I think this season is really about how different types of evil interact with each other and the struggle for power.
You have Arden and Bloody Face which are human faces of evil (one authoritarian, one chaotic) and you have the demon and aliens which are supernatural faces of evil.
@Aleitheia: "Also, the theme is supposed to be “sanity” but haven’t seen anything mind-bending yet relating to doubting one’s sanity."
I was just saying this the other day. It doesn't seem like anyone in the asylum is actually "insane". The best we've gotten is that mentally handicapped girl. Maybe that's the point? That back in the day people who were outside the norm (read: gay, etc) were locked up as insane even though they weren't? Plus there is the whole "inmates running the asylum" idea they're going with...the people in power are worse than the patients.
Still, there has definitely been an emphasis on supernatural elements affecting sanity instead of actual plain old insanity.
I'm enjoying this season more than the 1st, mostly because I find the directing and pacing better. I also think it is more "character oriented" vs the ghost of the week stuff.
I do agree with @Flatin that I think I'd have preferred they stuck with real madness. I could even deal with the mad scientist / "zombies". The aliens and demon are a bit over the top. I'm still enjoying the show, I've just adjusted my expectations...as in I don't expect all of this to pull together into any sort of cohesive whole.
(unless we get aliens vs demon vs zombie...which would be crazy!!)
I thought that Murphy said S2 wasn't going to deal with the supernatural but with madness...and then we get a demon who is sticking around.
I thought at first they might keep it in the gray realm...is he / isn't he...possessed, but that lasted all of about 5 minutes. On first impression I'm feeling like it diminishes or distracts from the real horror that is the asylum and insanity.
For now the aliens are still maybe just hallucinations of a bent mind and although the "creatures" exist they are more along the lines of human experimentation than anything supernatural.
But, now that we have the demon I wonder if it'll end up connecting back to S1 somehow...like an oblique prequel (i.e. Prometheus & Alien)
@Matt: I couldn't agree with your review more. As much as I liked season 1 it felt hollow to me. I couldn't get invested in the characters and eventually it just became about the ghosts. I'm still not convinced that they knew it was going to be a miniseries until halfway through.
@JCinci: "The editing style on AHS Season 2 is over the top hyperactive."
That's interesting because I felt that season 1 suffered from that and season 2 was much better shot and paced.
If they are going to make Bill evil then they need to pay it off with him killing a major character...as in a season 1 character.
If there weren't a book series associated with it and if we weren't dealing with having to have enough men around for Sookie to rotate through, I'd think Alcide (spelling?) would be the perfect choice. He's an A-lister as far as Sookie-nookie is concerned but he really has no place in the show right now.
Have Bill slaughter him and his pack and BAM...now he's earned that evil title...with the added benefit of reducing the number of useless characters.
Seeing as I just watch the show, I'm a Bill man. I think he embodies the "southern gothic" vibe the show has when it's at it's best. Eric's "viking prince" thing feels a bit out of tune sometimes.
I'm happy they made Bill go all the way with losing his humanity instead of wimping out at the end. Now Billith can go about wreaking havoc before Bill tries to turn back.
I predict at the conclusion of Billith, the Lillith-part will be destroyed and Bill will be reborn...a moral again...thus setting up the "now that Sookie as a human Bill, does she need a vampire Eric?" for season 7.
I find all of the Bill-bashers / Eric-apologizers interesting...
I imagine it all stems from book-readers who want the show to follow the Eric/Sookie-ship, but it's funny how Bill gets thrown under the bus for doing vampire things (like killing) and Eric gets a free pass as the anti-hero.
I find the Bill/Eric and Bill/Eric/Sookie thing a bit more annoying every season since it plays out like:
1. Bill = Louie / Eric = Lestat: Bill is introduced as the first hero and is a self-hating vampire who longs for his humanity. Eric is introduced first as an enemy / antihero and then evolved into a hero.
2. Bill = Angel, Sookie = Buffy, Eric = Spike: Bill is the "vampire with a soul" and Eric is a bad guy who goes good because of the love of a good woman. Heck Angel even loses his soul to become "Angelus" who is evil and relishes in all those vampire things (Billith anyone?).
