Monsters of Television

Dang, and I was so excited about this image–now undermined entirely.

I used to write weekly reviews of The Vampire Diaries. Somewhere along the way, I got busy and found it harder to find the time. But now I think that’s not so much true. I think the show stopped inspiring me to write.

I remember during season 2, running out of my TV room to tell my partner about something awesome just happened on a show that seemed completely unafraid. It took chances. It sped through plots such that you almost cried out, “slow down, let me pause and relish.” The characters were curious but bold, anxious but determined, sexy but real.

Now the show feels like one big cheat. Over and over and over again.

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The way I see, she could be the salvation of #TVD. And that just may save her absolutely devastated, wasted character.

Last year, I used to complain about certain aspects of The Vampire Diaries. I would note that this world made being a vampire seem, well, kind of awesome. Like, so awesome that trying to keep any of these people human made ZERO sense. And the show’s writers seemed, themselves, completely fascinated by the life of vampires, so much so that when they tried to give Damon a more complex backstory by reminding us that he is a reluctant vampire (or was), they couldn’t make the story work. We had one episode where Damon was experiencing angst and killed someone—seeming a sharp rupture from his new life of relative abstinence. And then the show never returned to that topic at all.

I now dream of last year’s problems. The show has become so convoluted as to be worth nothing. Without any constant—without any set  of stable reference points or code—the viewer has nothing to hold onto. This becomes most problematic when all I can think when watching a character “die” or a bad buy seemingly get put out to pasture is–wait, will it stick? Should I go ahead and be impressed that the show did something bold? Nah, I shouldn’t. Cause these writers always find a loophole that undoes their bravery, rendering it less brave and more shallow.

I don’t trust these writers any more. I believe them incapable of recognizing their really interesting characters (Michael, Elijah, Mama vampire) due to their truly bizarre preferences (menace-free Klaus, whiny Rebekah, who the hell is Kol and why is he still alive?). Would I go so far as to say the Original family has ruined #TVD? I might. Because once you create a bad guy that is somewhat invincible, the story loses stakes. When a bad guy is too powerful, your characters become helpless, and weak characters are not interesting characters. Worse, when the too powerful bad guy becomes a showwriter favorite, it seems all other characters are sacrificed on his altar of mediocrity.

So here are a few reasons why Klaus should have stayed dead, and a few other deeply troubling character journeys this season. While not a complete rejection of the show, this exploration documents my growing antipathy, even while it is, in itself, an expression of love for a show that used to delight me.

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Look up chemistry in the dictionary, see reference to this scene

I haven’t been keeping up with my TVD reviews as I’d like, and I was sitting on some pretty serious disgruntled feelings in the last few weeks that I was pretty desperate to get out. After “The Murder of One,” I was pretty frustrated. It seemed the show was not only not going anywhere but also was displaying extreme signs of fatigue–dangerous ground for an energetic, youth-focused show like this. Most problematic, perhaps, is that I began to doubt the authority of the show’s writers.

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You know? I kinda agree.

This week The Vampire Diaries presented one of their big showdown eps–a big huge buildup that lead to very little change of our current stasis. Dang.

Let’s review: Elena? Still torn between brothers. Stefan? Still fighting life without a soul (though there was one reveal—more about that below). Damon? Pretty much where he has been for years—was his choice a step forward or a big ol’ step back to normal? Klaus is a hybrid, Rebekah is a bitter annoying girl, Kol seems psychotic (I could get behind his version of vampire crazy), Ric has been shot, killed, maimed, beaten, or some other awful physical punishment…AGAIN.

In fact, the main character that changed (a literal change) is so minor I can’t figure out why I should care. Oh, and another minor character disappeared. So she is apparently back where she was, um, two episodes ago.

Way to move the plot forward, team TVD. (Keep reading, my review gets better, I promise)

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Holy crap! That's a lot of Damon. I'm blushing.

I didn’t get to watch this week’s episode until Saturday, which means my usual writing schedule was delayed and now I’m afraid I won’t have time to do a full review cap. So in lieu of my usual routine, here are a few thoughts about “Dangerous Liaisons.”

This episode features many a longing look at someone wearing fancy clothes. There was the intent for action (kill Matt), then there was the removal of that intention (aw, he’s so sweet and he gave me his coat and I’m a stupid Original teenager).

There was also a scene that tried to destroy Awesome Vampire Caroline’s awesomeness (She loves horses? What is she, 12?). Luckily, AVC is so awesome, she rises above even the most ridiculous and cliched plotting. To wit, she wears the dress cause she likes it, she rejects Klaus repeatedly, and she uses Klaus’ interest in her to demand he free Tyler.

