Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Recap: True Blood, season 3, episode 9 – ‘Everything is Broken’ by Becca Wilcott

The wonderful Team Talk Blod member Becca Wolcott ..

On August 29, I’ll be appearing at Fan Expo on the horror panel about film and TV vampires. We’ll talk about everything from Nosferatu through to The Vampire Diaries. And when the inevitable question comes, that moment I’m asked for my opinion about the debate between sparkly vampires (Twilight) and mainstreaming vampires (True Blood), I’ll have this to say.
“Why would we seek equal rights? You are not our equals! We will eat you after we eat your children!”
And then I’ll clap my hands together and peel back in gleeful laughter as if I’ve been waiting 3000 years to tell it like it is. In short, Russell Edgington, I bow to thee. And, I hope someone’s keeping count. Because I believe that was our first spine-ripping-out, correct? That’s a new one?
Here’s the thing. That scene rocked for all the obvious reasons. But it resonated because it was really freakin’ messed up. Oh, sure you say you like vampires. They cry blood and worry that your new girlfriend’s doll fetish is creepy and they moooooooourn you. (Best delivery ever, Franklin). And there are moments when I have to wonder if Denis O’Hare, who plays Russell, knows anything about vampire lore, because he hasn’t hit a typical note yet. He’s all minor, slightly off-key. As is James Frain as Franklin, come to think of it. I could be way off base. Maybe they’ve been digging vamps since they were little boys. But it’s all to say that not unlike Alan Ball, who hadn’t immersed in vampire culture when he took on True Blood, Denis O’Hare is playing straight megalomaniac. He’s reinventing crazy. Thank god for that procedural scene in which Nan Flanagan grills Eric to recap why Russell is such a threat to the American Vampire League (AVL.) Not that we’d forgotten, but one more episode and between Russell and Franklin I’m pretty sure most of us would have willingly submitted ourselves to Stockholm Syndrome if it meant we could bask another moment in their charisma and enthusiasm for their own kind.

1 comments:

Rita said...

Well like i said in another comment don't
go all crazy about the shower scene,this
is not season#4 yet might not have any
thing to do with that,i love each episode
more,and i think same thing about Nan she
is a big lie.And was she shocked when she
saw Russell.