Slowly but surely the cast of True Blood is making it known to the world that production on the show is up and running and they have begun to film this truncated season. The latest to voice some details about the upcoming season and his character of Alcide Herveaux was Joe Manganiello at the Golden Globes.

“[It’s] racier,” he said. “My character’s taken over the wolf pack, so as an alpha, and a pack of dogs, you gotta regulate, you gotta set it straight with everybody so there’s some violence. It’ll be fun.”

“This is Season 6 and the first couple scripts I read – I think they’re doing a lot of stuff that they maybe held back on the past couple years,” he told Access. “They’re pretty wild. I think it’s going to be a pretty wild season.”

“Wednesday night I start shooting, so I really hope it warms up by then or it’s going to be a really tough night,” he laughed.

Source

Yes, yes… I know the season has gone and we are all in major withdrawal. It seems that even the magazines are trying to fill the void. Which leads me to the latest issue of Cosmo and in their Star Spotting section they polled readers who they thought was hotter, the good guy or the residential bad boy of some of your favorite shows on TV. Well, they had your typical comparisons, such as Jon Snow vs. Jamie Lannister (HBO’s Game of Thrones) and Stefan Salvatore vs. Ian Somerhalder (CW’s The Vampire Diaries) and then they asked the following:

Well, we wanted to know, who would you want to fill your void. Sorry, I could not help it. ;-D Any who the question I have for you is do you agree with the results of their poll and why?

Listen to Kelly and Maria interview Kristina Anapau, who you know as Maurella on True Blood. Prior to joining True Blood, Ms. Anapau had starred in a string of films including Black Swan with Natalie Portman and Wes Craven’s Cursed. She recently starred in Sighting and will be guesting on Grimm this season.

They will also give you the highlights and low-lights of the past 11 episodes of True Blood’s 5th season and go over the two most talked about surveys on the SookieStackhouse.com: Is Bill a Traitor or a Misguided Fool and Death Watch 2012.

Enjoy the Show!

You can download the podcast here or via iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.

This podcast was recorded on August 25, 2012.

Hi All,

It’s Maria again and all I have to say is is that tonight’s Episode of True Blood was amazing. I know many of you are wondering where the show made a left turn? Yet, I think you are so entrenched in wanting your favorite characters to be the hero or have a happily ever after… that you forget what really is important in the long run and that is that the show has to be fun to watch.

In seasons past we were not fans at how True Blood wrapped up their seasons. They always petered out as the seasons drew to a close. The story arcs, this season, have been written in such a way that you didn’t feel cheated. As I stated before, the minor story lines were completed early on which gave the writers more time to focus on the main story lines which revolve around Sookie/Fae/Vampires, Eric/Nora vs. Lilith, Sam and Luna looking for Emma, Pam and Tara vs. The Authority and finally the Herveaux Pack issue.

Now, I get most of you are pissed off at Bill, but he is under the influence of enemy #1…

She is the equivalent of bath salts, who ever gets a taste of her ends up becoming a homicidal fundamentalist.

Lilith is not only under Bill’s skin, she is also under Salome’s skin.. Yet, Bill has taken it to a whole new level. Not only has he offed a fellow Authority member due to his jealous tendencies, but he also backhanded Jessica because she refused to turn Jason. These moments have made Bill shippers hate True Blood. I have to admit that Bill will have to do a lot to win everyone over again.

There were some great bits to tonight’s episode and I want to highlight the star of this season and that is Jason Stackhouse. What? You don’t think so? Well, this is a character that has yet again gone through the ringer. He came to the realization that sex is not the answer for everything, nor does it fix everything. He has also learned that friendships are a prized commodity and once you lose a friend, you feel like a ship without a sail. He also understands that he has to lead the charge, even when there is a chance he may not come out of it alive.

Which leads to the picture that had everyone going bonkers all week long:

Happily, Jason was not turned into a vampire in this episode, the aforementioned picture just showed us how Jessica duped two authority agents. Jason just played dead and with wooden bullets in his sidearm he offed the two agents and then he listened to Jessica explain to Jason that if she had a choice in who she would spend an eternity with… it would be with him. But, this would not deter Jason from what was really important and that was to protect his sister from the impending doom headed her way and that was Russell and Steve.