Now, this whole, “Klaus fancies Caroline” thing has done nothing to make me like Klaus more.  A moony, dreamy Klaus is just as boring as the ineffective Klaus we’ve long known and wished would go away.  Just stop it, writers.  If Klaus is so evil, let’s see him be evil.  Have him manipulate Caroline into sleeping with him in exchange for Tyler’s freedom–now that would be evil.  Or have him stalk her more openly–let her use her wits and strength to defeat him.  Just make the guy evil–making him an artist does nothing to improve his rep.

Seriously.

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Someone better tell her the life expectancy of long-absent parents who return to Mystic Falls. Oh wait, isn't she already dead?

After the high of last week, an episode that climaxed with the return of the only interesting Original, Elijah, this week’s rather convoluted episode brings us a whole bunch more Originals. Thing is, what are these Originals going to add? They haven’t done enough to develop the personalities of those we already know, so how the heck are they going to find time to make us care about the new ones?

As usual, Klaus is all bark, no bite. In one of his fits of temper, he threatened to stick his hand down Damon’s throat and rip out his innerds, yet have we ever seen Klaus actualy act on his hyperbole? Damon rips out a heart every three episodes. Heck, Elijah pulled one out last week, and he was only on screen for thirty seconds. But Klaus? Mr. Bluster keeps insisting that he’s so evil, yet I think the vampire doth protest too much. Your nudity is showing, Mr. Emperor.

There was one bit with Elijah that upped the stakes in a way that will give the rest of the season genuine tension and drive—Klaus refuses to give up Elena…ever. In fact, his plan extends to his exploitation of her children. This line in the sand—there will be no deal with Klaus that will free Elena—assures that Klaus has to die. Not that there was much fear the Salvatores would want to keep Klaus alive, but to hear him state so baldly that Elena is his must have riled the hell out of our beloved Salvatores. There were other treats in the dinner scene, as when Damon had to remind Stefan that he, like Klaus, is guilty of killing a parent, but I imagine next week’s dinner party will put this one to shame.

I also really, really, really loved the scenes with Awesome Daddy. His reminder to Caroline of what it means to be human—to experience death—underscored Elena’s own terror over Ric’s life. While Elena was crying that she couldn’t handle losing another family member, Awesome Vampire Caroline was learning that only by losing a family member can you really understand the significance of life.

And once again, Elena shows us that she’s a pretty great fantasy heroine, willing to do extraordinary things and refusing to let others dictate her limitations. Somehow Elena remains fully human without becoming a pathetic victim. And she saves the life of one of my favorite characters this week, so there’s that.

In general, this episode felt rather exposition-y.  The Salvatores were basically wasting time at the dinner party so they could buy time for the Bennett witches.  But that means the audience got stuck wasting time, too.  Interestingly, that made the human parts of the story–Elena and Awesome Vampire Caroline contemplating loss–the most interesting moments of the night.  Honestly, that’s a nice  change.  I mean, Damon–with his wit, charm, and all-around sexy appeal–can’t be allowed to steal our attention in every single episode, right?

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Couldn't agree more.

So, if you read these reviewcaps regularly and  you’ve already watched this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, you will not be surprised to hear that I am a super happy viewer right now.  Finally!  I’ve been very, very patient, enduring countless inferior Originals, and now, at long last, a genuinely awesome character has returned.  Oh, TVD, sometimes I just love you SO much!

As far as theme this week, I guess I’d say that this episode was about characters in search of their humanity and their power [note: those two things may likely be related.]  The title is actually quite evocative—we have family ties, love ties, gratitude ties, debt ties, revenge ties—all sorts.  And many characters are desperately trying to break these ties.

The show’s handling of Tyler’s storyline has always walked a fine line between his arrogance and his vulnerability.  Tyler can be a dick, and he sometimes does terrible things, but his curse is just SO AWFUL (every bone in his body breaks every single time he turns?  No thank you) that you forgive him no matter what.  They’ve given this character depth through pain, and I am not sure I want him ever to lose the pain since it makes him more human.  Then again, Tyler is out of control, and he knows it.  Watching him try to regain his power could make him an ever better man.

