'True Blood' - 'If You Love Me, Why Am I Dyin'?': Who am I this time?
Eric seeks Sookie's help, while Jessica hangs out at Fangtasia
Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) in "True Blood."
Once again, you know the drill: these "True Blood" posts are here for people who either can't wait for Leslie Gornstein's usual recap to go up on our Monkeys as Critics blog in a few hours, or who just want to do all their HitFix commenting on this blog. Couple quick thoughts on the episode after the jump...
I've said before that the only "True Blood" characters I particularly enjoy watching are Eric, Pam and Jessica. (Lafayette fit that group once upon a time, but keeps getting put into terrible storylines, which I guess is worse than the underuse of Pam and Jessica.) So I was pleased to have an episode built so much around Eric (and one that allowed Alexander Skarsgard to show a very different, lighter side of himself), and also one that had Pam and Jessica hanging out a bit. It's not quite my dream of "True Blood" spinning the three of them off into some kind of vampiric version of "Thelma & Louise" (where I guess Eric would be Brad Pitt?), but I'll take what I can get with this show.
What did everybody else think?
News From Our Partners
-
How Far Will 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Boldly Go At Box Office?
'Star Trek Into Darkness': The Secret Behind The Mystery Villain
'Pacific Rim' Trailer Surfaces: Watch Now!
-
Beyonce Pregnant Again? Sources Confirm 'Epic' Star Is Carrying Baby No. 2
'Hangover 3' Red Band Trailer: Take a Walk Down a NSFW Memory Lane (VIDEO)
Why 'Man of Steel' Didn't Use 'Superman' in the Title
-
Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake?
Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh
Red Carpet Roundup: Star Trek Into Darkness Edition
-
Hear This: Destroy This Place shows how press releases can get it right
Watch This: With Beavis And Butt-head Do America, Mike Judge skewered the idiocy of cinematic adventures
Cannes Film Festival: Cannes 2013, Day Two: Iranian director Asghar Farhadi chases A Separation with another stunning drama
-
What to Watch This Weekend: The Season Finales of Nikita, Doctor Who, The Simpsons, and Family Guy
The Office Series Finale Review: That'll Do, Show. That'll Do.
Syfy Renews Warehouse 13 for a Fifth and Final Season
-
The Future Of Olivia And Fitz, And More Season 3 Scoop
SPOILER ALERT: What's Ahead In 'Nikita' Season 4?
Google Glass Does Porn
-
The Telefile - The Most Heinous Person on Reality TV This Week
The Telefile - Modern Family: The Best Lines of the Night
The Telefile - Fall TV 2013: What's On When
-
Pop Bytes: Michael Jackson's Nephew Negates Wade Robson's Molestation Claims + More
Watch Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar, Ellie Goulding + More on Hangout Festival Livestream
Dumb Celebrity Quotes – Who Said This?
Get Instant Alerts on What's Alan Watching
Latest Posts
-
Dan and Alan also discuss the recent finales of 'Survivor' and 'The Amazing Race'Friday, May 17, 2013
-
Dwight gets married and the staff revisits the documentary in a lovely farewellThursday, May 16, 2013
-
Lecter becomes interested in a local killer, and Will begins hearing thingsThursday, May 16, 2013
-
A show that shouldn't have worked instead became a great, popular, influential oneThursday, May 16, 2013
Comments
Option 1
Comment instantly as a guest GuestOption 2
Option 3
Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBoricua in Texas
July 10, 2011 at 10:34PM EST Reply to CommentThe Jason/Crystal storyline is awful. I never liked Crystal much before as a character, but it's worse than I though possible.
The end of episode made me mad. I know it was intended to have some humor (especially with Sookie's remark to Eric), and I know this show is quite over the top; however the whole thing bothered me.
Chrissy Jason's gang rape was one of the most disturbing things this show has ever shown, worse than all the gore. I'm certainly not against awful things on my TV set, but that felt a bit off in terms of tone from the rest of the show. I really hated watching it and knowing we have to come back to this story next week almost makes me not want to watch, for the first time.
July 10, 2011 at 10:54PM ESTxbrooklyngrrl Could not agree more. The whole Jason and white trash eating raw meat gan raper storyline is the kind of hideous crap that takes this show, so full of interesting twisted potential, and makes it unwatchable.
