I wanna do bad things with Eric Northman

I really need to have a pop-culture moment. Sorry, but I may burst if I don't get this off my chest.

My undying love for Eric aside, it's time I feel I should discuss what has happened this season on True Blood so far. With only 5 episodes left, so I need to make sense of it all to see if I can figure out where it is all going. There is entirely too much going on to be able to do a recap of the entire season up until now, but may I suggest going to Television Without Pity if you would like to read a recap of the entire show. Season 1 and 2 are also out on DVD, so you get get them through Netflix. But you may not want to read through this if you want to completely stay out of the loop, there are some spoilers.

First thing is first, though. May I just air out my single grievance against this show? Please please please STOP introducing characters and plot lines that aren't in the book series until later. I know a lot of people who watch this show have read all the books by now, so you need to chop and dice the plot from the source material so that it stays fresh and interesting. But what you did last year was excellent. While Sookie, Bill, Jason and Eric where away in Texas, it was great seeing the maenad plot from the book fleshed out. In the book, Sookie gets tore up by the maenad, heals, and goes away to Texas to help find a missing vampire. In the books, it is the king of Texas' "brother." When Sookie returns from Texas, she is invited to an orgy. The book ends with the house the party was in being burned to the ground and the maenad escaping. In the show, they are looking for Eric's maker, which worked out because it helped with Eric's character development. When the gang returns from Texas, they stumble on Maryann's (the maenad) "wedding" and it ends with Sam killing her. All in all, it wasn't that great a departure from the books and it kept the show interesting. But this season, we are focusing so much on identity that it's taking away characters and plot lines that you don't read about until later in the series. I know what they are building up to with the introduction of Claudine and Maryann and Lorena asking her "What are you?" But we shouldn't get the answer to that until the 7th book! And Russell and Sophie-Anne don't even get married. In the books, she marries the king of Arkansas, and that doesn't even happen until the 6th book. Hell, we don't even meet Sophie-Anne until the 6th book. And Crystal? I know what she is and I know what will happen with Jason, but that doesn't happen until the 4th book. Are the writers that desperate to keep the viewers guessing that they are pillaging the other books? If they keep doing that, they will have stripped the books down for future seasons and there won't be much left for them to work with. That's really what I'm concerned about. I love the books. A lot. I love the show because even though I know what will happen with certain characters, they mix it up enough that I'm not sure how they will reach that endpoint, or even if it will be the same endpoint as the books. If you're planning on having any sort of longevity for this show without alienating people who've read the books (which I think is a large portion of their loyal viewers by now), it's got to stop. I know I wouldn't be so riled up if I were like other people who haven't read the books. They are blissfully unaware of what's really going on.

And there are some BIG spoilers coming up, so don't say I didn't warn you. I can't emphasize that enough...

So, knowing that the writers and Alan Ball wanted to focus on identity this season, here are my predictions. First, Sookie has fairy blood in her. That's why she doesn't have a blood type. That's why Russell was questioning Bill about his research into Sookie's lineage at the queen's behest. Claudine? She's Sookie's fairy-godmother. That magical place Sookie went in her dream? Those were all fairies. The pond? The fairies' world. Remember, Claudine said it was a lot bigger than it looked. That's why Claudine wanted Sookie to go with her. That thing Sookie does with that white glow and repelling people she was angry with? That's her fairy blood at work. Did you notice that the water Sookie drank has the same white glow? So did the fairies as they left into the pond. My guess is that the water was an infusion of more fairy blood so that she could heal. That's why Claudine didn't want Sookie to let the vampires "take her light." All that whispering between Hadley and Eric? Hadley knew, so she told him. That's what was so interesting. Why could Bill stay outside in the sunlight? My guess is that the large amount of fairy blood he just ingested allowed him to do that, as well as maybe partial immunity to silver and other ills for vampires. Why else would the queen be so interested in her? In the books, fairies are like catnip to vampires. I'm sure they are going to give fairy blood all sorts of magical abilities in relation to vampires. Since Claudine was referring to light, which I'm sure she was talking about blood, it would make a nice yin-yang relationship with the darkness we associate with vampires. I'm hoping that they will stick with the book in this aspect, but Bill and Sookie will break up. We don't find out until much later that Bill was sent by Sophie-Anne to seduce her so that the queen could use Sookie's telepathy to her advantage. My guess why they will break up in the series? Sophie-Anne sent Bill still, but this time it was to take advantage of her blood and it's capabilities. Whether or not they will reveal this in the current season, we will see. But Bill and Sookie breaking up is pretty crucial for the plot lines next season to have any similarity at all to the fourth book and beyond. Sorry, Bill fans.

So what about Jason? Well, Crystal is a were-panther. That's why she was sniffing the air when she was outside with Jason and knew it was time for her to leave. With only 5 episodes left, it does look like they are going to leave the were-panther plot to next season for the most part. They won't be able to truly do it justice if they just cram it in here at the end. With that same focus on identity, we've seen Jason go from a womanizing man-boy to someone aspiring to be a cop and thinking he's in love. I think they will end it with him finding out what she really is and then pick it back up next season with plot line from the book.

