True Blood News - Season 4 news and spoilers

This is essential to S4 why?

XFinity asked Alan Ball which episodes are worth going back and checking out before season 4 begins. He gave them a list of nine and the reasons why the episodes are integral. He said, “It’s tough because so much has happened before, and I also have this season and parts of next season in my head too”

So without further ado, here are Alan Ball’s most essential True Blood episodes for us to watch in preparation for S4:

Season 1, Episode 2
“This is the first time Sookie (Anna Paquin) drank Bill’s (Stephen Moyer) blood, and the first time they kissed.”

Season 1, Episode 5
“This has the Civil War flashback and told how Bill was made. Also, it’s where Gran was found dead.”

Season 2, Episode 4
“In this episode, Maryann (Michelle Forbes) threw Tara a (Rutina Wesley) birthday party and you finally got a sense of what she was up to.” Read More »

Over at HBO’s Inside True Blood blog, Gianna Sobol explains a bit about a meeting that happens before production starts on an episode of True Blood. She writes about the meeting:

THE MEETING: The Tone Meeting

WHERE IT TAKES PLACE: Alan’s office

WHO ATTENDS: Alan Ball, Executive Producer Gregg Fienberg, the writer of each episode, the first Assistant Director, and the cinematographer

WHAT IT’S ABOUT (according to writer/producer Alexander Woo): The tone meeting is the first opportunity for the director to sit with Alan, Gregg, and the writer and talk about the episode scene by scene.  For new directors to our show, it’s an especially valuable time to clarify any issues about story, style, or tone.   If it’s Michael Lehmann, it’s his first chance during the episode to make puns before a captive audience.

Michael Lehmann, a punny guy?

Interesting eh? But as I was reading this, one line struck out at me… yeah, you’re right, it’s the one about director Michael Lehmann and the puns. The dude must be famous for these and I was wondering if any appeared in the True Blood episodes that he directed. Below are the episodes directed by Mr. Lehmann. Does anyone remember if there were any puns* that made it into the episodes?

• Escape From Dragon House 1:04 – We learn from Vampire Bill that vampires love puns, Fangtasia!
• The Fourth Man in the Fire 1:07
• Keep This Party Going 2:02
• Shake and Fingerpop 2:04
• Hard-Hearted Hannah 2: 06
• It Hurts Me Too 3:03
• I Got A Right to Sing The Blues 3:06
• I Small A Rat 3:10

*Wait, what exactly is a pun? From Webster: “The humorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications; a play on words.”

I know this can be considered “old news” but if you are like me, you like any news about True Blood that you can get. Life Story magazine put out an issue mostly about Twilight, but there are 6 pages of an episode guide to Season 2, complete with comments by Alan Ball.

Alan Ball’s comments about episode 209: “I Will Rise Up”. “My favorite episode of [the] season. I love the whole story between Eric and Godric, and Sookie gets to see Eric’s human side. Then there’s the whole choice by Godric to move on; his attitude of, ‘I’m done and I want to embrace whatever is going to happen to me now, even if it means oblivion, even if it means the end.’ That last sequence was tough to shoot, because we shot part of it on a building rooftop in Los Angeles – where we basically had 20 minutes to get it because of the light – and then we shot part of it on a stage with green screen, then we went to Dallas and shot background plates so that you would have recognizable landmarks. Then there were all the special effects technology questions of how we were going to have Godric go up in flames. So it was tough, but I thought it paid off.”

Click the pictures below to view each page.

L.A. Times photos by Tom O'Neil

Alexander Skarsgård did just participate in an Emmy Round-table, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that HBO is looking ahead and thinking ’bout the gold.

So how does all this work? HBO shipped 14,000 campaign boxes to members of the TV academy. The boxes contain various samples of the programs HBO thinks should be considered. For a full listing, click here. For True Blood, two episodes were included, “Shake and Fingerpop” and “I Will Rise Up.”

Just as a quick refresher, “Shake and Fingerpop is 2.4, written by Alan Ball. It opened with Jason at FotS camp and the fake-out death scene, and included Bill threatening to throw Hoyt out of a window that’s closed, the one Maryann orgy that played well on-screen, the hilarious Sarah Newlin bbq stripper-tease, Sookie’s “booze for dolls” line, Eric heals Lafayette before flying to Dallas and having a lovely chat with Bill in the bar, and Sookie meets Barry. “I Will Rise Up,” which was nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award, opens with Lorena’s “I wish you hadn’t said that” as she runs off (I think that might come back to bite), and then Luke blowing up the Dallas nest. Eric takes the opportunity to get Sookie to suck his bullets, which results in a sexy yet also disturbed  dream featuring both Eric and Lorena. Back in Bon Temps, the jail is bursting at the seams with Maryann’s revelers, and Sam escapes Maryann’s wrath by turning into a fly. Jessica meets Hoyt’s mother, which is mostly a disaster, and Lafayette and Lettie Mae wrestle Tara from Maryann (literally). And the episode ends with Godric being reprimanded by the American Vampire League, and the scene on the roof between him and Eric, and finally Godric and Sookie.

What I would like to know is who picks the episodes because they didn’t ask me. Like Terry Bellefluer, no one ever asks me, but they should.

Good luck, HBO and True Blood!

Booze for Dolls

This week on True Blood, someone put too much white paint on Bill (for shame, Makeup!), Lafayette is not gay for Eric, but finds him delicious, Jason continues to be brainwashed by smiley, terrifying church folk and some zombie orgy-goers have a food fight in Sookie’s house.

Welcome to citizenerased’s weekly roundup of the various goings on in our favourite alternative universe. If you’re expecting a serious, objective discussion of events exciting in Bon Temps (and now Dallas), then my apologies in advance.

This week’s awesome episode was brought to you by the acid wit of Alan Ball, who wrote the script, and it shows. It was the most funny ass show so far this season, and skipped along at a dizzying pace, setting up future events nicely without giving too much away. We opened with a charming bunch of Fellowship of the Sun jocks playing a prank on Jason with ketchup, which kind of backfired when he gave them a rousing anti-vampire speech (nicked from everything the scary Newlin’s had just spouted forth at their cosy dinner together). Jason continues to be so unbelievably stupid it’s almost, but not quite, endearing.

Sweet talking at the stairs

Then we switch to outraged and fangy Daddy Compton snarling at poor, sweet Hoyt, and egads! They give Bill something funny to say, and it continues throughout the show. Enjoy it as he’ll be back to being miserable soon enough. That man got crazy women trouble plus Eric on his back; he’s supposed to be tortured. Hoyt leaves, Jessica storms upstairs hiding her fangs, and more astonishment, Bill and Sookie have a nice, grown up talk on the stairs without any shouting! I could get used to this.

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