True Blood: Lost Cause
July 21, 2014 7:43 AM - Season 7, Episode 5 - Subscribe
Eric and Pam go searching for Sarah in Dallas... James and Lafayette throw a party to cheer up a grieving Sookie... and Bill has more Civil War flashbacks.
Using a George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum fundraiser as the setting for the intersection of the Sarah/Yakuzi/Eric and Pam story lines was hilarious
I kind of winced at the too-topical nature of it though; I prefer my softcore hamhanded mixed-metaphor allegories to have a leeeeetle bit of distance from the newsmakers of the day* and lean more on storytelling and character development. I'm super stoked to have Sarah Newlin back in the mix, she's a great chameleon-villain (and I wish she and Pam had gone directly toe-to-toe), but the dissonance between that story and the bedhopping sadparty back in Bon Temps was bizarre.
*Though, granted, there is something supernatural about having America's Most Unbearable Senator reach such heights of annoyingness only a quarter of the way into his first term, which, think about that for a minute.
posted by psoas at 9:53 AM on July 21, 2014
I kind of winced at the too-topical nature of it though; I prefer my softcore hamhanded mixed-metaphor allegories to have a leeeeetle bit of distance from the newsmakers of the day* and lean more on storytelling and character development. I'm super stoked to have Sarah Newlin back in the mix, she's a great chameleon-villain (and I wish she and Pam had gone directly toe-to-toe), but the dissonance between that story and the bedhopping sadparty back in Bon Temps was bizarre.
*Though, granted, there is something supernatural about having America's Most Unbearable Senator reach such heights of annoyingness only a quarter of the way into his first term, which, think about that for a minute.
posted by psoas at 9:53 AM on July 21, 2014
The Eric/Pam stuff was the best part of the episode. Other than Lafayette's "I just wanna be loved" speech, which was awesome.
posted by dnash at 10:07 AM on July 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by dnash at 10:07 AM on July 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
Lafayette's "I just wanna be loved" speech, which was awesome.
yeah about halfway in to this episode I was lamenting how Lafayette's character was sort of not as fun and less fleshed-out this season, so that was nice. But still. Kind of an asshole move he pulled there.
Also Jessica is just asking for it at this point. If all the characters are going to get killed off this season, pretty sure crossing Violet is not going to end well for her.
Agreed on Eric and Pam being the best part of the show. That happens a lot, though.
Lettie Mae is the worst. The worst character. Why do they keep bringing her back? We've already seen her whole arc and now its the same thing again. She just goes from crazed junkie to lucid to crazed junkie so often at this point I wish they could just drop it. WE GET IT.
posted by Hoopo at 11:24 AM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
yeah about halfway in to this episode I was lamenting how Lafayette's character was sort of not as fun and less fleshed-out this season, so that was nice. But still. Kind of an asshole move he pulled there.
Also Jessica is just asking for it at this point. If all the characters are going to get killed off this season, pretty sure crossing Violet is not going to end well for her.
Agreed on Eric and Pam being the best part of the show. That happens a lot, though.
Lettie Mae is the worst. The worst character. Why do they keep bringing her back? We've already seen her whole arc and now its the same thing again. She just goes from crazed junkie to lucid to crazed junkie so often at this point I wish they could just drop it. WE GET IT.
posted by Hoopo at 11:24 AM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
I think I've gotten past the point where I can even hate-watch this anymore. I have often had issues with Alan Ball's work as a writer (particularly how he tends to conflate "strong" with "shrewish" when it comes to women), but I will say he seems to be a really good showrunner, and in retrospect it was his departure after Season 5 that precipitated the total decline of this show.
posted by scody at 12:25 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by scody at 12:25 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
Last week was okay but this week is back to hatewatching. More like cringewatching. Seriously, a raucous party at Sookie's house the very next night after her boyfriend is killed? Andy chooses that moment to propose? Sam's fiancée is the only one who has any sense.
Eric/Pam were great, as usual. Poor Ginger. I wonder if that's the last we'll see of her.
Lettie Mae... what Hoopo said above. They keep dangling that "maybe Tara will come back" carrot.
I don't understand what we're supposed to get out of the Bill flashbacks. He was an okay guy when he was alive? We should be sad he's dying now? How did he get Hep V?
Re: Lafayette/James/Jessica/Jason... why can't anyone say the word BISEXUAL? Dear god that was annoying.
We're so close to the end of all this that I can't stop watching now, but I have zero expectations that the ending will be satisfying. Unless Eric and Pam are the only ones left alive.
posted by desjardins at 5:28 PM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
Eric/Pam were great, as usual. Poor Ginger. I wonder if that's the last we'll see of her.
