
Welcome to Sucker Punch, the only blog post that ranks the gaudiest moments on this week’s episode of True Blood.
Because come on, y’all… gaudiness is True Blood‘s specialty. Yes, HBO’s  Southern Gothic vampire drama serves up a variety of delicious moments—ranging from steamy sex scenes to sensitive revelations to scary fights—but everything’s infused with trashiness. People don’t just die: They get their hearts ripped out. Characters don’t just go to church: They join cults. Vampires don’t just go to bars: They go to black-leather sin pits with names like Fangtasia. If the show were more over the top, it would under itself.
And frankly, that’s why I love it. The series, created by Six Feet Under and American Beauty‘s Alan Ball, pulses with such reckless, lusty energy that I cannot wait for each new episode.
Which brings me back to Sucker Punch: Instead of simply reviewing each week’s installment, I’m going to tease out the moments that best embody True Blood’s tawdry heart. I hope you’ll join me in my quest!
To read about this week’s Sucker Punch, join me here at the Huffington Post.






7 responses so far ↓
1 Laura Mc. // Jun 15, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I LOVE THIS SHOW.
Though I do get tired of Sookie’s trust issues with Bill. Damn girl, either you’re consistently with him for a 3 episode minimum, or you’re not.
No more tete-a-tetes about how you just aren’t sure!!
2 InfoMofo // Jun 16, 2009 at 10:26 am
Can we talk about how Michelle Forbes is the new Sela Ward? (Even though I originally thought Connie Nielsen was the new Sela Ward, but then she went blonde and did that weird stint on SVU).
3 Michael // Jun 16, 2009 at 10:44 am
Sinking feeling here: the season two premiere was exciting, no doubt, and delivered on months os anticipation with gleeful extremity–but I must admit to a concern that Mark’s very take on the show (that it’s best understood by clocking the outre) may be a mark of what could easily go wrong. A LOT of the charm of the first season was character and local color and complicated, unresolved relationships, with some terrific acting, and there was a good deal of Buffy-esque/magic realism use of the supernatural (like the exorcisms of alcoholic demons) as a metaphor of psychological and social realities. That said, this season’s beginning with the grotesque sacrifice of the character who best embodies that reality/fantasy ambiguity, the pharmacist/exorcist, may be an unconscious symbol of the show shifting away from its strengths. The very fact that in this episode Sookie seemed to be declining into Passive-Aggressive-Whiny-Relationship Girl (or soap opera heroine for short), rather than protagonist, and that character progression seemed to be pushed so far in the background to make way for new, front-and-center horrors, made me uneasy. (The sexy-older-woman/Greek-goddess/diva-with-an-agenda thread felt like an eye-rolling soap cliche to me. Am I the only one who sorta got it from the first?) And the human-slave-mill images were unforgettable and almost hilariously extreme–but they redouble my concern that Alan Ball (whose work I always find stimulating but indulgent) remembers that while you’re leaping over the top you might be accidentally jumping a shark. Plenty of time to rescue the operation still–but I’m concerned.
4 Mark Blankenship // Jun 17, 2009 at 2:16 am
Hey Michael… I hear your concerns, but let me offer this bit of hope: I got a screener of the first four episodes of the season, and things get really, really great from here. This episode is more about setting up arcs that seem to be unfolding quite nicely.
5 Laura Mc. // Jun 17, 2009 at 2:21 am
With this show Alan Ball has become the new Tennessee Williams. Plain and simple.
When he is in control of what he is doing, it is indulgent, but deliciously so! I have no fears given the 6 Feet Under track record. It will only get better from here.
6 InfoMofo // Jun 17, 2009 at 1:09 pm
For me the show is best when it’s ridiculous and over the top, because that’s what I watch it for- so the parts of the episode that bothered me were the boring parts.
1) Arlene was engaged to a guy who turned out to be a psychopath and just got killed by her co-worker and friend 2 weeks ago, and she spends this episode fretting about her nails? Um, ok.
2) Sookie and Bill having the same trust conversation every five minutes is boring.
3) Good cop, drunk cop is boring.
4) Religious jason is boring (so far). But I agree that his doinking the pastor’s wife is inevitable.
So this ep was a little meh, but I’m still tuning in cause even on it’s bad, it’s entertainingly bad.
7 InfoMofo // Jun 17, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Oh but the best part is we found out if Bill spits or swallows… What do you even call that move? Seriously I bet there’s a whole new lexicon of sex terms that this show has created.
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