Chicago Tribune's take on the upcoming True Blood Season Finale

Disengage your brain for 'True Blood's' finale

We're used to top TV dramas evoking elegant meals, six-course affairs full of rich textures and witty constructions. We know we'll usually need time to intellectually digest these savory feasts.

No such time is needed for "True Blood" (which, after a Labor Day weekend break, airs its Season 2 finale 8 p.m. Sept. 13 on HBO). "True Blood" isn't a carefully assembled feast. It's a jam-packed, all-you-can-eat buffet served with a side of crazy.

That recipe -- which creator Alan Ball has effectively tweaked since the show debuted last year -- has turned the populist vampire drama into a huge hit: The Aug. 23 episode of "True Blood" attracted 5.3 million viewers, a figure that doubles when repeats are added in. Those are smoking-hot numbers for a premium cable channel.

Halfway through the show's increasingly addictive second season, I realized the mistake I was making with "True Blood." I'm not trying to insult the show by saying it's no "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "Angel," but it isn't. There's no deeper meaning here. Metaphor, schmetaphor.

Sure, most of the vamps on the show, most notably the devilishly charismatic Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), are sexy, hot rebels doing whatever they want with whomever they want. There's no denying the appeal of those hedonistic appetites in these stressful times.

But "True Blood's" attempts at more obvious metaphors -- the depictions of the vamps as an oppressed minority and the portrait of their opponents as repressed hypocrites -- have generally been clunky and unsuccessful.

The show excels as a "Perils of Pauline serial, but one with lots of sex and crazy shenanigans in the woods. "True Blood" works best as a suspenseful beach read come to vivid, Southern Gothic life.

The show mostly defies analysis, intellectual probing and the search for subtext. As Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) put it, "The time for thinking is over." Exactly.

Every Sunday night, it's a chance to turn off your brain and enjoy a show that jams four or five episodes' worth of incident, plot and jaw-dropping moments into 50 minutes.

Part of the reason "True Blood" is such a mass hit is that its characters are easily recognizable types: Newbie vamp Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) is the awkward yet fetching ingenue, Eric is the sexy stranger with a dangerous streak, Maryann (Michelle Forbes) is the crazy aunt, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is the tart-tongued cousin and Bill is the slightly befuddled father figure. The recently introduced vampire queen Sophie-Anne ( Evan Rachel Wood) is the kind of mischievous diva you can find in any number of Bette Davis films.

How will the season end? Will the finale be a train wreck full of dangling story threads and plot holes? Sure, why not?

I don't expect elegant resolution from "True Blood." I expect an exhilarating, messy spectacle.

And you can count on one thing: There will be blood.

moryan@tribune.com
Chicago Tribune.com

Harris' Cameo on True Blood

Now we have all heard about the cameo appearance of Charline Harris,writer of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, in season 2. Well everyone we finally will get to see her at Merlotte's this coming Sunday!! If it was not for her we would not be able to enjoy (obsessively) the brilliant wonderful show True Blood or its characters!!

From Charlaine’s blog and website June 21, 2009

As I’ve said elsewhere on the board, last Friday (June 19) I spent an afternoon on the set of “True Blood.” I enjoyed the experience, of course, and it was great seeing Alan Ball, his wonderful henchmen Christina Jokanovich and Gianna Sobol, writer Alexander Woo, director Michael Cuesta, and some of the wonderful actors who make up the cast: Rutina Wesley, Sam Trammell, Carrie Preston, Chris Bauer, Patricia Bethune, and Todd Lowe.

However, though I already knew that there was a crew to support all the actions in the show, I hadn’t realized how many people there were. It was amazing to see everyone who works behind the scenes. There were so many of them, and they work so hard. Makeup artists, hair artists, light men, sound men, continuity people . . . the list goes on and on. Everyone knows what to do, and somehow it all gets done; taking all these people working at the same moment to get one little bit of film.

It was a very interesting afternoon, and I hope I didn’t get in the way too much. I actually spoke a line, but it may end up on the cutting room floor. I almost hope so. I’m no actress. I think the brief time I spend on the set was really illuminating, and it was certainly a fascinating afternoon. I appreciate them putting up with me.

I was there most of the afternoon, though only an hour or so was taken up with shooting my scene. I ate lunch with Alan, talked to the cast when they weren’t working, had my makeup and hair done, watched the shooting on video, and toured the set of Sookie’s house.

I am no actress. But since I was in the scene with Sam, I just felt I was talking to him, and that made it much easier.

The writer of the episode, Alexander Woo, actually wrote that line down so I could remember it. I have to see things before I can learn them.

Promo Pics for Beyond Here Lies Nothin

Episode 2.12 Beyond Here Lies Nothin

Bon Temps reaches a fever pitch as Maryann prepares for her ultimate bestial sacrifice, conscripting Sookie to be Maid of Honor at the bloody nuptials. Meanwhile, Sophie-Anne warns Eric to keep the lid on Bill’s inquisitiveness; Jason leads Andy into the heroic abyss; and Hoyt struggles with Maxine’s endless stream of insults. Deliberating on what may be his final move to save Sookie and the town, Sam places his trust, and his life, in a most unlikely ally.