Review - HBO - True Blood - Episode 5 - Sparks Fly Out

True Blood
Sparks Fly Out
Season 1, Episode 5
HBO
October 5, 2008
9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode Blurb:
Spurned by an exasperated Sookie, Bill ends up winning over Adele's church audience with his vivid recollections from the Civil War, though Andy and Bud remain suspicious. Sam tries to make the most of his opportunity with Sookie, though she's clearly not ready to commit. Ignoring Tara's rebuff, Lafayette convinces Jason to give vampire blood, a.k.a. "V juice," another shot. Alone at home, Bill remembers the painful wartime incident that changed his fate forever. (TVMA) (AC,AL,BN,V)

Director: Dan Minahan

My thoughts:
While Sookie has put on the brakes where her relationship with Bill is concerned, she has no intention of disappointing her grandmother and attends Bill’s talk at the church. For Bill, it’s a night of reliving memories and viewers get their first glimpse at how his life as a vampire began.

Sam’s interest in Sookie is as evident as ever. He’s encouraged by Sookie’s agreement to a casual date, but when he pushes issues he shouldn’t she has no trouble putting him in his place.

After a nightmarish ER visit, Jason has far from learned his lesson where V-juice is concerned. Tara is angry at both Jason and Lafayette, but she can’t seem to give up her weakness when it comes to Jason’s charm.

This is the fifth episode in HBO’s True Blood series, and the plot deepens. With a murderer on the loose and no real suspects, Bon Temps is on edge. The characters continue to entertain, and the story moves forward at a steady pace with intriguing questions developing along the way. Sparks Fly Out ends with the biggest shocker to this point in the season, and there’s no doubt that it will leave viewers with much to think about for the upcoming week.

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews

Review - HBO - True Blood - Episode 4 - Escape from Dragon House

True Blood
Escape from Dragon House
Season 1, Episode 4
HBO
September 28, 2008
9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET/PT
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 28 (11:30 p.m.) and 30 (11:30 p.m.), and Oct. 1 (10:00 p.m.), 2 (8:00 p.m.), 3 (midnight), 4 (1:05 a.m.) and 16 (8:00 p.m.)
HBO2 playdate: Sept. 29 (8:00 p.m.)

Episode Blurb:
Another killing in Bon Temps finds Jason back in custody with officers Andy (Chris Bauer) and Bud (William Sanderson). Tara gets him off the hook, but neither she nor Lafayette has the antidote to his current ailment. Urged by Gran to use her telepathic abilities to weed out the murderer and exonerate her brother, Sookie persuades Bill to take her to a Shreveport vampire bar called Fangtasia, where she impresses a dominant Nordic bloodsucker named Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) with her prescient powers. Later, Bill demonstrates his own considerable powers when an abusive patrolman stops the couple on their way home.

Written by Brian Buckner; directed by Michael Lehmann.

My thoughts:
When another woman is discovered murdered, and Jason is found at the scene of the crime, he’s once again taken in for questioning. With Tara’s help, and with nothing concrete to hold him on, Jason is released. In the process of his arrest Jason puts himself in an alarming position, and after confronting Lafayette about the unfortunate condition it’s caused, he gives in to the reality that he requires medical attention.

Despite her on again, off again, darker thoughts on Bill’s character, Sookie asks that he take her to a vampire bar in Shreveport, explaining that it’s not really a date. She’s hoping that someone can provide answers or clues on who may have had a reason to murder the women in Bon Temps. After meeting the vampire hostess, Pam, and the bartender, Long Shadow, Sookie has her first encounter with the powerful vampire Eric, an experience she won’t soon forget. As they part he makes a point of telling her that he enjoyed meeting her and a more ominous comment that she would come again.

