True Blood 4.8 "Spellbound"

Possessing Ghosts. Confused Mediums. Witchy Necromancers. Restless Werewolves. Angry Humans. Ambivalent Vampires. Horny Shifters. Horny Sookie. True Blood is hugely crowded this year. And busy. There's as many plot elements as characters.

You dropped something.

True Blood Season 4 has thrown a lot of balls in the air but remarkably the only one it seems to have dropped is the one it needed to (were-panthers). All hell broke loose on Sunday night's episode so now the show is not only juggling but juggling while running at vamp speed. 

"Spellbound"
"Did I do that?" Jessica asked over the bloody body of Bill's guard Bucky after Jason saves her from self-immolation (see last week). Yup. Another thing for her to cry those bloody tears about. In many ways, Jessica is the most human of all the characters this season, continually plagued by self-doubt, regret and romantic confusion. She thinks about her actions and their affect on people. Like Hoyt.

Poor little-boy Hoyt... 

Please love me!

Or is it... Cruel big-man Hoyt?

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True Blood 4.7 "Cold Grey Light of Dawn"

She hurts him to save him. Unless they're silvered all the vampires will walk into the sun.With Sunday night's episode, fang-bangers are now past the hump. This season's witchy storyline is now on its way to resolving itself. The halfway mark also suggests that from here on out we might have droppings that set things up for Season Five. 

Cold Grey Light of Dawn
We begin where we left off with Marnie (Fiona Shaw) wreaking havoc. Controlling vamps, as it turns out, seems to be getting easier and easier for her. With a whisper of "Resurrection" her former rapist Luis (Peter Macdissi) stakes himself with Bill's silver weapon after a scuffle. One vampire down, all the rest of them to go. Marnie wants them all to meet the true death. After the burst of action that opens the show (Tara also narrowly avoids death at Pam's rotting hands), things slow down considerably. We stop in on unhappy couples (Alcides and Debbie) still shaky couples (Sam &) and new ones (Sookie & Eric). Meanwhile, Tara dumps her lover and signs up with Marnie's vampire slaughter plans, Jason tries to avoid Hoyt "I'd rather be cooking then talking anyhow" and realizes (again) that he's hot for Jessica. Most oddly, Bill tells Jessica the Antonia story which seems like a really strange storytelling move. We've heard and seen this storyline via Marnie and Luis so many times now it felt like a "previously on..." in the middle of the show.

But any scene with Deborah Ann Woll's Jessica gives us great visuals. Such a screen face [spoiler image after the jump]

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True Blood: "Me and the Devil" & "I Wish I Was the Moon"

So get this. I offered up True Blood reviewing duties to the entire Team TFE last week when I was out of town and noone bit. What's up with that? No fangbangers in this house? Which means we've got two episodes to chat up today. Ratings for True Blood are strong this season and deservedly so. We're only halfway in but -- at this point -- it's much stronger than Season 3. It also isn't as repetitive as Season 2. We definitely approve thus far.

"Drink now."

4.5 "Me and the Devil"
Here we have a perfectly titled episode as everyone is battling their personal demons (Tara and Eric specifically) or actual demons as the case might be (Arlene & Terry who hold an exorcism of sorts in their house, still worrying about their spooky baby).

This is also another terrific rangey episode, with fast pacing, surprises and character bits. It kicks off with a violent family squabble (Tommy vs. his parents), moves expertly through tense comedy including the aforementioned exorcism, Bill glamouring his latest fling to "scream" and run whenever she sees him, and Lafayette's post Pam-cursing reaction to Marnie's 'who? me?' act.

That's some catchy shit for your headstone!"

Despite the abundance of actual plot there's graceful tightening of story threads as Sookie's finally braids to Marnie's when the women meet under the false pretenses of a reading. It doesn't turn out how Sookie or Marnie OR the audience expect.

Best Sookie Moment

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True Blood 4.4 "I'm Alive and On Fire"

What we have here is what I like to call a soft tissue episode. It's no mere place holder filler episode but it's not the real muscle of the season either. We are moving along at a nice clip though, advancing all of the plots and raising the stakes.

Marnie watches a witch being burned alive. So that's why her eyes go alight?

I'm Alive and On Fire
In this episode we learn that fairy blood is no joke. If a vamp drains the whole fairy (see last week), he gets drunk and he can spend hours in the sun. Turns out that Alexxander Skarsgård's drunk Eric is just as much fun as his childlike Eric. He flirts shamelessly with Sookie, and he goes skinny dipping in the sunlight (in an episode that's veritably bursting with beefcake). Speaking of which, most of the skin show is far less icky than the past two episodes of Jason Stackhouse's rape at the hands of the werepanther women. Jason finally gets vertical again (thank God) and escapes, though it's probably safe to say that trouble will follow him. In other storylines that evil baby gets a writing on the walll moment "BABY NOT YOURS" and there's more potential trouble for the Merlotte boys as the people they turn to emotionally are less than safe havens.

Something smells fishy. Well, yeah, he's been to the lake.

The strongest element of the episode was its fluid reflectiveness as scenes from disconnected storylines seems to comment on each other. The reveal that Bill's latest conquest is actually his great great great great great granddaughter bounces off all of that sick "brotherhusband" talk in Jason's storyline. And then there's the crazy girlfriends. Take, for instance, Alcides's relationship with his girlfriend Debbie.

Surprisingly it's not his rock-hard body that's made her nuts...

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Stray Emmy Observations (and Supporting Actress)

Raising Hope is Wacky. So is the definition of "GUEST ACTOR"Now that this morning's Emmy nominations have sunk in here's a few things we didn't cover earlier or didn't dig deep enough into in the earlier rundown, largely inspired by your comments.

Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
This is where we are reminded that the Emmys have too many categories and category fraud adjusts to include all of them. How on god's green earth is Cloris Leachman a "guest actress" on Raising Hope when she's a member of the main family and in every single episode? I see her winning with that unfortunate advantage given that the Glee nominees (Gwyneth Paltrow, Kristin Chenoweth, Dot Marie Jones as "Beiste") may cancel each other out and Tina Fey (as host of SNL) is already buried in Emmys. Since I am adamantly opposed to category fraud and since Gwynnie's follow up Glee visits paled in comparison to her first and since Cheno had virtually nothing to do this season, my vote would have to go to Elizabeth Banks for 30 Rock.

Guest Actor & Actress in Drama Series
These categories usually belong to the Law & Order franchise but this year we're blissfully absent of rapists, perverts and victims. Unless some of the characters I'm unfamiliar with qualify and who knows. Three Mad Men made the grade including Cara Buono's jilted businesswoman, Robert Morse ("Cooper" of Sterling Cooper) and everyone's favorite dead woman "Miss Blankenship" (Randee Heller). 

"'Who got an Emmy nod for mouthing off and getting Lafayette laid proper?' I DID, HOOKER"True Blood's Troubles
True Blood which we've been writing about generally gets 3-5 Emmy nominations but last year it added a surprise "Best Drama Series" to its tally. This year it was demoted again with only four nominations for its third season, the one about the V addicted werewolves and the King of Mississippi. The weirdest bit of awards trivia for True Blood though: It has never been nominated for any acting prizes with Emmy (it's won Globes) until now and the person who did it for them is Alfre Woodard who basically only cameo'd in Season 3 as Lafayette's crazy homophobic mama.

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