True Blood: In the Evening

"Well, this is a first- waking up with a man in broad daylight."

The vampires we know are to be told about the Hep V, courtesy of Eric, but no one else, which is nice. Meanwhile, Bill refuses to save Nora as it goes against her dying wish; this doesn't exactly please Eric. And Sarah plans to officially cover up Truman's death and take charge.

There's a sense of the endgame being in sight from all this, in this shorter season of ten episodes, with most vampires conveniently located in the heart of the beast and the Nazi metaphor quietly betrayed in spite of the many Dr. Mengeles. It's a nice touch that the senator helping Sarah is doing so to hide the fact that he, a social conservative, is in fact gay; indeed, he was fucking Lafayette a few seasons ago.

Sookie is a good friend to the devastated Arlene. But at least, it seems, Arlene won't be poor, with Terry's life insurance to be paid out. Jessica finds James, warns him and (of course) fucks him. Butcher end with Bill telling all to Sookie and demanding Warlow, whose blood he needs to save the day. Bill as a character is simply not at all played or written to be likeable at this point, an interesting choice.

Another good episode. Perhaps the second half of the season will after all redeem it?

True Blood: Don't You Feel Me

"I'm gonna need you to tie me up..."

Predictably it's Warlow who saves Sookie, and Lafayette is himself again. Warlow is now in her good books and she's utterly disgusted, unsurprisingly, with her father.

Jason joins the anti-vampire Gestapo undercover in an attempt to rescue Jessica, and impresses people; he may be dim, but he's loyal and has skills, bless him. Sookie and Warlow get closer and closer, with hints of kinkiness in his vampire side. And Andy gets so close to his surviving daughter that he gives her a name: Adilyn. Number Four just won't cut it now.

Lafayette lets Arlene know the rather blatant fact that Terry is suicidal. They attempt to change his feelings by means of Lafayette's powers, but unfortunatwly this makes her m forget the danger he's in. He dies in Arlene's arms, and it's shocking and horrible. 

This dominates the episode. Other things happen- Sam vs Alcide, the revelation that Warlow want to turn Sookie and marry her, Jason and Sarah confronting each other- but this one, awful event hangs over everything.

A vampire called James turns out to be a gentleman, not raping Jessica as ordered in spite of both his torture and her low self-esteem. Oh, and Bill unexpectedly walk up to Truman and beheads him. Nice. Rather more upsetting is the death of Nora in Eric's arms; there's a lot of death in this episode.

We end with the revelation that Sarah (now clearly on charge) means to manufacture new Tru Blood spiked with Hepatitis V: genocide. And Sookie is, er, getting in rather well with Warlow. An unexpectedly gripping and emotional episode.

True Blood: The Sun

"I was testing you and you failed miserably!"

Something comes through a portal- can it be Warlow? Meanwhile, Jason gets a bollocking from his fairy grandfather and it becomes abundantly clear that humans now have the resources and weaponry to fight back against vampires. Bill can feel vampires being tortured right now in Louisiana, a place where they have no rights and, no doubt, a Kristalnacht is coming.

Sookie meets Ben, a mysterious injured fairy, while Sam meets Nicole, a civil rights activist who knows he's a shifter and wants to fight for the civil rights of "sipes"- an opposite reaction to the new governor. Predictable.

Bill's Lilith-inspired powers provide us with a lot of spectacle, while Andy's kids continue to get older and Niall investigates the portal Warlow may have used.

We get an interesting set piece between Eric and Governor Truman Burrell in which the battle lines are drawn and we learn that the tyrant has an Achilles heel, a daughter, Willa, whose name sounds a bit like "Wilhelmina" and whom Eric later seduces through the window, Dracula-like.

Niall gives another info dump to Jason and Sookie: the Stackhouses are vampire royalty and Warlow is obsessed with them. Niall is a King. Warlow murdered his family; John was his son. Even cooler is that Sookie has a kind of supernova power that can kill vampires- but she immediately stops being fae if she uses it.

