TV REVIEW: True Blood "Life Matters"

I know that penultimate episodes are usually action packed drag out battles but True Blood did something rather unique by setting the episode in two incredibly different settings Vamp Camp and Terry Belflour’s funeral. I will start by saying for me this is simply the best of the current season and perhaps of the series as a whole from my point of view.

Let me talk about the raid on Vamp Camp, gruesome action packed and actually in some points moved character development on which to be honest was a bit of a surprise. Personally I would have thought that they would be better prepared for a vampire attack after the whole escape thing but between it being the day and the fact it had to go that way I am willing to give it a pass.

Did Eric really have a plan? It seemed a little bit loose as he knew that there was a deadline for the death of Pam and Nora even if he didn't care about the others yet he seemed to be just strolling up and down the installation at least until he found and healed Jason, then things began to seem like they actually mattered. Also that little dialogue between the two blonde bombshells was good with Jason’s almost apology for being all crazy and racist for awhile and to be fair Eric seemed to be in a forgiving mood so that whole thing worked out.

How did Bill know where the Vamp Camp was? Hadn't this been something he had been trying to ascertain for most of the season with no luck? Anyway I feel for Bill being painted into a corner as a saviour and trying to do the right thing where mostly everyone else thinks he’s completely lost it. He tried to help Eric and Eric screwed him over royally, he goes to Sookie for help to rescue their friends in common and she shuts him down and doesn't even apologise for staking him.

The way this episode moves between the funeral and the vamp camp is amazing and poignant. The service itself was beautiful though I was amazed by how fast the turnaround was. The speeches and those new scenes where we got to see Terry and his struggles with PTSD. All the speeches except for Sookie’s which came across more than a little self-centered with her coming out and all.

Jason missed out on the funeral which was a shame but ultimately made sense as he had a lot less time with Terry and his confrontation with Sarah Newlin was powerful I had more than a moment when I thought he might actually pull the trigger and his speech shows that despite appearances he isn't just a dumb hunk.

I can’t properly put into words how well-crafted this episode was and the fact that this is my undisputed favourite episode of True Blood. I have admit to myself that this season has been a hell of a turnaround from the shenanigans of recent times.

TV REVIEW: True Blood "Dead Meat"

True Blood

Season 6

Episode 8

Dead Meat

After this there are only two episodes left, to be honest I thought that I would have more questions. At the end of the season there is going to be a major death apparently now I take that to mean a death that would have someone staying dead and not being resurrecting through some weird hijinks. I don’t know who is going to die but trying to bait us into thinking Sookie is going to turn isn’t going to work with me. Still let’s get to what actually happened.

Jason is now in a committed relationship with Violet who is awesome because she seems to be a vampire who intimidates Pam, yeah I’ll give you a minute while you check to make sure you read that right. She is a really odd vampire and definitely not lacking in confidence she also seems pretty old so I hope she sticks around even if it seems to signify the end of any hope for Jason and Jessica.

Now that whole Bill and Eric scene to me just ending up with Eric bitching about things far beyond Bill’s control, yeah he is mourning but he was also just being a jackass he broke a deal and then went from jackass to that crazy revenge trip he went on with Russell.

Ah the Werewolf Pack I still really don’t care but it was nice to see Alcide half step up against Rikki the fight itself just made me feel uncomfortable so I’m glad it didn’t last that long. The fallout though was that Alcide left seemingly his positon and with Nicole and her mom and later returned them to Sam.

Terry’s life insurance scam and Arlene’s struggle with the Belflour Matriarch were actually far more interesting than I thought they would be I was always confused by Arlene and where the show wanted to take her given how much of a 180 she is from the books but I can say this season has been good. Also seeing Arlene’s friends around her is given the cast something to do and get their teeth into, Sheriff Andy’s speech about whether or not he should go after Terry’s killer was something special though I can’t blame him for Terry as it was Terry’s idea.

Sookie, oh Sookie I don’t even know what to write in here I just don’t get even half of her motivations to do the things she does or more accurately more moan about the circumstances to which she finds herself. Warlow wanting to turn her into a vampire yeah that sucks but his seemingly genuine declaration of love is a bad thing? Yeah a little over the top and teleporting into her bathroom speaks of boundary issues.

Bill puts things to her plainly enough your blood can save your friends but she sits there and second guesses him all this after pretty much begging Pam to turn Tara and her agreeing to, just seems that she forgets what others have done for her in the past. Then when she went to Sam and said that he was her safety husband I was like I’m sorry wut. That has got to be one of the most insulting things she could possibly say, I know Sam was mad but after that I would have been furious, it just shows how self-involved she is. Unfortunately given this is the second to last season it doesn’t seem like something that is likely to change.

Oh crazy Sarah Newlin, to be honest I don’t have a clue what is going on with this storyline but I guess the writers really wanted Anna Camp back after last season. Still without Anna we wouldn’t have Vamp Camp without her so I’m going to try and forgive her god inspired craziness.

Well I really do wonder what is going to happen next episode as most shows tend to go big penultimate and resolve some in the final. I am assuming Warlow is alive as that would be way to abrupt if Eric had actually just killed him.