HBO, 17 June 2012
Everyone is going off the rails. Tara is mighty angry and goes on the rampage; Terry is cracking up and worrying Arlene; Jason’s past sexual escapades are catching up with him; and Sam’s putting his foot in it with Luna. Meanwhile, Bill and Eric get locked up and tortured by the Authority.
There comes a point in any long running series when all kinds of opaque background details in the fictional world are explored and brought out into the open. With True Blood this is The Authority. They’ve always been a rather shadowy organization and all we’ve really seen of them in any detail is Nan Flanagan’s ‘media face of vampires’. Now, we get to not only to see them face-to-face, but we learn quite a bit about the vampire chancellors, their agenda and the history of the vampires.
On one level, this satisfies some of the viewer’s curiosity and desire to know more. On another, however, it removes the veneer of enigma and ambiguity that gives the narrative such depth. We see them, and it’s all a little bit ‘so so…’. Here it’s a bit predictable, like the vampire ‘governments’ that have been seen before in Blade, Kindred: The Embraced, Underworld and probably a few more. Well, what else could it be?
Verdict: There are a lot of mysteries and problems being set up – not least some signs of life from ex-King Russell. Let’s hope those storylines get going soon!
Episode 2 ‘Authority Always Wins’: 6/10
Brigid Cherry
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