Movies and TV True Blood - Page 54

**luv** · 05:32 PM

Anyone watching True Blood? Watched the first couple of episodes on HBO. I like it.

http://www.watch-true-blood.com/

http://truebloodstreaming.blogspot.com/

http://www.yidio.com/show/true-blood

NewChief · 09-13-2010, 08:21 AM

This is sort of interesting:
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/t...ism/index.html
The rise of "True Blood's" nihilistic vampire
Bill Compton's recent bad behavior on the HBO show upends what we learned from "Twilight" and "Buffy"
BY KATHERINE DON

HBO
Stephen Moyer in "True Blood"
During this season of "True Blood," Bill Compton, the show's "good-guy" vampire love interest, has done some very bad things. It all began during the third episode of the season. Bill had been kidnapped by the Vampire King of Mississippi and forced to live in a mansion with Lorena, his maker and ex-lover. By the end of the episode, Bill had attacked her and initiated a bloody sexual encounter that made the carnage of a Rob Zombie horror film seem like a jaunt in fairyland. In the following episode, Bill ate a stripper. Four episodes later, Bill almost killed Sookie, the very woman he has gone to extra-vampire lengths to protect.

Surely there must be an excuse for all this misbehavior. Bill was confused; he was surrounded by evil vampires, separated from his sweetheart and convinced that he could never truly be "good." But, Freudian issues aside, Bill's behavior is testament to the ways in which "True Blood's" politics diverge dramatically from those two other juggernauts of vampire pop culture: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Twilight." While these two were, respectively, liberal and conservative in their overall message, "True Blood" (whose season finale airs tonight on HBO) is a new species of vampire saga: A nihilistic pop culture phenomenon.

Bill's predecessors, Angel from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Edward from the "Twilight" series, are similar to Bill in many ways. Angel, Edward and Bill are all soft-spoken, achingly attractive and ashamed of their vampire nature. Each has a human love interest to protect. Each rejects the impulse of homicidal mania. Each is ashamed of his past. Each has a rival suitor (Spike, Jacob, Eric) with unscrupulous yearnings for their girlfriend. And each circumvents the ability to act well with the ability to master the intense, woebegone gaze.   But there are also conspicuous differences.

In Buffy's third season, Angel fed on Buffy in a scene incredibly reminiscent of Bill's recent feast on Sookie. In both cases, their loved one (Buffy and Sookie) needed to save their dying vampire boyfriends and demanded that they get the blood sucked out of them. But Angel cut his meal short, whereas Bill kept on slurping. After the incident, Angel was so ashamed that he left Buffy, for good. Bill, meanwhile, convinced Sookie to return to him, and before long they were having sex in the shower. Edward, too, fed upon Bella, his own damsel of choice. In Edward's case, he did it to save Bella, whose blood has been contaminated with the venom of their nemesis. He briefly munched at her wrist, but soon forced himself to stop. Compared to Angel and Bill, Edward was a downright Boy Scout.  

These small but telling differences reveal a great deal about the politics of each series, and the politics of their creators. "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon is a liberal, a feminist and a humanist. Whedon's political views, though nuanced, are straightforwardly liberal. In the "Buffy" series, vampires don't have souls, which allows them to kill with such ease: Due to an ancient Gypsy curse, Angel was re-ensouled, and thereafter stopped sucking the blood from innocent necks. The show takes for granted that, with a soul, Angel will try to be good -- and with the support of people who love him, he will succeed. It's the classically liberal belief that people will be good when one's life situation fosters goodness. If you're born into a bad situation (or without a soul), it's not really your fault when you're bad. If you're given opportunity (a soul, the support of others, a solid Ivy League education), you just might be a success story.  

Compare that to the conservative ideology of "Twilight." The movies are based on the book series by Stephenie Meyer, a politically conservative Mormon. Meyer's vampires all lust for blood, but some vampires opt-in on vegetarianism: They resist temptation and choose to abstain from eating people. Edward killed people when he was a young vampire, but after becoming a part of the vegetarian Cullen family, he learned how to make the correct moral decisions. Nevertheless, it's a continuous effort; his bloodlust never subsides, and his struggle therefore is eternal.   Edward embodies the conservative idea that an individual can overcome life's obstacles, and, through hard work and tenacity, be good.

