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    Not Nan

    The season of the bitch ends in deaths & messy threesomes: Where True Blood goesfrom here

    Tarra Gaines
    Sep 12, 2011 | 11:45 am
    • True Blood no longer has Nan.
    • Snooki's still around though, still slightly annoying, still unsure who sheshould be with.
    • Season 5 of vampire mayhem is already on tap.

    Did you see that beautiful full moon Sunday night, Houston? It certainly provided ambient lighting for a final visit to Bon Temps, Louisiana, the hometown of HBO’s ratings-gorging supernatural, southern gothic soap opera, True Blood. Early during the cable giant’s promotions for 2011, the network promised viewers this would be the season of the witch.

    While the villains of season four were indeed a couple of angry witches, they were just two of many ass-kicking women that helped the season of the witch become the season of the bitch.

    Last year during season three, the testosterone flowed almost as much the blood did with the fight against the vampire king of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, and his pack of werewolves minions dominating the plots. This season the women grabbed all the power and boy, or rather girl, did they get their bitch on.

    Sure vampire/vampire/part-faerie menage a trois relationships must struggle against society’s ignorance and disdain, but the romantic in me thinks True Blood threesome love will conquer all.

    The season began with Anna Paquin’s Sookie Stackhouse, the show’s ever plucky, though frequently annoying, telepathic heroine combating a violently hospitable faerie queen and ended with Sookie combating the spirit of recently deceased witch Marnie Stonebrook, played by the great Irish actress Fiona Shaw. In early episodes, Mousey Marnie, a witch who channels the dead, teamed up with the dead, but still powerful Spanish witch, Antonia. Their bitchy living/dead partnership caused much of the season’s fatalities, but like many True Blood villains, the witches were given enough motivation to make their rage interesting and even understandable.

    Many of the plots showed victimized women tapping into their inner or supernatural power and then that power corrupting them until victim became avenging victimizer, as was the story with Marnie and Antonia. Still other characters were just born to bitchiness.

    The girl-power season also lead to that soap opera staple, the relationship triangle, becoming very male heavy. It was a season of two boys for every girl, much to the chagrin of many of the boys.

    Teen vamp Jessica found herself bored with boyfriend Hoyt and lusting after Sookie’s brother Jason, who finally managed to quite literally crawl out of the gross inbred werepanther plot.

    Shapeshifter Sam fell for nice school teacher and fellow shapeshifter, Luna, but got into a weird, even by True Blood standards, triangle involving Luna’s werewolf ex-husband, Marcus, and then the triangle morphed into a square for an episode when Sam’s skinwalker brother, Tommy, impersonated Sam.

    Meanwhile, actual bitch, werewolf Debbie Pelt was tempted by Marcus to leave her fellow werewolf husband Alcide, who was still harboring feelings for Sookie.

    Sookie, really didn’t have much time for Alcide, because when she wasn’t battling witches, she was trying to choose between her former lover, the newly crowned vampire king of Louisiana Bill Compton, and her new, really old, lover the 1,000-year-old Viking and present day vampire sheriff, Eric Northman. Eric lost his memory, but not his fangs, after a run in with Marnie. Through kooky happenstance that involved a deadly vampire/witch showdown in a cemetery — really an average Sunday night in Bon Temps — Sookie drank both Eric and Bill’s blood within a 24 hour period.

    In a dream, her vampire blood-drunken bitchy subconscious complained that she’s sick of her vampire boyfriends claiming ownership of her and decides to claim ownership of them both.

    By the last episode, after nearly dying while bickering and chained to each other in a fire, and being rescued by Sookie, various witches, and Sookie’s dead grandmother, Bill and Eric put on adorable matching purple robes and drank from Sookie at the same time. Sookie dumps them both, but I really think those three crazy kids should just go for it.

    Sure vampire/vampire/part-faerie menage a trois relationships must struggle against society’s ignorance and disdain, but the romantic in me thinks True Blood threesome love will conquer all.

    Even the steadiest relationship on the show between ex-drug dealer/current fry cook and powerful medium, Lafayette Reynolds, and his boyfriend nurse/witch Jesus Velasquez ended in death by triangle as angry, dead women kept possessing Lafayette. They might have been drawn to Lafayette for his shamanistic powers he couldn’t control, but they no doubt stayed for his wardrobe.

