The long-running feud between TiVo and EchoStar's Dish Network took another twist today with a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Texas telling the satellite broadcaster to cough up almost $200 million to TiVo for using the digital video recorder's technology and violating its patent.
Both sides, of course, are claiming victory. TiVo said it was pleased with the ruling while EchoStar took solace in U.S. District Judge David Folsom's rejection of TiVo's request for a reward of almost $1 billion. EchoStar said it would appeal the ruling. For the skinny and nitty gritty, go to Bloomberg.
All totaled, EchoStar's Dish has been asked to pay TiVo $400 million so far. Earlier this year, Folsom told Echostar to pay $192.7 million for violating the patent up to April 2008. The latest award is for violations of the patent since then.
Sounds like the only ones on the EchoStar side who can really claim victory are their lawyers who will rake up more billable hours working on the appeal.
-- Joe FlintFangs for the memories: Why 'True Blood' is such bloody good fun
We're used to top TV dramas evoking elegant meals, six-course affairs full of rich textures and witty constructions. We know we'll usually need time to intellectually digest these savory feasts.
No such time is needed for "True Blood" (which, after a Labor Day weekend break, airs its Season 2 finale Sept. 13 on HBO). "True Blood" isn't a carefully assembled feast. It's not the TV equivalent to a meal at Charlie Trotter's or Per Se.
"True Blood" is a enjoyable jambalaya packed with every thing the chef had close at hand. It's a jam-packed, all-you-can-eat buffet served with a side of crazy.
That recipe -- which creator Alan Ball has effectively tweaked since the show debuted last year -- has turned the populist vampire drama a huge hit: The Aug. 23 episode of "True Blood" attracted 5.3 million viewers, a figure that doubles when repeats are added in. Those are smoking-hot numbers for a premium cable channel. (By the way, the first clip on this post comes from the Aug. 30 episode. The second is a preview of the Season 2 finale, a description of which can be found here.)
Halfway through the show's increasingly addictive second season, I realized the mistake I was making with "True Blood." I'm not trying to insult the show by saying it's no "Buffy" or "Angel," but it isn't. It's different from most vampire dramas, in fact. There's no deeper meaning here. Metaphor, schmetaphor.
Sure, most of the vamps on the show, most notably the devilishly charismatic Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), are sexy, hot rebels doing whatever they want with whomever they want. There's no denying the appeal of those hedonistic appetites in these stressful times.
But "True Blood's" attempts at more obvious metaphors -- the depictions of the vamps as an oppressed minority and the portrait of their opponents as repressed hypocrites -- have generally been clunky and strained.
The show excels, however, as a "Perils of Pauline" serial, one with lots of sex and crazy shenanigans in the woods. "True Blood" works best a suspenseful beach read come to vivid, southern Gothic life. It's not about vampires as metaphors, it's about calling your friends and exclaiming, "Oh man, how are they going to top that scene where the possessed minions of the Maryann the Maenad ate the human heart that had been chopped up and put inside a souffle?"
"True Blood" is a show that mostly defies analysis, intellectual probing and the search for subtext. As Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) put it, "The time for thinking is over." Exactly.
Every Sunday night, it's a chance to turn off your brain and enjoy a show that jams four or five episodes' worth of incident, plot and jaw-dropping moments into 50 minutes.
And yet it can be moving, as it proved when an ancient vampire, Godric (the sensational Allan Hyde), reflected on 2,000 years of the bloodsucker lifestyle and was filled with quiet despair. His authoritative critique of the depraved immaturity he saw around him was just the kind of bracing dramatic moment the show occasionally needs to keep it from sliding too far into camp.
What's most surprising about "True Blood," though, is how funny it has been amid Maryann's feverish preparations for a human (or half-human) sacrifice. Sometimes the show's characters take actions that are just plain dumb (because the hurtling plot regularly requires them to), but Jason, as played by the deft Kwanten, is the most entertainingly stupid character on television.
"Sometimes you need to destroy something to save it. That's in the Bible. Or the Constitution," he said as he prepared to fight Maryann's minions by any means necessary.
What a difference a year makes. When Ball's show debuted, it was a ponderous, molasses-slow drama about a flouncy young woman named Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who began a melodramatic affair with Bon Temps' local vampire, the courtly Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
In season 2, Ball wisely made the show a true ensemble drama, gave the colorful supporting characters terrific material and amped up the plot to a dizzying, if not careening, pace. Sookie still has her part to play, but she was never the most interesting part of the show and she's no longer the main focus. (However she's a bit more interesting now that Eric has become obsessed with her, a soapy development that has caused the rather prim Bill to show his fangs more.)
Part of the reason "True Blood" is such a mass hit is that its characters are easily recognizable types: Newbie vamp Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) is the awkward yet fetching ingenue, Eric is the sexy stranger with a dangerous streak, Maryann (Michelle Forbes) is the crazy aunt, Lafayettte (Nelsan Ellis) is the tart-tongued cousin and Bill is the slightly befuddled father figure.
The recently introduced vampire queen Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood) is the kind of imperious, mischievous diva you can find in any number of Bette Davis films (though she also recalls Miranda Richardson's take on Queen Elizabeth in "Blackadder"). And even if you don't love the character (and I think she's a hoot), what's not to love about her jaw-droppingly gorgeous house and her tasting menu of attractive human victims? (Also, her retro red lipstick? To die for.)
How will the season end? Will the finale be a train wreck full of dangling story threads and plot holes? Sure, why not?
I don't expect expect elegant resolution from "True Blood." I expect an exhilarating, messy spectacle.
And you can count on one thing: There will be blood.
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