July 10, 2011 at 11:18PM ESTwebdiva I was never a big fan of the werepanther storyline in the books (I thought making Jason a were was arbitrary as it didn't seem to flow naturally from the story arcs), but at least there was sufficient time in the books -- ove several books -- to make sense of that arc. Now that Alan Ball has crammed all that action into what amounts to a few episodes instead of a few seasons, it makes even less sense -- and he made it much more brutal overall than the panther arc was in the books. The books also allowed for some of the lore and legend of weres to be told through the panther arc, and Ball seems to skipping a lot of that.
July 11, 2011 at 4:35AM ESTAnd now he's just outright killed off Claudine, Sookie's godmother, without ANY of the story arc from the books, so this is **really** going someplace way different. And not better, from what we've seen so far.
Tammy
July 10, 2011 at 10:40PM EST Reply to CommentSome time I should try to offer my guests Vienna sausages, just to see how it would go over.
Jhe
July 10, 2011 at 10:56PM EST Reply to CommentAs usual, someone dies bc of Sookie... It's getting a bit tiresome. I feel bad the fairy godmother died, it was a shame that connection to the fairy storyline was killed just like that...and as we've become acustom - Sookie stands there doing nothing...
webdiva No, Claudine died because of **Eric** -- not Sookie, although I did expect her to do more than yell at him, like at least try to tear him away form Claudine (tho truthfully that would have been completely useless as she isn't a match for him physically -- only another vampire would be, which of course she knew). But we wanted to see her try, and Ball should have known that. He screwed up there. He's doing that a lot this season.
July 11, 2011 at 4:41AM ESTChrissy Well, we saw Claudine try to use her light, which seemed like it should have been a trigger for Ssokie to do the same. Even if she'd tried and failed, it would have played better. It also would have been nice if she'd given Eric some rules about not biting strangers. Maybe we're seeeing Sookie go into full-on self-protective mode, with less interest in the plight of others.
July 11, 2011 at 8:33AM ESTJMS What reason would Sookie have to side with Claudine over Erik? Her supposed Fairy God Mother basically kidnapped her to be fairy food! They had her grandfather captive for years...Sookie fears the fairies and does not trust them.
July 11, 2011 at 10:01AM ESTwebdiva JMS -- agreed: this is not the happy, likeable Claudine we knew from the books, it's someone quite different; so I could understand Sookie not being all that well disposed to her after the appalling visit to the fairy dimension.
July 18, 2011 at 2:20AM ESTrandomwaves
July 10, 2011 at 10:59PM EST Reply to CommentHow 'bout that Creepy Doll? Since last season when Hoyt and Jessica moved into that house I've been wondering what the long still shot on the doll was about and now we have an answer! The biggest laugh I had the whole episode was Hoyt holding on to it while he watched TV. But giving Creepy doll to already creepy baby? that seems like a mistake.
webdiva Okay, now we're going into Chucky territory, and that just pisses me off -- what, you don't have enough to take care of with the vamps and the witches and the weres, Mr. Ball?? We have to have a friggin' creepy doll, too??! Enough!! Stop before you kill the season entirely, dude.
July 11, 2011 at 5:00AM ESTxbrooklyngrrl
July 10, 2011 at 11:26PM EST Reply to CommentImagine you get to edit this show, and you can cut out the whole Jason nonsense with the trash gang, and Tommy, and Hoyt's mother. And you can smack Lafayette into being sassy. And forget about the new irritating witch. Then you'd have a cool, sexy, twisted show. It's so up and down: I like the new Bill Compton , he's cut out the drippy Southern charm act, but Alcide looked sorta ugly and dumb this episode, and what's he doing with Debbie? I also kinda hoped by ep 3 Eric and Sookie would finally get dirty, tho I really did like the humor of zombified Eric and his immature id.
I get why Alan won't dignify this with continuing critique. But why do I keep watching? I guess it's my tv crack.
webdiva Oh, I don't think Bill has lost the Southern charm; he's just pulling it out more selectively, like when he plays town benefactor and booster. But I rather liked watching his reunion with Jessica as he gave her some fatherly advice, and then they just sat together. Bill hasn't lost all of his goodness yet, even if his head is getting bigger with being king now.
