Starting June 16th, the next great gratifyingly guts and love HBO show will be up and running with ten episodes pleasantly filled with Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Alcide Herveoux (Joe Manganiello); while the show has a normal run of twelve episodes a season, it’s been shortened to a soul-crushing ten due to Anna Paquin’s pregnancy.
As a little recap, season five ended with Eric yelling, “Sookie, Run!” after the creation of Billith, the lovable Bill turned into a religious vampire fundamentalist who drinks the ancient blood of Lillith and becomes an evil liturgical nightmare.
 |
| Artwork of Lillith |
As a feminist, I find it fascinating that Lillith was chosen as the starting point for the vampire religion. In the original legend of Lillith, she was created before Eve to be Adam’s wife, but she refused to be Adam’s “slave” and so rebelled against god, left the Garden of Eden and then slept with Satan. She gave birth to many children by Satan, but when god demanded she give them to him she refused. Therefore, like so many female mythic figures (and modern day ones) she has been cast as either a demonic prostitute or as a great mother figure who protects children, more commonly known as the angel on the hearth.
True Blood is a show that has consistently dealt with some of the more mythological and pagan representations of women: Holly (Lauren Bowles) as a good witch; Marnie (Fiona Shaw) and Antonia in season four as the sometimes bad, sometimes good witches; Maryann (Michelle Forbes), as the evil ancient maenad in season two; and a whole host of good, bad and flighty fairies throughout the entire show.
Of course on the surface, True Blood gets a reputation as a vampire romance with lots and lots of sex; however, the show in general has powerful themes: religious fundamentalism, terrorism, racism, homosexuality, and even PTSD. Todd Lowe and his gentle search for earthly normalcy provided a great counterpoint to the search for supernatural artifacts or dominion of the other characters. Also, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is one of the most interesting homosexual characters on television; Ellis plays the role with a physical masculinity but with a more feminine wardrobe and a flamboyant sexuality. For me, Ellis’ masterful acting as a playful joining of genders and stereotypes is able to move away from a trite rehashing of more mainstream representations of homosexuality. (Note: The following clip, while representative of Ellis’ fine powers of gender melding, also contains explicit language. NSFW.)
We also have to recognize the incredibly kick ass soundtracks that the producers bang out over every season: Beyond the bland mixes of generic pop music of most shows, True Blood features punk rock, country, folk music, fabulous jazz and sleazy hip hop in a brilliant mashup. It also has in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, opening sequences of any tv show.
The cast of True Blood
So, on to season six: what can we expect? Spoilers and rumors to follow.
Sookie and Jason: Looks like Sookie and Jason are on the trail for Warlow (Rutger Hauer), the mysterious vampire who killed their parents and to whom Sookie was apparently promised. Sookie also looks like she’s coming in to her own and letting someone (Bill? Eric?) know she doesn’t belong to anyone and that she’s getting sick of the way her life is going.
Eric and Sookie: Eric and Sookie look like they’re getting it on in a few scenes and beyond that, Eric looks sweet, and sexy and amazing. Perhaps this season we’ll get to see him in the heroes’ role as he realizes the best parts of himself? Also, apparently Nora isn’t just his sister? Supposedly, there’s a little bit more of a secret there than we originally thought. Bigger than all of that though, is the rumor that Eric might meet the true death in this season, which if that happens, would entirely change the course of the show.
On a side note however, the show has received some criticism for its unwillingness to kill off major characters, so while I think that Eric dying is a low possibility, (though Skarsgard’s career has been gaining recently; he might want to move on to other projects) perhaps that’s why the show might be ready to take the plunge of major character death? Also, consider this season’s tagline “No one lives forever.”
 |
| True Blood Season 6 and tagline |
Pam and Tara: Pam and Tara will continue their relationship and the two definitely seem to be going it alone. However, I have heard that Tara has a near-true-death experience, which we hope will only be an experience and not a permanent change.
On a happy note, everyone’s favorite pastor family is back with Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp) and Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian), and Sarah looks like she’s probably gonna be a badass.
Trailer #2
Trailer #1
What do you think will happen this season? Is it time for a main character to die?
Rachel Redfern has an MA in English literature, where she conducted research on modern American literature and film and its intersection; however, she spends most of her time watching HBO shows, traveling, and blogging and reading about feminism.
I used how to love True Blood, but my excitement for it has gone away, mainly due to its insistence on having 5 million plotlines at once. And i would argue its attempts to tackle deeper themes have ended up failing. Like sometimes it will portray vampires as victims of a intolerance…and then it will show vampire society to be as unfriendly to humans as its opponents claim. Also the way it handled the aftermath of Jasons Gangrape really pissed me of.
I agree about Jason’s gangrape–it couldn’t have been handled more terribly. I’m still in the early stages of season 5, and I’m enjoying it, but the show has gotten campier and campier to an almost eye-rolling point. I still think the writing and acting are good, but yeah, it’s often problematic.
Why is hip hop referred to as “sleazy”?
You guys make a great point about Jason’s gang rape, I had actually totally forgotten about it (which just ends up reinforcing how much it was glossed over). Fandomqueen, I was refering to one song in particular in season 2, “Headbone–Dig,” which is a song I love (and own) but has a sort of sleazy vibe….that’s the only way I can think to describe at least.
Honestly I’m curious how season 6 will go. I have been a faithful viewer since the show began. I’m even more curious to see how Bill comes about this season. Just what exactly has he become? It will be very interesting to find out. But even more sad that it seems like the chance of a Bill/Sookie romance might not happen, at least not this season. I loved those two together (even more cool that they’re a couple in real life!)
Oh well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
P.S. I was reading that both Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard wanted their characters to have some sort of sexual affair with each-other… :O They even talked to the producers about it, or something like that. I swear, those two have a serious crush on each-other in real life, they way they act around one another during interviews. LOL
The show’s treatment of Jason’s rape was abhorrent. Just awful.
Billie, an affair between the two men would be amazing! Do you remember in one of the earlier seasons Sam had some of Bill’s blood and then ended up fantasizing about him? And Eric and Pam have always been very gender bending as well.