Monday, July 19, 2010

'True Blood': And now ... Vikings! --LA Times

There's some of the best stuff that "True Blood" has ever done in "Trouble." Eric's random flashback to his days as a Viking(!) in Norway are gloriously over-the-top and full of Gothic fun, right down to Russell standing at his doorway in a cape and then walking away into the softly falling snow. Sookie trying to put the pieces together of just what's going on continues to be fun, and so does the gradual reveal of whatever Bill's grand master plan happens to be. But then the show will cut to what is, essentially, a completely different show, and it loses a bit of its momentum. Now don't get me wrong. I could see Sam's family drama being interesting in isolation. I could see Tara's weird, psycho-sexual relationship with Franklin being interesting all by itself. I could maybe even see Jason's visit to the Dukes of Hazzard and love match with yet another inappropriate woman being kind of fun without the other stuff going on.
But when you compare all of these storylines to the building war between Louisiana and Mississippi and the secret histories of Bill, Sookie and Eric, there's no way they match up. They all feel like they're taking place in different TV shows, even though each and every storyline reaches a major turning point this episode. Sam realizes his little brother is in a massive predicament. Jason gets much, much closer to being a deputy and meets the mystery girl up close. Tara tries to run away from Franklin plus gets brought to Mississippi, where she meets Russell and sees Bill. Oh, and then Franklin proposes that she become his vampire bride. I mean, all of these things are fun in isolation, as mentioned, and I enjoyed most of the scenes that went into them, but there's little to no connective tissue among them. Even last season, when the two major storylines didn't have a whole lot to do with each other, they somehow felt more cohesive because they kept bringing in more and more folks from Bon Temps. This season, it just feels like everybody's off in their own little world.

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2 comments:

svmaddict said...

I don't completely agree with you. I think in the end all these storylines will merge and we'll see why they went that way (with the exception of Arlene & Terry. I can't figure that one out.) They may not make much sense for the overall picture now but we're only on epi.5!
But AB has said that the final ingredient, the factor that will bring everything together is... Tommy.

Weird? I agree. But I can't wait to find out how the hell that happens.

Rita said...

I am with svmaddict i really liked this episode but i think the best part was
Eric seeing the crown and the flashback
of his dad and mom and little sister and
their death.Icould do with out Arlene,
Franklin is just so funny but off his
rocker.