Today's Column: True Blood has died the True Death

Overdue by a few days (by no fault of mine, I upheld my deadline as always), but here's my latest online column:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/157062/column_de_ware_dood_van_true_blood

Boy, am I glad that is over and done with. And not because it was so dismally bad as some would have you believe, though the finale did leave a lot to be desired. But so did the rest of the season, so at least there is some inner consistency. There's a lot to be said against this last season in terms of story, but there were still several plot lines and especially characters I continued to enjoy and appreciate. And in that case, True Blood at least can boast a genuine ending, unlike most other shows that suffer increasing deteriorating ratings and heavy fan critique. The greatest thing about this finale is that it does indeed feel quite final and the show was permitted a decent send-off in that regard, rather than face cancellation and leave us all in the dark as happened to so many shows (and a lot of them deserved better). We can now all close the Sookie Stackhouse chapter of our lives peacefully, as to my mind any show should be ended. Of course, there were a few story threads that didn't feel wholly resolved and more of those that I felt should have been handled entirely different, but there's few shows that even get to this point without screwing a thing or two up. Only two recent examples of shows that were granted a final farewell sprung to mind, Breaking Bad and Spartacus. Admittedly, both of those ended on a superior note, but they were much more coherent in their quality throughout their run, while True Blood from the get-go tended to meander between well executed plot threads and those less so, featuring both wonderfully charismatic characters and their barely watchable counterparts. We'll have to make do without both, from now on. No more Maenad orgies, conniving witch covens and endless droning about who Sookie will jump into bed with this time, but also no more shrewd vampire politics, stupendously supernatural situations and Eric Northman. Not every blood type variety of Tru-Blood proved as delectable, but I still regret having to return to strictly human beverages again after seven years.

Today's Trailer: True Blood, the final season

Posted this interesting bit of advertising on MS yesterday:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155784/trailer_laatste_seizoen_true_blood_

Looks like True Blood means to go out with a bang. As it should. I know the show has seen its ups and downs, but even among all the silly Maenad blood orgies and wacky worshipping witches there was always enough left to keep you enticed. I've yet to see Season 6, so I don't know whether it too features dramatic qualitative deterioration or whether it keeps the momentum and strength of Season 5 going, but I'd like to think the odd numbered seasons provide the better fare, and hopefully Season 7 continues that trend and carries it to a formidable finale that once and for all defines the series as a true quality show beyond contestation. As for the trailer, it looks promising, showcasing that all our favorite characters are back - some of them we haven't seen for a while, and others we could have lived without for a while longer - for one final supernatural showdown, before we'll have to do without them forever. I bet there will be a fair amount of casualties among them, as the writers don't necessarily have to keep them alive for more any longer. Whoever gets fanged up, it better not be Eric, since I'm still hoping for his own spin-off show. Or maybe the end of True Blood would be a decent time to start watching Vikings then.

Today's News: Paquin gone rogue

A little flash of news from mine own hand today:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152605/anna_paquin_uit_x-men_days_of_future_past_geknipt

I'm not surprised at this occurrence: considering the vast number of returning characters, not to mention a bunch of new ones, there were bound to be a few left in the cold. Apparently Rogue was only in this one single action scene, so it appears there was little substance to her character anyway. If it helps the pace and flow of the movie, sacrifices have to be made. 'Kill your darlings' is a well established editorial practice, and many a film has fallen prey to scenes featuring fan favorites being chopped out. Compare The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for example, where everyone's preferred evil wizard Saruman was excised, despite being played by the formidable Christopher Lee (blasphemy says I!). At least that movie had an extended cut upcoming, which I doubt will be the case for Days of Future Past. At least Bryan Singer assures us we'll see the scene on the home cinema release regardless, albeit not reintegrated in the movie proper. It is always a hard thing for actors to swallow when they hear they haven't made it into the final film - the Saruman incident for instance resulted in a brief falling-out between Lee and Peter Jackson - but apparently Paquin is enough of a professional to be cool with it, even though it means she did the whole Comic-Con press thing last summer for nothing. That is, Singer tells us she agrees with the decision: we have not had confirmation of her own opinion yet, so maybe it's just a marketing tactic to assure us that despite the change everything has been resolved amicably. Something which I am inclined to believe, considering the director and actress have worked before twice, so they're probably dear friends as these things go. And as for the fanboys, get over it: there's still plenty of mutants around in Days of Future Past to make for an X-travaganza like nothing seen before. Unless Singer goes all Sentinel and terminates a few more to make the movie run more smoothly. It's Marvel, anything can happen.

Today's News: all blood things must come to an end

Suck on this, fanger!:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/149798/true_blood_stopt_in_2014

It's not like we didn't see this coming. The moment a showrunner quits, you know the end is near. Alan Ball quit after True Blood's fifth season, and season 6 apparently suffered for it. I have yet to see that part of the show so I can't agree or disagree on its quality (nor can I say whether it was "bad" enough to justify ending the show), but the ratings spiralling downwards are an undeniable fact. The show followed a quality pattern as it was, where the odd number seasons were great and the even number seasons proved disappointing (but still watchable) by comparison. Hopefully the last season, number seven, will continue this trend and end the show on a grand note, worthwhile of what passed before. It's commendable HBO has decided to give True Blood a decent farewell run at all instead of just pulling the plug entirely and leaving us with many a cliffhanger to speculate over for all eternity. Imagine how frustrating that must be for someone who's among the living dead!

Oh well, we sure had some 'good times' with this show. Fortunately, we still have some more of  Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones to look forward to on HBO. Plus, the money for its new Westworld show had to come from somewhere...

Farewell Sookie Stackhouse. And goodbye viking/entrepeneur vampire who always stole the show...