    Poor Jesus wins my vote for one of the saddest deaths on True Blood, when the possessed Lafayette ended up taking Jesus’ powers and stabbing him through the heart. And with him died one of the few happy relationship on the show, while bringing the total number of Hispanic, gay, witch, nurse characters on television down to zero.

    And with him died one of the few happy relationship on the show, while bringing the total number of Hispanic, gay, witch, nurse characters on television down to zero.

    True Blood creator and show runner, Alan Ball, certainly wasn’t done culling the large supernatural herd, however. The season also saw the end of several other characters introduced last season, including Sam’s brother Tommy and the annoying Debbie Pelt.

    Finally, it deeply pains me to report the death of one truly awesome bitch, Nan Flanigan, spokeswoman for the American Vampire League, and PR goddess. She looked equally lovely and scary lounging about the house in black leather as she did wearing her pink power suits and pearls when defending vampire rights on cable news shows. Unbeknownst to many she was also a trained, caring and certified first responder. I’ll miss you most of all, Nan.

    Alan Ball recently signed up for season five, so he it appears he had no regrets leaving many characters hanging from several proverbial cliffs. Let’s all meet back here under a full moon next summer to see if Tara is really dead, if the faeries are invading, how the Reverend Newlin became a vampire, and best of all just how cranky Russell Edgington is going to be after escaping his concrete prison.

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    Movie Review

    28 Years Later revives zombie franchise for new generation

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 20, 2025 | 5:00 pm
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
    Photo by Miya Mizuno
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.

    The 2000s brought two of the best zombie movies ever made in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Both films, despite being made by different filmmakers, featured intense action with fast-moving zombies, harrowing sequences, and real emotional connections with their main characters. Now the original director and writer — Danny Boyle and Alex Garland — have returned with the first of a possible three sequels, 28 Years Later.

    The rage virus from the first two films that turns humans into insatiable monsters has successfully been contained to the United Kingdom, and one group of survivors has managed to band together on a small island off the coast of England. We’re introduced to the group through Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), and his son, Spike (Alfie Williams).

    Isla is sick with an unknown illness, while Jamie is set to take the 12-year-old Spike on his first trip to the mainland to hunt zombies. That trip not only gives Spike an education as to the different types of feral zombies that now populate England, but also a clue that other people have survived there. When he discovers that one of them may be a doctor, he makes plans to take his mother there in hopes of finding a cure for whatever ails her.

    While the first two films were notable for their brisk pace that kept the potency of the stories high, Boyle and Garland almost go in the opposite direction for much of this film. The first 90 minutes are relatively slow, with only a couple of sequences that raise the blood pressure. The final half hour or so go a long way toward filling that void, so it’s clear that the filmmakers were biding their time for the story to come in the sequel. A bit more balance in this film would have served them well, though.

    What they do show involves some weird, wild stuff that is objectively upsetting, even for fans of the genre. The zombies have evolved in strange ways, giving them a variety of body shapes and abilities to suit the environment in which they live. These storytelling choices may thrill some and have others scratching their heads. Another human character living on his own (played by Ralph Fiennes), appears to have gone the way of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with a revelation that is bone-chilling.

    Boyle, who’s directed everything from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, doesn’t have a signature style, and he makes some choices in this film that test your patience. He occasionally employs an odd technique in which the film stutters, for a lack of better term. It’s a bit jarring, especially since it doesn’t seem to improve the storytelling. He also inserts scenes from older films involving medieval warfare that emulate the bow-and-arrow weaponry used by characters in this film, but the exact connection he’s trying to make is unclear.

    The young Williams has a lot put on his shoulders in the film, and he proves to be up to the task of carrying the story. He isn’t precocious or annoying, instead reacting almost exactly like you’d expect a boy of his age to do when faced with extreme situations. Taylor-Johnson and Comer are good complements for him, drawing him out with their polar opposite characters. Fiennes makes a huge impression in the final act of the film, while Jack O’Connell makes a very brief appearance, teasing a bigger role to come.

    It’s difficult to fully judge 28 Years Later because it’s designed to only give you part of the story; part 2, The Bone Temple, is due in 2026, while a third film will follow if the first two do well. This film has its moments and winds up on the positive side of the ledger, but it’s also a frustrating experience that could have used a more stand-alone story.

    ---

    28 Years Later is now playing in theaters.

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