I love True Blood, God help me, I do. But the latest episode did something that I’ve gotten really sick of: Sookie getting mad at Bill because he’s being dishonest or he’s up to something and won’t tell her what it is.

For real, y’all? AGAIN? I’m sure someone out there has already done the breakdown on how many times this has happened, and it’s gotta be a huge number.

I get it - they’re so different, it creates so many problems for them, they’re from different worlds and there are inevitable clashes. But a smart show will find new and exciting ways for their differences to create problems! Not the TEN THOUSANDTH TIME that Bill’s lying to protect Sookie, and she gets mad. What about - I dunno - him getting mad at her? Hello? Or what about their tensions/differences being PRODUCTIVE, INTERESTING, leading them on exciting adventures where for once they’re on the same page?

The American version of The Office did a great job of managing the relationship tension between Jim and Pam. The gestures were so little - a lingering look that only the camera caught, a friendly conversation turned uncomfortable because of everything that’s not being said. The on-again/off-again, will they/won’t they dynamic was really underplayed, and it worked.

And now that they’ve gotten together, and the audience is clearly on board with them, the show knows better than to constantly jeopardize the situation by making one get mad at the other. The one real time it’s happened since they finally got together… I was in agony throughout the entire episode! Because I care about these people! And the show respects them and me enough to not keep jerking me around (aside: it was really brilliantly done - Jim talked to Pam’s dad to try to get him back with Pam’s mom, and instead Pam’s dad filed for divorce, and Pam was really angry and wondered “what did he say to him? And how long until he says it to me?” (GREAT WRITING) and in the end Pam finds out that WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS when Jim told Pam’s dad how much he loved Pam, Pam’s dad realized he had never felt that way about Pam’s mom, and that their relationship - unlike Jim and Pam’s - was based on a lot of things besides love… like fear, like loneliness, like the kids).

At this point I don’t even care about whether Sookie and Bill’s relationship works, because I’ve totally checked out on it. Which is a shame. Because it should be the bedrock of the show. Instead it annoys me - mostly - and most of the time when one of them comes on screen I think… GOD… when will we be getting back to LAFAYETTE? OR RUSSELL? OR ERIC? OR JESSICA? OR ARLENE? OR PAM?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 am and is filed under Culture as Resistance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.