I read that some people think Jason will be turned and then "un-turned" (or turned back?) by some means.
That made me wonder if the show will have a season where they introduce some manner of making vampires mortals again...
It would introduce some interesting stories...like would Bill (or Eric) give up being a vampire to be with Sookie? (and the best thing is they can always just re-vamp them later to re-establish the status quo)
Like many here, I thought this episode was a good one...
I'm STILL trying to figure out if Bill is pulling a long con or not.
His scene with Jess made it sound like he had gone over to Lilith, but then there are other scenes like him watching Eric/Nora, him sharing "sookie's in trouble" glances with Eric, and other quiet moments when he just seems too...with it...to really be under Lilith's spell.
But, regardless of what the I think is in the show, if you listen to any of the talk from the show-runners, directors, actors, etc...they all pretty much are selling it like Bill has gone over to the dark side.
I just watched the "inside the episode" for this episode and they sure are acting like Bill is converted...so unless they're playing a long con on us...
I think SperoMeliora is on to something with Salome's blood. We were supposed to think Bill was going to collect it for Eric and their escape, but yes, he tripped out on it again, saw Lilith, and when he looked at it...there definitely seemed to be some sort of realization.
Couple that with Nora telling Eric she converted after sampling Lilith's blood, well sounds more like they're addicts than true believers.
There would be a lot more Christians if the Body and the Blood made you trip balls and see Jesus hanging out with Santa Claus... ;)
But what does it signify?
Is it Salome's blood in the vile? Is she actually Lilith?
Did Salome spike the blood in the vile? Did she do the same to her own blood?
Was Bill's hallucination not really related to her blood at all but just a by-product of the vile?
Or perhaps by drinking the vile all of their blood is now like that...and anyone biting Bill, Eric, Salome, etc will spread the "faith"...
Although my resolve is weakening, I still think Bill is going deep undercover. If he's not, if he really is a convert, then either Stephen Moyer needs to do a better job of acting or the writers need to a better job of giving Bill real motivation.
Of course, True Blood isn't Shakespeare, sometimes the acting is spotty and character motivations serve the plot and not the other way around.
(forgive my multiple posts...someone get a tech guy to fix the comment posting length problems!)
I liked the moment between Jessica and Hoyt. Although the show can slip into melodrama every once in awhile, I think they need to stay grounded with real emotions.
2. Was Alcide and Rikki's sex scene the hottest in show history?
Did anyone else think for a minute that they were going to "go there" and have them shift into wolf form and give us some wild kingdom action?
3. Has Bill really become a true believer?
I'm with Chris. The flashback just doesn't make any sense unless it points to Bill being anti-vampire.
4. Sam on Sam action: WTH or LOL?
I'd go with more WTH It was done as well as possible, but I think it slipped a couple times into campy territory and slightly uncomfortable.
5. Should Hoyt have shot Jessica?
No because I think Jessica is one of the better characters on the show (and one of the only characters with a real emotional connection to Bill).
But to the larger point...yes they need to kill of some people OR relegate some back to "extra" status.
I think the idea is that they're so far out in the middle of nowhere even Hoyt doesn't know where they are. Unconvincing? Perhaps...
---
Is anyone else think Sam's character is off this season too? I understand him wanting to hunt down the people who killed is friends, but what's the whole deal with the "I'm different and people like me should be treated equally" stuff?
I get that it's another in a long line of gay allegories, but Sam has never really been all "my people" before.
Heck I didn't even think he knew any other shifters prior to finding his real family.
As far as I understood, he was a loner who fit in with the "normals" and no one (up until the beginning of the show) even knew he was a shifter.
I don't know, just he whole bone-weary "I've been hated all my life for being different" riff just struck me as being opposed to what we know of his actual history.
I understand it from the meta-level...Eric is the "bad boy with the heart of gold" (ala Han Solo, Sawyer from Lost, Spike from Buffy, etc, etc, etc...)