I really can't make many predictions about what will happen with Sam and his family. There's nothing I can base it off from the books since it's not there. It's the same reason I can't say what will happen with Lafayette and Jesus or Jessica. But I can say I think a great way to end this season is to have Sookie driving home after her first night back at Merlotte's and coming up on a very naked Eric and him asking her "Do I know you?" and then roll the end credits. Or maybe on her way to the police station after getting the news about Jason being missing. That would be a nice way to bookend the season. Start it with a vampire kidnapping after a marriage proposal, end it with a missing person and a naked amnesiac vampire.

True Blood is back!!

I started the last post with a beauty note, and I'll do the same for this one. I finally have figured out the trick to having a manicure last longer than a couple days. Normally if I give myself a manicure, it only lasts a couple days, three at the most. I'm not about to pay to get my nails done at the salon every week just so I can get something that lasts. Anyways, it's nothing fancy, but I got to thinking about why when I used to get acrylic nails the polish lasted a couple weeks. Well, they buff the hell out of your nails before they even put on the nails, then buff the acrylics. Well, lo and behold, it's kept the polish from having any major chips for a week now. And let me just sing the praises of China Glaze. It's a couple bucks cheaper than OPI and I think it has a better selection of colors. How many shades of cherry red cremes can you come up with, OPI? Seriously? The color here is called Sexy Silhouette and it reminds me of the OPI color Kinky in Helsinki, which they sadly discontinued.

Anyways, my favorite show in the entire universe started it's last 3rd season last night. Yes, True Blood is finally back on the air. And before it even started airing, I read somewhere that it's been renewed for a 4th season already. (SPOILERS: a season of Eric not having a memory and being decidedly un-Eric will be great. That's at least if they keep that aspect of the 4th book.) I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of first couple episodes of the past seasons. But they are necessary to move forward the plot of the season. Last night, being the first, set up the basic plots. Sam is on the hunt to get to know his birth family. Eric and Queen Sophie-Anne need to sell a shitload of V via Lafayette to get the magister off their back. Tara is extremely depressed because Eggs is dead. Sookie enlists Jessica to try and find Bill (who's been kidnapped and taken to Mississippi). And we get a very brief introduction to the new group of supernatural creatures we get this season: werewolves. In the countless articles I've read about this season, I have some theories. I've read that the person who kidnaps Bill in the books isn't the one who did it in the show. So that means Lorena isn't the kidnapper. Whoever did, uses werewolves as lackeys and is based in Mississippi because I know we get introduced to King Russell. I hear we do find out who did it next week, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that King Russell or his husband did it to get to Sookie, much like Queen Sophie-Anne did in the books. I also know that they are finally giving Pam a more recurring role. I love Pam. Aside from Eric, she's my favorite vampire. And the brief glimpse of the werewolves has made me happy. They are happily using real wolves. Let's do a side-by-side comparison.

This is a True Blood werewolf:








This is a Twilight werewolf:










One is on a movie budget and looks horrible. The other is on a TV budget. Yes, it's HBO, but it's still a smaller budget than a movie budget. I will say that the werewolves in Twilight are required to do a lot more than they need to do on True Blood. That's were CGI comes in handy, but couldn't they have made them a little more realistic?

Yes, I'm very anti-Twilight. It's horrible. The books were good. The movies are just simply awful.

In other news, another week also means another Doctor Who. It was a rather good episode. Nothing horribly memorable, but good. A friend and I thought at first the auto-pilot program was the Master. I am looking forward to what I'm sure is the first part of another 2-episode arc. The same friend has a theory that the crack in the universe is the bubble that the Doctor put Gallifrey and the other Timelords in, which is about to burst open and bring the Time Wars upon us again. Seeing as this is towards the end of this series, it makes a lot of sense, as these will be the final 2 episodes. It sets up a great new series. It also makes sense if you look back at the episodes with the Silurians ("I'm the last of my species." "No you're not. I'm the last of my species and I know how that sits in your heart.") and the Venice episode (Signora Calvierri guilting the Doctor with the extinction of her species from Saturnyne). They are amping up the guilt on the Doctor for the extinction of the Time Lords. She also made the brilliant realization that the TARDIS is getting slowly more pale. It had a nice amber glow towards the beginning and is now bleaching out. What this means, I'm sure we will find out.

And in World Cup news, the US surprisingly held it's own against England. Yes, my friends, I'm a Yank and I will always choose the US over England. I'm sure Green will never hear the end of it during the tournament and after when he returns home. I will say that those damn vuvuzela are extremely annoying. It sounds like a hive of angry bees in that stadium! I'm just glad I'm not there!

Long time, no post

Wow, a lot can happen in the 2+ months since I've had time for an actual post. I didn't even brush up on the BP oil spill.

And that's the big story that's been all over the place, as rightly it should be. It's an environmental catastrophe which has easily eclipsed the only other catastrophe this can be measured against (Exxon Valdez). I was planning on taking my vacation this year and go down and volunteer to help clean up, but apparently they are all frowning upon people travelling so that they can volunteer (Locals only, folks. Pack up your shit and go home). I could go on and on and on about how the government agency that should have prevented this was in the back pocket of Big Oil. I could go on and on and on about how we really need to go green and get rid of our dependency on oil, whether it's imported or not. But this has been going on for 2 months now. If you've paid any attention to the news here in the US, you'd have heard all this already many times over. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon when the 24 hour news networks are constantly discussing this. Well, maybe with the exception of Faux, I mean Fox, News.

