Crazy Random Happenstance

Billy: So good... Hey, this is weird. I ordered one frozen yogurt and they gave me two. You don't happen to like frozen yogurt, do you?
Penny: I love it!
Billy: You're kidding? What a crazy random happenstance!
-Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Monday, August 19, 2013

Fairy Vampire Brides.

Well, I have had a whole night and an entire morning to process last night's season 6 (I can't believe we are six seasons down already) finale of True Blood and here is my main thought about it; I don't get it.

I don't get it.

I was going to post something about it on Facebook to get your thoughts,  but for fear of stirring up spoilers for those who have not yet watched the enigma of that episode or of the entire season, I retreat to my blog. So, I'm going to throw out another SPOILER ALERT just in case because I am about to spout off about what I liked and didn't like about the season. And just a warning... This will probably be ranty and rambly and a little disjointed. Not unlike the season itself.

Here we (I) go:

I don't know what the point of this season was. The first year it was Bill and Sookie, the second year it was The Fellowship of The Sun and Maryann, season three was Sookie looking for Bill, who was with Russell Edgington, the 4th season was Eric losing his memory and those stupid witches, last season was all that Lillith crap and this season? No idea. Warlow, I guess? OK, I'll start with him... Warlow who they have been talking about for the past two seasons and finally brought to light this season (and whom I REALLY, really liked, by the way), only to see him killed, almost without any struggle at all, halfway through the finale? Warlow, who was promised Sookie thousands of years ago and was going to make her is Fairy/Vampire Bride?? Huh?

Sam and that girl? I say "that girl" because I have no idea what her name is and I don't feel like looking it up. She was Michelle's friend on Full House, I know that. That will help you know who I am talking about. I guess she was there with her friends to research Shifters and Werewolves? They were recording a fight between Alcide and his pack (UGH) and the wolves flipped out and killed two of the friends but Michelle Tanner's friend was saved by Sam. Who also saved his dead girlfriend, Luna's daughter, Emma from the pack but I don't know why the pack wanted her. I guess because she's a wolf, they figured they had a right to keep her? I don't know. Anyway, Luna died, Sam saved Emma and that girl and they went to a motel to hide. Sam and that girl have sexytimes (LITERALLY one day after Luna dies. I mean, really?!) and they decide to give Emma to her creepy grandma for safe keeping. Alcide's pack wants Sam and the girl dead (again, I don't know why) and Alcide decides to stop growling all the time and has a change of heart and lets them go. Maybe his hair was finally getting to him? Maybe his throat hurt from all the growling he's been doing, so that's why he lied to his pack and those two awful, awful girls and told them he killed them. They knew he was lying, so he left the pack. He's his OWN wolf, guys!! Then he started lurking around Sookie the last two episodes. It wasn't really explained why. He missed her, I guess. I just don't know!

Terry died. He had one of his old war companions shoot him, right after Arlene had a vampire wipe his memory of all the bad things. So we got to see him happy finally and then get dead two scenes later. It wasn't unexpected but it was sad. I really liked Terry. I thought he was a great character and he made me smile. I know a lot of people were annoyed by the super long funeral/flashback episode they did for him but I loved it. It was such great insight into all of the characters. Lafayette's was my favorite. I just thought it was really sweet.

Oh, I  know! The governor and the vampire jail he had built. That was the point of the season, right?? All our favorite vamps were captured by the vampire police and analyzed and experimented on. There was a lot of standing around and Sarah Newlin was in on the captures, helping the Governor until Billith came and killed him, so she took over. Sarah Newlin makes me laugh. Sarah and Steve Newlin crack me up. I'm never disappointed when they are on the screen. We find out later that Sarah and The Governor were having the new supply of True Blood injected with "Hep-V", a serum lethal to all vampires.

I guess the point of Bill turning into Lillith was for him to save his friends once they were faced with their True Deaths and meeting the sun while in the vampire jail? He had Warlow's blood (who is half fairy, so he can walk in the sun), so he rescued the others by having them feed off his Warlow induced blood. Then he turned back into regular Bill. Oooookaaaaay.

