We get it, HBO. The third season of True Blood premieres Sunday, June 13 and your marketing department is doing its best to make sure everyone who enjoys programs with premises based around mythological creatures and at least one softcore sex scene per episode tunes in. Your crew did an amazing job promoting the series last year. That “Gawker buys Blood Copy” campaign was genius. It was a brazen attempt to shake up the intersection of advertising and journalism and got you a ton of press in the process. But given all the heat you took, I can understand wanting to tone it down and rely on the basics of billboards, bus ads, and minisodes. The only problem with that tactic is your minisodes suck.
You’re promoting your weekly, six-episode A Drop of True Blood series as a way to lead viewers into the new season before the premiere. You’re not shy about saying all the minisodes are written by showrunner Alan Ball and feature Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, and the rest of the main True Blood cast. But let’s be honest. The minisodes have very little to do with season three. And the reason you’re able to say they’re written by Ball and star all familiar faces is because they’re mostly likely deleted scenes that were only picked up off the cutting room floor when an intern found an opportunity to put them online.
HBO, it’s totally okay if you want to throw deleted scenes on the web, but then let’s call them “deleted scenes.” What you’re doing now is disrespectful to your fans, and we deserve some respect. Sure, we complained about the make-up you and Ball borrowed from a local elementary school’s Halloween carnival for the Six Feet Under series finale, but not too much. You need to treat us better.
Take some tips from Showtime. University of Andy and Dexter: Early Cuts are online series that compliment their broadcast television shows, but could stand alone without them. When hardcore True Blood fans are downing bottles of your 99 calorie, blood orange flavored, carbonated beverage in between seasons, you should give them something better to watch than scenes that should’ve probably never seen the light of day.
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Just don’t watch the show if you hate it that much jeez…
@ks I dig the show, just not the minisodes.
I love the minisodes, they are a little tid bits that get you ready for the rest of the season….
@Aslinn But what’s the deal with Tara and Sookie talking about Eggs? Who cares about the cheesy Fangtasia auditions? And do we need to see Sam urinate on Maryann’s mask? I just think HBO can do better.
WRONG!!! It is deleted scenes, but it’s great that they’re making use of them. True Blood is a BRILLIANT show and if anyone doesn’t like them, please don’t dis them like that. I don’t dis Revision3 for their nerds that just talk about gadgets and devices. So let’s not dis something that’s making MILLIONS of dollars and more than 11 MILLION people watch a week!
Since the actress playing the stripper in the minisode above was just hired for season 3, tyhe whole premise of this article is, uh, wrong.
@Uh, No – Good point! So maybe they’re deleted scenes from Season 3 instead of Season 2. Regardless, they’re still bad. They still feel like leftovers or throwaways instead of thoughtful pieces of content. But maybe they’ll reveal themselves to be more meaningful as Season 3 begins.
The minisodes are just a marketing tool, which obviously work week by week considering the biggest outlets cover every promo, image, and news tidbit thrown out there.
Just take it for what it is…
ouch
:):):)
Joshua Cohen, what is your logic behind believing these to be season three deleted scenes? Because you assumed they were season two deleted scenes, and they were proven not to be, they must have been deleted scenes from season three? that is some terrible logic you’ve got there. they obviously are NOT deleted scenes, period. they are minisodes! why the fuck would we be seeing deletes scenes from a season that hasn’t even fucking premiered yet? how dumb can you be?
@gary I like your enthusiasm, Gary! The way television production works is that they shoot a lot of stuff before the series ever even airs online. Then they edit stuff down to just the good bits. Those good bits are the things you and I see when we watch the show on TV, but there’s way more scenes that never made it to air. These scenes that never made it to air are generally called “deleted scenes.” Deleted scenes are generally deleted because they either A) don’t move the storyline forward or B) suck.
My opinion is the True Blood minisodes suck. They also don’t tell any story on their own. That leads me to believe that they’re deleted scenes.
Again, I’m a big fan of the show. I think the creators could offer up a lot cooler content than they’re currently releasing.
[...] said as much when I wrote about the series. A Drop of True Blood is disappointing because True Blood has a history of innovative marketing [...]