The other big news event has been the Israeli flotilla raid. It's already fading from the news here, which is a shame. In general, I believe that the Israel/Palestine conflict is a prime example of why you should never, ever mix politics and religion. Especially if you're country is a holy city for 3 major world religions. Neither side will want to play nice with the other, so unfortunately this is just another chapter in an extremely long book. I will however point out that I think it is criminal what Israel did. Attacking aid workers trying to help the people you are persecuting in international waters is as criminal as it gets, I think.

On a side note, I'm going to try and not make this such a political blog. While I am passionate about politics and current events, most of my energy sadly goes to pop culture.

I had the great fortune of getting tickets to see Muse when they roll into town in October. I am very much looking forward to that. If you had told me at the beginning of the year I was going to see them twice within 8 months, I would have laughed at you.

SPOILERS! At least they are if you don't use a proxy here in the US and catch up that way...

Also, Dr. Who has returned. Although we are now currently 3 episodes away from the end of this series, I will say I've enjoyed it. I think the most memorable episodes for me were the 2 episode arc for the Weeping Angels, "Amy's Choice" (the one with the dreams) and "Vincent and the Doctor." I'm not afraid to admit that I cried towards the end of that one when they were in the art museum. For such a disturbed man to feel even the slightest bit appreciated for what he thought was going to end up being a wasteful pursuit was just touching.

Glee is still going strong, which I completely adore. I'm a total Gleek, I know. But I was a music geek in high school (choir all 4 years, color guard/marching band for 2 years). It almost validates me as being a cool kid. LOL!

And alas, Family Guy is now done for the year. I was disappointed that they decided to have "Something Something Dark Side" as the season finale, especially considering it had already been out on DVD since December. On the bright side, it means that the next box set will be out shortly. I will soon be able to enjoy my favorite cartoon family without the bleeps.

But it does also mean that my favorite TV show of all is back on shortly. Yes, True Blood starts back up on Sunday. I read through the latest book in about a day last month when it came out. They just keep getting better and better. I took part in the Ultimate Truebie fan event last week, which just added fuel to my impatience fire. It was wonderful seeing all my favorite TV characters up on the big screen. That Alexander Skarsgård is one sexy man. And now Joe Manganiello is joining as Alcide. Mmmmm...a vampire for the nights and a werewolf for the days...

Sorry, I need to go wipe the drool off my chin...

And I'm back. On the movie front, there has been a definite lack of decent movies so far this summer. I haven't seen Iron Man 2 yet, but I have the nagging suspicion it will be very similar to the first one. Robin Hood didn't look all that appealing, just a rehash of Gladiator from the exact same director/star team. I did recently see Shrek Forever After, and I will say it was a lot better than the 3rd and almost as good as the first. Prince of Persia doesn't look to appealing either, just another special effects bonanza. I was pretty disappointed with Sex and the City 2. While it was nice seeing the girls in a setting other than Manhattan, I felt it was really contrived. I also didn't like the way they treated Muslim customs in regards to women's apparel and public decency. I feel I would have rather seen the girls transported to somewhere else fashionable, like London or Milan (they've been to Paris, and frankly I think Paris movies are overdone). This past weekend saw the release of Get Him to the Greek, which I feel I can do without until it's out on DVD.

Let's see...what else is there this summer...

The A-Team - Pass.
The Karate Kid - I'll probably go see this one, even though it's remake. I love Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith I think will grow up to inherit his father's career.
Jonah Hex - the only comic book heroes that ever deserve to be put on the big screen are the big 3: Batman, Superman and Spider Man.
Toy Story 3 - I wouldn't miss this one for the world. Pixar never fails to disappoint.
Grown Ups - You'd think this was a Judd Apatow flick with all the big-name comedians in this one. It could go either way.
Knight and Day - My disdain for Tom Cruise aside, it looks like it could be ok.
Eclipse - Yea, I'll see this when hell freezes over.
The Last Airbender - Pass. M. Night Shamalamadingdong hasn't had a good movie since The Sixth Sense.
Inception - Finally saw a trailer for this today. It looks like it could be pretty good. I do enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio flicks most of the time.
Dinner for Schmucks - I'm a sucker for stupid humor sometimes, but this one I will definitely be seeing.
Salt - Angelina Jolie in another action/spy movie. Yawn.
Despicable Me - I have no clue what this is about. The trailers don't help at all (not to mention that they've been plugging this since the winter Olympics), and I'm not about to dish out $10 just so I can see what the hell is going on.
Eat Pray Love - The book was good, and it's about travel and food. I'm in.

This is in no way a complete list of the movies that are coming out this summer. I haven't even done the research to see if there are any good indies coming out this summer.

Alas, my time is up here at work. Time to retreat to the homestead and catch some Z's. Tomorrow I hit up the pool and start working on the tan.