True Blood Sucker Punch: Episode One

From Huffington Post

Ed Note-- This blog contains spoilers

Welcome to Sucker Punch, the only blog post that ranks the gaudiest moments on this week's episode of True Blood.

Because come on, y'all... gaudiness is True Blood's specialty. Yes, HBO's Southern Gothic vampire drama serves up a variety of delicious moments---ranging from steamy sex scenes to sensitive revelations to scary fights---but everything's infused with trashiness. People don't just die: They get their hearts ripped out. Characters don't just go to church: They join cults. Vampires don't just go to bars: They go to black-leather sin pits with names like Fangtasia. If the show were more over the top, it would under itself.

And frankly, that's why I love it. The series, created by Six Feet Under and American Beauty's Alan Ball, pulses with such reckless, lusty energy that I cannot wait for each new episode.

Which brings me back to Sucker Punch: Instead of simply reviewing each week's installment, I'm going to tease out the moments that best embody True Blood's tawdry heart. I hope you'll join me in my quest!

I'm happy to say that "Nothing But the Blood," the first episode of season two, is just as florid as I'd hoped it would be.

The first scene, for heaven's sake, reveals that the dead body in the back of Deputy Andy Bellefleur's car (discovered at the end of last season, you'll remember), belongs to Miss Jeanette, the voodoo priestess who drove demons from Tara and her mother. Except Miss Jeanette isn't just dead. Her heart has been torn from her body, and her face is frozen in a rictus scream on par with that girl in the opening scene of The Ring. It's a deeply disturbing image that also sets up a potentially season-long conflict between Tara and her mother. Now that Tara doesn't have faith in Miss Jeanette's healing powers and her mom still does, we can see battle lines getting drawn between them. Even though they love each other, it seems like they're pushing each other toward an ultimatum: Choose to see the world like I see it, or choose to live without me.

Read on

and on Mark's blog http://www.thecriticalcondition.com/