TV Review: True Blood "The Sun"

S06E02

The Sun

So this is the second episode of my catch up to the last ever season of True Blood. Let’s go with what I like to call a loose recap. Bill’s head is a dirty, dirty place of wonder it seems thought I’ll be honest and say I didn’t really need the women covered in gore as it had zero to do with the bigger picture.

Sookie did have a fairly crap night so we can probably let that slide meanwhile over at Merlotte’s it seems that an unholy and craptastic old storyline was trying to rise from the grave, that soldier storyline featuring Terry was awful despite everything his best efforts. Now though with his pregnant girlfriend (I think it is girlfriend and not wife) we might have to revisit that.

Sookie finds a handsome stranger in need of aid because that stuff happens in real life too, RIGHT? Anyway enter the love interest or at least one of them given that this is True Blood Boinkfest (somehow that last part got cut at the working title phase). It is weird because I know the actor from a British soap and it is jarring to see him here.

Also I totally thought those people who turn out to be reporters would just be crazy tourists destined to be killed, now they are journalists destined to be killed and rather pushy ones at that impressive research to figure out Sam’s secret though.

Bill’s stuff is so crazy it is actually entertaining though the draining of the human blood bag was so disturbing I am keeping it out of my mind as I write this.

Anyway cute fae kids are hilarious and it is good to see the sheriff doing something other than getting high on V or other foolishness. They seem to have stopped at that age from last episode though maybe they will be teenagers by the end of season.

Poor Jason and his craziness, I do wonder if his visions will ever be explained because I don’t remember them being explained last season. Anyway we find out that Rutger Hauer is in fact Sookie’s fae grandfather and not the elusive dimension ripping vampire Warlow, the grandson, granddad bonding was funny because they are just as weird as each other.

We get the confirmation that the wolf pack is part of the baddies as Alcide kidnaps Luna’s cute daughter from Sam and Lafayette which is a shame because I want to think of Alcide as noble in his own way. For now though it seems I’m wrong about the big guy.

That is all that happened that mattered in “The Sun” oh yeah and Bill can see the future now and the future is very warm. This episode proved to be a huge step forward from episode 1 of this season so maybe there is this whole upward curve thing happening right now. A man can dream can’t he though mostly not of Jessica as she seems to be mostly keeping her clothes on. 

So what did you think of True Blood S06E02 “The Sun” if you can remember that far back OR like me find yourself catching up?

TV REVIEW: True Blood "Who Are You, Really?"

True Blood Season 6 Episode 1

Who Are You, Really?

So way back in 2012 I just tapped out with the whole True Blood thing, the show had started strong and even encouraged me to try the Southern Vampire Mysteries. Unfortunately crazy ghost witches made me question my viewing habits and a season of The Authority bored me to tears and had me reconsider the show.

Anyway with True Blood coming to an end this Summer I thought it was worth finishing what I started. So let’s do this thing, previously on True Blood Sookie and the gang escape the Authority compound, Bill goes Super Vampire and Luna died.

Sookie and the gang made it out and proceeded to bitch at each other endlessly because escaping with your life or undeath shouldn’t cause you to sigh with relief or be grateful at all. Anyway ignore that because the Governor of the great state of Louisiana holds a press conference over all the bloodshed and basically declare war on Vampires, seizing their property and advising Americans to go buy some guns (made me chuckle too).

All through this Jason is whooping it up like he’s at an all state college football game despite the majority of the vehicle’s occupants being vampire because Jason is Jason and he still hates Jessica from all those shenanigans last season.

The gang split up as the bitching continues Jason runs off, Sookie stakes Jessica who is being summoned to Bill and Eric and sis who I can’t even bring myself to IMDB her name seemingly go off on their own.

Meanwhile in werewolf land, actually you know what fuck the werewolves this side plot is appalling boring and cannot be saved with an amazing pair of breasts and a really, REALLY creepy suggested threesome.

One of the few things that moved me was Sam and Luna’s kid at the bar running into Lafayette I don’t know why but it touched me and that little kid has got some acting skills. We also saw the Sheriff and his rapidly growing bunch of half fae kids (not going to call them half fairy just no).

So far after watching this episode it seems just as crazy as before now with a super vampire that wouldn’t look out of place on an anime series but no point judging after only one episode so I’m signing on for at least another one.

BOOK REVIEW: Born At Midnight by CC Hunter

Born at Midnight is the first in the Shadow Falls written by CC Hunter. It was published on 29^th March 2011 by St Martin’s Griffin, its ISBN is 0312624670. 