So they have to turn him into a hero, but I don't feel like there has been enough to show us where he currently stands.
My best assumption is that even he doesn't know. He just went through having his mind wiped, getting together with Sookie, letting Pam go, having his "sister" go fundamentalist, and having Godric show up again preaching non-violence or whatever he stands for.
Speaking of Eric, I confess to being slightly confused by Eric's motivations this season. Eric was never really a main-streamer, it seemed like he was just more an opportunist. He certainly never rejected feeding on humans, nor did it seem like he found any sanctity in human life (aside from Sookie's I guess).
The only rationale I see for him being against this new Authority is that it's driven by religious fervor.
---
Regardless, I'm digging the Bill / Eric team-up. Way better than them fighting over Sookie every scene.
@Chris O'Hara: Thanks for the props. If you factor out Sookie, Bill's central conflict has always been about his love/hate relationship with being a vampire.
I remember thinking in season 1 that Bill must be a somewhat unique vampire, with his lamenting pretty much the entire way they live...more along the lines of an Angel from Buffy (vampire with a soul).
They've down played that since he became a king, and also once Eric got heavily involved.
I've always been a Bill fan...even though they've tried really hard in the last couple of seasons to cut him down so they could raise Eric up.
The flashback of him attending his daughter's deathbed didn't give him any reason to go further over to the "dark side", but I think it may have given us a clue to his endgame. He called immortality a curse.
I wonder if Bill hasn't gone from a man turned against his will, to a human-killing vampire of the "purest form", to a mainstreamer who thinks vampires can co-exist with humans now that Tru-Blood is around, to a vampire who, seeing that vampires will never stop murdering humans, sees no other way than to start a war so that all vampires are wiped out...
Bill always did strike me as having retained a lot of his humanity (or at least having gained it back) and seems a self-hating vampire.
Or...maybe he really is going over to the "dark side"...
Comments by Richard3
American Horror Story Review: Freedom
Now if we can only get that Nazi-super-drugged demon-possessed Bloody Face vs alien showdown...
American Horror Story Review: Freedom
You have Arden and Bloody Face which are human faces of evil (one authoritarian, one chaotic) and you have the demon and aliens which are supernatural faces of evil.
American Horror Story Review: Dear Iconic Diary...
Finally we have a focus on the "insanity" of the people, not just the supernatural.
Hell Nazis are WAY scarier than aliens anyway...especially Dr. Frankenstein Nazis.
American Horror Story Review: Stumped!
I was just saying this the other day. It doesn't seem like anyone in the asylum is actually "insane". The best we've gotten is that mentally handicapped girl. Maybe that's the point? That back in the day people who were outside the norm (read: gay, etc) were locked up as insane even though they weren't? Plus there is the whole "inmates running the asylum" idea they're going with...the people in power are worse than the patients.
Still, there has definitely been an emphasis on supernatural elements affecting sanity instead of actual plain old insanity.
American Horror Story Review: Stumped!
I do agree with @Flatin that I think I'd have preferred they stuck with real madness. I could even deal with the mad scientist / "zombies". The aliens and demon are a bit over the top. I'm still enjoying the show, I've just adjusted my expectations...as in I don't expect all of this to pull together into any sort of cohesive whole.
(unless we get aliens vs demon vs zombie...which would be crazy!!)
American Horror Story Review: A Spirited Debate
I thought at first they might keep it in the gray realm...is he / isn't he...possessed, but that lasted all of about 5 minutes. On first impression I'm feeling like it diminishes or distracts from the real horror that is the asylum and insanity.
For now the aliens are still maybe just hallucinations of a bent mind and although the "creatures" exist they are more along the lines of human experimentation than anything supernatural.
But, now that we have the demon I wonder if it'll end up connecting back to S1 somehow...like an oblique prequel (i.e. Prometheus & Alien)
American Horror Story Asylum Review: Minding a Manor
@JCinci: "The editing style on AHS Season 2 is over the top hyperactive."
That's interesting because I felt that season 1 suffered from that and season 2 was much better shot and paced.
