Friday, May 14, 2010

True Blood: season two ends tonight, and it's been worth every crazy bite

From Guardian UK

It's the final episode of True Blood's second season tonight for those who are following it on FX – and it's been a rollicking ride. Everything was bigger, better and bolder than the first series, and explaining it to an outsider suddenly became a near-impossible task: "So there's a mythological creature, the townsfolk are having orgies and dancing a lot, and there's a shape-shifter, who is hanging out with an alcoholic ex-detective who keeps seeing a pig." It makes sense when you watch it, of course, but that's the pleasure of True Blood – its gleeful lack of concern for understatement, propriety and doing things by halves.

This sheer insanity is part of what has made season two a whole lot better than the first, bar a few pacing hiccups towards the end of the run. Shifting the focus away from the romance between Sookie and Bill was a smart move, because their will-they-won't-they-oh-they-did storyline ran out of steam fairly early in series one, and there's only so much bloodied bodice-ripping any viewer can take. Giving bad-boy vampire Eric more screen time, and cutting his Kurt Cobain locks into a sharper, male model 'do, was a masterstroke – as was using Bill's sort-of daughter Jessica for more than just comic relief. Moving some of the action away from Bon Temps, to Dallas and to the Fellowship of the Sun's training camp, also livened things up a treat. Suddenly it wasn't just a vampire show, it was a comedy, drama and satire, too.

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