True Blood (TV Series) Save Yourself (2012) User Reviews

True Blood Season 5 finale

[autumn-470-634712 · 7/10 · 7 September 2012]

True Blood: A Review

We all have guilty pleasures. Mine happens to be the saucy HBO series True Blood. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, the story is rooted in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. In the backwaters and thick woods creeps something far worse than gators... VAMPIRES... as well as several other supernatural creatures and humanoids.

I can't say I've taken part in the hype over vampire romance stories. But this show is set apart by the its interesting take on the concept and, of course, its mature content.. it is HBO. The series can be a bit a silly at times, but there is something about it that keeps drawing me back season after season.

The fifth season finale aired June 10th, 2012, and, like usual, the cliffhanger is unbearable. The actions cuts off at the pinnacle of suspense and the teaser that airs after the credits leaves you with even more questions. Sadly, we True Blood fans will have to wait until next summer to catch a glimpse of Alexander Skarsgard sweaty and shirtless.

All of the fifth season's episodes have been foreplay to the big battle that takes place within the headquarters of The Authority. Over the first four seasons, the female protagonist, Sookie, develops personal (very personal) relationships with the two vampires Bill and Eric. But in the finale she breaks it off entirely with the two of them... yet another intense cliffhanger. In the fifth season, she stays true to her word and begins a romance with a werewolf.

Oh yeah... and she's a fairy.

There are a few occasions when the new villains and twists each season seem like a stretch. The "werepanthers" and witch covenant were several of the weakest aspects in the show. On the other hand, the a maenad shown in season two was an inventive and atypical antagonist. In Greek mythology, a maenad is a female follower of the god Dionysus. They influenced people to act on their primal instincts, like hunger, violence, lust, romance, anger, and greed.

This last season seemed to surpass the third and fourth in quality of plot, though several of the minor characters seemed to have reached the end of their potential. The most intriguing aspect was the complete role reversal of Eric and Bill in comparison to the first season. In the beginning of the show, Bill Compton plays the role of the sympathetic, humanized vampire, whereas Eric Northman is the bloodthirsty, self-centered villain. In season five, Bill has completely lost touch with his humanity and becomes power hungry and merciless. Eric takes on the burden of stopping Bill at all costs and rescuing the human race from a vampire uprising.

The final episode is a bloodbath where all of the major characters' stories come together. Sookie is once again thrown into a life-threatening scenario where it is unclear whose intentions are pure and who is driven by their own ulterior motives.

Overall, the show has maintained the element of surprise and continues to deliver action and excitement. If you are a fan, you will not be disappointed in the fifth season. If you are not, and you are looking for a bit more fantasy and perhaps fluff in your television series, check out True Blood.

Eric,Sookie,Nora,Tara and Jason face Bill,Salome and Lilith.

[conchuir97 · 9/10 · 27 August 2012]

BEWARE OF SPOILERS! every season of true blood has always brought fear,humor,intensity and of course lots of blood. From murderers and Maenads to kings and witches every season has had brilliant cliffhangers but once Salome met the true death and bill drank all the blood of Lilith all hell broke loose.blood poured out of bill's eyes,mouth and ears and he fell apart as though he met the true death but bill then rose from his blood as Lilith did. bill became God and got his fangs out. this terrified Eric and Sookie and they ran away. bill has turned to slaughter and brutality, he gave up his mainstreaming ways.bill changed into what he hated and now that hatred has become him. will Eric be able to stop him? will any supernatural be able to stop the true rebirth of Lilith within bill? we'll just have to wait till next summer!

S5.E12 - Satisfying Finale [9/10]

[panagiotis1993 · 9/10 · 15 November 2023]

(S5. E12) My Live Reaction / Review for True Blood Season 5 Episode 12 ''Save Yourself''. Episode 11 was good and I gave it a rating of 9.3/10. Let's see if this one is better or worse. Eric just killed Russell, I didn't see that coming. The werewolves have a serious addiction problem with the V. Jason is ready for war, I like it. Fairies like salt? Didnt know that. It's kinda weird that Jason keeps seeing his dead parents. The way Sam killed that vampire was super badass. Tara kisses Pam? I saw that coming. What is going on with Salome? Did Bill poison her? Yes he did, damn. Bill drinks Lilith's blood and dies? And then he is reborn? That's some crazy blood. Overall this was a pretty good episode, my rating is 9/10.

Season 5 review : somewhat disappointing

[manutoo · 6/10 · 8 September 2012]

This is a review of the whole season, not only the final.

This season has been somewhat disappointing. The show has become much of a drama, almost a soap one : there are a lot of characters, fighting each other to grab some air time displaying all their stories that have almost no connection whatsoever between them. At the end, it means all the little stories go too fast, without much depth nor real interest, at the image of Bill change : 1 episode, he's his old self, the next one is totally something else. In the middle, he got high and didn't seem to think much about his "revelation".

I have never been a true fan of True Blood ; so far the show was globally worth 7/10 ; this 5th season is worth 6/10 ; it's still totally watchable & a nice way to pass time, but it's not a should-see anymore.

Off the tracks, but still going.

[fredschaefer-406-623204 · 6/10 · 7 August 2013]

Think I speak for many TRUE BLOOD fans when I say we're not watching the same series anymore; originally the show was about the citizens of Bon Temps, Louisiana, some of whom were human and alive, while others were not quite human and most definitely no longer among the living. Still, Bon Temps was one of those little Southern towns where everyone is a character, a cliché beloved by fiction writers.