True Blood Season 6 Scoop: What's Ahead?
If there weren't a book series associated with it and if we weren't dealing with having to have enough men around for Sookie to rotate through, I'd think Alcide (spelling?) would be the perfect choice. He's an A-lister as far as Sookie-nookie is concerned but he really has no place in the show right now.
Have Bill slaughter him and his pack and BAM...now he's earned that evil title...with the added benefit of reducing the number of useless characters.
True Blood Round Table: "Save Yourself"
I'm happy they made Bill go all the way with losing his humanity instead of wimping out at the end. Now Billith can go about wreaking havoc before Bill tries to turn back.
I predict at the conclusion of Billith, the Lillith-part will be destroyed and Bill will be reborn...a moral again...thus setting up the "now that Sookie as a human Bill, does she need a vampire Eric?" for season 7.
True Blood Round Table: "Save Yourself"
I imagine it all stems from book-readers who want the show to follow the Eric/Sookie-ship, but it's funny how Bill gets thrown under the bus for doing vampire things (like killing) and Eric gets a free pass as the anti-hero.
I find the Bill/Eric and Bill/Eric/Sookie thing a bit more annoying every season since it plays out like:
1. Bill = Louie / Eric = Lestat: Bill is introduced as the first hero and is a self-hating vampire who longs for his humanity. Eric is introduced first as an enemy / antihero and then evolved into a hero.
2. Bill = Angel, Sookie = Buffy, Eric = Spike: Bill is the "vampire with a soul" and Eric is a bad guy who goes good because of the love of a good woman. Heck Angel even loses his soul to become "Angelus" who is evil and relishes in all those vampire things (Billith anyone?).
True Blood Clips: A Better Way?
That made me wonder if the show will have a season where they introduce some manner of making vampires mortals again...
It would introduce some interesting stories...like would Bill (or Eric) give up being a vampire to be with Sookie? (and the best thing is they can always just re-vamp them later to re-establish the status quo)
True Blood Review: The First Cut Is the Deepest
I'm STILL trying to figure out if Bill is pulling a long con or not.
His scene with Jess made it sound like he had gone over to Lilith, but then there are other scenes like him watching Eric/Nora, him sharing "sookie's in trouble" glances with Eric, and other quiet moments when he just seems too...with it...to really be under Lilith's spell.
But, regardless of what the I think is in the show, if you listen to any of the talk from the show-runners, directors, actors, etc...they all pretty much are selling it like Bill has gone over to the dark side.
True Blood Review: What If God Was One of Us
True Blood Review: What If God Was One of Us
I primary reason I don't buy Bill's descent is because in the quiet moments he doesn't seem to have the fever of a true believer.
Maybe he's still converting and his betrayal of Eric is the first in a line of actions which will take him down that path further.
Eric even confronted him with "what about Sookie" and Bill couldn't answer so he obviously isn't THAT into it.
True Blood Review: What If God Was One of Us
I think SperoMeliora is on to something with Salome's blood. We were supposed to think Bill was going to collect it for Eric and their escape, but yes, he tripped out on it again, saw Lilith, and when he looked at it...there definitely seemed to be some sort of realization.
Couple that with Nora telling Eric she converted after sampling Lilith's blood, well sounds more like they're addicts than true believers.
There would be a lot more Christians if the Body and the Blood made you trip balls and see Jesus hanging out with Santa Claus... ;)
But what does it signify?
Is it Salome's blood in the vile? Is she actually Lilith?
Did Salome spike the blood in the vile? Did she do the same to her own blood?
Was Bill's hallucination not really related to her blood at all but just a by-product of the vile?
Or perhaps by drinking the vile all of their blood is now like that...and anyone biting Bill, Eric, Salome, etc will spread the "faith"...
True Blood Review: What If God Was One of Us
Although my resolve is weakening, I still think Bill is going deep undercover. If he's not, if he really is a convert, then either Stephen Moyer needs to do a better job of acting or the writers need to a better job of giving Bill real motivation.
