OK, I’m getting a bit serious here, but I watched Frenzy and read the press, web-site and blog reviews. And then I watched the episode a few more times and then I thought about it for quite a while. This is the result.
True Blood is one of the few TV shows worth repeated viewings, which is a testament to the quality of the production from conception to realisation. Alan Ball may say True Blood is popcorn television, but I don’t think he could write popcorn if his life depended on it.
The True Blood Season 2 episode
Frenzy, written by Alan Ball, attracted a fair amount of criticism after its first airing in the US. It was described as being too wordy; filled with exposition at the expense of action and plot development. The scenes with the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq were those that attracted much of the criticism, aimed largely at Evan Rachel Wood on whose head fell the task of bringing the wordy Queen to life.
So who is Sophie-Anne Leclerq and why is she so wordy? Does she spout philosophical wisdom or base sophistry?
Sophie-Anne is an immortal being, who in Alan Ball’s words, is brilliant, “very powerful, capricious and most likely insane.” She has been a vampire for several hundred years, but was turned when she was in her teens. She has accumulated the knowledge of several lifetimes, but interprets it all with the mind of a teenager.
We first meet Sophie-Anne in her Day House. Inside it is a luxurious confection of light, water and desirable things (object, human and vampire). Outside, dioramas of sand and sea block out the real world. It is opulent, perfect, unreal and terribly sterile.
Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq explains to a somewhat nonplussed Vampire Bill that everything in existence imagined itself into being. She also takes the philosophical position that there is no such thing as “good” (and by extension “evil”) or “time”. She forces her companions to play endless games of Yahtzee which she extols as the “most egalitarian game in the world” as it is based purely on the chance roll of dice and requires no skill.
She is her own creation. She is what she imagines herself to be. The philosopher René Decartes famously posited “I think therefore I am” and Sophie-Anne appears to think she is one of Plato’s imaginary Philosopher Kings (or Queen in her case) and therefore she is.
In understanding Sophie-Anne you might remember the scene in the movie
A Fish Called Wanda, where Otto (don’t call me stupid) West asserts that that “Apes don’t read philosophy” and Wanda shouts back at him “Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.”
Now I’m not calling Sophie-Anne stupid (I wouldn’t dare), but she could be the ultimate cautionary tale of knowledge without wisdom, power without limits, behaviour without boundaries, life without death.
In this Sophie-Anne can be seen as the polar opposite of Sookie, who is wise but not learned, powerful (in her own special way) but ethical, strong but kind and completely mortal.
[This is just my take on Sophie-Anne - I wouldn't presume to know what is in Alan Ball's mind - but I'm pretty sure it's not ACME Wonder Head-Filler.]
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