New season of HBO's 'True Blood' adds witches, flirts with 3-D

When "True Blood" returns for its fourth season on HBO June 26, it might have some surprises in store in the future. Like...3-D?

"True Blood's" cast and producers have always kept the series' secrets close to the vest, but show creator Alan Ball did tell our brother blog, Hero Complex, that he's experimented with 3-D. He said he could foresee using the technology in the future, perhaps "for a season premiere or a season finale."

“It was basically a scene that’s in the show anyway, so they just also shot it with 3-D cameras,” Ball said. Read more about the potential to see "True Blood's" werewolves, shape-shifters, were-panthers, witches and other "supes" in three dimensions here.

HBO, known for striking images and memorable marketing around its original series, just released three monochromatic posters of "True Blood" characters. (See red version at left.) Nowhere as bloody and flesh-baring as the now famous Anna Paquin/Stephen Moyer/Alexander Skarsgard Rolling Stone cover, but sexy/creepy all the same.

The show doesn't always follow the soapy Southern vampire novels on which it's based, so viewers had no idea until now that a supernatural coven would be part of the scenery until this trailer for the new season. See Sookie, the telepathic diner waitress, rant about the new additions to the local freak show in the clip here.

Michael C. Hall, Jon Hamm, Cloris Leachman, more to join Emmy Week panels

 
The L.A. Times is ushering in Emmy season with Envelope Emmy Week -- five days of television series screenings, cast Q&As and roundtable panels starting June 1. Fans of “Mad Men,” “True Blood,” “Dexter,” “Justified,” “Shameless” and many others will get a chance to hear the series' stars discuss their shows and characters. 

As noted on our sister blog, Awards Tracker, Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks and Kiernan Shipka will join “Mad Men” creator and executive producer Matt Weiner for a screening and Q&A on June 1. William H. Macy and other cast members of Showtime's "Shameless" take the stage on June 2, and Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and others talk about “Justified” on June 6.

The final two roundtables mix things up thematically; the Alternative Families panel on June 7 will be hosted by Times TV critic Mary McNamara and will feature Katey Sagal (“Sons of Anarchy”), Jennifer Carpenter (“Dexter”), Denis O’Hare (“True Blood”), Emmy Rossum (“Shameless”), Cloris Leachman (“Raising Hope”) and Peter Krause (“Parenthood”). The Geek TV panel on June 8 will be moderated by Times television critic Robert Lloyd and will feature Joel McHale (“Community”), Sam Trammell (“True Blood”), Jayma Mays (“Glee”), Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”) and Johnny Galecki (“The Big Bang Theory”).

So, what would you want to ask this eclectic mix of actors? Leave your questions here for possible inclusion in the panels.

Guild members can get additional details and RSVP to attend any of the events at http://events.latimes.com/envelope/.

-- Elena Howe

Top photo: Michael C. Hall. Credit: Randy Tepper / Showtime 

Photo at right: Cloris Leachman. Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

'True Blood' season four spoilers from Alan Ball -- well, just a few

The upcoming season of "True Blood" will borrow at least some of its key plot points from "Dead to the World," the fourth novel in mystery writer Charlaine Harris' long-running series about telepathic cocktail waitress/fairy Sookie Stackhouse and the supernatural creatures vying for her affection in Bon Temps, La.

But Alan Ball, the creator of the hit HBO series adapted from Harris' fiction, wasn't too generous with the gory details at the Paley Center for Media's PaleyFest's tribute to the hit show this weekend at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, especially when it came to questions about just how a potential romance between Anna Paquin's Sookie and Alexander Skarsgard's vampire Eric Northman might play out.

Still, the wildly devoted fans assembled for the event didn't seem to mind. The clip Ball showed from the season premiere, which is set for June, and the presence of 16 of the series' cast members -- including Paquin and her off-screen husband Stephen Moyer, in addition to Skarsgard -- were more than sufficient to generate deafening applause.

The brief scene, which screened after a lengthy opening montage that recapped the previous three seasons, centered on Pam (Kristin Bauer) and a reunited Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) confronting a group of Westboro Baptist Church-style protesters picketing Fangtasia. Afterward, each of the actors took turns explaining where season four finds his or her character. Of Sookie, Paquin said, "She's been on a bit of an adventure, she comes back. She's still very new to all this fairy stuff."