In a 2008 roundup of citizen interview questions by Time Magazine, Meyer said, "Being Mormon is a big part of who I am, and I try very hard to live the right way, but I don't know that I'm an example. I hate to say, 'Yes, look at me. I'm a good example of being Mormon.' I want to be the best person I can be, so in that respect, maybe I'm a good example.'" It's the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" approach to vampirism. Being good isn't easy, but it's possible.  

And then there's "True Blood." As with "Twilight," "True Blood" doesn't make a categorical demarcation between vampires with souls and vampires without them; the soul situation is not fixed, and vampires can choose to feed on a synthetic blood drink -- Tru Blood -- instead of human blood. In this sense, "Twilight" and "True Blood" vamps are more analogous to humans than are Buffy vamps; there are good ones, there are bad ones, and there are those in-between. But "True Blood's" moral geography is relentlessly complex. Each character wavers between goodness and badness with such frequency that an almost nihilistic philosophy emerges. One week Bill's gorging on a stripper, and a few weeks later he's resumed his role as Sookie's faithful watchvamp.

Bill isn't the only character with a constantly shifting moral compass. Newly-sired vampire Jessica killed a trucker, but then felt bad about it. Jason Stackhouse shot and killed Tara's boyfriend – but then felt really bad about it. Sam, who had seemed like the boy-next-door character, turned out to be an ex-murderer and con man. Lafayette is a drug dealer. Tara's kind of a bitch (but feels really bad about it).   It's a radically leftist (and trenchantly contemporary) stance of moral relativity and unending existential crisis. In the "True Blood" world, there's no way to trust anyone; no way to predict anyone's actions; no fixed ruler with which to measure anybody's choices. Before "True Blood," Ball's creations ("Six Feet Under," "American Beauty") were philosophically nuanced, but "True Blood" offers a remarkably macabre and elusive depiction of morality.

One could argue that this emerging nihilism aligns with a politically confused and nihilistic mood in the real-world United States. In 1997, when "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered, things were a little different. The president's most publicized transgression was a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Democratic and Republican parties seemed to be two distinct groups with two cohesive agendas. "Beverly Hills, 90210" was the acme of televised teen debauchery, and the soon-to-premiere "Dawson's Creek" now seems cringe-worthingly quaint. These days, for many Americans, fringe political groups like the Tea Party seem more trustworthy than the establishment. Even vampire rape scenes don't seem that strange when compared with reality TV, and hit dramas like "Lost" and "Weeds" grapple with moralistic identity crises.

Part of the appeal of "True Blood" has always been the ways in which its universe overlaps with the real world, from its gay rights movement metaphors to its broadsides at evangelical Christianity. In "True Blood," the vampire kings and queens of each state are transparent metaphors for senators. The American Vampire League (pro-vamp) and the Fellowship of the Sun (anti-vamp) are parodies of the corrupt interest groups that influence American politicians. The show's campy, humorous approach to depicting these groups speak to a world that's so screwed up, the only thing to do is throw up your hands and laugh about it.

And so Bill Compton may be awfully confused about what's right and what's wrong, but the world he inhabits is just as confused as he is.

Katherine Don is an editorial fellow at Salon. More Katherine Don

eazyb81 · 09-13-2010, 08:21 AM

They set-up some good storylines for next season, but it was annoying that nothing - not one story - was resolved in this episode.

It was great seeing Talbot go down the disposal.

Thoughts on the doll that they flashed to in Hoyt's new house? Didn't his old girlfriend like dolls?

Jesus is going to eventually be exposed as one bad ass demon. Maybe Lafayette's mom isn't so crazy.

Tara won't be gone forever, but hopefully she is gone for at least next season.

Omaha · 09-13-2010, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmahaChief

Not impressed in the least with the finale. In fact it border line sucked.

Based on your username, I feel like you are a badass.

vailpass · 09-14-2010, 04:02 PM

How far into the season will it take before the episode where Sookie gets bukaked by Eric, Bill, the werewolf guy, and Sam with the vampire queen drinking it up as fast as the boys can pump it out?

