True Blood Season 3: First Impressions

Firstly, I apologise for my long absence from this blog. Had some personal stuff to sort out, and also I have started a new martial art called KFM aka Kesyi Fighting Method (that has taken up a lot of my time), which was chosen as Batman's fighting style in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

So life stuff has been sorted out and I'm back on track, and I've also had to spend a lot of time on KFM so I have it hard-wired in my brain I can give it my 100% and pass gradings and all that. Most readers probably won't know that besides my passion for Gothic Horror, my other life-long passion is martial arts which I've been doing almost all my life.

Anyways onto True Blood Season 3 - beware spoilers within!

Last we left Sookie and the other vampires of Bon Temp and Shreveport, Bill had proposed to Sookie and in panic she fled to the bathroom to sort through her feelings. While she was momentarily gone, a struggle ensued and Bill was kidnapped by persons unknown though Sookie suspects Eric.

The human members of Bon Temp, as well as its resident shifter Sam Merlotte has their hands full taking out the Maenad Maryanne, who was tearing their town apart. Through some careful planning and Sam's unique power, they were able to tear the heart from the heartless bitch and save their town, only for Jason to save one of their own from Eggs, who after having been in control under Maryanne for sometime asks Sookie to use her telepathy to show him what he has done.

When Eggs confronts Andy Bellefleur to arrest him for the murders, and pulls a knife to rush him, Jason kills Eggs with a headshot.

Onto Season 3: Sookie is desperation calls the police who are ambivalent about a missing vampire, so she runs straight to suspect Number one: Eric. Eric guards his secret that he was after Bill to coerce him in keeping his secret that he is dealing V for the the Queen Sophie-Anne, when a group of werewolves controlled by the King of Mississippi kidnap Bill.

Meanwhile Jessica deals horribly with the fact she killed her victim at the truck stop last episode of Season 2, (as well as a failed turning to save his life) and her guilt is affecting her relationship with Hoyt, when Sookie appears to confront Eric about the werewolves she uses this opportunity to consult Pam on feeding from humans and how to stop before the heart gives out, which is Pam gives in her usual cold detatched manner.

After a stand-off against angry werewolves which Bill manages to take out three, he is about to take down a fourth when the werewolf is told to back down by the vampire King of Mississippi Russell Edgington. Now I cannot remember whether in Club Dead (the third book this series is based on) whether the werewolves were under the control of the King, but I think its a nice touch and harkens back to Dracula and Classical Vampires where Vampires had werewolves as their henchmen.

Just like the books and classical folklore, the werewolves here take the form of true wolves, and not the Chronos/biped form you see in The Howling or the Wolf Man, but these wolves look very demonic and its fantastic. One of the best lines on the show when one werewolf named Cooter! standing off against Bill says "You're about to get deader! Dead-ass motherfucker!" I 'howled' from my couch at that!

Bill discovers that the King wishes to bribe/coerce him into forming a partnership/marriage with Sophie-Anne, the Queen of Louisiana so he can then take her out and control both kingdoms. In exchange the King Russell offers to make Bill Sheriff of Area 2, which will give him the same power as Eric. Subsequently Russell threatens Sookie's health and reveals that his sire Lorena is staying there which angers Bill enough, that in reality or a daydream sequence he immolates her with a gas lamp!

We have the usual Tara/Lafayette/Merlotte's crew storylines that are starting to bore me somewhat, though the Andy/Jason match-up with Andy covering for Jason's murder of Eggs leads to a goldmine when Andy takes Jason with him to Hotshot where we meet Calvin Norris and the rest of the werepanthers!! Also Sam manages to track down his biological parents who gave him away at birth (well the Father was in prison) and Sam discovers his father is human, and he has a brother who is also a shifter, who in episode 2 may or may not have tried to have him killed.

Two things stood out in the 2nd episode for me, firstly the way they did the wolves, they look fantastic and quite evil. Alan Ball is using real wolves here, not CGI but he has CGId their eyes to make them look more supernatural. The morphing from human to wolf is done the same here as when Sam shifts but it just looks so much better and much more sinister.

It seems here though, that not only does it seem that werewolves seem weaker than the vampires (after all Bill took at 3 in one fight) but they are so far portrayed as the villains, as least those wolves that serve King Russell, but this is where Alcide Herveaux comes in, and here is a preview pic:

Secondly even though after reading all the books I am Team Eric, Bill is kicking so much butt here, and Alan Ball has made him quite the bad ass. It's going to be a shame when Sookie discovers what's really going on, but until then I'm going to enjoy Bill's bad-assery to the extreme.

Other Highlights: Eric posing as a Nazi to expose the evil werewolves and the return of his sire Godric (above), and also Sam's sex dream of Bill due to his ingestion of Bill's blood to heal last season was quite funny and certainly a WTF moment! Lastly, only after 2 episodes, HBO have renewed True Blood for a 4th season! which is based on DEAD TO THE WORLD where Sookie is left to look after an amnesiac Eric, and um...things happen :)