An open letter to Alan Ball:
I've tried to stay quiet on this subject because I like both the series and the books, but today I'm taking sides.
Alan Ball, you are making a mess of my series.
I say my series, because I pay for HBO and that means that some of the money I fork over every month gets into your pocket.
At the beginning of the show, you stayed pretty true to the books. Changing Tara Thornton's character completely was cool, as was keeping Nelson Ellis as Lafayette, but it wouldn't have occurred to me to have them be related. Oh, well.
The show jumped the rails when MaryAnn took over Bon Temps. What the hell were you thinking Mr. Ball?
Same sentiment with the Fae Realm. Alan created a world and made it ugly.
Sookie Stackhouse represents everything that is good and lovely in the South and Alan Ball is making it his personal mission to destroy it, first by making her saga secondary to that of any man on the show, and then by downplaying anything she does, unless it goes right back to Eric or Bill.
Last season, she spent a lot of time shouting "Run" or "Watch Out" as the vamps got into one scrape after another. She was a convenient feeding stop pretty much.
He spent a whole lot of time on two characters who do not exist in the books at all. While I liked seeing Lafayette and Jesus together, their story with the witches had little or nothing to do with Sookie and her quest to find True Love.
And, I was looking forward to meeting Hallow, not Antonia.
I have a problem with Sookie suddenly using her fairy fingers to break the spell on Eric, restoring his memories at the same time, I would have liked to see Sookie have some power over Eric for a time, like she did in the books.
So far, Season 5 doesn't look all that exciting to me. It seems there is very little Sookie and a whole lot of Tara, Lafayette, Russell Edgington, Eric, Bill, Pam and Jessica with a touch of Alcide and Sam thrown in.
I'm not saying I won't watch it, or buy the DVDs when they come out. I surely will.
With all that said, I'm glad Alan Ball is stepping down as head honcho. I hope Mark Hudis has a bit more respect for the books and can find his way back to Charlaine Harris' take on things.
I like hers a whole lot more.
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