Los Pollos Hermanos · 09-15-2010, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

How far into the season will it take before the episode where Sookie gets bukaked by Eric, Bill, the werewolf guy, and Sam with the vampire queen drinking it up as fast as the boys can pump it out?

Well, the werewolf guy is dead.

LaChapelle · 09-15-2010, 06:49 AM

As long as there is vamp blood they can bring back the dead
unless you get your brains splatted in the dirt -I guess

OmahaChief · 09-15-2010, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaha

Based on your username, I feel like you are a badass.

I have that feeling at times as well.

vailpass · 09-15-2010, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefsfansofDallas

Well, the werewolf guy is dead.

Was that who Bill sent to kill Pam then Pam killed him instead? From what I've seen of this show being dead is not a barrier to appearing in the next episode.
Any chance of Jesus and Tarra getting drained, dismembered, cremated and buried in the wet cement from which Eric escaped?

Los Pollos Hermanos · 09-15-2010, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

Was that who Bill sent to kill Pam then Pam killed him instead?

I thought so. But I just looked it up and it was Rueben that she killed.

My mistake.

vailpass · 09-15-2010, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefsfansofDallas

I thought so. But I just looked it up and it was Rueben that she killed.

My mistake.

Hard to keep all the fugging names straight.
Ya think Sam shot his little brother or did he take a miss?

DJ's left nut · 09-15-2010, 04:34 PM

I don't catch this show often, so most of this is irrelevant to me.

However, I have one pressing question...

Who the !@#$ was the nekked girl in the car at the end of the episode where the bad guy pulled the news guy's spine out?

Holy balls, that girl was unreal amounts of hot.

I would subscribe to HBO if it meant every episode ended with that girl naked in a car with a chick between her thighs....

/end teenage angst....

LaChapelle · 09-15-2010, 05:20 PM

That was the nicest set of tits I think I have ever seen
she was built like a woman should be built -curvy

keg in kc · 09-15-2010, 07:18 PM

And she's got the most incredible body too and a pair of titties that make you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a ten year old boy!

**Tribal Warfare** · 09-15-2010, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keg in kc

And she's got the most incredible body too and a pair of titties that make you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a ten year old boy!

BWillie · 09-15-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass

Hard to keep all the fugging names straight.
Ya think Sam shot his little brother or did he take a miss?

I think most of the audience tends to like Sam. I wouldn't think they would want to alienate his character. In the previous scene where he killed the guy and his ex-gf you kinda have some pity for him, but if he just straight up shoots to kill his brother, then it's hard to do that. I think he either shoots him in the leg, or just shoots by him to scare him but hey what do I know.

09-25-2008, 07:03 PM
luv MY LITTLE #15 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Springfield, MO Casino cash: $6089600	True Blood Anyone watching True Blood? Watched the first couple of episodes on HBO. I like it. http://www.watch-true-blood.com/ http://truebloodstreaming.blogspot.com/ http://www.yidio.com/show/true-blood Last edited by luv; 06-22-2009 at 05:32 PM..
Posts: 63,446

