TPG Talks 2010: Franklin On True Blood

"True Blood" is the ultimate summer television show. Each week it brings the heat with trashy characters, ridiculous violence, and some wild sex. That being said, I thought the season finale was type F- in it's quality. The show feels like it has to introduce witches, fairies, werewolves, werepanthers (there is a difference!) and all other types of magical creatures, but I'm only concerned about one character. My main meng Franklin Mott (featured above).

Franklin was a season 3 character that was completely batshit insane. In the beginning of the season he's on a mission for the Vampire King, but who cares, somewhere on his quest he falls in Beyonce style crazy love for Tara and then spends of the rest of the season complaining about how much he loves her. His lack of backstory and his bizarre temperament made him unpredictable, disturbing and fun. (VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS FOUL LANGUAGE)

Entourage Bests True Blood In Finale

I've been savoring "True Blood" all season. It was violent, trashy, sexy, full of supernatural creatures, and ridiculous southerners (aka rednecks). "Entourage" on the other hand was full of boring plots about Hollywood characters that I didn't really care about, but watched just because it was part of thislalife. But all that changed last night. "True Blood" was drenched in boring sangre and "Entourage" was high on drama.

"Entourage" has been on the air for seven years and with each season the show becomes more and more light weight. Oh no, Vince is losing money! It's OK he's still in a mansion surrounded by supermodels. E is having woman troubles, it's ok, Sloane is still in every other episode. There just was nothing at stake besides money. Until tonight. The season finale saw Vince's life implode in a drug binge. It was an intense urgent episde, and topped off by Ari's marriage melting down. This was well written drama and Adrian Grenier (Vince), Jeremy Piven (Ari), and Kevin Dillon (Drama) all delivered the acting goods. For once an episode ended with my friends not being like

"Entourage is so lame brah.....but Vince is the man dude"

"True Blood" on the other hand has been delivering the thrills for three seasons. This season saw vampires fighting werewolves, vampires ripping out people's spines, viking kings seeking vengeance, werepanthers (yes that is a werewolf panther) and some highly memorable characters (including my main man Franklin). Yet somehow all the momentum peaked in the second to last episode, leaving nothing but a blood drained body for a finale. Compared to last year's meat sacrifice showdown, there was no impending sense of closure, just lots of talking and Sookie being exceptionally unreasonable.

It's almost as if HBO gave us a weak finale for "True Blood" just so we're hungry for next weeks "Boardwalk Empire" which looks beyond awesome. See the trailer below.

The Weekend Wrap Up September 13th 2009

On the second weekend of the ninth month of 2009, Kanye West attempted to drop truth on Taylor Swift, True Blood ran dry (for now at least), and the great vortex of productive Sunday's known as the NFL officially began.

Taylor Swift is America's sweetheart, and Kanye West is our resident musical "genius" and apparently the two of them are "cool" after their little dust-up. However, I'm not buying it for a hot minute, it is clear through Swift's previous diss records (going after Joe Jonas) she is not one to back down. West on the other has no idea what he got himself into with this teenager, rapper beef is nothing compared to teenage rage, and I think Swift has a got a dark streak in her, check out her KISS get-up.

As for True Blood, besides the bull goring Mary Anne, I wasn't that impressed with the whole finale. I knew it was going to be disappointing when the resident Rambo, aka Jason Stackhouse, rolled into the devil party armed to the teeth and then quickly succumbed to the black eye syndrome without even blasting one small piece of his arsenal. Sometimes you want an epic showdown, and all you get with is Evan Rachel Wood playing Yahtzee, such is life.

I didn't realize how much time the NFL can suck from a young man's soul. Damn, it's so easy to sit there and watch football, it's like the couch is magnetic or demonic. In fact, not only is the couch possessed but it releases some type of pheromone that makes u crave pizza. I counted about an hour and 3 minutes before someone said "I think we should order pizza" like they were some type of robot. I'm trying to be healthy, and avoid that gut expanding pie of deliciousness, and luckily I had an escape plan ("Uhh, I have a dinner party to go to"). But damn, I don't know how long I'll last through the season

Stay tuned, should have some mind blowing posts this week.

Jack's back, the entourage continues, and the blood stay's mostly true

Last night on the television was a big one. Two popular shows ("Entourage" and "True Blood") ended their seasons and one hugely popular show returned after being absent for more than a year ("24"). I'm going to briefly share my thoughts of each of the three. Starting with the worst and ended up with the return of the modern day action hero, Jack "Torture Me" Bauer.

Just as plenty of girls flock to NYC to seek out their "Sex and the City" dreams, complete with Mr. Big's and cupcakes at Magnolia, "Entourage" is the same, except it's with dudes migrating to LA to seek money, power, respect, and babes. It's about friendship, sex, power, fame, fashion, more naked babes, and money. That being said, the season finale was decent, but not good enough. I don't care for Vinnie Chase cause he's a movie star, his problems are nothing compared to the rest of the world. My teachers at school always said "raise the stakes" and when you're a movie star trying to get a role, it's just not that interesting compared to saving African refuges.

This show, new this season, is "Twilight" for grown-ups and kid's who can get through their cable box's parental codes. Full of sex, blood, and violence, yet also jam packed with strong characters, the show has been a pleasant surprise. The finale was decent and wrapped up the major plot threads, it did a decent job of setting up next season, but it didn't pack that oh damn, shit, I gotta call my buddies moment as most finales do.


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, so good to have my boy Jack Bauer back on the TV, taking names and getting tortured for the good of others. Full disclosure here, I'm straight monkey bananas about this show. I see past all the politics, improbable plot lines, weak seasons, and ultra-dramatic story arcs and see it for what it is. Pure, action spy dankness (that means good). This "movie" or warm for the new season was just what I needed. You had bad villians, new tag lines (Kill the Cock-co-roach!", and Jack Bauer throwing dynamite at bad dudes. The washington DC scenes were interesting enough to set up the season, but the real star here was Jack, saving the world, one African refuge at a time (he's even giving out scarfs). I'm pumped to have this show back. And those people who are counting, I think Bauer took down about 13 dude's last night. Hopefully the people at 24 kill count will keep track.