Alan Ball, the producer and director of the smash hit HBO show "True Blood" is on top of two worlds - the world we live in as viewers and the small, fictional world of Bon Temps, La. where his ensemble of dynamic and sexually charged characters is housed.
At the red carpet premiere of season three, Ball was able to overlook the enormity of the press, celebrities and fans that were present. In anticipation for the new season, Rutina Wesley, the actress that plays character Tara Thorton said, "The plot lines are out of this world … it's going to be the best season."
That was June 8. Now that the season finale has come and gone, fans are sighing in disbelief that another summer and another season of the show is over. Viewers recounting the intensity of the literally head-spinning sex and vampire blood-induced psychedelic trips from this past season will feel a sense of emptiness upon returning to ordinary life.
Just as all seemed to be settling down in Bon Temps, Ball took the world he had carefully constructed and violently ruptured it - in less than 60 minutes. Though the final episode was suspenseful, it was not climactic because the plot seemed to fall flat.
With a storyline as complicated as the hierarchy of supernatural beings on the show itself, the task of at least coming to some sort of meaningful climax proved too difficult for Ball. Essentially, season two's finale triumphed over season three's finale because of the climatic end to Maryanne, the maenad that had caused continual conflict throughout the second season.
Plot analysis aside, the episode did a good job creating a recurring theme. Each character's situation reflected the importance of making the right decision - or deviating from what is considered right. This is exemplified in Hoyt Fortenberry's rebellion against his mother's wishes, Tara's coming to terms with the violation that she experienced, Eric Northman's listening to Godric's ghost at first and then defying it - you get the picture.
When the credits began rolling, I could feel the excitement of all of the possible directions each individual storyline could take, but then I remembered that I would have to wait almost a whole year before the next episode.
The result was a slight feeling of annoyance - that I had been cheated out of something, perhaps my time being foremost. The finale did offer one promising hope: Maybe Stephen Moyer, the actor playing Bill Compton, would have less airtime with the latest revelation in Bill and Sookie's relationship and could maybe afford some acting lessons in his spare time.