True Blood Tells The Emmys To Bite It

I’m writing this recap an hour or so before, I assume, True Blood loses the Best Drama Award at this year’s Emmys. An hour earlier, True Blood kicked off its second to last episode with what might possibly be the best thing they’ve ever done: a slo-mo In Memoriam montage honoring all the characters who have kicked the bucket over the past three seasons.

The montage didn’t skimp on the blood, guts, or nudity we’ve come to expect for the show, or even poking fun at their ridiculous character names (I think the high point was probably the title card honoring, “Vikings”). And it came at nine o’clock, mere minutes before the Emmys broadcast their own, far more serious In Memoriam montage. So there’s no mistaking that this was a pointed reference to the show being on opposite the Emmys. What I do think is up for debate is what this means in the long run – and it entirely depends on whether True Blood wins the Emmy or not:

• If True Blood loses the Emmy, this comes off as, “Eh, we knew we wouldn’t win anyway, so let’s have a little fun.”
• If True Blood wins the Emmy, this comes off as, “The Emmys are the biggest joke of all time.”

And I say this because, by taking all the “dramatic” moments in the show, and compiling them into the most hilarious montage ever, the creators of the show – or at least HBO’s marketing department – is pointing out what those of us in the True Blood audience have long ago realized: the show is a comedy.

Another iron for the fire was the one dramatic clip the Emmy producers found for their Best Drama montage, of Anna Paquin’s Lenny in Of Mice and Men style delivery of “Goodbye Godric,” from last season. I hadn’t watched half the shows in the montage, but I understood how they all were dramatic, powerful moments over the past season. The clip from True Blood was the only one that made me laugh out loud.

It’s not that the show doesn’t attempt to do dramatic moments. As we round the end of the season, we’re getting plenty, from Tara and Sam’s lonely drinking, to Jason Stackhouse confronting the ghost of his past. But this show is always best when it realizes how ridiculous it is, and embraces it. So kudos for giving the Emmys the finger (or should I say... fanger???), True Blood. And Emmy voters? Try not to take everything so seriously.

Next up, we need to make everyone understand that Glee is actually bad. One step at a time, though.

Random Notes:

• “Just like a virgin.” Love you, Lafayette.
• I like to imagine that, when they cut into the scene of Crystal telling Jason that she’s a were-panther, that she’s been trying to explain it to him for three hours.
• I’m sorry, what happened to Sam last episode that he’s so angry? He remembered a thing?
• It must save a lot on the budget to just dress Crystal in potato sacks.
• I wish that the (spoilers on) cliffhanger wasn’t so fricking obvious. We’ve already established that older vampires meet sun-death quicker, last season. So Russell will a-splode, and then Eric runs inside. In fact, I’m gonna be pissed if they don’t do this for some reason. Ah well.