True Blood Season 3 ep 2

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So I watched this last night, thanks to a wonderful person on my flist. Loved it.

Spoilers within, of course.



I don't think there was a single thing I didn't like about this episode. All the character interaction was great, with special mention for Lafayette and Tara, Hoyt and Jessica, Jason (aww, cute!) and Andy, and Terry and Arlene. There was some very funny stuff - Jessica and the chainsaw had me in stitches, her scene with Pam in the ladies' room was pretty good too - some poignant stuff - Sam's meeting with his real parents, Lafayette's mother in the asylum, the aforementioned Hoyt/Jessica scene - some downright disturbing stuff - Eric and Godric as Nazis (though I suspect it'll turn out they weren't 'real' Nazis, but just using the uniforms, or possibly even actual ranks in the German army, as a cover for dodgy vampire business), Bill biting the werewolf's ear off, the vampire king of Mississippi's 'blood' feast, Bill setting fire to Lorena etc.

I liked all the new characters (and I expected not to like Sam's brother and was pleasantly surprised), and was particularly intrigued by the Brit vampire (though since the actor's been allowed to keep his own accent, he'll undoubtedly turn out to be evil), and I loved the Eric/Sookie scene. Not really attached to any particular 'ship, as I've said, though I do like dear old Bill, so enjoyed that bit of interaction between them that showed the more 'human' vulnerable side of Eric. I was thinking Eric would pretend to go on helping Sookie look for Bill while all the time putting obstacles in her way, and am glad I've turned out to be wrong, because it's more interesting this way.

Favourite scene: so hard to pick - anything with Jessica in it, and Tara beating up the rednecks. Roll on episode 3.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

her scene with Pam in the ladies' room was pretty good too
Nods. Pam evidently giving out chainsaw advice and Lysol advice was made of win.

Eric and Godric as Nazis (though I suspect it'll turn out they weren't 'real' Nazis, but just using the uniforms, or possibly even actual ranks in the German army, as a cover for dodgy vampire business)

I think Eric actually said that they were just wearing those uniforms to hunt for the werewolves.

Jason (aww, cute!) and Andy
Wind beneath my wings :: dies ::

And I think James Frain will be a very interesting character, a vampire detective.

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Pam evidently giving out chainsaw advice and Lysol advice was made of win.

Hee! Yes.

I think Eric actually said that they were just wearing those uniforms to hunt for the werewolves.

Ah. I'll have to rewatch. I thought he just told the werewolf girl that they weren't on the same side.

And I think James Frain will be a very interesting character, a vampire detective.

Oh, so he's a detective? Not necessarily evil, then? I suppose he was probably the person Eric was shouting at on the phone in ep1?
I've just looked at his resume, and it's pretty impressive, but I don't remember having seen him in anything at all.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I thought he just told the werewolf girl that they weren't on the same side.

He did but he told Sookie more. They re-ran the episode last night and I was busy taping for my flist.

Frain just played Thomas Cromwell on The Tudors and most Americans would know him as Forney (sp?) in the film Where the Heart Is.

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They re-ran the episode last night and I was busy taping for my flist.

Ah. Will definitely have to rewatch - not that I need any excuse. :)

I haven't seen The Tudors at all. My older daughter loves it, but I just couldn't get my head around the making free with history part.

And I have seen some of the things James Frain has done. I just don't remember him in them.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I loved it too, it was great fun really. I wonder what they are going to do with Tara and the new vampire.

The series has just been renewed for another season (which gives me extra squee because the fourth is my favorite book).

I'm also interested in how they'll do Jason's storyline in this. It promises to be fun.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I haven't started with True Blood yet, but your enthusiasm puts it on my must-see list.

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

I'm loving jessica more and more with every episode, and I thought Eric was especially good this time.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I have a totally unsubstantiated, pulled entirely out of thin air thought that they'll probably depart from the books with Franklin Mott (Tara's new vamp). I haven't read the books but I got curious and googled and there's precious little about him online other than the actor in no way fits his physical desciption from the books (then again, neither does Tara). They do mention that at some point later in the series Tara marries some rather nondescript regular guy. Which, I find difficult to believe that the show would do any time soon, because, honestly, what fun is there in that?

Then again, I think Tara's a far more minor character in the books. All of which means I think that Ball (series exec producer) may take a more free hand with her plot from this point onward, much as he has with Lafayette (who by the books should have been dead in Season 1)or Jessica (who doesn't exist in the books.) So --wild guess -- I don't think Tara's plot will necessarily sync exactly with the books.

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I wonder what they are going to do with Tara and the new vampire.

I watched a few of the season previews on YouTube, and I think they're supposed to get 'closer.' However, in the clips they showed, Tara didn't look too happy about it.

The series has just been renewed for another season (which gives me extra squee because the fourth is my favorite book).

:squees along with you, even though I haven't read any of the books:

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I love it. I hope you enjoy it too. :)

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I agree. They were both terrific, and I felt quite cut up by the Jessica/Hoyt scene with the closed door.

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I hope you're right about the Franklin character, because though you don't say so openly, I get the impression that what you're hinting at is that he doesn't stick around for long, and this character is far too interesting to just disappear.

I'm sure there's a great deal of serendipity involved in what Alan Ball decides to do with the characters. Rutina Wesley is a terrific actress so it would make no sense to put her character on a backburner. I think possibly the same will be true of this guy. Hope so anyway, and hope he's no more evil than the average run of vamps on this show.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know how long he sticks around in the books. I gathered from google that it may be for more than one book. But I also gather that there may not have been much plot involved, although I think that's also primarily because Tara doesn't have much of a plot. My impression is that the series if far more ensemble than the book series. So characters like Lafayette may have been expendable in the books but aren't in the tv show.

I think that a tv show has a greater need to maintain a core cast so while characters disappear in the books they're less likely to in the series. So I don't think that Tara or Bill will be scaled back into obscurity as they seem to do (at least my impression from wikipedia) in the books. They're already departing from the books in the continued existence of Lafayette, the existence of Jessica, and the fact that Bill didn't more or less fall off the face of the earth until the very end of the season. I think that Ball's needs for a tv series are somewhat different than Charlaine Harris's need for her books, hence Lafayette remaining alive, Tara probably remaining more prominent and more developed (and she already is more developed than I gather that she was in the books), Jason more developed, etc.

That said, I don't know much about Mott. I only think that Ball, having invested so much in Tara, is less likely to shuffle her off to a backburnered ordinary life than the books. He has greater need of her character than Charlaine Harris did/does.

[shapinglight]

Yes, that sounds about right. And of course Alan Ball needs a regular cast that the audience will want to see, though I expect he still goes with what works up to a point - by which I mean, if Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin hadn't gelled, he might have been more likely to stick more closely to Bill's storyline in the book (though obviously he would have known the two were going to work together pretty quickly).

[calturner.livejournal.com]

I adored this episode! I haven't had a chance to write about it in great detail yet, but I loved it to pieces.

Petzi is right - Eric did explain to Sookie that they were wearing the Nazi uniforms to hunt the werewolves.

I can't think of a single thing I didn't like in this episode either. It just keeps on getting better and better! Looking forward to next week. :)

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:waves:

Nice to see you back, Cal, and isn't it great when you love something this much? I haven't managed to watch the episode again unfortunately, but I still intend to before I (hopefully) get to see the next one.

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I just watched the ep again, btw, and this time it was so obvious who took the body that I feel quite stupid for not realising before. :sigh:

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Have watched it again now, and taken it all in a bit better, and yes, I can see that Eric and Godric were just dressed as Nazis, and also I realised who took the body in the basement of Bill's house.

:feels really stupid for not realising before: