TRUE BLOOD, 6.3 – 'You're No Good'

written by Mark Hudis |
directed by Howard Deutch

I quite liked how this episode wasn't a farrago of silliness, and even had some quiet moments where actors got to actually ply their trade. The scene with Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) sharing a daytime coffin with Willa Burrell (Amelia Rose Blaire), the nasty governor's kidnapped daughter, was both the funniest and sexiest scene the show's done since Jason's bath hand-job. The idea of vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) going on a crusade to save his kind from extermination, is also nicely paralleled by Niall (Rutger Hauer) doing likewise to save the Fae from rampaging vampire Warlow—as both are the alpha males of their species; 'God' and 'King' respectively.

The writers even found a way to get Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) into a naughty schoolgirl outfit this season (to turn the head of a middle-aged Japanese egghead, of course), and there was the whiff of direction with Sheriff Andy's (Chris Bauer) fairy kids perhaps due to become a mass blood sacrifice to turn Bill into an unstoppable 'daywalker'. Oh, and the lovely Anna Camp reprised her role as toothy Sarah Newlin from season 2, reunited with erstwhile screen boyfriend Steve (Michael McMillian), who's been sent to a vampire internment camp for interrogation.

However, there was still a lot of clutter and storylines that have so little interest my eyes sometimes glaze over. Anything involving the insufferable werewolves is a struggle to sit through; ditto Sam (Sam Trammell) and the shape-shifters. It also amused me that Ben Flynn (Robert Kazinsky) spent this episode limping away from Sookie's (Anna Paquin) house, only to bump into her great-grandfather after his CSI: Fae sleuthing, join his crusade to avenge the fairy nightclub massacre, then had to hobble all the way back in his company!

As usual, "You're No God" was little more than a hodgepodge of good and bad things jostling for attention, and your overall opinion of any True Blood episode depends on how well the good clouded the bad in your estimation. Most episodes work a lot better if you literally zone-out during the storylines that don't interest you, and pray they don't become important going forward. "You're No Good" struck a better balance than usual, because I have a strange interest in this season's idea of humans fighting vampires in such an organised way, and the Warlow threat to Sookie is being hyped quite nicely. Rutger Hauer's a lot of fun as this show's Albus Dumbledore figure, too, with his character demonstrating a lot of fun new powers.

30 June 2013 | HBO