Bonnie’s search this week is pretty simple—she is looking not only for her mother but also for an answer to why her mother not only left her but also NEVER CONTACTED HER. Not even a Christmas card, Abby?  I hope they let these characters work through their enormous issues [redoubled by this week’s events, I imagine.] Anyone who watches Secret Circle may admire one thing about Abby—she’s (seemingly) not a psycho  bent on getting back her magic no matter what the cost. She sure was willing to sacrifice her daughter for someone else, though, so jury is still out.  Instead of the cartoons over on Secret Circle, this show seems to want to explore a character who had a choice, and whose choice was to live her life without all this supernatural craziness.  Echoes of Jeremy here, though choice wasn’t part of his story. But the show is dancing around inevitable and painful questions–how long can one sustain a life with supernatural partners and friends?  Are the costs too much?

This could connect to Elena and Stefan, since TVD seems to be building a case that Stefan wants Elena to live her life away from all supernaturals, including himself [this isn’t a spoiler–it is my assessment of the situation based on current, albeit vague, evidence.  There aren’t a whole lot of options for the ending of the show—Elena becomes supernatural or she walks away/dies.  She can’t live like this forever (for many, many reasons).] But of more immediate interest, the show is having  a lot of fun with Stefan’s ambiguity this season.  Has he tapped back into his humanity since Klaus released him?  Is this all an elaborate ruse?  And as Damon keeps asking, how far is Stefan willing to take it?  His conversation with Elena at the end of this episode was a model of controlled, careful acting.  What did he reveal?  How should we read it?  I imagine this scene will play differently when we find out the truth of Stefan’s situation, but even without greater context, evil Stefan continues to be WAY more interesting that noble, lover-boy Stefan.

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Finally--a Big Bad with real menace. Take a lesson, Klaus.

I know I’ve been a bit of a curmudgeon this season.  There have been a number of aspects of the season that have disappointed me–chief among them the sorry state of evil in Mystic Falls with super lame Klaus as our Big Bad.  Klaus is still lame, but we have a new baddie, and he’s kind of awesome.  So awesome I never want him to be good again–is that sacrilege?

I sometimes rate #TVD episodes based on how they redeem sorry characters, and certainly this ep can score well for that–namely through Bonnie being a really reasonable, honest, and moral person.  Other times, I rate the episodes based on thrills and surprises–we get those here, too.  Surprises abound, including Klaus’ secret crush, Stefan’s dastardly plan, and Tyler’s ugly allegiance to his sire. We even get some great conversations between Damon and a whole host of characters [great conversations on this show tend to be centered around Damon–what can I say?  The guy can talk].  So all things considered, this episode sort of rocked.

Now, I suppose another question I can ask is whether this episodes advanced the central plot in any significant manner, and on that score, the episode is weaker.  The casket is still closed, Klaus is still ineffectual, and Damon/Elena are in a holding pattern.  Nevertheless,  if the show’s writers keep going where they are, the storyline with Tyler is looming as one of the major ones of the season.  How much can Tyler control his own actions?  I’m envisioning a moment like in Return of the Jedi, when you see Vader pondering–loyalty to my master or save my son’s life?  Bit worried Tyler isn’t going to come out of this season alive (and that would be super sad since I love him with Caroline), but if he goes down in glory, maybe we’ll see his full redemption.

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Man, just as Jeremy became the show's most awesome character... (no really, he did)

Trying to remember the last episode, “Homecoming,” I had to re-read my review.  Boy, it has been a while, right?  I discovered that I kinda hated that episode. You can see my review here. Among the things I didn’t like was the way the episode promised big things but largely left our characters in exactly the same spot where they started the episode—at least emotionally. Let’s recap: Elena and Damon struggle with their sexual tension and with their disappointment that Stefan is kind of a dick now. Awesome Vampire Caroline breaks up with Not-So-Awesome-Hybrid Tyler—a scene I really liked though I hate that the breakup had to happen. More about Tyler below. Bonnie mourned her breakup with Jeremy. Katherine re-appeared and violated everything we know about her by revealing that her sort of human love for Damon and Stefan occasionally rears its ugly head (I cry foul!). Mikael was killed (a seriously premature move). And Stefan, who won his freedom from Klaus’ compulsion by thwarting Damon’s plan to kill Klaus, has stolen Klaus’ casket-housed family. Well, I guess some stuff happened—a lot of breakups. But for a number of reasons, the episode disappointed me.  Maybe it was less that nothing happened and more that a number of the things that happened forced me to think entirely differently about characters I thought I knew.  And Mikael’s premature death was just completely unacceptable.

This new episode—the midseason premiere, as the CW ridiculously called it—was less disappointing. It tried to come to terms with some deeper issues facing our fearless heroes, and Ric was back in grand form [Awesome Vampire Caroline was nowhere to be seen, though—is there some contract clause that means she and Ric can’t appear in the same episode? Maybe they could be the next super couple?]. As per usual, the central preoccupation of this episode is the love story between Stefan and Damon. Though I continue to object to the odd suggestion that Stefan thwarted Damon’s Klaus-killing plan in order to save Damon—a suggestion the show has not yet explained to my satisfaction—the idea that soulless Stefan cares not a whit about Elena but can’t help but care about his brother intrigues me.