Of course, True Blood isn't Shakespeare, sometimes the acting is spotty and character motivations serve the plot and not the other way around.
(forgive my multiple posts...someone get a tech guy to fix the comment posting length problems!)
True Blood Round Table: "Somebody That I Used to Know"
True Blood Round Table: "Somebody That I Used to Know"
I liked the moment between Jessica and Hoyt. Although the show can slip into melodrama every once in awhile, I think they need to stay grounded with real emotions.
2. Was Alcide and Rikki's sex scene the hottest in show history?
Did anyone else think for a minute that they were going to "go there" and have them shift into wolf form and give us some wild kingdom action?
3. Has Bill really become a true believer?
I'm with Chris. The flashback just doesn't make any sense unless it points to Bill being anti-vampire.
4. Sam on Sam action: WTH or LOL?
I'd go with more WTH It was done as well as possible, but I think it slipped a couple times into campy territory and slightly uncomfortable.
5. Should Hoyt have shot Jessica?
No because I think Jessica is one of the better characters on the show (and one of the only characters with a real emotional connection to Bill).
But to the larger point...yes they need to kill of some people OR relegate some back to "extra" status.
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
I'm with you on how the Authority seems small. I think we're just seeing the limitations of a TV show's time/budget.
Yeah, it wouldn't seem like just the death of Roman would be enough to turn the entire Authority over.
You'd think they'd have to purge many of the current kings/queens, magistrates, sheriffs, etc...
...and you'd imagine there would be an internal "civil war" in the Authority (of course maybe Russel is threat enough).
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
I think the idea is that they're so far out in the middle of nowhere even Hoyt doesn't know where they are. Unconvincing? Perhaps...
---
Is anyone else think Sam's character is off this season too? I understand him wanting to hunt down the people who killed is friends, but what's the whole deal with the "I'm different and people like me should be treated equally" stuff?
I get that it's another in a long line of gay allegories, but Sam has never really been all "my people" before.
Heck I didn't even think he knew any other shifters prior to finding his real family.
As far as I understood, he was a loner who fit in with the "normals" and no one (up until the beginning of the show) even knew he was a shifter.
I don't know, just he whole bone-weary "I've been hated all my life for being different" riff just struck me as being opposed to what we know of his actual history.
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
I understand it from the meta-level...Eric is the "bad boy with the heart of gold" (ala Han Solo, Sawyer from Lost, Spike from Buffy, etc, etc, etc...)
So they have to turn him into a hero, but I don't feel like there has been enough to show us where he currently stands.
My best assumption is that even he doesn't know. He just went through having his mind wiped, getting together with Sookie, letting Pam go, having his "sister" go fundamentalist, and having Godric show up again preaching non-violence or whatever he stands for.
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
The only rationale I see for him being against this new Authority is that it's driven by religious fervor.
---
Regardless, I'm digging the Bill / Eric team-up. Way better than them fighting over Sookie every scene.
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
I remember thinking in season 1 that Bill must be a somewhat unique vampire, with his lamenting pretty much the entire way they live...more along the lines of an Angel from Buffy (vampire with a soul).
They've down played that since he became a king, and also once Eric got heavily involved.
I've always been a Bill fan...even though they've tried really hard in the last couple of seasons to cut him down so they could raise Eric up.
True Blood Review: Sam I Am
The flashback of him attending his daughter's deathbed didn't give him any reason to go further over to the "dark side", but I think it may have given us a clue to his endgame. He called immortality a curse.
I wonder if Bill hasn't gone from a man turned against his will, to a human-killing vampire of the "purest form", to a mainstreamer who thinks vampires can co-exist with humans now that Tru-Blood is around, to a vampire who, seeing that vampires will never stop murdering humans, sees no other way than to start a war so that all vampires are wiped out...
Bill always did strike me as having retained a lot of his humanity (or at least having gained it back) and seems a self-hating vampire.
Or...maybe he really is going over to the "dark side"...
Who Will Play Alcide's Father on True Blood?
Man, True Blood is getting some real actors on screen this year...