Things that elicited howls:
1) “sex with a vampire dude! That would be the cream dey la cream!”
2) Almost anything that the preacher dude says. He’s great.
3) Vampire Bill’s french accent is about as convincing as his southern accent.
4) Hoyt. SIIIIGHH.
5) The use of “hard-hearted hannah”, both in the awesomely cheesy parlor scene, and over the end credits. This show is right up there with weeds for old-timey credit music use. Plus the song has a “vamp” pun in it. And I’ve liked that song ever since Nikki McKibbin sang it in Season One of AI. C’mon you loved it too.
6) Bill puts the necklace on his girlfriend! Squee!

You have to love a show if the most boring moment is a giant drum circle orgy in a field (just kidding, of course the most boring scene was the awful pool table pillow talk, ugh).

But I do maintain that these are momentary diversions in a season whose primary energies are manifestly elsewhere. Tara in particular has lost so much dimension that she’s just another pretty soap-opera heroine (nominally spunky division) in an ominous situation, and Sookie (essentially a happy newlywed) is simply boring me.

As for Sarah–I’m sorry, I don’t see it; I think they’re making fun of her every step of the way. (You say sexually conflicted? Where’s the inner conflict, except in her situation, to which she responds with wide-eyed hypocrisy? She evidences no guilt–she pouts about how her husband is treating her, follows her hormones, and hasn’t uttered a syllable about the moral inconsistency of being an adulterous Christian leader, or bulldozing over Jason’s objections, endangering his soul and hers. (Again, I don’t think Ball-et-al have a clue , or give a rap, about how sincere Christians, especially conflicted ones, might actually think.) I think, if I may say it, that the kindness of your empathetic response to her is more about you (and positive, of course) than about how she’s being written. You may care about Sarah; I don’t think the writers do at all.

But elsewhere in the season, I feel like there are several instances of nuanced character development. The Jessica-Bill relationship, for instance, has the texture of real child-parent conflict: Bill made Jessica, obsessively guards her, worries that she’ll hurt herself and others, and slowly accepts her burgeoning identity. Meanwhile, Jessica is moving into post-adolescent freedom and responsibility with a compelling mixture of hesitancy and excitement.

Also, and a reader pointed some of this out to me in a private e-mail, there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening with Lafayette, who has spent this season being forced to recalibrate his entire personality. It’s too early in the season to know where that will lead us, but he’s already grappling with demons that are rooted in much more than flashy plot developments. Essentially, he developed his pround-and-fierce gay persona to make himself bulletproof in a small southern town, and now that persona is the very thing that has hurt him. What’s he supposed to do now?

@ Michael: You really think Ball et al miss the satirical mark with the sun people? How could they improve? I guess I struggle with that question as well, suggesting there is not as much of a foundation as with other plot lines..

I miss Tara’s mother. Is it just me, or was she like beyond excellent? I occassionally mistake melodramatic for crafted, so I am interested to hear thoughts.

And a little moment, which was excellent and makes me glad some actors have trained quite well for their careers: LOVED when Daphne’s face and voice changed with her evil reveal. “Not this time, Sam.” <>