‘Charmed’ Is Better Than ‘True Blood’*

Charmed, the WB’s attempt to bottle the lightning that was Buffy and sell it to grown-ups by dressing Alyssa Milano in outfits that were wildly inappropriate for work at a newspaper, has long been one of my guilty pleasures. In recent months, I’ve joked that it’s one of the few pieces of pop culture that I can watch at home and for pleasure because it’s so feather-light that there’s no risk that I’ll accidentally slip into analyzing it. No more. After Sunday’s True Blood finale, I realized something: we’ve reached a point where Charmed is actually a better show than True Blood. Here’s why:
Gaining power changes people’s lives.
One of the things that bothered me most about this season of True Blood was what happened to Lafayette and Tara when we and they learned they had magical abilities: pretty much nothing. Okay, sure, Lafayette got himself possessed multiple times and killed his boyfriend, and Tara was slightly less passive than usual and was rewarded for it with a shotgun to the head. But what did it mean for their, and our, understanding of themselves? Not a damn thing. There’s an interesting story to be told about the gay black man in a rural community who tells himself his whole life that he’s special and then finds out he actually *is*. There’s another story to be told about a woman who has been routinely disempowered and finds the strength to build a different life. Hell, there’s even a story to be told about someone like Marnie, who found safety from a world that judged her in a quirky magical enclave and decided she wanted to make everyone who ever mocked her burn. But True Blood didn’t tell any of those stories, throwing out Marnie’s motivations in single lines, condemning Tara and Lafayette to the usual messed-up relationships black people are doomed to on this show

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Why This Was the Worst True Blood Season Ever — and How the Show Can Be Saved

This is from our good friend Meredith and I'd say these feelings to some extent are almost universal after this season ...


While the 4th season of True Blood had a lot of "precious fairy vagina," and a few great Pam one-liners, it's time to call it what it was, a dud. When the big season finale pits a nightie-wearing ghost grandma against a 50-year-old witch, you've got big trouble in Bon Temps. And don't even get us started on the were-panthers.

Here's why this season was truly the worst of True Blood seasons, and how this show can win back our love in season five. Major spoilers ahead...

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The Sookie Stackhouse Companion Review

Readers of this blog know how much I love the companion and no lovevampires.com gushes about it in much the same way...

The Review

This is a true companion book to a great urban fantasy series! Honestly, if – after having read the above-mentioned description – you are not intrigued, what can I say? Edited by Charlaine Harris herself this book offers the ultimate guide to the “Sookieverse” and it is set out in such a way that it will please even the most hardcore fans out there.
There is a map of Bon Temps quickly followed by a brand new 76 pages long novella by Charlaine Harris narrating the adventurous nature of Sam’s bother’s wedding! And then the real fun begins with the inclusion of many interesting and fascinating things about Sookie and her life. Most importantly and strategically placed the companion related material starts with a timeline featuring all the books up till Dead Reckoning. This concordance has enough details to answer many questions but not as much as to kill the suspense, especially for those who would love to reread the books. It also features exclusive secret dialogues between Bill and Eric that will have you laughing a lot!

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buy book here

CBS St Louis interview with Charlaine Harris

Click here

‘True Blood’ Open Thread: I Want to Do Bad Things To You

Yowch - folks are still pretty mad about S4 storylines...

This post contains spoilers through the fourth season finale of True Blood. And lots of rage. I should talk about the events of the season finale of True Blood, but before I do, I think it’s important to discuss something that didn’t happen. The most important — and most emotionally grounded — event that began this season was the brutal and repeated physical and sexual assault of Jason Stackhouse by the female werepanthers of Hotshot. The assaults themselves were tremendously uncomfortable to watch in a way I thought was powerful. The women involved, who are genetically and by means of acculturation effectively part of a patriarchal cult, were almost uniformly unaware that they were committing assault, with the exception of a young panther who helped him escape. The assault was set up to provide an interesting and useful gender-reversed set of issues, raising questions about Jason’s prior sexual reputation, the fact that men can respond physically even when they aren’t consenting to sex. And rather than dealing with it in any systemic way, the show essentially brushed it off with a scene where Jason decides God’s punishing him for sleeping around. Last night, rather than considering the lingering effects of the attack after Hoyt tells Jason there’s something fundamentally broken in him, the show just punted. Jason’s not a panther, so apparently, the lack of magical significance to his assault means it doesn’t have much emotional or human significance either.

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Vampire Steve ( Newlin)

OK watched it again - seems like those are real retractable fangs and Ol' Stevie might have actually been turned.
I still think Russell might be standing right behind him...maybe Steve is Russell's new Talbot ???
Huh ? huh ? Is it June 2012 yet ???

Blood Work! "True Blood" Video Recap 4.12 (Finale): Trick or Treat?

This is so funny and filled with all kind of inside Talk Blood Radio jokes - make sure you've listened to Andy and Brian on Talk Blood Radio finale. Thanks Boys! Is it June 2012 yet ?

Alan Ball - Vampires, Death and the Mundane at the Sydney Opera House ( video )

Bare your throat for the undisputed master of the dark – creator of tv’s True Blood, Six Feet Under and instant classic American Beauty. There won’t be blood, but Academy and Emmy Award-winning writer/producer/director/playwright Alan Ball will reveal all in his Australian debut in conversation with Wil Anderson.

watch here 

Looking for something to watch now True Blood is over for the season ? Vampire Diaries starts tomorrow night !

