Making the best of what's left of True Blood, voting for the next Food Network Star and an outstanding Outlander premiere

There are only three episodes left of True Blood and while some characters are making the most of their remaining screen time count, others are wasting it big time.

 It's no surprise that Sookie and Bill would wind up in bed( or in this case, lying down by the fire) as his strain of Hep V is acculturating fast and furious and there's no hope of a ready cure in time. I was pleased to see a brief return of supernatural medic Dr. Ludwig(who apparently has good reason to fear Sookie's fairy godfather,who also stopped by) and even Hoyt with a new girl friend but can we please finish up with the Violet sub plot already?

I get it; she took Adlyn and her equally doofus boyfriend prisoner in order to lure Jessica into some kind of vengeance trap but can someone just stake Violet and get it over with?

So not interested in seeing this psycho bitch anymore, particularly since there are more important long term characters that could use the attention like Lafayette and Lettie Mae or Jason dealing with a Hoyt who has no memories of their friendship or even Sarah Newlin with her mental breakdown and Hep V cure running through her veins. Speaking of which, maybe Eric has enough strength to take Violet out if everyone else is busy at the moment, we shall see:

The voting is in on Food Network Star, as the Final Three made their pilot shows(with Robert Irvine directing) and it was up to the audience to cast their ballot either online or by phone.

I voted for Lenny, as his warm personality and cowboy charm made up for what ever stumbles he had along the way. Nicole is nice enough but her Coastal Kitchen concept is a tad unsteady, perhaps due to it being finessed into a regional rather than the international focal point that she was aiming for.

As for Luca, he's alright but as Shania Twain would say, he don't impress me much. While he is no doubt a feast for the eyes for some folks, I just find him a little bland there. I wish them both well but my personal pick is Lenny, who should have plenty of people willing to cowboy up with him:

The cable TV premiere of Outlander on Starz is this upcoming Saturday but the network has made the first episode available online for free since last weekend. That made many fans of the Diana Gabaldon novels upon which this show is based happy and may have also gained a few new ones in the process.

The premise of the plot is that former military nurse Claire Randall(Caitronia Balfe) is taking a second honeymoon with her historian hubby Frank( Tobias Menzes) to Scotland in 1945. While Frank is researching an ancestor of his from the 1700s who was a British officer known as "Black Jack", he and Claire comes across a circle of stones that a few of the locals still practice a few Druid rituals around.

When Claire returns alone to check out the stones, she winds up falling through time and landing in 1743, where Black Jack is pursuing a band of rogue Highlanders.

Turns out Frank's ancestor looks like him but the resemblance brutally ends there. Claire is then captured by the outlaws, who grant her some respect from her medical skills, and taken away with them. Their main concern is protecting Jamie Fraser(Sam Heughan), who has had trouble with the English and Black Jack in particular.

  Over the course of many events to come, Jamie and Claire fall in love and she has to chose between going back to her time or staying in the past with a man who may have been her true love all along.

While the show does stay true to the source material, it is not merely a script to screen translation. The characters are treated as adults and given time to develop into people we care about.

 The fantasy elements of the story are not overdone, which could be a risk with an adaptation like this. Yes, there are sexy moments but the overall story is made with mature audiences in mind and doesn't insult their intelligence at all. I was quite pleased with the premiere episode and look forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out:

RANDOM NOTES:

THE QUEST: Reality TV meets live action role play in this series where "paladins" are recruited to face an evil army and are tested by The Fates. A little corny but for light summer fare, corn sounds pretty tasty to me: