True Blood: Season Four (1 Viewer)

[MarkMel]

Jason will be a new mystical creature the vampanther!

 

[mattCR]

Some get all huffy when we mention that it's a warped view of the book. But there is a reason for that. The stuff from the book is actually pulpy television worthy scripting that's pretty fun and well done. The show stumbles with subplots that aren't in any of the books because they have no real direction. Sam's family? Nowhere in the books like this. Tara's long storylines? Ditto.


The problem isn't that everyone is a book purist, it's just that the show seems to go off the rails most when the scripting is less like the books. The stuff from the books has at least a coherent storyline. The other stuff doesn't.


Then again the more I watch this show, the more I realize there is only one Vampire book series I really wish was a movie or a series of sorts.. and that would be anything by Christopher Moore.

 

[Malcolm R]

Wonder what effect the vamp blood will have on Jason/Panther.

It should be just a slight variation of the Weres that are on V. They're all just different forms of shifters. I just have never understood why producers/studios buy the option to adapt a book, just to make such drastic changes? If you want to write original stories, write an original script. Why do you need to option, then disregard, someone else's work just to tell your own stories? Though I admit I've enjoyed the first 2 1/2 seasons of True Blood that I've seen so far, it sounds like Season Four has gone completely off the rails.

 

[TravisR]

I just have never understood why producers/studios buy the option to adapt a book, just to make such drastic changes? If you want to write original stories, write an original script. Why do you need to option, then disregard, someone else's work just to tell your own stories?

Speaking generally, being loose with an adaptation does give you the freedom to pick and choose what you want to take from the books and it also allows you to add what you want. In a creative sense, that seems like it would be more appealing than slavishly adapting a book.

 

[mattCR]

Well...


Part of this is way, way off the rails. In the books, book 4 marked our understanding that there are a lot of vampire "territories" and "realms" and kingships/queenships; Louisiana looses a queen, and is taken over by Las Vegas Vampires.. anyway, Bill is just a geek of sorts; so henever becomes king. Eric DOES get his memory wiped in the book, and he goes to live with Sookie (it's not his house, she invites him in) and she hides him from the Las Vegas vampires who want to kill him. They fall in love, and that sets up all the books that follow in a lot of ways.




Because a lot of the basic things have changed, there are some real structural problems with this season. I don't know how they "right the ship". It's not that you can't change a book, as some have mentioned, it's that if you're going to do it, it better be a different take on it with some author involvement or it should be for dramatic reasoning (ie, I don't mind Bill's sire, which isn't in the book.. but I do mind the long Tara plot etc. which is nowhere in the books)

 

[Steve_Tk]

Guess I"m done with this thread also. The book readers have hijacked the thread the same as game of thrones. We get it, it's different than the books and you don't like it.

 

[mattCR]

I didn't mean to run you out of thisthread or turn it into a book thread. My apologies. I think the problem with anything based on a very well liked book series, whether it's Harry Potter or Game of Thrones or this is that a ton of people have read the books. I don't know how to avoid that.


I think the bigger problem is that the elements of the books that have been changed don't work even to non-book readers. Steve, if you're steadfast in the camp that the Tara storyline is great stuff, then you would be one of the few I think

 

[TravisR]

if you're steadfast in the camp that the Tara storyline is great stuff, then you would be one of the few I think

I like the Tara character since she's amusingly angry and it's probably Rutina Wesley's performance that makes her likable to me but the character/actor does keeps getting the short end of the stick in terms of story.

 

[Steve_Tk]

I've said in my earlier post that I wished the Tara character was eaten by something and done away with . However, her storyline this year is more tolerable and provides some amusement.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Steve_Tk . However, her storyline this year is more tolerable and provides some amusement.

I think we can discuss the series, I'm sorry I didn't mean to feel as though this was hijacked. Really, harris's books are pretty pulpy, and I will give on changing can benefit.. I just wish the changes actually were beneficial

The Tara storyline, The Sam storyline and some other changes have been really to the harm of hte show though because wow they suck. It is limited this year, but it's not necessarily good. She's a real one-note character this season.. she's just on screen less.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I'm not getting the change in direction with the Bill character, I am not getting his motivation for all his actions this year, why he would even want to be King, and why he has such a hard on to kill Eric. Someone fill me in.

 

[TravisR]

I'm not getting the change in direction with the Bill character, I am not getting his motivation for all his actions this year, why he would even want to be King, and why he has such a hard on to kill Eric. Someone fill me in.

Outside of it being cool to have power, I have no idea why he'd want to be king either. Despite what Pam says, I don't think Bill is trying to get Eric killed. Bill wanted the witches to stop trying to control the dead so he sent a powerful guy like Eric to get them to stop. I don't think Bill had any idea that they were powerful enough to mess with Eric. All that being said, I don't think that Bill would be particualrly bothered if Eric did die (especially since it would be one less person who knew that Sookie was a fairy).

 

[Steve_Tk]

I think some motivations to kill him will be revealed next week. I also think he sent Eric to deal with the problem because he likes bossing him around.

 

[Spero D]

I am finding the whole witch thing this season not that compelling. Oh and- I want to go to Jason's happy place too!

 

[TravisR]

The look on Tommy/Sam's face when that hot shape shifter lady took off her top was hilarious.

 

[Steve_Tk]

I'm more interested in the Witch story line now.

 

[Malcolm R]

I'm not getting the change in direction with the Bill character, I am not getting his motivation for all his actions this year, why he would even want to be King, and why he has such a hard on to kill Eric. Someone fill me in.

I guess they have to write something for him to do since Stephen Moyer is the second-billed lead. After Book 3, Bill becomes a relatively minor character while the Sookie/Eric relationship drives the main plot.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I have'nt read the books but eric and sookie definitely have more chemistry than sookie and bill

 

[Spero D]

JESSICA!!!!

 

[JonZ]

That would suck as shes my favorite character. I would look at it as a cheat if she were to die... Jason and a guard were right there.


The show has shown that older vamps burn much faster than newer ones, who can linger awhile.