Episode Commentary: “Me and the Devilâ€
If you thought there wasn’t enough tension between Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton this season, that’s all about to change. The ending of this past episode of “True Blood†has finally laid the foundation for the love triangle everyone wants to see with Eric Northman. With Compton now aware that Sookie has been hiding Eric for so long, the drama is about to pick up. That, combined with the smaller storylines beginning to unfold more, “True Blood†continues to entertain.
However, the show isn’t without its problems. The storylines involving Tommy, Sam and Marnie are still entirely too slow to develop. Whenever they are on-screen, the pace of the show drops significantly. While Marnie’s role is still being defined and viewers are intrigued by any developments involving her character, Sam and Tommy’s roles on the show are completely up in the air. The fact that it doesn’t appear that these characters are headed anywhere interesting doesn’t help the precious minutes the show dedicates to them every week either.
Add in a few new characters and Lafayette’s travels with Jesus and it’s becoming clearly obvious that there’s too much going on at any one given time. For this show to continue to entertain the way it should, it needs to devote more time to fewer angles and clearly define them, rather than jump around the way they have been this season.
Other minor plotlines involving Arlene, Terry, Hoyt and Jason are interesting, but too need something to set them apart from everything else going on in Bon Temps. The idea that Rene’s baby is somewhat possessed is a perfect hit for the series; the same thing goes for Jason’s situation with the panthers. More than anything however, they are teased every week, when they quite possibly have the ability of being fantastic secondary storylines.
As the case with any show such as this, the writers have a tough job of what storylines to develop over the course of every episode. While the choices the creative team has made this season aren’t perfect, the show continues to induce sighs every time it changes focus from Sookie and Eric.
Because of this, perhaps it is time the smaller storylines are developed to the point where viewers can enjoy them as much as the main arc. This may work in True Blood’s benefit in the long run, as the exploits of Bill, Sookie and Eric can be teased for a few weeks while the other stories get up to speed.
Regardless of this however, with its primary storyline beginning to unfold, “True Blood†is at its most entertaining point of the season thus far.
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