09-13-2010, 08:21 AM	#796
NewChief In Search of a Life Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Fayetteville, AR Casino cash: $9600204	This is sort of interesting: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/t...ism/index.html The rise of "True Blood's" nihilistic vampire Bill Compton's recent bad behavior on the HBO show upends what we learned from "Twilight" and "Buffy" BY KATHERINE DON HBO Stephen Moyer in "True Blood" During this season of "True Blood," Bill Compton, the show's "good-guy" vampire love interest, has done some very bad things. It all began during the third episode of the season. Bill had been kidnapped by the Vampire King of Mississippi and forced to live in a mansion with Lorena, his maker and ex-lover. By the end of the episode, Bill had attacked her and initiated a bloody sexual encounter that made the carnage of a Rob Zombie horror film seem like a jaunt in fairyland. In the following episode, Bill ate a stripper. Four episodes later, Bill almost killed Sookie, the very woman he has gone to extra-vampire lengths to protect. Surely there must be an excuse for all this misbehavior. Bill was confused; he was surrounded by evil vampires, separated from his sweetheart and convinced that he could never truly be "good." But, Freudian issues aside, Bill's behavior is testament to the ways in which "True Blood's" politics diverge dramatically from those two other juggernauts of vampire pop culture: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Twilight." While these two were, respectively, liberal and conservative in their overall message, "True Blood" (whose season finale airs tonight on HBO) is a new species of vampire saga: A nihilistic pop culture phenomenon. Bill's predecessors, Angel from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Edward from the "Twilight" series, are similar to Bill in many ways. Angel, Edward and Bill are all soft-spoken, achingly attractive and ashamed of their vampire nature. Each has a human love interest to protect. Each rejects the impulse of homicidal mania. Each is ashamed of his past. Each has a rival suitor (Spike, Jacob, Eric) with unscrupulous yearnings for their girlfriend. And each circumvents the ability to act well with the ability to master the intense, woebegone gaze.   But there are also conspicuous differences. In Buffy's third season, Angel fed on Buffy in a scene incredibly reminiscent of Bill's recent feast on Sookie. In both cases, their loved one (Buffy and Sookie) needed to save their dying vampire boyfriends and demanded that they get the blood sucked out of them. But Angel cut his meal short, whereas Bill kept on slurping. After the incident, Angel was so ashamed that he left Buffy, for good. Bill, meanwhile, convinced Sookie to return to him, and before long they were having sex in the shower. Edward, too, fed upon Bella, his own damsel of choice. In Edward's case, he did it to save Bella, whose blood has been contaminated with the venom of their nemesis. He briefly munched at her wrist, but soon forced himself to stop. Compared to Angel and Bill, Edward was a downright Boy Scout.   These small but telling differences reveal a great deal about the politics of each series, and the politics of their creators. "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon is a liberal, a feminist and a humanist. Whedon's political views, though nuanced, are straightforwardly liberal. In the "Buffy" series, vampires don't have souls, which allows them to kill with such ease: Due to an ancient Gypsy curse, Angel was re-ensouled, and thereafter stopped sucking the blood from innocent necks. The show takes for granted that, with a soul, Angel will try to be good -- and with the support of people who love him, he will succeed. It's the classically liberal belief that people will be good when one's life situation fosters goodness. If you're born into a bad situation (or without a soul), it's not really your fault when you're bad. If you're given opportunity (a soul, the support of others, a solid Ivy League education), you just might be a success story.   Compare that to the conservative ideology of "Twilight." The movies are based on the book series by Stephenie Meyer, a politically conservative Mormon. Meyer's vampires all lust for blood, but some vampires opt-in on vegetarianism: They resist temptation and choose to abstain from eating people. Edward killed people when he was a young vampire, but after becoming a part of the vegetarian Cullen family, he learned how to make the correct moral decisions. Nevertheless, it's a continuous effort; his bloodlust never subsides, and his struggle therefore is eternal.   Edward embodies the conservative idea that an individual can overcome life's obstacles, and, through hard work and tenacity, be good. In a 2008 roundup of citizen interview questions by Time Magazine, Meyer said, "Being Mormon is a big part of who I am, and I try very hard to live the right way, but I don't know that I'm an example. I hate to say, 'Yes, look at me. I'm a good example of being Mormon.' I want to be the best person I can be, so in that respect, maybe I'm a good example.'" It's the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" approach to vampirism. Being good isn't easy, but it's possible.   And then there's "True Blood." As with "Twilight," "True Blood" doesn't make a categorical demarcation between vampires with souls and vampires without them; the soul situation is not fixed, and vampires can choose to feed on a synthetic blood drink -- Tru Blood -- instead of human blood. In this sense, "Twilight" and "True Blood" vamps are more analogous to humans than are Buffy vamps; there are good ones, there are bad ones, and there are those in-between. But "True Blood's" moral geography is relentlessly complex. Each character wavers between goodness and badness with such frequency that an almost nihilistic philosophy emerges. One week Bill's gorging on a stripper, and a few weeks later he's resumed his role as Sookie's faithful watchvamp. Bill isn't the only character with a constantly shifting moral compass. Newly-sired vampire Jessica killed a trucker, but then felt bad about it. Jason Stackhouse shot and killed Tara's boyfriend – but then felt really bad about it. Sam, who had seemed like the boy-next-door character, turned out to be an ex-murderer and con man. Lafayette is a drug dealer. Tara's kind of a bitch (but feels really bad about it).   It's a radically leftist (and trenchantly contemporary) stance of moral relativity and unending existential crisis. In the "True Blood" world, there's no way to trust anyone; no way to predict anyone's actions; no fixed ruler with which to measure anybody's choices. Before "True Blood," Ball's creations ("Six Feet Under," "American Beauty") were philosophically nuanced, but "True Blood" offers a remarkably macabre and elusive depiction of morality. One could argue that this emerging nihilism aligns with a politically confused and nihilistic mood in the real-world United States. In 1997, when "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered, things were a little different. The president's most publicized transgression was a sexual harassment lawsuit. The Democratic and Republican parties seemed to be two distinct groups with two cohesive agendas. "Beverly Hills, 90210" was the acme of televised teen debauchery, and the soon-to-premiere "Dawson's Creek" now seems cringe-worthingly quaint. These days, for many Americans, fringe political groups like the Tea Party seem more trustworthy than the establishment. Even vampire rape scenes don't seem that strange when compared with reality TV, and hit dramas like "Lost" and "Weeds" grapple with moralistic identity crises. Part of the appeal of "True Blood" has always been the ways in which its universe overlaps with the real world, from its gay rights movement metaphors to its broadsides at evangelical Christianity. In "True Blood," the vampire kings and queens of each state are transparent metaphors for senators. The American Vampire League (pro-vamp) and the Fellowship of the Sun (anti-vamp) are parodies of the corrupt interest groups that influence American politicians. The show's campy, humorous approach to depicting these groups speak to a world that's so screwed up, the only thing to do is throw up your hands and laugh about it. And so Bill Compton may be awfully confused about what's right and what's wrong, but the world he inhabits is just as confused as he is. Katherine Don is an editorial fellow at Salon. More Katherine Don __________________ In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Posts: 21,762