Later on Jason decided to go off and head Russell and Steve off at the pass. Unfortunately, Jason was overtaken by Russell and Steve:

These three together are some kind of awesome. We’ll return to this bit of story in a bit and I want to switch over to Pam and Tara.

Pam took the hit for Tara’s crime of killing off the new Sheriff of Area 5, but that was not the highlight that had me go “Yeah!” Yes, Jessica asked the question that we were wondering about:

Denying something so adamantly as Tara did tells you that she does harbor some kind of feeling for Pam. When Pam took the bullet for Tara, you know that the feeling is mutual. The question is… is this more parental love on Pam’s behalf or does she too kind of like her.

Jessica had asked Pam if she could use Fangtasia has a hideout, but that was short-lived. As I stated earlier in this post, Bill was not too pleased with his progeny when she did not follow through with turning Jason. Now we are wondering if she will make it to season 6.

Surprisingly, Nora and Eric are now on the same side and with being under so much stress and being under the watchful eye of the authority, they did what normal every day vampire siblings do to alleviate stress:

I have to preface this with the fact that that moment that led up to his scene was very intense and very tender, these two feel like they are the only two individuals in the world that know what the Authority is up to and the only ones that can stop the insanity.

Sam and Luna have made it into the Authority and they have seen Emma:

But then they were caught and Sam decided to come up with a scheme to protect Emma and Luna, who both stayed behind bars, and that was to become dinner for someone from the Authority’s upper echelons. Of course, now the Authority compound is the crossroads for a potential battlefield.

The faes were a major part of tonight’s episode, unfortunately all they managed to do was cause more crap to happen. Most notably with Russell Edgington.We meet the fae elder and after an interesting q&a with Sookie we learn that she cannot speak of Warlo, but when she learns about Russell still being alive… well it does not end well for the fae elder. Russell fed on her until she was dust and now he has his eyes set on the rest of the Fae clan of Bon Temps. Yes, it does not look good for Sookie.

Not only is Andy Bellefleur related to Bill Compton, but he just learned that he will be the baby daddy of a bouncing baby fae. He did not take it well because the last time he saw Maurella she did not look pregnant and that was a week ago (A week ago?!?!?!?!). Now the only reason he found this out was that Maurella decided to pop up at Merlotte’s to call in the pact she made with Andy. He tries to balk, but she tells him that it will be death if he does not follow through.

The last bit I want to highlight is the Herveaux clan, which is basically him and his Dad.

After spending the last couple of episodes wondering why Alcide had run off to be with his deadbeat of a Dad, we see the greatness of his father for the first time. When Alcide jumped into the fray to protect the locals from some baby vamps and then became overwhelmed, his Dad came to the rescue and saved Alcide.

Overall, the was another awesome episode and I cannot wait to see the finale.

Synopsis of Save Yourself: Eric makes a final and desperate attempt to bring down the Authority and, at the same time, save Bill from losing his humanity. Alcide gets ready for a second confrontation with JD. Sam and Luna must use all their resources in order to escape from the Authority. Andy must deal with the consequences of a deal he made.

What did you think of the episode?

Recap from HBO:

Baby Vamp Jessica: Pam’s Halfway House for Wayward Baby Vamps

I feel like Little Orphan Annie. Only without Punjab and Miss Farrell. And my Daddy Warbucks turned out to be batshit. A phony. What are the odds? Crappy human parents AND a crappy maker… It just don’t seem fair. So here I am, stuck hiding in the basement of Fangtasia because I got nowhere else to go.

It’s funny how quickly things can change. How life can be so good and so rich and so perfect, and then it’s all swept away from you in an instant. First it was Hoyt. Those feelings I had for him — the love, the lightning — I woke up one day and they were gone. Nowhere to be seen or heard from ever again. And then this. Order in the vampire world just falling apart, my maker at the center of it all. It feels like only yesterday I was partying with those UNL kids, making out with Jason, feeding from hot guys whenever I felt like it. And now I’m just trying to make it through the night in Pam’s Halfway House for Wayward Baby Vamps.

I hope Tara really does bring me a fangbanger…

Preview of the Season Finale:

The second to last episode is only days away and we know the episode will keep all of us on the edge of our seats.

