This ‘May Be the Last Time’ for some on True Blood, but the action for others is just getting started.
In this week’s episode titled ‘This May Be the End’, Super Sookie (Anna Paquin) strikes again with her mission to find the antidote and save, and seduce, her precious Bill and blah blah blah.
Back to more interesting storylines like the one involving the real cure, you know the one that doesn’t involve Sookie, which is extremely rare in this show when everything seems to revolve around her.
Seriously, this town is one bad joke away from an “Everyone Loves Sookie” sitcom.
While Sookie is off being Sookie, Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Pam (Kristen Bauer) are the ones who have the real solution, and cure, to everyone’s problems. The solution, however, is a walking, talking Barbie doll that has pissed off a lot of Kens in her day, one of which is equipped with a pair of fangs.
While Eric and Pam are hot on her tail, a new business opportunity, titled “New Blood,” also arises for these two, creating some “new blood” for the show and for the infected vampires.
Along with all the exciting new developments involving the cure AKA Newme AKA Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp), it seems her sanity is also having some developments of its own. Going back and forth between being a righteous tree hugger and a righteous Jesus hugger, (not to mention coming up with the dumbest name since North West), it seems her mind is becoming even more messed up then it was before the “new” her came to town.
Only time will tell how long the “New-me” will last for Sarah, but something tells me that Newme will soon be replaced by the old her.
Other happenings in Bon Temps this week were…do we really want to waste time and go into the horrible Arlene (Carrie Preston) and Holly/Andy (Lauren Bowles and Chris Bauer) storylines?
To sum it all up, Arlene is recreating some season one Sookie and Bill action — just way less interesting, extremely annoying, and somewhat gross. Holly/Andy are looking for their sex-driven teenage children, who are currently being held under sex-arrest by Violet (Karolina Wydra), who is gunning to become the next Dracula.
While the episode was marked with some high points, the return of a truly amazing character aka Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian), some fabulous scenes and writing for the cure/Sarah Nelwin plot, and some excellent acting attributed to the characters of Jason, Eric, Pam, and Sarah, the episode was also marked by some extremely low points.
These low points are the cringe-worthy scenes involving Arlene, the dull Andy/Holly plotline, and the extremely disappointing and horrible acting produced by Anna Paquin, which is hard to believe since this is an actress known for good acting, so good in fact it warranted an Oscar when she was only a child.
To start, however, let’s go back to the good.
Flashbacks may have always been the conquering hero in the True Blood universe, but hallucinations took the lead as the most awesome thing to ever happen to True Blood in a long time.
These great hallucinations were only fueled by the excellent acting from Camp, McMillian, and Kwanten and the passionate writing displayed by the writers for this episode. Scenes like this prove that True Blood may not have lost its touch, but simply misguided it.
Even though it was a hallucination, it did bring back a fan favorite Steve Newlin, who was just as snarky and hilarious as always, in both life and death, and the after death it seems. His and Camp’s characters obviously had a blast being back together and truly created some television gold for this episode with magnetic performances that just made you miss season two when the Newlin’s were at their prime.
Special mention for the performances of Skarsgard and Bauer Van Straten, who really carried the episode as Eric and Pam in almost every way like they do almost every episode.
However, the show sadly cannot be titled “The Eric and Pam Show” and must feature other characters, even the insufferable ones.
To start, are any scenes where Arlene gets lucky necessary? Isn’t it enough that we had to endure the Smoke Monster storyline with her, can’t the writers just keep it at that and let her fade away into the darkness like the hillbilly were-panthers did?
Secondly, the Holly/Andy storyline does have some important components for the show, such as the whole revenge thing for the Violet/Jason/Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), but is it necessary to spend more than five minutes of screen time on them alone?
The answer to that question is a very harsh and blunt no.
One last thing to add to the mess was the horrendous acting displayed by Oscar winner Anna Paquin. In the past few episodes her acting skills were on a downhill slope to the swamp, but some scenes kept her from sinking too low in the mud, but this episode destroyed all of that.
Everything seemed rushed in her scenes, as well as seeming like a cheap imitation of someone else losing everything they cared about. It felt and looked like the passion Miss Paquin had for the show, and for this character, was dying faster than a vampire infected with Hep V.
All in all, this episode kept with the status quo the show has been developing over these past few episodes, being neither good nor bad. Simply average is the best way to describe the show as of late, only being saved from complete mediocrity by a few good men, and women.
Hopefully the show can retain some of that “New Blood” and create that good old feeling that used to glamor many, instead of boring all.
Recommended Reading:
TV Recap: True Blood, ‘Karma’ (Laura Dengrove)
Review: True Blood, ‘Return to Oz’ (Laura Dengrove)
Review: True Blood, ‘Death is Not the End’ (Laura Dengrove)
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Laura Dengrove is the one of youngest members of the Pop-Break staff and is a critic for television/movies of all types on Pop-Break. Just having closed out her senior year, she will be studying to obtain her bachelors degree at Rutgers University for Journalism/Public Relations. She was the editor for the Arts and Entertainment section of her school newspaper, runs her own blog (Pop Culture Darling), and interns for Design New Jersey. She also has an in-depth knowledge about all things True Blood and an avid Eric and Sookie shipper.