Warlow professed his love to Sookie. They make sexytimes. She has feelings for him, considers becoming his fairy/vampire bride, ends up asking him if they can just date for awhile (LOLZ) and he.flips.out. Gets very angry, tries to make Sookie a vamp but she is saved by Jason (yay!) and her grandfather (yay.) and that is the end of Warlow. Three seasons that name or the idea of him has been on the show and now it's all done. I get it, they need to move the story along but damnit, I really loved Robert Kazinsky on the show.

Here's some random thoughts I thought at one point or another during the season:
-I don't like Jason's new vampire girlfriend, Violet. I don't like her at all.
-I loved Andy's storyline with his fairy babies and really, really like Adelein.
-I really like Willa. I hope she sticks around.
-Sam and that girl are having a baby.
-I love Jason Stackhouse so much.
-Bill is so useless to me.
-Is it just me, or did the secret fairy world look like it had been decorated by the entire silk floral department of Michael's?
-It was so nice to get a break from Pam and Tara yelling at everyone all the time.
-Steve Newlin met the true death and his parting words made me laugh so much. "I love you, Jason Stackhouse!" Don't we all, Reverend Newlin. Don't. We. All.
-This was probably the grossest season to date. 

We got a flashforward at the end of the episode. It was six months later. What did we discover from that?
-Sam is the mayor of Bon Temps. (Uhhh, sure)
-Sookie is with Alcide. He got a haircut. SOOKIE IS WITH ALCIDE. They were calling each other "honey" and "hon" and WHAT?
-Sam wants every citizen of Bon Temp and the surrounding areas to have a vampire chauffeur because there are tons of Hep-V infected vamps roaming the state. (I think)
-Jessica offered her protection to Andy and Adelein because she's feels awful for killing his other fairy daughters. (I love Andy a lot).
-They were testing everyone's blood... to see if they were a carrier for?? Hep-V? I don't know. I didn't understand that.
-Tara fed off her mom. (Gross)

And guys, the thing I am the most angry about. That I wanted to yell at my TV for:
THEY CHANGED THE NAME OF MERLOTTE'S TO BELLEFLEUR'S.
No.
No.
No.

Go ahead, change the story from the book. Don't keep it the same. Make the characters different. Change the love stories, but do not, DO NOT change the name of the damn bar that is the heart of the F'ing book and show. That is just wrong and makes me so angry.

And finally, the thing I have been avoiding and I'm sure you are all thinking "Hey Sarah, when are you going to mention that one part about that one vampire that we all love and whose story they left completely hanging?"

Eric.

He's not dead, you guys. He's not. Pam will save him and we will have our Sheriff back. Because there is no True Blood without Eric. You can't keep annoying characters like Bill and Tara around and not have Eric. It doesn't work that way and the fact that they are trying to make us believe that he was indeed killed off, kind of infuriates me. It's gimmicky and it's lazy storytelling. It wasn't even a heroic death. Eric Northman would not die while sunbathing naked, reading a book in Alaska (or wherever he was). No. Stop it. Don't even try it.

He's not dead. He's just not. 

The episode ended with a hoard of Hep-V infected vampires descending upon Merlotte's (I will not call it Bellefleur's and you can't make me) to attack all the humans and vamps there.

Overall did I like the season? I really did. Aside from the Sam/Alcide stuff and a few minor things, I enjoyed the season a lot. Way way way way better than last year anyway. I have no idea what to expect from season seven. I'm not even going to speculate. This show has been so disjointed and all over the place, I have no expectations whatsoever.

So, what did you guys think? Am I alone in my complaints? Did you love what I loved? Was Warlow's love tree the tackiest thing you have ever seen? (Yes.)

Tell me your thoughts. Go.


Friday, August 9, 2013

I Like Books.

I read a lot. You know this. Like, A LOT-A LOT. I like all kinds of books. Young Adult, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biographies, Sci-Fi, Romance, whatever. If someone suggests a book to me or lends me one, odds are I am going to read it. I have no prejudices with my reading material. Wait. That's a lie. I have pretty much refused to read any and all books by Jodi Picoult or Nicholas Sparks. I don't read to cry. I read to be transported to new worlds, not to become depressed. So, they are always on my "No thanks" list.

