Well guys, I’ve tried remaining positive about this final season, but I’ve got to say…True Blood has gone full-blown Dexter this year. Remember Dexter? That series over on Showtime that was great for a few seasons, went on for way too long, then totally botched not only the ending, but the entire final season? Yeah, True Blood is headed in that direction. I know we’re only three episodes in, and still have seven weeks to go before the show meets the True Death, but I have a feeling like it’s going to be a very long and winding road until we get there.
Last week’s episode, “I Found You,” was actually a step up from the ho-hum premiere. It even managed to do a few things right, like the exploration of the overrun ghost town that was once Saint Alice, or the “Reaper” scenes in the basement of Fangtasia. Then, it was all thrown out the window with “Fire in the Hole.”
Gone are the well paced, character-driven and appropriately dark moments, replaced by dull conversations between people we either don’t care about or are no longer invested in, peppered with entirely unnecessary and boring flashbacks.
Plot-wise, this episode is all over the place. There are (at least) six separate groups of characters who, for some odd reason, each get a chunk of screentime. Did we really need to see Lafayette and James getting high? Or the Reverend’s overly long and yawn-inducing monologue? How about that opening yoga sequence, or a flashback of Bill getting his picture taken? Read that last one again and tell me it did anything to move the plot forward. Go ahead. I’ll wait.