What I'm Watching: True Blood

True Blood: Season 1, Episode 9 "Plaisir D'Amour" (B)

The central plotline of this episode just didn't cut it for me. I do think that the head vampire guy is thoroughly fascinating and any of Anna Paquin's reactions to blood being everywhere are priceless and incredible, but sending Bill away is a dangerous move. This also had to serve as the interim episode where he's leaving, which didn't really amount to much. Ditto Tara's plotline. Her mother's exorcism worked better than it should have, but believing in this kind of supernatural influence is a bit kooky, even for a show about vampires. If she really gets into it, then I believe it can work effectively. What really gets me about this episode is comparable to the scene that really made me like "Breaking Bad" - an incomparably intense bonding and brief sense of empathy between captor and captive. In both cases, the captor isn't really a bad guy, and he's not the one truly responsible for kidnapping the guy. In both cases, it doesn't end well, but here it's a starkly compelling character study of both the vampire and Jason, who usually isn't as three-dimensional and interesting as he is here. With respect to the Sam-is-a-dog reveal at the end of the episode, this show is weird but I guess it all does make sense. I think that should provide an interesting twist and work in the show's favor, especially in the absence of one Bill Compton.