July 11, 2011 at 5:14AM ESTI'm **GLAD** Sookie hasn't been stupid enough to get down and dirty with Eric yet. First, it would simply be unbelievable at this point, given everything she's been through. Even in the book, she doesn't soften all that quickly -- she stays suspicious for quite a while, especially as the 'new' Eric has a lot less control for now, and that makes him dangerous in a different way than usual.
I'm not happy with the way several things are developing this season. So why do *I* leep watching? At least for now, I keep hoping Alan Ball will come to his senses and begin pacing the story arcs slower, as they are in the book, to allow more time for events to develop credibly instead of cramming in too much too soon ... but after this episode, he can't undo what he's already done, which means that now we'll never get to see the nice Claudine that we knew in the books, and Sookie will never get all the information about the other supes that she was supposed to learn from Claudine over time. All of which makes Sookie so much more powerless than she has to be, and that's Alan Ball's fault. I really HATE the way he's neutered Sookie, who ought to be a **lot** more feisty, defiant, and able to defend herself than he's letting her be. Let Sookie be Sookie, goddamnit, not this weak Southern Barbie clone!
Bill
July 10, 2011 at 11:26PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I wished they did a Eric/Jessica/Pam storyline this season with Jessica being in a relationship with Eric instead of Hoyt. But on the subject of this episode, honestly I'm just watching pieces of it that peak my interest which aren't a lot. True Blood has one of those shows that I watch when I'm bored rather than one of my favorite shows that I love to watch again and again. I just wished the show had more of the energy/spirit that made Six Feet Under Six Feet Under instead of this crap with its endless romantic hookups and triangles and characters who are either cardboard, vessels of social commentary, or undergo sloppy development.
Shannon
July 10, 2011 at 11:33PM EST Reply to CommentI love the show but I made the mistake of reading all of the books prior to season 4 starting. Now I find myself comparing the two and there are quite a few differerences that I find better in the books. I don't like the ickness in Hot Shot and I don't like the way they portray the Fae in the show. Not sure I like Bill as the King either. I will keep watching because I too love Eric and Pam. I also think the storyline with the creepy doll and baby could be interesting.
gregel
July 11, 2011 at 12:05AM EST Reply to CommentYeah, this was not fun. This season is definitely not an improvement after last year.
Grant Waggoner
July 11, 2011 at 12:39AM EST Reply to CommentAs a longtime fan of the books and (to a MUCH lesser extent) the show, I have to say that last scene was a huge creative misstep on the part of Alan Ball and his ragtag writing staff. Seriously, I won't get into spoilers, but WTF are they thinking?
Lazycrockett
July 11, 2011 at 1:25AM EST Reply to CommentI wouldn't have a problem with the Hot Shots parts if there was a real reason to care for the panther clan. I'm not emotionally invested in Crystal or any of the kids and while its hot to watch a half naked Jason strapped to a bed and squirming around it doesn't make the story interesting. I like it better when he's dealing with V'd up Andy.
Viginti
July 11, 2011 at 1:50AM EST Reply to Comment(Warning: This isn’t very well-written, but then neither is the show so…)
Just in case the now cliche dichotomy of Vampires and Werewolves wasn’t shocking enough this show decided to throw in a few other twisted examples of classic mythology to liven things up, but what once seemed a bold move is now becoming laughably bad. The Ball’s that Alan is juggling in this episode alone include the expected Vampire and Werewolves but also Voodoo Witches, Inbred Were-panthers, generalised Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, pretty Fairies, gremlin Fairies (perhaps one and the same?) and now … Dolls?
More here: http://deerinthexenonarclights.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/true-blood-if-you-love-me-why-am-i-dyin/
Lazycrockett
July 11, 2011 at 2:36AM EST Reply to CommentI will say this episode had some killer one liners. Pam's was great.