Lettie Mae... what Hoopo said above. They keep dangling that "maybe Tara will come back" carrot.
I don't understand what we're supposed to get out of the Bill flashbacks. He was an okay guy when he was alive? We should be sad he's dying now? How did he get Hep V?
Re: Lafayette/James/Jessica/Jason... why can't anyone say the word BISEXUAL? Dear god that was annoying.
We're so close to the end of all this that I can't stop watching now, but I have zero expectations that the ending will be satisfying. Unless Eric and Pam are the only ones left alive.
posted by desjardins at 5:28 PM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
Lettie Mae is the worst. The worst character.
I was watching this week's episode with a friend who hasn't watched the show in years, and when Violet appeared onscreen I was like, "OK, so she's the worst, we all want her gone" (because remember last season when she just randomly showed up and sucked the air out of any scene she was in and was generally just a lead weight on everything around her?) but it turns out the showrunner/writers this year decided to retrofit her with a sense of humor and turn her into a kind of Anya-from-Buffy nicety-eschewing weirdo. When she talked, we laughed! A couple of times! Whodathunkit?
But oh, Lettie. It's not good.
posted by psoas at 7:17 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
I was watching this week's episode with a friend who hasn't watched the show in years, and when Violet appeared onscreen I was like, "OK, so she's the worst, we all want her gone" (because remember last season when she just randomly showed up and sucked the air out of any scene she was in and was generally just a lead weight on everything around her?) but it turns out the showrunner/writers this year decided to retrofit her with a sense of humor and turn her into a kind of Anya-from-Buffy nicety-eschewing weirdo. When she talked, we laughed! A couple of times! Whodathunkit?
But oh, Lettie. It's not good.
posted by psoas at 7:17 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
Re: Lafayette/James/Jessica/Jason... why can't anyone say the word BISEXUAL? Dear god that was annoying.
THIS TOTALLY THIS. Particularly that Lafayette would call him gay and not bi. But also the show is cool with fairy princesses and Ifrits and were panthers, but not the idea of bisexuals? Really? That's where we draw the line in Bon Temps?
posted by miss-lapin at 9:14 PM on July 21, 2014 [8 favorites]
THIS TOTALLY THIS. Particularly that Lafayette would call him gay and not bi. But also the show is cool with fairy princesses and Ifrits and were panthers, but not the idea of bisexuals? Really? That's where we draw the line in Bon Temps?
posted by miss-lapin at 9:14 PM on July 21, 2014 [8 favorites]
You can tell TB is written by people even older than me because they learned that a phone call was from a Dallas area code and, lo and behold, the caller was in Dallas, instead of being from someone who happened to have lived in Dallas sometime in the past fifteen years.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:15 PM on July 21, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:15 PM on July 21, 2014 [5 favorites]
Also I loved that Eric and Pam picked out each others outfits. Something about that tickled the hell out of me.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:16 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 9:16 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
why can't anyone say the word BISEXUAL? Dear god that was annoying.
Yeah, it shouldn't be that complicated. Game of Thrones had no problem with it, don't these people watch HBO?
posted by homunculus at 10:07 PM on July 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yeah, it shouldn't be that complicated. Game of Thrones had no problem with it, don't these people watch HBO?
posted by homunculus at 10:07 PM on July 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
I hope that after this season ends, some bright producer packages a show where Lafayette introduces old horror movies à la Elvira. Because the world really needs that to happen.
posted by Catblack at 11:04 PM on July 21, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by Catblack at 11:04 PM on July 21, 2014 [7 favorites]
Did fucking Eric just let Sarah Newland get away AGAIN?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:49 AM on July 22, 2014
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:49 AM on July 22, 2014
Catblack-It should be Lafayette and Pam. I would totally watch the hell out of a Monstervision type show with Lafayette and Pam.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:42 AM on July 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 7:42 AM on July 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Does anyone understand what the deal is with the Yakuza guys? I'm totally confused who they're working for and what they're doing, other than showing up when the writers need something bad to happen.
posted by dnash at 8:22 AM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dnash at 8:22 AM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
they worked for the Japanese company that made True Blood. They were fucking with Eric and Pam in that scene when they were working with the Authority to try and get vampires to stop killing people and "come out of the coffin" as they say, which benefited the True Blood producers by making True Blood the only acceptable vampire food. They are now after Sarah Newlin because she sorta went bananas in the Compound and killed that company woman with her shoe.
posted by Hoopo at 9:34 AM on July 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 9:34 AM on July 22, 2014 [3 favorites]
Also, didn't she help with the plan to spread Hep V in the True Blood, thus sullying their brand name?
posted by destructive cactus at 12:59 PM on July 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by destructive cactus at 12:59 PM on July 22, 2014 [2 favorites]
desjardins Andy chooses that moment to propose? Sam's fiancée is the only one who has any sense.
