True Blood 4.1: "She's Not There"

Bill still makes her red eyed and weepyLet the Season 4 premiere of HBO's hit series True Blood be a lesson to all future showrunners. This is what happens when your show has introduced non-integrated plotlines for each and every member of a huge ensemble cast. This is what happens when you try a time jump so popular post Battlestar Galactica and don't trust the audience to just reconfigure the pieces on their own.  This is what happens when you back yourself into storylines that maybe weren't good ideas to begin with. I speak of Jason Stackhouse becoming the paterfamilia (of sorts) for a whole den of barely human hilbillies and a certain reveal about our heroine. To quote Sookie (Anna Paquin) herself with the same annoyed/surprised/this-is-stupid inflection from the Season 3 climax...

I'm a fairy?

And what is it that's happened, exactly?

The show's premiere episode "She's Not There" proved to be a random disjointed mess, forced to spend the entire hour on reintroductions to every character since we've missed a whole year of their lives (as has Sookie). I can't speak for television ratings but if True Blood hadn't already peaked in terms of the number of fangbangers gathered for each episode, this premiere had garlic all over it. Wouldn't it automatically repel new viewers?

Fairy-Land

"She's Not There" kicks off with a weirdly dull and anachronistic (for this show) opening. Sookie is trapped (though she doesn't yet know it) in an alternate fairy dimension which looks like a gaudy Maxfield Parrish knock-off painting with no-budget set dressing. Sookie doesn't eat the glowing fruit which turns out to be a good idea -- the side effects are both nasty and uglifying.

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"True Blood" Witches. True Blood Watchers?

I've been on a True Blood tear, catching up with Season 3. I haven't enjoyed it nearly as much as Season 2 (the peak) partially because the Big Bad "Russell, King of Mississippi" (Denis O'Hare) wasn't half as interesting, dynamic or amusing as immortal maenad "MaryAnn" (Michelle Forbes) from Season 2. Plus, I've missed the comedy gold that sprung up in the religious cult satire subplot which starred Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten), the ensemble's undersung hero. Yes, everyone loves his body. But he's arguably the most gifted comic in the cast.

Here's the new teaser for the fourth season of True Blood. If Fiona Shaw, the sensational stage actress, Harry Potter's Aunt Petunia, and our favorite batshit crazy sociopathic rich lady (The Black Dahlia) is this season's Big Bad, maybe Season 4 will rival Season 2?

Here's the teaser.

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Kiss Her, She's Irish. Plus: Maureen O'Hara & "Connemara Days"

Two generations of screen fame: Maureen O'Sullivan and Mia FarrowHappy St. Patrick's Day to all Irish or Irish-appreciatin' readers out there. There are numerous male Irish actors who get plentiful attention. In fact, there almost always seems to be a new one tearing the screen up. Case in point: Michael Fassbender (Irish/German), who we're suddenly not so sure we're happy about sharing with the entire world. How will there be enough to go round? He's slim as it is and WE SAW HIM FIRST, DAMNIT.

The actresses never get much attention. We seem to go whole decades without an important Irish lass winning substantial popularity or acclaim. So why not celebrate today's working actresses of Irish descent with a photo gallery?

But first, we must bow to the greatest of them all, Maureen O'Hara. How adorable are these photos which I nabbed from Mothic Flights and Flutterings and Stirred, Straight Up With a Twist who writes on the image to your right...

After a few green beers, this photo of Maureen O'Hara will begin to make sense.

Gah. Don't you just love Maureen O'Hara? The world is totally in need of an O'Hara revival. I must seek her out and beg for an interview or something.

Okay, after the jump some current stars. Who do you love?

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