stupidity: some thoughts on the characters in HBO’s “True Blood”
So Jen & I just watched the first season DVDs over the last few weeks. And it was decent – I mean we watched the whole thing right?
However (always a however!), the characters pissed me off. I don’t know if the writer(s) just think everyone from the South is an inbred moron, or just everyone on this show but – everyone on the show is an inbred moron. The way the characters are written anyway.
Wait, I should take that back, Tara and Lafayette are actually not inbred morons. For the most part. The do do some pretty stupid shit though.
First off – what the hell is the deal with vampire blood/V not having a consistent effect?
- Sookie drinks it from the vein and it magically heals her
- Jason has a vial of it (much less than Sookie) then has to get his dick drained. Quite the opposite of healing.
- People have small tabs of it, and get awesome happy trippy highs. Nevermind that Sookie MUST have ingested oh at least 100 drops when that vampire died in her face (and in the book, this was evidently a plot point) and nothing happened to her. How convenient.
I guess the easy answer is that it’s different when its “straight from the vein” of a vamp, that’s why it healed Sookie.
No, wait, Jason and dead crazy bitch had some basically straight from the vein of poor Newsradio dude. Who totally did not deserve that bullshit.
Alright then. Still waiting on that one.
So back to the characters:
Jason: Duh. Everything he does is stupid. For those of you who have known people this stupid – are any of them still alive? Sure fine, he’s the stupid character – but it’s passed the boundaries of suspension of disbelief.
Sookie: She somehow assumes that vampires are just like people, and operate under the same morals, because why? She’s the postergirl for every petulant dumb girl you’ve ever met. Standard soap opera fare: she drives her vamp boyfriend away, then accepts him again when he risks his life for her TALKING OVER HIM as he tries to tell her either a) that he just killed some innocent person to rejuvenate himself or b) that he had to kill/turn/make that stupid biblepire bitch. You never know which with the show’s writers because they go out of their way to make phrases ambiguous and string the reader along. She gets mad at people for really stupid shit too – Sam did tell her she could read his mind – so technically he wasn’t hiding the shapeshifting thing.
Tangent: Her powers are an idiotic plot device – the only occur at random points in the story. When it’s useful for the writers to use I guess. I have to wonder if this was done better in the book. They go to all this trouble building up how hard it is for her to block out people’s thoughts and then, huh? Needs to be used better.
Sam: He’s that lovable nice guy everyone has for a friend, except that he’s in love with your girlfriend and is cool hitting on the moment you have a fight. In a word, he’s a douche. Still, he seemed to be a somewhat honest douche (keeping magical natures a secret is ok, mostly) – until that last episode when they start framing it like he’s a thief. HRUMM. Oh, and he’s in life-long love with Sookie but in “really strong like” with Tara? DOUCHE. And he doesn’t tell Tara whatever is going on. Dooo-shay.
Tara: Speaking of Tara. She’s possibly the best of the bunch. She only does one really stupid thing – she buys into the exorcism stuff (although honestly, in that world there’s no reason why an exorcism wouldn’t work – so even that it somewhat forgivable). They play her as a smart, well-read girl, but then all of a sudden she’s too dumb to know how faith-healing works? KAY. Other than that, the rest I can forgive. Her protectiveness/bitchiness makes sense, the drunken night makes sense – although tramping around in that dress…dunno bout that. Oh wait, she doesn’t catch on to the “too good to be true” thing at the end, that’s kinda dumb too. Especially when dude takes her phone/erases her messages – kay?
Lafayette: I really didn’t like the whole drug dealer aspect of his character (for some reason the prostitution and home-made porn were more tolerable – maybe because they don’t “hurt anyone”….?). It probably would have been fine, except that he pushed what he knew was an addictive and dangerous drug onto a “friend” (?). He knew Jason was a fucking idiot – how could he not? Yet he still gave him a huge dosage of something (how could he not know Jason would misuse it?) – not to mention that he suggested it to him in the first place. That was his moment of huge stupidity – getting Jason involved. He’s also played as a smart guy – then he WOULD KNOW that Jason would fuck everything up.
Vampire dude: I forgot his name. The writers go out of their way to frame his “evilness” (killing and turning the girl – then making her so obnoxious that you want her dead again) as something so out of his control that he’s still a nice guy but still, he doesn’t have the balls to stand up to them. Aren’t there other vampires who want to “mainstream”? Some of them must be high up in the ranks – make some friends bitch. Think ahead of the game. Also, in the bar, he could have just thrown the guy away he didn’t have to stake him. Seriously. The way they shot it anyway. /shrug. Oh, and he starts attacking Sam when Sookie is making out with him when she’s obviously cool with it… knowings she’s a petulant child, he really should have known better. Other random point – he fed on the guy that molested her: wouldn’t that mean her molester is “in” him? Ewwww.
There’s more but I’m tired and just wanted to get started before I forget entirely.
All the characters are “bigger than life” in the sense that they all dumber than the average high school graduate/college dropout. That seems unlikely. Or maybe not – hey southerners, are ya’ll that dumb??
Didn’t think so.
I was also annoyed that the “answers” to the murder just kind of fell at their feet – he finally got to Sookie on his list, and we, the audience, got to partake in some cheesy 80s slasher flic for a bit – except that the non-virgin got away. Wee. Sure, it makes sense, but something just felt off about it.
I’ve heard that this show is a thinly-veiled and overly stereotypical metaphor for the struggles minorities (specifically gays) face in society. Did you get that impression?
I can’t bring myself to watch anything with FAKE ROGUE in it anyway.
It’s not veiled in the least. It was the intention of the book’s writer and, I’m sure, the intention of Alan Ball (the creator of the TV version, who is gay – same guy who did 6 Feet Under).
However, as I mentioned to Jen in a conversation the other night, I think the metaphor is piss-poor because:
Gay people, by nature, DO NOT FUCKING KILL PEOPLE.
I’m still scratching my head trying to find the parallels between:
a group of people that may or may not be born different, but are, as a group, ultimately harmless
and
a group of post-people that, my or may not be “reborn” evil, but are, as a group, killers and eaters of humans.
Sure, religious people hate em both – but they hate a shit-ton of other things too.
Anyway. The whole killer thing ruins the metaphor for me and makes me wonder why a gay dude would think it was such a good idea.
IF the books mythology was set up differently, such that a majority of vampires were actually swell beings, and fed off animals or some junk, and it was only the rogues that went around killing people then, well, then you might have a much better thing going.
Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what I’ve read. Heavy handed, and trying to make parallels that don’t really apply (in a positive way).
I only said “thinly veiled” because it’s hard to believe Alan Ball is so oblivious that he’s doing more harm than good with his metaphors that I couldn’t believe he’s doing it on purpose.