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Spoilers ahead!
It’s finished! Another HBO series has met its true
death, and though I will miss Eric Northman’s cynical charm, Sookie’s
rotisserie of supernatural suitors and Pamela’s caustic wit, I’m glad the
series has come to a close. Having witnessed my beloved ‘Buffy the Vampire
Slayer’ limp towards a lackadaisical seventh season, I was sure True Blood was
on the same path after Vampire Bill’s sudden upgrade to God status. When you
start employing the pinnacle of fantastical hierarchies, there’s nowhere to go
but down. When the sixth season came about, I wasn’t interested. After seeing
Bill – bloody and primal with the Association’s HQ burning in the foreground –
shoot up into the night sky, a God reborn, I promptly closed my browser and
turned on some Anime. Even Japanese cartoons with telepathic teenagers and
giant, talking Mole Rats felt more promising than this season.
Disappointment in series is an emotion I’ve come to
expect. Shows go on for too long. Sunday evening delights like Supernatural,
Angel and Lost decay into desperate-measure solutions when I’m looking for a
quick fix of TV drama. Rehashing plots, and relying on viewer nostalgia and
attachments to keep them there isn’t a ploy I fall for anymore. Even so, with
True Blood I was curious. I was willing to go on a whim after hearing that the
seventh season would be their last.
And was I disappointed? Yes. Could it have been worse?
Undoubtedly.
The sixth season made my teeth hurt, and the
weaknesses in the sixth had severe repercussions in the final season. However,
it must be said that the change of scenery and the human versus vampire throw
down gave some weight to Bill’s new-found messiah status, and provided viewers
with something different to look forward to (although it reminded me too much
of their time in the Association, minus the vampire overlords). The war between
vampires and humans ‘over with’ – that is, with the vampire concentration camp now a thing of the past – it’s back to Bon Temp to deal with diseased vampires and dying
protagonists, courtesy of the Hep. V virus introduced in the previous season.
Now, things start getting a bit haphazard; in part due
to the terrible ‘antagonist’ they've embroidered into the plot… but mainly because
the script writers seem to be winging it, fumbling around for something emotive
and logical to make ends meet. Not that I blame them – after a series goes on
for so long, you run out of refreshing
content. So, what goes wrong?
People die
Normally I’d ‘look forward’ to character deaths. Not
because I’m a sadist, but because character deaths demonstrate how much you’ve
come to care for a series. Game of Thrones has turned it into an art form with
far less screen time. With True Blood it should be easy to squeeze some
compassion out of viewers, and yet, I felt like the series failed in that respect.
Tara. She died. Again. This time for good. In a panic
filled first episode, Tara was killed protecting her estranged mother from a
Hep V vampire heist. That’s it. It’s almost unsettling how quickly they did
away with someone they bothered to revive only two seasons ago. Even the town
seems relatively unperturbed, and though Sookie and Lafayette attribute their
lack of grief to the fact that they already mourned her once, what should have
been a turning-heads moment was pushed under the carpet and forgotten. That is
until they revived her again – this time
in spirit for a rather half-arsed, filler episode, which might have been put in
place to salvage some empathy for Tara since they failed so hard the first time
(or second time?)
Terry. Now that was
death done right. Sure, the parameters were a little shady – he gets killed for
something I can’t even remember, something completely adverse to the main
storyline, but that’s okay. Because he was a father, a loving individual
scarred by war, whose death leaves a wake of pain, shock and disappointment
behind that is palpable throughout the remainder of the season. Tara’s death provoked
nothing. It was just an underdeveloped blip on the radar.
If Alcide was not such a well beloved wolfie, I would
say the same of his character death. I could see it coming a mile away. When
Sookie revealed she did not love Alcide as much as she should, and Bill looked on with loving eyes, I knew these two would have to get together. Consequently,
with only ten episodes to do it, the quickest, most guilt-stricken way for this to happen would be to shoot him in the head. Problem was, I don’t think I was sad for any
other reason than not getting to see Alcide shirtless again on set. He was in
the way of the plot. You can’t set up Sookie for happiness that early on. Get out
of here! It was predictable and hurriedly executed. We’re sad, she’s sad, now
let’s see how many episodes it takes for her and Bill to get together.
And last but not least, Bill, who shocked the world by
choosing death rather than a cure for his Hep. V troubles. With a handful of episodes donated to
exploring Bill’s memories as a human, I can’t say that I’m surprised. Nevertheless,
I am happy they tried to fill the empathy meter before the true death. Flashbacks,
caring moments between him and Jessica, him and Sookie. The noble nature of his
death… well done, True Blood. You got it right, and not a moment too soon. Having
Sookie accept her gifts as a Fairy while still maintaining that she kills Bill
herself was a nice touch, and as she walks stiffly from the cemetery and into a
year-later panel, you can tell her worries are finally over. Kids, family and
friends… sunlight. All’s well that ends well.
Overall, the finale was clunky. Threads of emotion
were drawn from killing off characters, and the story met an end with none of the
most beloved Bon Tempians dying (Pam, Eric and Lafayette). Sarah Newlin, the
scatterbrained antagonist managed to survive her ordeal (although I think she
should have been killed off earlier in the series rather than making her
existence such a focal point in the story). Hoyt or 'Bubba' as he is affectionately dubbed by Jason Stackhouse, makes an abrupt return - most likely because Jessica has run out of possible lovers to turn to - and rekindles his relationship with his hometown, bringing with him Jason's future love, so post-Bill's death Bon Temps is filled with spoken-for, happy couples. How considerate of him. Like I said, it could have been
worse, but compared to the gritty and compelling storylines True Blood once
commanded, the season felt tepid and rushed; desperate, as it were, to finish
before dug itself into a deeper hole.
Was Bill’s death enough to salvage this finale? I’m
undecided. What I do know was that Alan Ball might have saved the show with
this clip:
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