'Southland' detective falls prey to vampires

Spoiler alert:  Do not read this story if you have not seen Tuesday night's episode of "Southland."

Blame the pain that "Southland" inflicted on you Tuesday night on the vampires, America.

When the lovable Nate Moretta died quickly and shockingly from a blow to the head with a metal pipe, "Southland" viewers immediately took to the show's Facebook page and Twitter to express grief and outrage. That a police officer would eventually lose his or her life on this gritty and realistic Los Angeles police drama was inevitable, but why the cool-headed, sexy young father and best friend to his unhinged partner, Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy)?

"Not Nate!" the Internet wailed in unison.

But, sadly, it had to be Nate. And the behind-the-scenes story probably won't make you feel better about losing him.

Kevin Alejandro, who played Nate, took on a role on "True Blood" when it was unclear if "Southland" would find a new home after NBC canceled it. Then TNT bought "Southland," and although both series tried to work out their schedules so that Alejandro could be a fine cop on "Southland" and a hot gay witch on "True Blood," it proved impossible.

"We were in the dark and I was freaking out about what was happening with 'Southland,'" Alejandro said in a telephone interview Wednesday morning. "And during that time, I was offered a regular role on 'True Blood' and I talked to ['Southland' executive producers] Chris Chulack and John Wells, and all of us were in the dark, and they were very, very good and understood that I have a family. We all agreed to let me out to try to pursue that, just to see what was better for my career. They genuinely showed that they cared about me. And then shortly after I signed on with 'True Blood,'  the show was picked up for another season and so we struggled and struggled to try to get the schedules to work. It was just too much conflict."

The schedules aligned enough so that Alejandro could appear in the first four episodes of this season. So the writers got to work on developing Nate and Sammy's partnership and friendship so that the viewers would feel the impact of Nate's loss even more. Like many of the stories on "Southland," Nate's death was born out of a true Los Angeles incident in which a police officer died during a routine stop at the end of his shift.

2010 Top Scripted TV Huh? Moments

We appreciate all of the hard work writers put into their TV shows. Here are some of the moments that left us wondering a bit.

1. "Lost": They're all dead and waiting to go to heaven. Depending on who you are, this was either a very good head-scratcher or a very bad one. We loved it, even though we're sad about what it means.

2. "The Walking Dead:" Zombies unseat vampires as the coolest non-humans on TV. It's not their fault they're zombies which makes us feel for them, though they freak us out.

3. "Mad Men:" Don Draper proposes to Megan. Whoa, Don! A little foreshadowing next time, please?

4. "Breaking Bad:" Walt goes from meek chemistry teacher to big-time drug dealer to murderer. Walter, you scare us. But you're never boring and for that we love you.

5. "Glee:" Mr. Schue kisses Coach Beiste. Enough said. 

6. "Sons of Anarchy:" Jackson and his half sister are discovered half-way down the incest road by their respective mothers. Double ick.

7. "True Blood:" Bill and Sookie break up. Again. Can't we all just get along?

8. "Dexter:" Someone accepts Dexter for all that he is. How nice. We like this one.

9.  "The Event:" Aliens. Really?  All that pre-game hype and they turned out to be aliens. Possible to start over?

10. "The Good Wife:" CBS goes all sexy on us in a surprising oral sex scene between Alicia and Peter. It sure made us blush -- and they didn't even show anything!

--Yvonne Villarreal and Maria Elena Fernandez

twitter.com/villarrealy

twitter.com/writerchica

Photo: A scene from the "Lost" series finale. The castaways are waiting to go to heaven. (L-R) Ian Somerhalder, Elizabeth Mitchell, Josh Holloway, John Terry, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Sonya Walger, Henry Ian Cusick and Emilie de Ravin. Credit: ABC

2010 Favorite TV Duos

TV's full of wonderful pairings. It was hard to narrow it down to 10, so we offer you our Baker's dozen.

1. Sally and Glen of "Mad Men." Our dear Little Sally (played by Kiernan Shipka) has grown into a pre-teen -- one who likes boys. And Glenn (Marten Weiner) is the perfect crush candidate: he's a fellow kid of divorce AND her mother isn't fond of him. Plus, he gets Sally. And their phone calls kind of make us swoon.