PLOT

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

WHY I BOUGHT IT

It has been awhile since I have gotten my teeth into a really good YA series from the start, I have several ongoing series that I love (yay for more Bloodlines next month) but have been looking around for other series to add to the reading pile. Unravelling was a hot mess, Mythos Academy was uninspiring and after that I moved onto other genres in the pile, Born at Midnight is me taking a chance on a plot outline that sounds intriguing with the knowledge that there are already several more books if I want more.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Kylie Galen has done it, she stands at the top of the pedestal alone, she is my number one most unlikable main character far surpassing my intense dislike for one Rose Hathaway of the Vampire Academy series. She is just one of the most selfish and vile characters I have ever had the misfortune of following in a book. You know the most unfortunate thing about is that Kylie is only one of several things that make Born at Midnight extremely hard to read.

TOO MANY PLOTS

Teen pregnancy, unknown birth right, love triangles, divorce and family secrets and there are even more plotlines to be found in this first book. The result is that far too much is going on and the book suffers from having to jump between all these plots.

CHARACTERISATION

There is very little in the way of characterisation everyone just gets the go to adjectives, sexy, angry, scary and the like. The boys are attractive with broad shoulders and flat stomachs or they are creepy. Kylie’s cabin mates get fleshed out a little more but that seemed to be more as a result of the plot having to move forward than anything else. The love interests were nothing more than pretty cardboard by the end of the book which may or may not be worse than other multi-book stories but they didn’t feel very real or interesting.

This goes doubly for Kylie she starts the book proper denying that she is supernatural, and this manages to go on for 90% of the book though thankfully she is less of a cow about it as we move through the story and stops treating them like freaks even as they go well out of their way to be nice to her.

Born at Midnight is an amazing premise that falls badly in the execution, to put it simply there is much too much going on. I cannot recommend this book to fans of paranormal YA it feels like an unfinished exercise in writing. After I completed this book and was preparing this review I read that the author was switching over from romance so perhaps this could be put down to initial teething problems and we might see an improvement to later instalments. Still even allowing for that I think there are many YA books out there that are worthy of your potential time.

World of Warcraft Post: The Quest to 560 AKA Gimme Dem Heirlooms

So those who follow my posts know that I have a World of Warcraft itch that must be scratched with more than a few level 90s over two servers and what probably seems like a strange dislike of organised raiding. I won’t go into those reasons now but with handy addons like Oqueue I THOUGHT that raiding wouldn’t be a problem, how wrong was I.

My main reason for having to try Flex was to try and get myself an Heirloom weapon drop from Garrosh. For those that don’t know the heirloom only drops in Flex or greater, no drops for us plebs running around in LFR. Now when I first decided to step up I thought that this wouldn’t be too bad as at the time I was sitting on an Elemental Shaman who was my main and was sitting on 530 ilvl or so, this was months ago say a little after the heirlooms were in game.

What I found to my cost when trying to get into game though was the same gear score nonsense that went wild during Wrath of the Lich King all that time ago. In order for me as a DPS to get into a Trade or oqeueue Flex Raid I had to up my game so to speak way up to the tune of 550 ilvl or more and oh yeah don’t bother coming without the Achievement for killing Garrosh too. So we went back to that Catch 22, I/O error or however you want to describe people pretty much looking for a free ride to their phat lewtz.

To get to 550 ilvl you pretty much have to be running normal and mostly being unlucky, where is the hope for aspiring people outside of Raiding Guilds, and before you say crafted armour I already had all the crafted armour possible on that character.

The more I play World of Warcraft the more it seems that the development team want everyone to be in raiding guilds, though they often say things like players prefer with their friends, well my friends left in droves before the run up to Cataclysm with very few coming back. My server died a death and I had to move to a new one, which Blizzard probably would have loved if I paid for 5x character transfers unfortunately for them I am not a rich man.

I really am starting to get the feeling especially with the upcoming changes mentioned in Warlords of Draenor that people like me are surplus to requirements in the Blizzard scheme of things, which is a shame when it seems that battle pet collectors come above you in the scheme of things. LFR with no tier rewards and no trinkets so all those players  that helped me and others get through those Tuesday Evening LFR runs (EU here so day before reset) will be gone to the more fertile lands of Flex or whatever the hell it will be called in WoD.

Here I am bitching about things but what am I doing, yeah I’m here grinding my Priest and Paladin in their healing specs through Flex wings because I am a masochist it seems. In reality though it is because there aren’t a lot of other games out there that I could go to if I decided to quit WoW. I tried The Old Republic but after it went Free-To-Play they messed with it so much as to make it unplayable without ponying up some cash. The story mode was pretty fun though I will say that and the choices that you could make did have me cackling like a Sith Lord at least have the time but you need more than that.

So that is enough from me I need to go grind out Timeless Isle stuff so I can upgrade my Warforged and crafted armour in an effort to eek out a few more ilvl points.