Posted by Janie Logan Jun 27, 2011, 15:57 GMT
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) had some big surprises in store for her in the Season 4 premiere of True Blood. Photo courtesy of HBO.
With the return of HBO's bloody, sexy, thrill ride, it finally feels like summer. I love True Blood, even when Bon Temps gets overcrowded with characters and the storytelling gets too twisted. It's a fangtastic escape at this time of year when the weather gets steamy and people go a little crazy.
The opening scene of Season 4 had a very weird vibe. One minute Sookie was in the dreamy land of faeries with Claudine and her grandfather, and the next she was fleeing through the desert from creepy troll-like creatures. I admit I was worried that the show might have become too outrageous to be enjoyed.
But a few minutes later, Sookie was back home and, after a sad, tender moment with Granddaddy Earl, the fun began: Jason, clad in a Sheriff's deputy uniform, hugged his sister like he hadn't seen her in ages. Because he hadn't. Sookie had been missing for over a year.
The rest of the episode felt a bit surreal, as Sookie (and we the viewers) got caught up on all the new developments:
1) Arlene and Terry have a baby boy. She still harbors a deep fear that he will become a serial killer like his daddy and imagines her fears confirmed in every childish act of violence.
2) In a post-Russell Edgington world of vampire hysteria, Nan Flanagan is enlisting Eric, Pam, and others in a massive PR repair campaign. What acceptance they had gained after coming out of the coffin seems to be gone, with the exception of...
3) Bill, who is now the Vampire King of Louisiana. Aside from his brief reunion with Sookie, he was grandstanding at a political function. He also seems to have a new companion in Portia Bellefleur? And he's spying on witches?
4) Eric insists that he was the only one who didn't give up on Sookie when she disappeared. He even bought and repaired her home (seemingly because he knows how much she loves the place and didn't want someone else to take it, but it also conveniently gave him an invitation to enter when she was naked).
5) Tara has moved to New Orleans, gotten involved in a female wrestling circuit, and begun a relationship with another woman.
6) Jessica and Hoyt have started to see that domestic bliss is not always so blissful. She's fighting her predatory nature to be in a loving, committed relationship, and rather than recognizing what she's giving up to be with him, he's bothered by what he's not getting out of the relationship (i.e., all the care and attention his mother used to give him that is now bestowed on young Tommy Mickens, who's all cleaned up and saying grace over dinner...)
7) Sam has found a support system in a few other shapeshifters, with whom he can talk about his problems and then release pent up energy in late night group runs.
8) Jason, by all appearances, has acquired a newfound maturity. He's got responsibilities now--to take care of the helpless community in Hot Shot since Crystal left, and to cover for his V-addicted friend and boss, Sheriff Andy Bellefleur.
9) Lafayette is still with Jesus and seems happy, except for the pressure he feels to further experiment with magic. He gets dragged to a meeting of witches, including Holly from Merlotte's, led by a strange woman named Marnie. Lafayette is more than a little freaked out when he becomes part of a ritual that brings a dead bird back to life.
I, for one, am excited by the prospects for this season. The time jump has been done before--Alias Season 3, Desperate Housewives Season 5, to name a few--but I think it can be a very effective narrative device, when done well. And I have faith in Alan Ball and his team of writers that this can work for True Blood.
What did everyone else think about the premiere?
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