Alcide and Sam are also clashing about custody of Emma after Luna's demise, and Jessica has a beautifully shot moment of religious angst. But we end with Bill having a vision of all our favourite vampires about to die by sunlight in an obvious analogy for a gas chamber.

This episode is better but still awkward, and the crudeness of the Nazi metaphor is getting more and more jarring.

True Blood: Sunset

"Kind of strange to hear you were sold to a vampire 300 years ago..."

Much of this penultimate episode consists of Lilith appearing to Bill and various other chancellors, tempting them to drink her blood and... then what?

Bill, it seems, no longer cares about Sookie, Jason or indeed any humans; the exist only as food. Jessica is tested to

see if she agrees, being sent to sire Jason, something which we instantly know she isn't going to actually do. And we get more exposition about the scroll, and Sookie having been promised to a vampire called Warlow. 

Incidentally, "Stackhouse" isn't a very Gallic name. Could there have been Stackhouses in the Louisiana of the Sun King himself back in 1702?

The increasingly deranged Sanguinista council declare ware against the USA by killing a general, not something that can be reset easily; this will have permanent consequences. Roman's dire predictions of the consequences of not mainstreaming may well come true. 

On a much nicer note, Pam decides to sacrifice her life for Tara and take the blame for the killing of the nasty new sheriff of Area 51. She may not always show it, being grumpy old Pam, but her character arc to becoming a loving mother is now complete. Aaaah.

We end with the dairy club in dire peril as Russell Edgington approaches. An eventful and exciting episodes but I wonder, yet again, if this may be concealing the possibility that the series may be past its peak and over-reliant on its own mythology.

True Blood: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

"Whatever happens we keep our heads down, our tits up and the True Blood flowing!"

We get an overdue and, in the end, satisfying resolution to Terry's Iraqi Ifrit subplot and, as a bonus, we get a resolution to the anti-Supes KKK plotline with a genuinely surprising revelation; former sheriff Bud, while very much under his fanatical girlfriend's thumb, is secretly the "Dragon" in charge. It's a well-executed and entertaining end to the subplot, with Andy and Jason shown to actually be capable of good police work, and a clear message that the baleful influence of such racist terrorist organisations persists in the Deep South and beyond.

Otherwise, though, there's a slight sense of going through the motions. Yes, Pam is awesome, but the scenes of Bill embracing his role as senior baddie and thinking of Sookie while shagging Salome simply don't have much traction; the character has become boring and the ambiguous Eric is far more interesting. 

It's amusing to see Edgington and Steve Newlin as delightfully homicidal lovers, taking Emma as their unfortunate "pet" and generally being gleefully evil together. We meet Alcide's disgraced dad, who bears an awfully close resemblance to the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. But, worryingly close to the end of the season, I'm feeling an unexpected lack of enthusiasm. Can things improve?

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

"Deep penetration!"

What? It's just a line in the film. What?

I loved this film when I saw it first at the Cannon Cinema in Hinckley, Leicestetshire at the tender age of fourteen, and watched it many times during the course of the '90s. It has a real nostalgic power for me. And yet. X it's still a good film. Very good even. And yet... it's dated a little, hasn't it?

At the time the special effects were amaaaazing. They were what made the film look awesome. Looking at the T-1000 twenty-five years later, though, and it's just... early CGI. And without the wow factor of the special effects the film stands revealed. It isn't really a suspense thriller like The Terminator; it's more a straight-up action film, a film pretty much made up of a series of set-pieces bolted together. It works, don't get me wrong, but the first film was better.

It still works well as an action film, though, and the many set pieces that make up the film are extremely well made. It's even sweet to see Arnie's T-100 as a surrogate father to John. It's interesting, too, that this very testosterone heavy action film gets a fair bit of narration from Sarah Connor, both part of the narrative and it's chorus. This a female predictive gets done degree of apparent control over the narrative. I also like the visual parallels to the first film at the beginning and end. We even get a bit of social commentary on sexual abuse in mental institutions.

Not as interesting as its predecessor, then, and it's dated a bit, but it still needs to be watched every now and again because nostalgia. Always worth a revisit.