What I’m Watching: True Blood

True Blood: Season 6, Episode 6 “Don’t You Feel Me” (B)

Sometimes, I feel like this show is bit too bloodthirsty, valuing shock value over the longevity of extremely compelling characters. It happened before when Russell staked Roman, and now Bill walked in daylight, forced all of Governor Burrell’s guards to shoot each other, and then ripped off his head before he could have a chance to do anything more this season. It’s a shame considering how complex a character he was, but at least we’ll still have Willa, who proved quite helpful in getting Eric out and maybe saving Nora’s life, and Sarah, who is just as formidable an enemy as Governor Burrell if what she did to Jessica to get back at Jason is any indication. Eric’s discovery that all of the new TruBlood will be contaminated with the Hep V virus is extremely worrisome, and it’s hard to decide who to root for in this case since Bill is far from a good guy at this point but we don’t exactly want the humans to win either. That leaves Warlow as the show’s most productive protagonist, since he’s now being framed in an entirely different light. Sookie’s stripper act at the end of the episode was beyond weird and off-putting, and it only reinforces the fact that, despite the greater purpose she might serve in this show’s world, she’s hardly the show’s main character anymore, and for good reason. It’s a shame that, even after Arlene and Holly came up with the perfect plan to save him from himself, Terry couldn’t be protected from an act he had commissioned during his depression. How this will affect everything else, I’m not so sure, but non-vampire matters like the four-named fairy and Sam’s new romance haven’t proved terribly relevant to the main plot.