The most exciting part of this episode, in terms of ideas and theme, is Jeremy’s story.  [I know, who would have thunk it?]  What has he lost as a bystander to his sister’s tragic love story?  How is Elena processing her responsibility for the shattered remnants of Jeremy’s life?  And what does it take to survive in a world that is constantly forcing one to confront immanent life and death situations.  You know, I don’t expect TVD to be super deep–this isn’t Lost or even Buffy.  But it has the potential in its characters and in its plotting to pause every once in a while to remind of the human costs of a supernatural life.  In those moments, this show becomes more than an adrenaline rush and romantic pleasure–it becomes compelling drama.

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Oh no, she seems to be thinking--did the show just totally ruin my character?

Hmmmm.  That’s about where I’m at with this episode.  One thing I can certainly say is that this week was not at all like last week’s super talky episode.  Some stuff happened here.  A plan was hatched. A person was killed.  Things kinda got reset but then, not reset at all.  It was the perfect midseason finale in some ways—they have shifted the players on the board just enough to surprise viewers but not enough to dramatically alter the central thrust of the season.

So here’s my real issue—the central thrust of the season is Klaus.  Yes, it is also bad Stefan (and that I like).  But Klaus…um, how do I put this?  He sucks.  You know, as a bad guy.  He isn’t scary, he’s terribly whiny (runs in the family), and he tends to talk much bigger than he acts.  Why oh why are we continuing with Klaus when other possible bad guys—ahem, Mikael—seem to have so much more potential for genuine menace and mayhem?

Elena and Damon may be coming to terms with losing Stefan.  Maybe.  But that was super tentative because there was no  kiss between them, there was no goodbye between Elena and Stefan, there was nothing that would prevent Elena from ever loving Stefan again.  So really, Elena’s decision to try to move on was not really a decision—it was a statement of fact that he’s sort of out of the picture for a while. Disappointing.

Did anyone really suffer a loss here?  Okay, I did.  My favorite couple is no more, and it seemed an appropriate break.  But I am sad, nevertheless.

Ugh–sad!  I’ve had it up to here with “Sad Rebekah”. I made a joke in last week’s post that we need a “Sad Rebekah” meme like we had with “Sad Dawson.”  With Dawson, the funny part was Van Der Beek’s difficulty playing sad.  With Rebekah, it is her inability to feel anything else.  Bor-ing.  And not moving.  A sad sack of a woman, who is betrayed for 1000 years, worries more about a dance than, oh, I don’t know, asking her brother how he could do that to her? Disappointing.

I suppose I should take a moment to acknowledge that I have always complained that TVD has one big problem—being a vampire is always awesome, so why doesn’t everyone just sign up to become one? But then again, “Sad Rebekah” seems to think being a vampire is all lonely (whine, whine, whine), so maybe I’m supposed to read her predicament as a condemnation of vampirism.  That said, just because Rebekah is herself  a pretty crummy character (with no personal drive beyond joining the cheerleading squad?), I’m not sure that is quite what I was asking for with the whole, “there needs to be something about being a vampire that sucks to make Elena’s decision to avoid being one make more sense.”  [side note: Twilight is a pretty terrible set of books (fun, but terrible), but they were on to something with the monster baby.  Is having a baby the one human experience you lose as a vampire?  If The Vampire Diaries was set roughly twenty years later, that would be the issue—Elena is approaching 40 and neither of her two vampire boyfriends can give her what she needs.  Ha!] Suffice to say, Rebekah’s loneliness is not a terribly compelling plot line.

But let me say a few nice things.  I liked the Elena-Bonnie girl talk scene.  I loved the breakup scene (subtle, simple, effective).  But more importantly, there’s a trait in #TVD that I have long admired–the show’s writers respect Elena.  They don’t make her stupid or weak or whiny.  She tends to be pretty self-aware, confident, and determined.  Even though she doesn’t have Buffy’s advantages, she does have some of Buffy’s strength of self.  And that’s awesome. Elena is the one character that doesn’t need to be “fixed” by becoming supernatural.  Maybe that’s why she doesn’t need to turn.

So this episode is kind of a mess.  Stuff happens, yet nothing much changes.  How can we move forward at 120 miles per hour yet end up in exactly the same spot?  This is the danger of a mid-season finale, folks.  Disappointing.

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