But that's the whole point. This show isn't a serious sociopsycho drama about inter-sentient species conflict. It's a send off of the vampire/supernatural urban romance genre. The books, though, they took themselves seriously and played it straight. And isn't that far off from this season's ludicrosity.
Sam's fiancée telling these people that they are all completely nuts is a small crack in the 4th wall.
Hah, Hoopo, I had to go re-watch the Sarah Newlin fight. Mein gott but that was the very anithesis of a clean kill. They should have made the CEO lady continue twitching, as sometimes seen during cortical trauma.
posted by porpoise at 8:52 PM on July 22, 2014
But that's the whole point. This show isn't a serious sociopsycho drama about inter-sentient species conflict. It's a send off of the vampire/supernatural urban romance genre. The books, though, they took themselves seriously and played it straight. And isn't that far off from this season's ludicrosity.
Sam's fiancée telling these people that they are all completely nuts is a small crack in the 4th wall.
Hah, Hoopo, I had to go re-watch the Sarah Newlin fight. Mein gott but that was the very anithesis of a clean kill. They should have made the CEO lady continue twitching, as sometimes seen during cortical trauma.
posted by porpoise at 8:52 PM on July 22, 2014
Both Amber Mills and Jessica had bloodless crying scenes. That's kinda sloppy.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:37 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:37 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
This episode was actually mostly decent, out-of-context-let's-retcon-Bill-as-a-Union-sympathizing-abolitionist flashbacks aside. Having a party was bananas, but I bought it from these weirdies. Nothing the "Haven't they heard of bisexuals?" complaint. Also, who do you think will screw up the Jason/Jessica thing first? Violet or Hoyt?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:43 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:43 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
That should say "nthing" not "nothing." Eh well.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:12 PM on July 22, 2014
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:12 PM on July 22, 2014
Yesss we're halfway through our suffering
posted by desjardins at 12:54 PM on July 23, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by desjardins at 12:54 PM on July 23, 2014 [2 favorites]
I worry our suffering is going to rise exponentially the closer we get.
posted by inigo2 at 6:11 PM on July 23, 2014
posted by inigo2 at 6:11 PM on July 23, 2014
You know, as long as Pam is in it being snarky, I don't care so much what else is going on. My brain just sort of tunes it out, waiting for more Pam.
Did I mention I like Pam?
Pam: I like her, I like you.
Amber: Is it okay if I still haven't made my mind up about you?
Pam: I really like her.
posted by signal at 8:08 AM on July 24, 2014 [5 favorites]
Did I mention I like Pam?
Pam: I like her, I like you.
Amber: Is it okay if I still haven't made my mind up about you?
Pam: I really like her.
posted by signal at 8:08 AM on July 24, 2014 [5 favorites]
Pam: I really like her.
Best line reading of anyone in this show ever.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 11:51 AM on July 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
Best line reading of anyone in this show ever.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 11:51 AM on July 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
How are humans getting infected?
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:14 PM on July 24, 2014
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:14 PM on July 24, 2014
I loved Sam's GF's calling out of the party. I kept being distracted by wondering who was babysitting the kids.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:21 PM on July 24, 2014
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:21 PM on July 24, 2014
Here's everything you wanted to know about Hep V.
"Dr. Overlark and his team believe the new strain they have created can be spread through consumption, copulation (vaginal and anal), as well as injection and is highly contagious."
posted by desjardins at 9:19 PM on July 24, 2014
"Dr. Overlark and his team believe the new strain they have created can be spread through consumption, copulation (vaginal and anal), as well as injection and is highly contagious."
posted by desjardins at 9:19 PM on July 24, 2014
>I kept being distracted by wondering who was babysitting the kids.
I assumed they'd locked them into the vault behind the clock that Eric had put there. Safest place for em, considering this show.
posted by Catblack at 7:00 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
I assumed they'd locked them into the vault behind the clock that Eric had put there. Safest place for em, considering this show.
posted by Catblack at 7:00 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
Colbert Wags Finger at True Blood’s ‘Transparent Hollywood Attack’ on GOP
posted by homunculus at 2:28 PM on July 25, 2014
posted by homunculus at 2:28 PM on July 25, 2014
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posted by carmicha at 8:57 AM on July 21, 2014 [5 favorites]