2. Virginia and Burt of "Raising Hope." Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt have amazing comedic chemistry together and are totally believebale as this hapless but loving couple.

3. Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) and Blake (Scott Porter) of "The Good Wife."  She's a badass with killer detective skills. He's a badass with killer detective skills. So, naturally, they're rivals--despite working for the same people. And we love every minute of their tortured chemistry.

4. Eric and Tami Taylor (Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton) of "Friday Night Lights." Is there a better husband and wife on TV? Not by a longshot.

5. Cameron and Mitchell (Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson). "Modern Family" is full of winning combinations but just for trying so hard to get Lily into a good daycare, we recognize this hilarious romantic pair. (Also: Mitchell's flash mob and Cameron's biker shorts).

6. Sue and Becky of "Glee." If you don't love the sweet and wise Becky, you have no heart. The sweet and sour combination of Lauren Potter and Jane Lynch is one of "Glee's" best gifts to its fans. (Campaign for Becky as ruler of the free world starts now).

7. Mike and Molly of "Mike & Molly." The only thing excessive about this couple is their adorableness factor. He buys her tubs of shampoo and conditioner. She puts up with his overbearing mother. Together, they bring RomCom moments to the small screen every week. We're dreading the day when there's trouble in paradise.

8. LaFayette and Jesus of "True Blood." Besides all the hotness this pair exudes, how can we not be happy for LaFayette after all he's been through? Who cares if his new man is a brujo? Kudos to Nelson Ellis and Kevin Alejandro.

9. Jacob and the Man in Black on "Lost." Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver's mental chess game was riveting to watch. Why couldn't they both be right?

10. Raylan and Boyd of "Justified." Who needs Blair and Serena? Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins play the best frenemies on TV these days.

11. Olivia and Peter of "Fringe." Finally! There is love on "Fringe." We realize technically it was between Bolivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson) but there is hope.

12. Hank and Britt of "Terriers." What makes the cancellation of this FX series so heart-breaking is how wonderful these two actors were together. Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James need to be cast on another show together pronto.

13. Lisa and Giggy of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." For weeks we've been oh-too-happy to get jiggy with Giggy. The miniature pooch and his loveable owner, Lisa Vanderpump, put Danielle Staub and her yanked weave to shame. The Gigga man even has his own Twitter account.

 

 


--Yvonne Villarreal and Maria Elena Fernandez

twitter.com/villarrealy

twitter.com/writerchica

Photo: Kiernan Shipka and Marten Weiner as Sally and Glen on "Mad Men." Credit: AMC

Author of books that sparked 'True Blood' gets a bite from CBS

CBS is hoping to strike lightning with the creator of the hit novels that sparked "True Blood."

The network is developing a project centered on a series of Harper Connelly mystery novels written by Charlaine Harris, the author of the "Sookie Stackhouse" novels that have been the basis for the hit HBO series. The Harper Connelly novels revolve around a woman who is struck by lightning, gaining the ability to see the last moments of the dead.

Among the executive producers of the project, titled "Grave Sight," which is the title of the first Harper Connelly novel, are Tony Scott and Ridley Scott, and Naren Shankar ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation").

— Greg Braxton

 

 

'True Blood' weekends: That's all, folks!

Honestly, I expected the "True Blood" finale to be a lot more controversial around these parts. Usually when I dislike (or even like) an episode, a healthy number of you disagree. But outside of a few people who thought the finale was good fun, it sure seemed like everybody who commented or got in touch with me could agree on one broad point about the finale: It was pretty bad. If it wasn't pulling lots of lame cliffhangers on us and muddying up the storyline, it was just plain boring. For once, we're all (mostly) on the same page, and that just makes me feel great about humanity. 

Unfortunately, since we were all on the same page, there's less to write about this week. (Which gives me more time to finish up this piece on the awesome "Boardwalk Empire" pilot.) But let's see some of your comments anyway.