HBO sent us some pics that may give us some hints of what’s to come in Sunset.

Synopsis: To help Sookie look into an ancient family secret, Maurella and Claude take her to meet the faerie elder. Jessica becomes an unwilling participant in Bill’s ongoing religious conversion. The militaryuses a damning video of Russell and Steve Newlin as ammunition to deliver an ultimatum to the Authority. Alcide reconnects with his father. Sam and Luna hitch a ride into the Authority.

Unlike the first few seasons of True Blood, the writers have figured out how to make the show progressively better and better as the season barrels its way towards the season finale. During tonight’s episode, it took all of my strength to keep my mouth off of the floor and I chalk it up to the writers.

So, let’s get on with our recap and I have to admit that I loved this episode, but it was so painful at times… why? Well, let’s start with the most obvious:

As I stated earlier, Hoyt has been suffering big time and he knew that the only way to put his life back on track was to make drastic changes and that was to 1. Move far, far away and that is apparently Alaska, 2. Have Jessica remove herself from his memory and 3. Have Jessica remove Jason from his memory.

When he opened his eyes it was like seeing the Hoyt we first met in Season 1 and we had to applaud him for getting the hell out of dodge in one piece. Of course this has left Jessica and Jason devastated, but they have other issues to worry about.

Jessica has been summoned by her maker, Bill, and as expected she is worried about what Bill has become and that is a bible-thumping cult member and what that cult wants to do.

Jason on the other hand is helping his sister figure out what is going on and that involves a fae contract between a Stackhouse and a Fae that was under the floorboards of Sookie’s bed. We see that Sookie is the property of the Vampire that killed her parents…

This is also the scene where we find out that Andy is going to be a Dad…

I cannot wait to see Andy’s and Holly’s reaction to the big news

Now, it wasn’t only Hoyt who took matters into his own hands. Tara was not going to take this whole Authority mess lying down:

That’s right, Tara and Ginger plotted together to off the new, well now deceased, sheriff of Area 5. To tell you the truth, I started to like the new Sheriff.

Is this a sign of things to come, maybe and maybe not. Godric made an appearance to his progeny after they ingested some of the supposed blood of Lilith.

Has the doubt been set in these two, well I think so. Especially after Russell went all cuckoo and stated that this religion of theirs is what is keeping them from evolving. Not even Salome can stop him, so all hell will break loose most definitely.

Yet, Russell had a cool moment, kind of, before he went ape shit…

After the adorably gory moment, Steve went off to pull some positive PR for the AVL. When he returns to the headquarters of the Authority he sees that Emma has changed back to her human form and he chastises her which causes the little girl to ask for Luna:

Nice Pet Parenting Skills Steve… tsk. ;-D

Now, onto the low light of the episode. There were two deaths in the episode, the first one was that of the the coroner of Bon Temps. No love lost there. The second one was of Molly, the tech-savvy vampire that attempted to help Eric escape.

We barely knew you Molly, but your parting words will stand the test of time:

Molly: In that case allow me to say, Fuck all of you. You are destroying the world based on a book that is thousands of years old. You call that evolved? That’s the opposite of evolved.

By the way, do you know who flipped the kill switch? Bill…

Awesome episode and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next episode which is titled Sunset.

Synopsis: To help Sookie look into an ancient family secret, Maurella and Claude take her to meet the faerie elder. Jessica becomes an unwilling participant in Bill’s ongoing religious conversion. The military uses a damning video of Russell and Steve Newlin as ammunition to deliver an ultimatum to the Authority. Alcide reconnects with his father. Sam and Luna hitch a ride into the Authority.

With only three episode left in the season, we are biting our nails to the nub wondering who will and will not survive this season of True Blood. This ominous feeling is not helped with episode titles such as, “Gone, Gone, Gone.”

The synopsis for the episode is: With vampire attacks are on the rise, Bill starts a public relations campaign to gain public favor. Nora, on the other hand, is having a hard time selling Lilith’s gospel to Eric. Jason’s discovery of a mysterious scroll could reveal details about his family history. The new sheriff of Area 5 presses Pam and Tara to obey a new directive. Sam and Luna search for Emma. Russell seeks out his destiny.

Shake your fists to the sky and take deep breaths, these last few episodes are going to be a roller coaster of a ride.