So, aside from those two authors, I am pretty much game for anything. I may hem and haw about starting a book (like I did with The Hunger Games) but I will eventually get around to it and love it (like I did with The Hunger Games). Which brings me to the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. The first book (Divergent) came out in 2011 but I first heard about it from my niece, Emily, last year. She was reading it with her friends. Let me do a little sidebar for just a quick minute... for those that don't know; Emily is obsessed with The Hunger Games. She loves that book series so much that she found it really hard (much like how I was after Harry Potter) to pick up and start reading a different book when she was done with it. So that made it difficult for her to get into Divergent. Throw in the fact that the story is somewhat along the same lines as HG and you have a frustrated girl. Long story short, she gave up on it so I didn't give it a second thought. Until. Until I saw that they were making a movie out of it (to be released March 21, 2014). My curiosity was piqued. Then Em's super cute BFF, Jules (who also loves The Hunger Games) kept talking about how fantastic the series was. Then my friend, Bill decided to read it and I was sold. So I broke down and bought the first book.

Quick, basic summary of the story without giving spoilers:
It is set in a Dystopian Society arranged into 5 different Factions. 16yr old Beatrice Prior has to decide if she wants to leave her original faction (Abnegation) or choose one of the other four (Dauntless, Ammity, Candor or Erudite) and move on from the life she has always known.

That's the most simple synopsis I can present you, without giving anything away. I always think the blurbs on the backs of books tell too much of the story when you read them, so I'm not going to quote that on here. Just know that I loved this book and the sequel (Insurgent) a whole heck of a lot. It's not very often that a book or series can get my mind racing and my heart pumping like this one did. Just like with Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Night Circus, I was absolutely, completely enthralled by this story. Immersed in it. It has so much heart and a whole lot of action and it makes you question the type of person you really are. It made me think and it made me connect to the characters so much that it left me hungry for more. It is absolutely similar to HG but it's also very different. The third and final book in the series (Allegiant) comes out on October 22nd. I'm pretty excited about it. They are also releasing a series of four short stories told from the perspective of one of the other characters in the book. I would tell you which character the stories are told from but that would give things away. IF you choose to start the series, you will probably be able to figure it out without googling it.

Anyway, that's today's recommendation. Divergent by Veronica Roth. Also, let me mention that once I finished reading those first two books in her series, I decided to do what any social media savvy gal would do and seek out as much information about her as I could (without being stalker-y) and I discovered that she is 24 years old. She is 24 years old. I know I just repeated myself. That is how much my mind is blown that someone in her early 20's could write such a fascinating story and have it published by the time she was 22. 24 years old and there is a movie being made based off of HER book. HER idea. HER story. Boggles my mind. My mind is boggled. I am amazed and wowed and envious and 100 percent admiring of her talent. So inspiringly awesome.

It also makes me feel like I have failed at life.

Read it.

Sticking with this book themed post...

I watched The Host last weekend. You know, the movie, based on the book, by Stephenie Meyer? I read the book after it first came out. It was a decent read. I would never read it again. It had an incredibly slow start but I ended up really enjoying the overall story. I always thought it would do better as a movie than a book because the story's progression is so slow. Yeah... not so much. Snoozefest. They fast forwarded the story but kept it just as slow and mundane as the book. I liked the characters. It looked good. It was just boring. There were times when I had no clue what the people were saying because they were speaking so quietly. That does not make for a thrilling movie, let me tell you. So, I guess if you were a fan of the book, go ahead and give it a watch but otherwise... ZZzzzZZZZzzzzz

I am currently reading Austenland by Shannon Hale. It's about a girl who is obsessed with Pride and Prejudice and Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy. She goes on vacation to a resort of sorts in England where she is immersed in the world of Jane Austen. I'm only a few pages in so far but I'm enjoying it. Also, they made a movie based on the book last year and it stars Keri Russel (whom I adore).


And finally, the last few chapters of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban are open on Pottermore. I will admit, I am still in the beginning part of Chamber of Secrets because I got so frustrated with how slowly they were opening the chapters that I kind of gave up. I still love it. I still think it's brilliant but I hate being on a roll and cruising through the chapters, only to get to the end and have the next one locked. I'll get back into it eventually. Maybe I'll wait until Goblet of Fire opens and I'll have some time to cruise through a bunch all at once.