What the fuck happened to "True Blood"?

Oh “True Blood”, what the fuck has happened to you? Here you are in your fourth season of existence, and you’re just sucking (no pun intended) so goddamn much these days that I can’t even put it into words anymore. Blasphemy you may say, as the show’s ratings are doing better than ever and the series has achieved a beloved fanbase that rivals another HBO smash hit show that went off the deep end towards the end, “The Sopranos”. Then again, it isn’t all that hard to love a show that features supernatural elements, blood, and Anna Paquin’s tits. That all being said, let’s take a look at what the fuck has happened to “True Blood”…

The first two seasons of the show, the second one in particular, I absolutely loved. For so long I looked at “True Blood” as something along the likes of being something along the sort of a “Twilight”-esque affair, but with balls, blood, tits, and no douche bag metrosexual sparkly vampires. Well…things changed quite heavily in the third season. Werewolves were introduced, which wasn’t so bad (and something I actually looked forward to), but now here we are with fairies, trolls, witches, and other assorted elements of the paranormal fantasy-esque ideas that just drain all the fun out of the show.

That in itself is my biggest pet peeve with “True Blood” today; it just isn’t fun anymore. There was never an assortment of great writing or acting to be featured on the show before, but it had its own brand of charm to it that made it devilishly enjoyable. Now, it’s just ridiculous. What’s next? Are we going to have zombies, giants, and fucking Keebler elves coming out of the woodwork to take on the vamps? Is the whole Eric losing his memory bullshit ever going to be anything but boring? Is Tara ever going to fuck off and die, or what else is she going to become besides a butch lesbian MMA fighter? Seriously, where the fuck else is “True Blood” going to go before it finally completely goes off the deep end?

Now, keep in mind that for a show about vampires existing in the modern world, I don’t expect any brand of realism, but I expect it to be at least fun. As for the books that the show is based upon, I’ve never read a single one, but from what I’ve heard from people that have, they tend to get progressively worse as they go on. With the way that “True Blood” has been going thus far, I think that it’s safe to say that this is a sign of things to come for the show…

…and there’s only so much that blood and Anna Paquin’s tits can do to make up for a progressively shitty TV show.

Why HBO and the NHL need to unite again

Last time around I talked about the Winter Classic, and how NBC practically fucked the whole thing up due to their "creative" choices in camera work. One thing that I neglected to mention was the amazing four-part documentary that led up to the annual NHL mega-event, "24/7: Penguins/Capitals". If you missed out on this four hour long special and you're an NHL fan, you've been done a great disservice.

Anyway, what "24/7" managed to do was give viewers an inside view on the locker room interactions, day-to-day team affairs, and portraits of various players on both the Penguins and Capitals, leading up to the Winter Classic. It was profane, it was surprisingly graphic, and it was undoubtedly honest as well, as the series began with the Penguins sitting high atop the standings and superstar Sidney Crosby in the middle of a massive points-streak, while Alex Ovechkin and his Capitals were mirred in a big losing streak. By the time the documentary came to an end, viewers were given an on-ice view of the action on the rink, and it was just simply brilliant.

What I'm trying to get at here is that this is something that the NHL and HBO both need to do again. In press interviews or intermission reports, NHL players more often than not come off as humble, relatively polite, and have little in the way of personality, but as "24/7" showed us, that just isn't quite the case. The on-ice mayhem and shit talking, combined with the behind-the-scenes developments of the respective teams made for compulsive television watching. So much so that the ratings for this edition of "24/7" was a ratings juggernaut for HBO, coinciding with the ratings smash that this year's Winter Classic wound up being as well.

This is a sure-fire way to draw new fans into the sport of hockey and the NHL itself all at the same time. By providing these intimate looks at the players, teams, coaches, and even the fucking refs (who surprisingly came off as some just plain cool sons of bitches), one can learn just what the sport really is all about, and just how truly special a sport it is.

NHL athletes have more passion for their sport than any other brand of athlete in any other sport in the world today.

Don't believe me? Take a look at that picture (above) of Capitals center Matt Hendricks again.

That's what I thought.

Come on HBO, work some more magic with the NHL again, and soon.