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries

Looking for something to watch now True Blood is over for the season ? Bedlam - Starts October 1st on BBC America

Bedlam is a ghostly series set around Bedlam Heights -- a hip, newly renovated apartment building. Those who live there think they have the best address in the world, but little do they know their new home has a harrowing past.

The conversion of Bedlam Heights from a former insane asylum has awakened the ghosts of its dark and violent past. These spirits wish to reclaim what's theirs and seek revenge on those who have wronged them.

Kate (Charlotte Salt, The Tudors), a direct descendant of the people who ran the former asylum for generations, lives and works in Bedlam Heights. Her father, Warren (Hugo Speer, Skins), still owns the old family property, and Kate is helping him fill the remaining vacant apartments. She shares her apartment with roommates Ryan (Will Young, Skins) and Molly (Ashley Madekwe, Secret Diary of a Call Girl), but only with the unexpected arrival of Kate's adopted cousin, Jed (Theo James, Downton Abbey) -- a troubled man with a history of mental illness who sees ghosts and visions of the past -- are they able to uncover the terrifying secrets of Bedlam Heights. The hauntings that follow prove that sometimes when you scratch away the surface, things aren't always what they seem.

Written and created by Neil Jones (Blue Murder), David Allison (Boy Meets Girl) and Chris Parker (EastEnders).

Bedlam Premieres Saturday, October 1st at 10pm/9c -- watch the exclusive season trailer!

Don't miss lead actor Theo James (Jed) and creator David Allison at the Bedlam screening and Q&A at Comic-Con in San Diego. Plus, follow @Anglophenia to relive all the action and get our recaps here

http://videos.bbcamerica.com/category/1062994858001/Bedlam/1064121664001/Bedlam/ 

Looking for something to watch now True Blood is over for the season ? American Horror Story only on FX - Family Portrait

What else are you watching ???
October 5th on FX !
http://vod.fxnetworks.com/watch/ahs

From Bon Temps to Shreveport, Skarsgård's latest bad-guy role is in Straw Dogs

am Peckinpah's Straw Dogs was one of several films released in 1971 (A Clockwork Orange was another) that kicked off a long and loud debate about onscreen violence. The film included a highly disturbing rape scene and ended with an extended and unsparing sequence of bloodshed.
Rod Lurie's remake changes the scene from rural England to the American South, but the gist of the film is the same: A timid husband is forced to use extreme violence to defend his wife and his house against a group of menacing thugs.
The new film stars James Marsden and Kate Bosworth, in roles played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan George in the original. The chief villain in the remake is Alexander Skarsgård, best known as the vampire sheriff in HBO's True Blood
He registered in a small comic role as one of the male models in Zoolander and more recently turned up as the boyfriend in a Lady Gaga music video.

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'Blood' star Alexander Skarsgard shows true range in films

NEW YORK – Alexander Skarsgard isn't the first acting hunk to be compared to Brad Pitt.
Like Paul Newman crossed with Brad Pitt: That's how Alexander Skarsgard was described by Rod Lurie, who directed the Swedish actor in 'Straw Dogs,' out Friday.

But the Swede might be one of the few who's up to the task. Known as True Blood's icy-hot Viking vampire, he is preparing to take a bite out of the box office with an impressive slew of flicks.

First up is Friday's remake of Straw Dogs, which transplants the chilling 1971 Dustin Hoffman-led story into the sweaty, close-knit Deep South. Skarsgard, 35, plays local football hero Charlie, whose lust for actress ex-girlfriend Amy (Kate Bosworth) turns violent once she returns home with writer husband David (James Marsden).

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Joe Manganiello & Kristin Bauer Talk True Blood on CNN

This is a fun interview

Season 5 Tara tidbit

We will see that as the hiatus progresses( is it June 2012 , yet ?) the Tara cliffhanger is the only one anyone is interested in , the wolf and Sam,  eh!  We all know the very next scene is Bill and Eric standing in Sookie's kitchen,  as we know they are just across the cemetery at Bill's ..I think maybe Tara's fate has something to do with Bill because I'm still a little intrigued with Bill saving Tara early in the season ( Ep 8) and when she asked why ? He said "you know" .... I think we'll find out what she knows or what that meant.

Also remember Lafayette is just upstairs, so he will also be in the kitchen with one or more vampires.

Question: OK Mikey (is it alright if I call you that?), now that True Blood has come to an end, please give us some dirt — even the tiniest amount — about next season! —Paige
Ausiello: Season 5 will pick up right where Season 4 left off — with Tara’s brains splattered all over Sookie’s kitchen floor. And to answer your first question, it’s most definitely not alright, Paige.

Once & Future Podcast, Episode 1 with Charlaine Harris

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Once & Future Podcast, featuring book giveaways, the Paperback Dolls, author Jackie Kessler, and New York Times bestseller Charlaine Harris. You can listen to it here.

CH is at 40:00

Best Bon Temps Halloween costume: Arlene and Terry " Zombies are the new Vampires" costumes !