next year? Hopefully I wouldn’t feel the need to have background noise on my Sundays then.

Balancing Visions – Yours and Your Readers

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authors, book series, books, Charlaine Harris, readers, reading, Sookie Stackhouse, the writing process

Every author wants an audience. We all want a loyal following, where numerous readers are eager to get our next book. They’ll recommend our work to others, tweet, Facebook and blog about our books, and maybe even leave kind messages to us via email or social media, ever thankful we’ve written books they like.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

But what about when they don’t leave kind messages to us? Especially if they are not happy with one of our books?

You may have heard of author Charlaine Harris, who wrote the Sookie Stackhouse novels which are the inspiration behind the HBO series True Blood. She recently completed the series, with the release of Dead After Ever, and boy, were many fans livid. Some were very disappointed over who Sookie Stackhouse ended up with at the end, and some reacted rather viciously.

I get annoyed with some authors myself. I feel like Anne Rice could’ve written better books. I think Paulo Coelho thinks himself too much as the voice of wisdom, and should stop preaching and just tell a story. But I could never threaten someone’s life because they didn’t do what I hoped they would do – especially if it is an author who has no affect over my life other than my leisure time. It’s scary to know there are people who would go that far over a minor thing.

But this raises the question: should an author consider what their readers want from in their work? If so, how often?

It’s a delicate balance, I believe. I have ideas on how my vampire trilogy should end and how the protagonist, Claire McCormick develops. I think my readers will like them, though it’s possible they’ll be surprised by the direction I take the books. That’s my feeling and I could be wrong. I touched on it in the first book, The Dark Proposal, so I hope it wouldn’t be completely unexpected by anyone. But I have in the back of my mind that some may not be pleased, and that’s just to prepare me for any disappointed reactions I may get.

But if I ever read a review on my book, I am taking into consideration on what my readers would like to see become of Claire. Granted, none are asking for a lot, just to see Claire become a stronger person. That’s fine, and I am working on that. I did intend to make her develop more for the follow-ups, though I admit I wasn’t aware of how weak some readers thought she was. My intention was for her to wracked with anxiety and fear, but I guess I didn’t do that so well. Anyway, I’m working on redeeming that part in my next book.

My point is, it is best to take consideration on what your readers want from your books. They bought it, they read it, and if they liked it, they will be first in line to read your next work. You sort of owe it to listen to them, but I also don’t think you shouldn’t disregard your plans for your characters. Maybe tweak them a little, or let them not do something your fans wouldn’t want them to do. It won’t be easy, I’m sure, because we authors spend hours envisioning what our characters will do. Those characters are very real to us, and to learn that reality isn’t going to be popular is a bit disappointing.

So again, it is a delicate balance. Authors have to be true to their vision, but be considerate of their fans, who make writing worth the time. A good author learns to balance all this well.

But I highly recommend not threatening an author just because a series ended the way you didn’t want it to. It’s just not right. It really isn’t.

True Blood Season Finale 5

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HBO, reviews, season finales, Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood, TV, TV Shows

Sunday saw the season finale of True Blood’s fifth season. It had been a long, lackluster season for me, and I was hoping for a good finale to make up for all the dullness. I figured most of what happened this season will carry over to next year, and I’m pretty damn right.

However, I had no way of predicting how much this show will veer off course.

Holy shit, did this finale leave me confused and disappointed. The previous finales always gave me excitement over what could happen next year and leave me dreading over waiting months for the new season.

But this time, I am not looking forward to next year.

Where do I start?

OK, I thought Russel Edgington died too soon and not fantastically enough. I love to hate this guy! And he goes so soon? OK, it was good for Eric to finally kill his nemesis, but I was expecting a bigger battle. But no…

What was with Maurella giving birth to quadruplets? How silly! Oh, and don’t even mention her orgasmic labor. I take it that scene was supposed to be funny, but it was far too overdone to me.

Then came the last few minutes. I loved how Sam killed that annoying vampire by making her explode, and how Luna told the world what the Authority was doing. But now it looks like she may be dying. Or is that a cliffhanger that won’t have much of a story next time?

Then came the moment when Salome and Bill were to finally face off. I guess all viewers of True Blood saw this happening, but not sure how it will go about. Interesting how Bill laced Lilith’s blood with silver but kept some for himself. Certainly shows you how evil and power-hungry he has become, and how blind Sookie was to his true self.

So, Sookie was unable to get through to Bill and he drank Lilith’s blood. He then dies. I thought, Shit! Bill is dead! They finally killed a major character! What will happen next year?

The answer came a few moments later when Bill emerged from his own blood as a vampire god – kind of how Lilith was throughout this season.

That was when I thought, What the f*ck?

And I knew I could not be excited for next year’s True Blood. I just couldn’t feel the anticipation of what season 6 will bring. I found Bill being reincarnated as the male version of Lilith was beyond stupid and I wonder if the writers for this show have gotten lost and don’t know what to do with the show now.

I always felt this season’s theme – the religion of the vampires – was bizarre and didn’t make much sense. It seemed like the writers wanted to prove once and for all that vampires were indeed evil and that was why. But to me, it didn’t help much.

So now what? Is Bill going terrorize Bon Temps as a vampire god? Is he going to battle Eric forever? Is Sookie going to be in more danger than ever? And will all this conflict result in one massive finale for season 6, and even more so, the entire series?

While watching this season, I got the impression that since most of the story lines this time around won’t be resolved by the finale and will carry over into next season. For that one, there will be a major war between the vampires, humans, faeries, werewolves and shifters, and that would be the end of True Blood. It could happen.

But with Bill as an evil vampire god? It’s like the writers didn’t want to get rid of him for some reason. He should’ve stayed dead, and Eric and Sookie would hook up again. Mind you, I’m not exactly on Team Eric here, I just felt that would make more sense.

But Bill had to rise up from his blood.

And where the hell is Warlow? This whole season hyped him up and nothing happened. I expected him to appear for this episode and possibly get into a duel with Russell. But no, I guess we’ll have to wait till next time.

I don’t know if I want to wait till next time. I was really disappointed with this finale. I may be in the minority, and maybe I need time to think this over, but I feel no anticipation and only bewilderment over how this season ended.

I’ll tune in next June to see what happens. Hopefully things will work out.

It’s cool Tara is a vampire and has found love with Pam. Poor Jessica is alone again. Jason is on a mission to destroy vampires, and Alcide is a pack master at last. Lafayette is back to his wise-cracking self. That’s all good.

But…meh. Part of me wonders if the actors read the script to this episode and reconsidered their contract with this show.

EDIT TO ADD: OK, so I saw the extra scene where Jason is looking for Warlow and Nora seems scared of Warlow. That makes me interested in next year, but I am still not buying Bill as a vampire god. Nope. Sorry!