This is the fourth installment of HBO’s True Blood, and if you watched last week you have an idea of what opens this episode. With Jason finding himself once again in the wrong place at just the right time, his sister’s longtime friend, Tara, comes to his rescue. Meanwhile, Sookie has jumped into the vampire world with both feet and her mixture of fascination and repulsion of Bill continues. Jason and Lafayette are both a source of entertainment in the storyline, and their scenes together are usually too humorous not to laugh. The Coroner is a creep, Andy is disgruntled by the lack of respect he gets and Sookie’s Gran is as supportive as ever. The ending isn’t quite a cliffhanger in this episode, but it’s surprising even if we might have guessed what was coming. Kudos on the music choice in the final scene, it helps answer the question some viewers will have on why he’s doing it. Escape from Dragon House continues the show’s fast pace and will have fans coming back next week hungry for more.

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews

Promo - True Blood: Invitation to the Set (HBO)

Promo - True Blood

TRUE BLOOD, NEW SERIES FROM “SIX FEET UNDER” CREATOR ALAN BALL, STARRING ANNA PAQUIN AND STEPHEN MOYER, DEBUTS SEPT. 7 ON HBO

In the not-too-distant future, vampires have come out of the coffin. Thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood, vampires no longer need humans for their fix and can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts – though they can still come out only at night.

Meanwhile, in the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps, Sookie Stackhouse works as a waitress at the down-home bar Merlotte’s. Though outwardly normal, she has unusual qualities of her own: Sookie can read minds, which complicates her world in endless ways. But Sookie’s life becomes a lot more interesting when Merlotte’s gets its first vampire patron – the 173-year-old Bill Compton – and the two outsiders are immediately drawn to each other.

Mixing romance, suspense, mystery and humor, the new HBO series TRUE BLOOD kicks off its 12-episode first season SUNDAY, SEPT. 7 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT). Starring Anna Paquin (the “X-Men” films; Academy Award®-winner for “The Piano”) as Sookie and Stephen Moyer (“The Starter Wife,” “88 Minutes”) as Bill, the series is created and executive produced by Alan Ball (creator of the Emmy®-winning HBO series “Six Feet Under”), who also wrote the first three episodes and directs two episodes of the show, which is based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris.

Other cast regulars on TRUE BLOOD include Ryan Kwanten (“Summerland”) as Sookie’s brother Jason, whose womanizing makes him the prime suspect in a gruesome murder case; Rutina Wesley (“How She Move”) as Sookie’s best friend Tara Thornton, whose outspoken ways constantly get her into trouble; Sam Trammell (“Judging Amy”) as Sookie’s good-hearted boss Sam Merlotte, who carries a torch for her; Nelsan Ellis (“The Inside”) as Lafayette Reynolds, a cook at Merlotte’s, whose personal life is as colorful as his wardrobe; Chris Bauer (HBO’s “The Wire”) as Detective Andy Bellefleur; Jim Parrack (“Criminal Minds”) as Hoyt Fortenberry, one of Jason Stackhouse’s co-workers on a road construction crew; Carrie Preston (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) as Sookie’s fellow waitress Arlene Fowler; Michael Raymond James (“Black Snake Moan”) as Rene Lenier, another one of Jason’s co-workers; William Sanderson (HBO’s “Deadwood”) as Sheriff Bud Dearborne; and Alexander Skarsgård (HBO’s “Generation Kill”) as Eric, a Nordic vampire.

Also appearing in TRUE BLOOD are Lois Smith (“Hollywoodland”) as Sookie’s grandmother Adele, who shares her fascination with vampires; Lizzy Kaplan (“Cloverfield”) as Amy Burley, the new girl in town who falls for Jason; Lynn Collins (“The Number 23”) as Dawn Green, a waitress who has an on-again, off-again relationship with Sookie’s brother; Kristin Bauer (“Dirty Sexy Money”) as Eric’s cohort Pam, who helps run a vampire bar; and Stephen Root (“No Country for Old Men”) as Eddie, a neophyte vampire.

In addition to Alan Ball, directors on the series include John Dahl (“Rounders”), Nick Gomez (“The Shield”), Anthony Hemingway (HBO’s “The Wire”), Michael Lehmann (HBO’s “Big Love”), Daniel Minahan (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Nancy Oliver (writer, “Lars and the Real Girl”), Marcos Siega (“Veronica Mars”) and Scott Winant (“Hidden Palms”).

To learn more about the True Blood series, please visit HBO’s website: Here

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews