I just watched Season 3 on DVD. I now officially don’t care any more…
11 thoughts on “True Blood”
I finished it a couple months ago & haven’t bothered with Season 4 yet. May never bother, come to think of it.
I’m surprised by one part of your review in particular: “any more…” It’s not like TB has ever been any, you know… good. And for those who say it’s a funny show (which it sort of purports to be), I defy them to identify more than two lines per season that elicited much more than a giggle. Go on. Try.
Without humor, there’s precious little to recommend it. Even the boobs are too often covered in red corn syrup.
I stopped watching at the end of the second season. It never made it past the initial clever analogy of vampire = gay, but it didn’t do anything with that after about episode 3 of the first season. It just became titillating crap.
WJPurdy (if that’s your real name)–I think the humor is more situational than jokey. As for the boobs, I agree–but TB is not my go-to choice for toplessness. I think the show was pretty good up until the end of the second season. The first season was certainly the strongest, but the second season had a nice Arthur Machen-esque feel to it (look it up). Now everybody’s a creature of some sort. werewolves, were-cats, shapeshifters, fairies….enough, for chrissakes. The last couple of episodes in season 3 were a jumbled mess. The show should have stuck to its central dynamic–what does it mean for vampires to live among humans. The gay analogy had to be dropped because it’s unsustainable. But the show moved away from its main concern in favor of proliferating sub-stories and, as I mentioned. too many creatures……of course, it still has the best title sequence of any show….oh well. I await season 5 of Dexter, about to arrive in the mail.
It’s a soap opera. Seasons three and four are pretty silly (I’m not sure why I watch but I put little to no investment in its characters or its narrative). And, yeah, it offers a couple of chuckles in each episode but no real comedy. Fiona Shaw is certainly chewing on the scenery in grand style at the moment. @Reynolds: I was less than impressed with Boardwalk Empire. It struck me as lesser-HBO, but it sure seems to have made an impact. I wouldn’t dare put that show in the same category as Breaking Bad or Mad Men or Justified or Treme (whose second season was the best thing on television in 2011).
Completely agree with Jeff about how strong the second season of Treme was. I was surprised not to see more reviews and commentary on it. After all the discussion of the first season, the second seemed to fly under the radar.
I will have to give Treme another go. The first season started slow but then amazed me in the middle… but the final episodes grew increasingly wearisome–overdetermined, too stiffly structured… and I gave up.
I had some similar reactions to season 1, but I enjoyed season 2 far more. It just seemed more laid back, letting the music and the stories wash over you rather than poking you in the eye with the social and cultural relevance of the series. Watching the recorded episodes of the first season came to be a chore, but I looked forward to the second.
But I go back to my earlier question, or musing: why did the second season of Treme fly under the radar so much? And the same question about the second season of Justified. They were both superb, but I searched high and low for season-opening reviews. Yet incredible crap gets not just reviewed, but respectfully reviewed. The new Americanized Torchwood being exhibit number one.
It’s my real name. Really. Reynolds and Jeff might be willing to vouch for me (if not, you’ll just have to assume that if I made it up, I’m just not very good at making stuff up).
As for True Blood, the turning point for me was Season 2, which was basically a season full of episodes depicting the horror of middle aged people dressed in bloody togas, fucking. In that sense it was like another HBO humor series, Real Sex, except that it wasn’t as funny.
I finished it a couple months ago & haven’t bothered with Season 4 yet. May never bother, come to think of it.
I’m surprised by one part of your review in particular: “any more…” It’s not like TB has ever been any, you know… good. And for those who say it’s a funny show (which it sort of purports to be), I defy them to identify more than two lines per season that elicited much more than a giggle. Go on. Try.
Without humor, there’s precious little to recommend it. Even the boobs are too often covered in red corn syrup.
Mmm…. corn syrup.
I stopped watching at the end of the second season. It never made it past the initial clever analogy of vampire = gay, but it didn’t do anything with that after about episode 3 of the first season. It just became titillating crap.
Mmmmm….titillating crap.
Hey–I just started watching Boardwalk Empire. It’s pretty darn good–did no one here see it?
WJPurdy (if that’s your real name)–I think the humor is more situational than jokey. As for the boobs, I agree–but TB is not my go-to choice for toplessness. I think the show was pretty good up until the end of the second season. The first season was certainly the strongest, but the second season had a nice Arthur Machen-esque feel to it (look it up). Now everybody’s a creature of some sort. werewolves, were-cats, shapeshifters, fairies….enough, for chrissakes. The last couple of episodes in season 3 were a jumbled mess. The show should have stuck to its central dynamic–what does it mean for vampires to live among humans. The gay analogy had to be dropped because it’s unsustainable. But the show moved away from its main concern in favor of proliferating sub-stories and, as I mentioned. too many creatures……of course, it still has the best title sequence of any show….oh well. I await season 5 of Dexter, about to arrive in the mail.
It’s a soap opera. Seasons three and four are pretty silly (I’m not sure why I watch but I put little to no investment in its characters or its narrative). And, yeah, it offers a couple of chuckles in each episode but no real comedy. Fiona Shaw is certainly chewing on the scenery in grand style at the moment. @Reynolds: I was less than impressed with Boardwalk Empire. It struck me as lesser-HBO, but it sure seems to have made an impact. I wouldn’t dare put that show in the same category as Breaking Bad or Mad Men or Justified or Treme (whose second season was the best thing on television in 2011).
Completely agree with Jeff about how strong the second season of Treme was. I was surprised not to see more reviews and commentary on it. After all the discussion of the first season, the second seemed to fly under the radar.
I will have to give Treme another go. The first season started slow but then amazed me in the middle… but the final episodes grew increasingly wearisome–overdetermined, too stiffly structured… and I gave up.
I had some similar reactions to season 1, but I enjoyed season 2 far more. It just seemed more laid back, letting the music and the stories wash over you rather than poking you in the eye with the social and cultural relevance of the series. Watching the recorded episodes of the first season came to be a chore, but I looked forward to the second.
But I go back to my earlier question, or musing: why did the second season of Treme fly under the radar so much? And the same question about the second season of Justified. They were both superb, but I searched high and low for season-opening reviews. Yet incredible crap gets not just reviewed, but respectfully reviewed. The new Americanized Torchwood being exhibit number one.
It’s my real name. Really. Reynolds and Jeff might be willing to vouch for me (if not, you’ll just have to assume that if I made it up, I’m just not very good at making stuff up).
As for True Blood, the turning point for me was Season 2, which was basically a season full of episodes depicting the horror of middle aged people dressed in bloody togas, fucking. In that sense it was like another HBO humor series, Real Sex, except that it wasn’t as funny.
Oh, Arnab, too. I know that guy. As much as you can know a person these days, anyway.