Monday, July 01, 2013

My Review of True Blood's 6x03: "You're No Good"


Written by Mark Hudis
Directed by Howard Deutch

Sarah: “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter. I’m in politics now.”
Steve: “Seriously?”

I think in terms of revelations Sarah Newlin being in politics isn’t that much of a stretch and this episode was a nice reminder how much fun she can actually be as well as a character too. The glamorous look for the former wife of Steve certainly seems to suit her new vocation in life and the current situation he’s in was a nice display of role reversal here too.

Steve really has no-one in his corner, does he? The main vampires of the series hate him and the humans are probably glad to have a high profile figure to experiment on and get information out of, so in a bizarre way I actually feel a little bad for Steve but just a little though. However I certainly don’t blame him ratting on Eric in order to avoid being tortured either but I’m also hoping that he’s not a goner just yet though.

It’s nice to see that the human threat actually does more than the Authority did last season. Here, they dragged in a bound and gagged Steve and got him to squeal while at the same time upping their laws against vampires, spreading more dissent and even tracking Eric when he took a captive Willa Burrell to Ginger’s place.

Now getting to the Eric side of things here. I notice with him there’s an alarming double standard within fandom. Throughout this episode Eric threatened to kill and have his way with Willa and yet certain segments of fandom acted like it was the hottest thing ever. Of course this would be the same segment of fandom that would’ve gone apeshit if it had been Bill holding Willa prisoner and threatening all kinds of violence on her. It’s stuff like this that does make me a little worried about this show’s fan base in general.

This however isn’t an Eric bashing review and I do get the impression that he probably has no actual intention of hurting Willa given that he neither bit her nor allowed her to ingest any of his blood but at the same time, Willa turning out to be a vampire sympathiser did seem a tad predictable, didn’t it?

I’m not really sure if I totally believe that Willa is for the vampires but I definitely believe she’s got a strained relationship with her father. The same father in this episode who seemed less concerned for his daughter’s safety and more fixated on just capturing Eric. The funny thing was that it was Tara who ended up defying both Pam and Eric and taking Willa away to safety.

I like that Tara’s compassion for humanity hasn’t disappeared even her feelings for Pam have intensified a little more here. Tara was probably the only person who was being sensible about what the gang should do with Willa and I actually don’t blame her for taking matters into her own hands as well. Maybe Eric and Pam should actually listen to Tara instead of being so impulsive with Burrell and company too.

Keeping with the vampires – not sure how to feel about Bill in this one. It was kind of funny that he nearly roasted alive when he thought he could walk in the sun but his scenes with Sookie stirred some mixed feelings for me. On one hand he behaved like a royal asshole when he wanted to synthesise her blood to save everyone but on the other hand, he did actually back away when Sookie made it clear that she wasn’t going to help him this time.

Of course it seems now though that the solution to Bill’s problems comes in the form of Andy’s ever growing daughters. I won’t be sad to see them go to be honest (and I’m not condoning Bill’s future actions here) but you think Andy would’ve kept his mouth shut instead of blabbing about his new parental role, wouldn’t you? Especially when Bill himself really does have a whole new set of handy tricks as demonstrated by his altercation with Sookie and Jason in this episode.

Last but not least – can we please meet Warlow already? Unless we already have and it’s Ben who seemed more suspicious with his interactions with Niall and Sookie in this episode but if Ben isn’t Warlow, can we just please meet him already? I want to get a good look at the guy now and see what really does set him apart from all other vampires we’ve had on the show at the moment.

Also in “You’re No Good”

Anna Camp has been added to the credits again, so I guess Sarah will be sticking around for a bit. Not surprised that she was damning of Steve in her book as well.

Jason (re Warlow): “Did I get him?”
Niall: “No, hotshot, you didn’t get him.”
Jason: “Did you get him?”
Sookie: “No, sweetie. The king of fairies did not get him either.”

I guess with Niall and Ben, we had to lose all of the fairies and that club from last season but Claude deserved a better exit than this one.

Scientist: “Ungag him will you? I’m curious to hear what he has to say.”
Steve: “Do you even know who I am? I’m the spokesvampire for the AVL. If you don’t release me, you’re gonna have vampires crawling up your asses.”
Scientist: “On second thoughts, let’s keep him gagged, shall we?”

Eric: “The world is changing Pam and we have to change with it.”

The werewolf plot continues to be dull with Rikki being a bitch to Emma (who Sam manages to get back), Alcide being an inept leader and the Vampire Unity Society getting slaughtered by the pack, though Nicole managed to escape.

Kevin (to Andy): “It’s called glamouring. My dry cleaner’s a vampire. She likes to talk.”

Willa (to Eric): “To answer you question, I do like vampires very much.”

Burrell’s wife cheated on him with a vampire, Jessica went after the scientist who came up with the synthesised blood, Andy gave Holly some shooting lessons and Jason kept getting bad headaches in this one. At least he addressed his extreme behaviour in this one though.

Sarah: “Oh, that’s good, you’re funny as a vampire. You were never funny as a human being.”
Steve: “We had some good times.”
Sookie: “How are you doing this?”
Bill: “I play by a different set of rules now, Sookie.”

Standout music: The Plasticines “You’re No Good”.

Bill: “You’re dead to me, Sookie Stackhouse.”
Sookie: “I’m good with that.”

Chronology: From where “The Sun” left off.

Three episodes in and it’s brilliant to see how much of an improvement this season has become. “You’re No Good” may not have given us a direct reveal of Warlow (and both Lafayette and Nora were underused) but it’s definitely the best we’ve had this season.

Rating: 9 out of 10

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