09-13-2010, 08:21 AM	#797
eazyb81 The Illuminati Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: the road less traveled Casino cash: $10004900	They set-up some good storylines for next season, but it was annoying that nothing - not one story - was resolved in this episode. It was great seeing Talbot go down the disposal. Thoughts on the doll that they flashed to in Hoyt's new house? Didn't his old girlfriend like dolls? Jesus is going to eventually be exposed as one bad ass demon. Maybe Lafayette's mom isn't so crazy. Tara won't be gone forever, but hopefully she is gone for at least next season.
Posts: 12,033

09-14-2010, 04:02 PM	#799
vailpass Psycho Bag Of Squanch Join Date: Sep 2001 Casino cash: $9594244	How far into the season will it take before the episode where Sookie gets bukaked by Eric, Bill, the werewolf guy, and Sam with the vampire queen drinking it up as fast as the boys can pump it out?
Posts: 69,591

09-15-2010, 06:49 AM	#801
LaChapelle Banned Join Date: Mar 2009 Casino cash: $10004900	As long as there is vamp blood they can bring back the dead unless you get your brains splatted in the dirt -I guess
Posts: 8,588

09-15-2010, 04:34 PM	#806
DJ's left nut Sauntering Vaguely Downwards Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Columbia, Mo Casino cash: $2719099	I don't catch this show often, so most of this is irrelevant to me. However, I have one pressing question... Who the !@#$ was the nekked girl in the car at the end of the episode where the bad guy pulled the news guy's spine out? Holy balls, that girl was unreal amounts of hot. I would subscribe to HBO if it meant every episode ended with that girl naked in a car with a chick between her thighs.... /end teenage angst.... __________________ "If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
Posts: 60,763

09-15-2010, 05:20 PM	#807
LaChapelle Banned Join Date: Mar 2009 Casino cash: $10004900	That was the nicest set of tits I think I have ever seen she was built like a woman should be built -curvy
Posts: 8,588

09-15-2010, 07:18 PM	#808
keg in kc oxymoron Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: OP/KC/Whatever Casino cash: $9556299	And she's got the most incredible body too and a pair of titties that make you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a ten year old boy!
Posts: 58,682