True Blood

[shipperx]

Last night's episode felt a lot like being bludgeoned over the head with violence against women. I'm not hyper-sensitive about these things. I pretty much accept it in the media... but good grief. It's hard not to notice when there was so damn much of it! Too many women [an array! an assortment! a variety!] being terrorized and tortured for a single episode. Ease off! Or at least mix up the genders!

The only storylines that really interested me last night were Eric's/Layfayette's/Pam's and Jessica's. The Eric stuff (especially Eric and Lafayette and Eric/Pam) worked. I bought all of them being scared shitless and trying to think their way out of this. How are they going to make it out of this? It's a tall order, so I'm intriguted. And I liked the (relatively) understated Jessica moments. Sam's plot wasn't as in your face as the other stuff so I suppose I'm relatively neutral on it, but Zzzz. And, basically, every other storyline boiled down to 'let's torture teh wommenz.'

Blerg.

ETA: Oh, and Alicide, really, keep the shirt off. I suspect that's the most productive thing you bring to the show so... you should probably stay half-naked.

ETA II: Okay, I lied. Having read my own comments here and elsewhere, I must be interested in Bill's plot as well... I just find it ookie while interesting.

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Hee!

Actually you bring up an interesting question about the whole souled/unsouled thing (and you're right that part of what made Spike seem forgivable is that in a lot of ways it seemed as though he had no real understanding about what it was he was doing. He didn't see why what he was doing was wrong).

Interestingly both True Blood and Being Human have vampires without soul nets. Being Human's vampires also don't have an issue with soulless vs. souled. However True Blood and Being Human approach vampirism a bit differently on a metaphorical level. I don't know that True Blood's heirachy and Fangs as a gay metaphor work in quite the same way to make Bill's actions understandable. Being Human's take is that vampirism is like a hard-core heroine addiction or something. There isn't a substitute for blood. There's just... going hungry. And staying hungry. And just like heroine addicts can fall off the wagon and go on a bender (and feel awful about it) vampires can too. And then there are vampires who just can't cut the addiction no matter how they try. Somehow it was the drug addiction part of it that actually make some of it forgivable in a sense and yet not forgivable in others. I mean... people wind up dead. But you can also buy that maybe they aren't completely in control of their actions. And when they beg someone to love them, to save them, etc. It often takes on the feeling of a drug addict. (Being Human's take on werewolf-ism seems to equate it with anger issues/domestic violence).

It's interesting to compare Bill's fall off the deep end with Mitchell's fall off the deep end. Both are pretty unforgivable, but somehow Mitchell's fall is one I pity him for. I don't really pity Bill's fall.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

I think personally it helps that Mitchell's train rampage and major act outs came through as hot-blooded reaction rather than Bill's completely cold-blooded rational decision to choose Anne and serve her up as dinner. Both end up with dead people, but the place both come from seems crucially different in how salvagable the characters are afterwards.