Tess liked this season. She's still looking forward to next season. But the finale? That disappointed her:

"This whole season I thought was fabulous, and it did feel like it was building towards something, but then we got here and nothing happened. I did feel like I was enjoying it while I was watching it, but once I got to the end it was like, I have no idea what just filled those 55 minutes. Every time something built up -- Eric in the ground with an assassin sent for Pam, for instance, or Alcide showing up -- it was over 5 minutes later (not that I wasn't glad to see Eric alive. Or Alcide still looking good. Or Godric, for that matter)."

A vocabulary-enhancing guide for your TV viewing

Who says that just because you love television you can't beef up your lexicon? The folks at Dictionary.com have found a few TV shows they say might actually improve your vocabulary. 

Here's the list:

1.  “Glee”: Musicals may take center stage, but Jane Lynch’s ego-maniac Cheerio’s coach Sue Sylvester uses some advanced vocabulary to insult her enemies. The next time you run into trouble, you may want to try: “I realize my cultural ascendance only serves to illuminate your own banality.” Or perhaps, “Even your breath stinks of mediocrity.” Burn!
 
2.   “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”: It may be about truthiness and laughs, but "The Daily Show," not unlike “The Colbert Report,” holds a lexical secret: its guests. Colbert and Stewart give air time to academics who address provocative and complex topics using some of the most advanced language on TV … before they’re lampooned, that is.
 
3.  “Fringe”: Known for its quality research, this sci-fi series uses actual science terminology in entertaining and far-fetched ways. Crack open those textbooks and prepare to expand your vocabulary on fringe science topics such as mutants, rare diseases, chimeras and teleportation.
 
4.   “Top Chef”: The Emmy-winning reality TV competition is a delectable way to develop your taste buds and vocabulary. Its user-friendly cooking terminology may help you decipher a few challenging cookbook terms of your own. TV never sounded this tasty.
 
5.   “Sesame Street”: Ask any parent whose kids watch Elmo and Big Bird and you’ll learn how much viewers of any age glean from the show, with its references aimed at both grown-ups and children. “Sesame Street” is arguably the great refresher course.
 
6.   “Yo Gabba Gabba”: Brad Pitt played one of its characters this past Halloween, confirming this fun, kitschy, live-action show is special. Infectious songs and great lessons make this show entertaining and educational.  
 
7.   “True Blood”: For such a guilty pleasure, this vampire drama offers a remarkably sophisticated vocabulary. Mythological references are rampant, but medical, historical and political references sneak in like steamed vegetables blended into mashed potatoes. Sit back, relax and let the mythical adventures take your ears for a ride.
 
8.   “Mad Men”: Alas, we have another reason, besides Don Draper’s painfully good looks and Betty Draper’s perfect execution of 1960s fashion, to watch this Emmy-winning drama. Proper grammar, ad agency lingo and subtle historical references make this show a vocabulary-expanding experience.

'True Blood' recap: Keep your eyes on the road

No matter what happens, a "True Blood" finale should make the viewer feel something. We should be weeping that it's all over and cursing that we have to wait until next summer. We should be intensely angry and disappointed, saying, "THAT was the finale?" We should be ecstatic from how excited we are at what just happened. We should feel one of the above or some combination of them. But the "True Blood" finale pretty much made me feel nothing. It felt, for all the world, like a tiny pause in the storyline before we barrel forward toward something else, as though the show would be back in a few weeks' time, and we'd head toward the real end of the story at this point. A season finale is a period or an exclamation mark. This was a comma.

Over the course of the third season, it's become clear that what I like about the show and what you guys like (and what the producers like) sit on opposite ends of some canyon that's impossible to cross. I think the show works best when it's streamlined, moving forward constantly like a shark. Many of you love the diversions and side-trips we take into storylines that don't have much to do with the main plot (beyond featuring characters that all live in the same small town in Louisiana). I like the show best when the characters are all working toward some sort of impossible plan. Many of you like getting lost in the flavor and color of the world. And that's fine. We don't all have to like TV shows for the same reasons. The best I can do here is explain why I've liked enough of this third season to be entertained but also explain why it's failed on levels that made me feel vaguely dissatisfied. 