And as long as the action remained centered around waitress Sookie Stackhouse and her vampire lovers, Bill and Eric, TRUE BLOOD was a great and genuine guilty pleasure, filled with sex, blood, and gore, with little or no redeeming social values.

But by the end of Season 5 things have strayed far afield and the main criticism I could make is that way too much is going on among way too many characters, with none of it really tying together the way plot threads should. It is the way they string along Alcide and the shifters; Bill and Eric and The Authority; Sookie and Jason and the Faerie nightclub; Tara and Pam trying very unsuccessfully to keep a low profile at Fangtasia; Sam and Luna skulking around in The Authority's underground lair in an attempt to rescue Luna's daughter. Oh, Russell Edgington is back and preparing to chomp down on Sookie and her faerie friends. Then there was the pregnant faerie knocked up by Sheriff Andy. At least they had resolved the subplot concerning Iraqi War vet Terry and the smoke monster he'd been cursed with; I spent half the season waiting for Mr. Echo and Benjamin Linus to show up.

It all added up to a lot of "meanwhile" and "meanwhile" storytelling as the viewer tried to keep track of it all. But I think the worst sin the scriptwriters committed was to take the action out of Bon Temps and to defuse the tension between Sookie and Bill and Eric; in no way do I buy the changes in the character of Bill Compton over the course of the season; all culminating in the birth of Billith. Did we really need another thinly veiled analogy on the evils of religious fanaticism?

Other complaints: for a Big Bad, Russell got taken down pretty easily and I think Denis O'Hare was much scarier on American HORROR STORY; the way Alcide easily dispatched JD and became pack leader after a sip of V; all the glimpses of Sam Merlotte's bare ass as he shifted about in The Authority's lair, although it was neat when he shifted back to human after being swallowed as a fly by that nasty old vampire bitch, making her explode.

There were some good points to the episode and season 5: Michael McMillan as vampire Steve Newlin when he confessed his atrocities on live TV (it was really shifter Luna posing as Steve); and every TV show should write in a part for Robert Patrick. A hint to the creators over at THE WALKING DEAD: if they ever need anybody to play Darryl Dixon's father, Patrick is your man. Despite the flaws, the cast gave it their all, at no time did they seem bored or tired of their roles, even after five seasons.

And despite all my complaints, when the DVD set of of season 6 comes out, I'll be right in front of the TV, starting with episode one on disk one.

Season 5: Not back to its best but a solid recovery after season 4's mess for sure

[bob the moo · 15 November 2012]

Like many viewers, I didn't care much for the fourth season of this show; it had little of what made me enjoy it originally and instead it had endless messy threads few of which seemed to come together in any sort of meaningful way and generally there just seemed to be lots of "stuff" going on – most of which I didn't care about and even a major cliffhanger regarding a character I liked really had me going "meh". This didn't change much in the first episode of the 5th season as the events came thick and fast as old plots were tied up, ongoing ones were continued and new ones were put in place. It felt so much like the hollow busyness of the previous season that I was pretty much ready to call it a day and the only reason I didn't was that my partner wanted to watch two episodes back to back.

Doing this meant that I was able to stay with the show as it got all the mess out of its system in that first episode and then settled down (comparatively) to set out its stall for the season with a main plot and a handful of smaller ones that mostly fold into the main one. The result is that this season manages to avoid the total mess that was the fourth season and it does this by virtue of having more focus and fewer things on the edge of the field of vision. The main plot folds in nicely with most of the supporting characters, whether it be the werewolves, the shifters, Terry or Andy, there is at least a connection. This is not to say it is amazing though, just that improves upon the previous season. It is a solid plot line and produces lots of twists and turns – with many of them being the gory or sexual nature, which the show is mostly about delivering in fairness. The religious extremist vampires has some satirical teeth but it does disappoint by not pushing this more, instead it goes for following the narrative which I suppose does at least make sense as a solution to the problems of last season.

Mostly it does work; it provides sex, gore, comedy, action and an engaging plot with betrayals, deaths and other twists along the way. It never really captures that real heat it had in the first season, but it does a solid job of telling a decent story in a decent way and making it entertaining at the same time. The cast continue to do good jobs even as their material gets sillier – although some must feel it more than others. In particular Moyer must enjoy the colour of his character but lament the loss of substance to a certain extent. Paquin continues to do her thing but her character is surprisingly less central. Trammell and Kwanten continue to be good while Bauer is a good comedic character despite the distraction of him clearly having been working out some. Wesley doesn't have much range but her turning early in the season opens up material for her and she fits it pretty well. Ellis is wisely rested once his subplot is resolved – the show didn't use him well last time and as much as I like his character it is better for benching him. Woll, Skarsgard and others all do good work as part of a colourful cast that seem to "get" the tone of the material this season.

Is season 5 a triumph return to very best of True Blood? No, but it is a very solid return from the messy fourth season. The focus on one main thread and the connection of other threads to this central one works well and makes the season more controlled and engaging as a result – allowing it to deliver gore, twists and nudity as it always has. After the first episode I was ready to ditch it, but it settled in and hopefully it can continue this and improve into the fifth season.