Tuesday, June 15, 2010

True Blood Sucker Punch: Season 3, Ep. 1 Mark Blankenship, Pop Culture Critic Huffington Post

I must have been channeling Mark when I posted the "Vamp on Shifter " video. Mark is also Team Talk Blood : True Blood Radio on Sunday night's with me and @SoookieBonTemps
Welcome to Sucker Punch, the only blog post that ranks the gaudiest moments on this week's episode of True Blood.

Hello everyone! I'm excited to be recapping another season of True Blood, and I'm even more excited to see you again. You look great! Did you change your hair? And thanks for sending me that postcard. That trip sounded like a lot of fun.

As for me? Last fall, I got a full-time job running a theatre magazine. I love what I'm doing, but that means that unlike last year, when I had the flexible schedule of a freelancer, I won't be able to stay up until 2 AM on Sunday nights and get my recaps posted the next day. I'll get them written as fast as I can, however, and they'll always be up before the next new episode airs.

And now... let's do this thing!

Season three launches with "Bad Blood," and it is heavy with responsibility. A season-opener not only has to remind us what happened last year, but also has to convince us that this year will be full of exciting stories. Sometimes, this responsibility can be too much for a series to bear, and we're left with a stilted kick-off epsiode that delivers tons of information with almost no action. (This happened during season three of Six Feet Under, Alan Ball's first great HBO series.)

Happily, "Bad Blood" dodges this problem. The exceptional writing, credited to Daniel Minahan, makes exposition emerge organically out of compelling situations.

Case in point: When the Magister and Queen Sophie-Anne interrogate Eric. The scene crackles because Queen Sophie-Anne and Eric are lying to the Magister, pretending they don't know who's selling V in Eric's area, and the Magister clearly suspects them. The stakes are high -- the Magister will destroy them if he can definitively prove that they're desecrating vampire blood by harvesting it and selling it to junkies -- which makes their bobbing and weaving a thrill to behold.

read on

2 comments:

Rita said...

Mark is so good,he and Becca are very much in the know they seem to be the
gotcha people,i am very happy to read
every thing they write.

Lady Jane said...

Mark wtg good writing and thanks Dallas for always including it!