But the season finale was some whole other level of dissatisfaction. It spent about 50 minutes just wandering around, closing off a few storylines, suggesting other ones were about to begin, and wasting time, and then it tried to rouse itself to a shocking climax in its last five minutes. Bill went to take out the vampire queen, Eric survived to fight another day and Sookie disappeared in a flash of light while greeting her fairy brethren in a graveyard. As cliffhangers, these aren't bad, even if they don't match up to the series' previous cliffhangers (and I was no big fan of the "Bill disappears!" cliffhanger), but as motivations to keep us waiting on the edges of our seats for the next several months, they're a little wanting. Do we really think Bill's going to die in his fight? Do we really think that Sookie's gone for all time? The only question becomes just how quickly the show walks these plot points back. At least with the "Where's Bill?" cliffhanger, we wondered just how he had disappeared. That opened up the show into a whole new chapter of werewolves and craziness. I'm not sure anything here has that same level of promise.

'True Blood' weekends: 'In stock and overpriced at your neighborhood health food store'

So, "True Blood" fans. Did you enjoy your long weekend without the show? Were you able to take in a Labor Day parade or have one last, lazy day of summer ... or did you wake up Monday morning twitching from withdrawal? I get why HBO takes this holiday weekend off every year, but it increasingly seems silly, what with DVRs and midweek repeats and such. It breaks the season up just when it needs momentum the most, and it leaves everyone hanging so long that it's easy to forget just why everything was so compelling in the first place. Hey, AMC aired both of its shows last Sunday, and it didn't seem to suffer too much ratings-wise. Maybe HBO should think about doing the same next year.

But now we're right up against the big season finale, and there's plenty of discussion out there about whether or not the show has been successful in its third season. I gave my take right after the episode aired -- the short of it is that I've liked the main plots quite a bit, but I've found all of the supporting plots pretty tough to sit through -- but you guys were pretty well split over whether the season has worked. Some agreed with me, but some thought that the sheer number of story lines fed into one another so well that they kept driving the momentum into crazier and crazier places. I can see that point of view, I suppose, but I still think way too much of what happened this season was, frankly, boring. 

Things became even clearer to me after watching the season premiere of "The Vampire Diaries" on Thursday. I don't want to say "Vampire Diaries" is better than this show -- on the levels of writing, directing, and acting, "True Blood" is clearly better -- but it does have a real sense of how to pace its story line and how to space out its revelations. Furthermore, that series finds a way to incorporate much of its useless supporting cast into the same story line or into the main story line in a way that "True Blood" just hasn't done for its (much better) supporting cast this season. And if a character isn't working -- or even if a character is working, and it will be worth the shock -- "Vampire Diaries" has no fear about just killing one of them off. Honestly, "True Blood" could stand to thin its ensemble just a bit, and if nothing else, I'd like for the finale to get rid of one or two characters who are mostly just taking up space, much as I like all of the actors playing them.

And now that I've ignited a battle to the death between fans of both shows in comments, it's time to find out what all of you thought way back in the Pleistocene era when this episode aired.

'True Blood': The center cannot hold

 After Sunday night's episode of "True Blood," it's becoming immensely clear that not all of the storylines the show is spinning are going to come to closure points by the end of the season or tie together in any way, shape or form. The question, then, becomes whether the individual storylines were entertaining enough to keep the show afloat or whether you think the lack of cohesion has fatally damaged this season.

I realize I should pick a side in this fight, but I think this season has been the best for "True Blood" while simultaneously being the worst. The main plot has been riveting throughout, helped out by splitting up Sookie and Bill and giving them each compelling plot threads and by casting Dennis O'Hare as the villain. Any time one of those three or Eric was on screen, the season has been terrific, more or less.

But "True Blood" is a massive, massive show, and that means those characters can't always be on screen. The series solved this last season by splitting all of the characters up into two storylines. The storyline in Dallas — wherein a bunch of the characters confronted a band of fundamentalist Christians bent on wiping out vampires — was often fun. The storyline back in Bon Temps — wherein most of the other characters were enraptured by the machinations of a maenad named Maryann — was less consistent, but it certainly had its moments, and it had the side benefit of involving every character who wasn't in Dallas. That meant that the show didn't need to go out of its way to incorporate a scene featuring Sam or Andy every week, because both characters were involved in the Maryann storyline.