BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Drama TV True Blood - Too Violent?

I'm a fan of True Blood but I have to look away during some of the really gory scenes. Apparently the latest episode has caused a big stir - it was even front page news on CNN!

SPOILER ALERT

The situation was this - Bill the vampire had just changed his allegiance from his local Louisiana Queen to the Mississippi King. His "maker" showed up and the next thing you know they are having "angry sex". His maker had already "given up rights" to him in the past so it's not that she forced him, exactly. She no longer could. But I suppose you could say that she heavily influenced him. To show his anger at the whole situation, Bill literally twisted her head around backwards *during sex* and then finished the deed. It was fairly disturbing.

Some say it helps to show that Bill is a complex person, not just a goody-goody-sanitized vampire. He does have his dark side.

From my point of view, if a show is actively showing that men have angry sex with a woman in order to hurt her, and are using sex as a weapon, and part of this is to cause her physical harm while having sex with her, that's just not something I'm happy watching when the man is a "hero" (even an anti hero) of the story.

Lisa, are you on about an episode near the end of series 2? I don't even remember a head twisting scene LOL - I remember her forcing him to have sex with her (the girl that turned him) I'm guessing it must be that episode. And she was also stopping him from going to save Suki at the church, wasn't she?

Steven - it doesn't sound like you're into the "werewolf" season yet, i.e. Season 3 Just wait ...

In another forum (Australia) there was a discussion about Australian and New New Zealand accents. The Stackhouse siblings Sookie and Jason are from NZ and Aus but seem to have mastered the Southern accent. Has anyone detected their accents are acting? To my ear (NZ) they sound Southern.

No, I'm not in season 3 yet!! Bummer - I'm looking forward to seeing it though.
No, I've never noticed their accents go awry - the actress playing Sookie had to have a Southern accent for when she played Rogue in X-Men as well, so she's probably good at it by now, I think it's one of the easier accents to immitate anyways

That's too funny that they have a pair of siblings from NZ/Aus

Just watch House and see how he does an American accent, and then hear him talk "normally"!

I saw the actor who plays Bill over here in an interview, he was really charming and funny - and very British too. It's funny hearing actors speak in their normal accents when you're used to them speaking with a certain accent. He brought the false fangs they have to wear as well, and said how difficult it was to talk in them as they gave all the actors a lisp - it was cool to watch though, and sweet to know that Sookie and Bill really are a couple LOL.

I worry about the actors being married. They had all these lovey-dovey scenes until now. What happens if they have violent angry scenes from now on? Will it affect their "real life"?

The thing that worries me is if they ever get divorced or start having problems - cos that sorta thing has affected quite a lot of shows. These things obviously rub off into reality, othwise we wouldn't keep seeing the two characters in love actually falling in love in reality lol.

I love this show, and cannot BELIEVE I got sucked into watching it!!! Yes Lisa, I agree - some of the violence is too much for me too. And I know that scene you were talking about... I could have done without the head twisting :::sigh:::

Mind you, a lot of the forums are saying it's too girly and that it needs more violence because they're vampires - there's that trend now of making them just a kinky fantasy for women. When actually they're meant to be scary LOL. I find a lot of guys saying that at least. Someone told me they've made Sookie half fairy (which is just ab ridiculous) I was like what?!?
BTW - have you guys seen the cover of Rolling Stones this month? Blood never looked so sexy LOL.

Now I think being half fairy is pretty cool. Though, I come from a Celtic background that embraces the philosophy that the Fey were pretty powerful in their own right (not the cute little Tinkerbells). Though, they sure make the fey on True Blood look like cute little Tinkerbells LOL.

True Fey folk could be extremely frightening and deadly - and there were even some who would DRAIN men of their blood!

See Deanna, now that would have been a cool thing to use on True Blood I think. It would've gone with the story too

Absolutely Steven! They'd be a perfect counterpart to the vampires LOL!!

They can even glamour like a vampire does!

Remember that True Blood is based on the book series so the twists are probably trying to follow the books. I'm waiting to read the books until the TV series ends, so I don't get myself too biased one way or the other. I like to enjoy each one for what it offers.

I didn't realize this was a book based series. Are the books also called True Blood? Maybe i should read those and not worry about whether the TV series is too violent.

Hey Jilly,

They are known as the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

My mom gave me hers... I'll probably start reading them pretty soon.

Yeah, I want to start reading the books - I have one of them - but I want to start from the start. The covers have all the cast members on them now too so they're easy to find in the bookshop.
Since it's Halloween I just watched 'The Others' - I love that movie though and its better when you know what's really going on in some ways. I went out last night as the devil, but I couldn't hold my booze like him - so I was also up all night LOL. T.M.I

well that's why i never prefer to watch such vampire shows.

I finally saw the episode about four weeks ago - which will tell you how far behind we are over here in the UK with True Blood. I thought that it was actually kinda funny LOL - just because the effects were so naff.

I hate that woman anyway, she's tried to have Sookie killed and she's basically treating Bill the way a lot of men in power treat women, it's a bit of gender switching going on. I know he did it to hurt her, but she did say it was the best sex they ever had LOL - maybe that kinda thing turns sadistic vamps on.


I'm liking the werewolves in it. Funny, the one scene in which I personally didn't like the vviolence was when the three vampires were feeding on that poor pole dancer, and she was really sweet. Also, poor Tara - I so relate to her - she's a constant victim, love 'er. That British vamp is a right psycho isn't he?

Too violent? Are you kidding, I love True Blood and yes it can be bloody and gory but have you seen any of the cop shows on TV. Criminal Minds for one give me nightmares over some of their stories just to name on. I feel all the cop stories that have taken over TV are much more violent, give people ideas and is simply sad that seems that is all they can come up with. Let's see how many CSI's in different cities, etc. is on. Don't tell me True Blood is not too violent, we need a much more variety on TV, I enjoy True Blood and Vampire Diaries, get rid of all the violent cop shows and use creative minds to change the look of TV.

I agree actually, I watched CSI with my family on a few occasions and seeing people getting cut up on the slab made me feel really ill - I left the room at one point. Slicing up internal organs was too much because it was too real I think.

I can't stand anything medical - plus they show all those disgusting bugs too. I think they're just as violent and they don't even have a fantasy element to them, which makes you take them more seriously.

True Blood is a guilty pleasure. I read the books during the first season of the show, so it was interesting to see what Alan Ball took from the books. One of my favorite reasons for the show are the actors who play Eric and Jason-not too bad on the eyes , and each are protrayed a little differently on the show. I like Book Eric better, but TV Jason better. The current Fae storyline was in two books I believe, and they are just now introducing it into the story on True Blood. Is it graphic? Sure is. Violent? Yep-I have a strong stomach and there were a few time I had to look away. But I think it does a good job for the target audience. I can't wait for next season, because I think there will be a lot more of the Sookie Stackhouse storylines incorporated. And the show would be just as great to be if they relied less on violence or sex so much and trusted the writers and actors, because I don't think they need so much of the shock factor now that there is a core audience following.