Monday, June 7, 2010

True Blood Season Three: What Would Buffy Do?

After rewatching True Blood season two, we've got some advice for season three from Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself. Oh, and Supernatural, too.

Here’s a little fun tip if you’re a writer of a supernatural show (like, oh, I don’t know, Supernatural): if you look at your season long story arc, and think, “Hey, Buffy could have solved that problem in under forty-five minutes,” your story is going on WAY too long.

Let’s get even more specific, friends! Over the weekend, I hardcored the second season of True Blood, HBO’s hit sex-pire show, in preparation for the third season premiere this upcoming Sunday. And while the humor and creativity of the show certainly expanded in the second season, the season long story arc nearly had me crawling up the walls. Spoilers for season two past this point, by the way.

So sure, this was True Blood trying its hand at an apocalyptic, Bon Temps is almost destroyed story, expanding out from the simple vampire hate murders of the second season. In case you don’t know – or don’t remember – a Maenad, which is a handmaiden of Dionysus, came to town, and basically manipulated everyone into f**king and k**ling each other. Probably didn’t need to bleep out that second word, in retrospect.

Anyway, the entire time, I was watching this, and about three episodes in, I started thinking, “Man, if Buffy was here, she would have staked that lady in three seconds.” In fact, the entire season long arc wasn’t that far off from what would happen in an episode of Buffy. Here, I’ll recast the whole season for you, and you tell me if it works:

READ ON

2 comments:

Jasperann said...

lol - funny that I found myself thinking, while I watched season two, that if Buffy was there then Maryann would have been gone faster. But I didn't care to much for the Maryann storyline and I now fast forward past it with the DVDs, once was enough. But I have high expectations for the next season. Club Dead was one of my favorite books. =)

Sharon said...

I couldn't agree with an article more, and I rarely agree with much that is written about True Blood. And since I'm a huge Buffy fan, I can definitely see Buffy getting rid of Maryann very quickly, which would have really improved the season. I am still so disappointed that the scene with Godric's death was not followed up at all.

I would not agree with shortening to 6 or 7 episodes, however, because I want a lot more screen time for Eric, not less. Like Jasperann, I've been fast-forwarding through most of "Timebomb" and "I will rise up", the only 2 episodes I watch off my DVR regularly (plus the beginning ot the next episode where Sookie dreams she comes to Eric's room). Right now, though, in preparation for season 3, I'm trying pretty hard to watch all the episodes that I now have on DVD.

Jasperann, I find your name interesting because my last name is Jasper and my middle name is Ann.