I actually got through this last episode with very few complaints. It's a miracle!
On the other hand, my new thing I think is interesting is how much they're downplaying the fang banger aspect of the book series. Has there really been a character who qualifies as one in the past few seasons? And by leaving it out, they're leaving out a lot of the more complex ethical issues the series gets into. In the books, fang bangers are essentially drug addicts, with the same reflex that you don't have to feel as bad if a fang banger dies, just like it's always reassuring to find out someone's death is drug related, because that makes them comfortably other and complicit in their bad fortune. But at the same time, the books go out of their way to reveal the humanity of individual fang bangers, and Sookie is constantly contemplating the fine line between her life and theirs. Fang bangers are also the foil for Sookie's relative sexual conservatism...which I feel like gets glossed over on the show. Their existence is also fundamental to vampire society as imagined by Charlaine Harris, one that runs on exploitative and destructive relationships with humans rather than killing sprees and rape. The show has decided to go all killing sprees, all the time though, and then expects us to still like the vampire characters when they're done. I find that kind of difficult to go along with.
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