230: True Blah

via True Blood GIFs

Okay.  I finally saw Sunday's True Blood yesterday and it's official: I've completely reversed my previous position on this fourth season.  Amnesia-Eric was fun for a while, but now he's just bland and lame.  The whole Sookie/Eric relationship has gone from bizarre and amusing to saccharine and nauseating.  I spent most of the last episode making the same face as Alcide in that animation up top.  Pam, normally one of my favorite characters, has become juvenile and unlikable; neither Tommy Mickens nor his storyline has any redeeming value.  I want to punch Tara Thornton in the face whenever she opens her mouth, and I don't really care about Arlene and Terry's creepy baby.  Andy Bellefleur could be cut out of the show completely and I wouldn't notice.

There are a few improvements this season -- Sookie seems to have grown a backbone, for one thing -- and the Hoyt-Jessica-Jason storyline has some potential.  Bill's new role as a vampire king suits him very well, and his improved relationship with Jessica is nice to see.  But all told, I'm not fond of the witch plotline (though Fiona Shaw is as fantastic as ever), and I would rather they had skipped straight to jealous-werewolf-Debbie and the inevitable intrigue with Sookie, Alcide, and the wolf pack.  I do like that Alan Ball & Co. make changes as they adapt the Charlaine Harris novels into twelve-episode seasons, but I think they might be trying to shoehorn too many TV-plots into the book-plot that fans are expecting.

This season so far?  C-level work.  Try harder, guys.