Yikeswhatamess
July 11, 2011 at 4:32AM EST Reply to CommentOMG, the Jason/Hillbilly-panther story-line is such a turn-off, I literarily use the 2 minutes to get a drink of water, or go to the bathroom, only to realize that these completely unappealing and revolting characters re-appear every five minutes or so throughout the episode. This episode, written by Alan Ball, seems disconnect from the previous two episodes. I liked the first two episodes, excluding the first few minutes of episode 1, and was looking forward to this week's episode, which only had very few funny moments. I like what is going on with the Bill Compton character, which seems to me the writers are slowly reducing the time this character's screen time, perhaps? Ball has and continues to deviate from the books, which is good, but the Eric and Sookie story-line is going nowhere fast, because it will never reach the same intensity as with Bill and Sookie. I like the camp in the show, the funny characters Lafayette, Pam, Jessica, and Eric, but I'm afraid the Jason story-line is not going to get resolved for a very long time before the season is over, and so hard to watch, that I actually feel relieved when the witches' coven appears on screen. What about Belfluer and the Bon Temps police department, don't they have a personnel person? I'm wondering how much longer will this continue before someone decides to go check Jason's house or with Sookie. This is too ridiculous and so unentertaining, and yet, I will continue to look away and walk way from the panther storyline until Sookie, once again, comes to the rescue, because without her careful input, everybody falls into a state of disrepair.
Grifter
July 11, 2011 at 12:54PM EST Reply to CommentI find it interesting that in a show that has showcased rape, murder, evisceration and all of these three put together in the same scene, that it's the Jason rape scenes that disturb people. "Off tone"? Like...seriously? With all that's before (and what I mentioned are just small examples) this is somehow, "off tone"? How many of the characters have used and abused some poor unsuspecting, innocent character for their own personal and horrifying motives and basic instincts? I've lost count of the number of people killed off in glorified bloody fashion and/or discarded as some piece of meat after they were done with them. But this with Jason is somehow "off tone". Seriously.
LJA
July 11, 2011 at 1:25PM EST Reply to CommentWhenever I read the comments here (or anywhere) about True Blood, I remain resolutely committed to staying away from the books. Those of you who have read the books are enjoying the show far less than I am. This isn't a judgment or criticism of the readers, it's simply an observation. Having no expectations appears to be a benefit in viewing the TV show as it seems that Alan Ball's changes to the original source material almost universally disappoints those who are faithful to it.
That said, the entire Jason/Crystal/werepanther/Hot Shot nightmare is murdering my will to live. Though I was surprised to see that the actor who played the young gay man Jesse on last season's In Treatment is playing one of the ragamuffins at Hot Shot. That's pretty much a downgrade for him.
On the flip side, I'm enjoying the new King Bill quite a lot, and I sincerely hope Alan Ball never makes the mistake of killing off Pam because Kristin Bauer van Stratten (sp) is straight-up wonderful. I had a good laugh when Eric called Sookie "Snooki." Alcide needs to wear fewer clothes, and I enjoyed the hell out of Skarsgard's performance last night. And good call keeping him bare-chested for much of this episode.
I see some criticism here about the witch storyline, but I think it's fun and intriguing. It's certainly a big step ahead of Andy's addiction to V and the mess at Hot Shot. Am hoping Arlene's possessed baby brings about a cameo or two of Michael Raymond James.
Cheers, y'all!
LoisLane That's a great summation of all that's good and all that's bad this season. I concur.
July 11, 2011 at 11:05PM ESTDJO I concur as well. Very well written.
July 12, 2011 at 12:24PM ESTBoricua in Texas I concur. I wish they would drop the Hot Shot/Andy the V-head storylines. I also wish Tommy would disappear. I want to see more demon baby!
July 12, 2011 at 12:57PM ESTChris
July 11, 2011 at 10:38PM EST Reply to CommentWhy didn't Sookie tell Pam/Eric she would only help if she got her house back?
Jonas.Left
July 12, 2011 at 12:31PM EST Reply to CommentSome people praise Trueblood for "not taking itself too seriously" I wonder if it takes itself at all seriously sometimes.
David H
July 12, 2011 at 5:39PM EST Reply to CommentI fast-forward through all but the vampire scenes. So I've been watching less & less of this show as time has gone by. Crystal? Witches? Shape-shifters? All just silliness that has ruined what was once a very interesting show with really cool (vampire) characters. Oh for the good ol' days!