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I really like this whole menage-a-threesome team thing. It's got a bit of a kink to it.
I was going to post about Doctor Who, but it pretty much boiled down to: like the new actors and the new TARDIS, not as fond of the new credits, jury's still out on Eleven. And Amelia = adorable.
However: The Vampire Diaries! I watched the pilot when it first aired and thought it was awful. But I forced myself to sit through the first few episodes this weekend, and then it was off - once it gets going, it REALLY gets going.
-Thank god they gave up on the diary entry voiceovers.
-I really like Elena, which always helps. She seems fairly sensible, and brave, and she doesn't put up with crap. The Katherine connection helps explain why a 160-year-old vampire would subject himself to high school for her, but I can buy that Stefan has become interested in her in her own right.
-I remember when teenage characters drinking, using drugs or having sex on tv was a big deal. I guess Gossip Girl smashed whatever taboos were left into the ground pretty thoroughly. And then had an orgy on their remains.
-OTOH, I'm pretty deeply unconvinced that any of these people are actually in high school.
-The pacing here is really awesome. Things actually happen every week! There are cliffhangers, and then they get resolved! Elena finds out about vampires relatively early on, and she and Bonnie don't keep secrets from one another for very long. It's refreshing.
-The vampire mythology they're using is also interesting. No mention of souls, no mention of God. Crosses and holy water have no effect, but herbs do. It's much more secular than the Buffyverse. And the mind control is both convenient and creepy.
-I love Bonnie, and I love her storyline. Magic! Floating feathers and starting fires! The prospect of her kicking vampire ass at some point in the future! I missed her in the last few eps.
-Jasmine Guy as somebody's grandmother is SERIOUSLY disconcerting, however.
-Gina Torres! Gina Torres making out with Ian Somerhalder! Nice.
-It's interesting that they've shown four witches so far and all four have been African-American women. There's always the possibility that that metaphor will end up in a bad, bad place, but I will tentatively say I like the way they've framed it as a power of women that men have persecuted and tried to control.Here I resist making comparisons to Supernatural. I can buy, too, that given the era, it makes sense for Emily to have played maid to a vampire, and I like the idea that Katherine, Emily, Pearl and Anna formed a circle of women who looked out for each other.
-If Pearl is 400 years old and Anna is her daughter, then it follows that Anna is roughly the same age, minus a few decades, and older and more powerful than the other vampires. They seem to have an interesting backstory, at any rate, and I love the relationship dynamic there, where Anna had gotten used to making her own choices for 150 years and isn't as willing to knuckle under anymore.
-There's good stuff here in general for people who like stories about women: Elena, Bonnie and Caroline's friendship is central to the show. Maternal figures are numerous and prominent. Magic is something wielded by women. The most powerful vampires we've seen are women. The deaths of female characters have meaning and repercussions (Vicki, even Lexy). Damon, Stefan and Alaric's stories start out kind of manpainish (alas, my lost love, whose death motivates me to do xyz!), but turn out to be something else (the lady ditched you for better options and just didn't bother to say goodbye - oops?). And the central conceit of the show is not so much "two brothers compete over a woman" as it is "woman sees two hot brothers, decides she wants them both".
-Of course, I like the menfolk too. Stefan is kind of Angel-lite, but he's grown on me. Damon is hilarious, and Ian Somerhalder seems to be having a blast chewing the scenery. I was glad they gave Matt more to do, as he struck me as having some potential. Alaric I love, and I hope he sticks around. Jeremy was much improved after Damon gave him a personality transplant, but I worry that he's backsliding lately; I don't have a very high tolerance for teen boy emo. Jeremy and Tyler seem to have a proto-slashy dynamic going on at times, to the point where I wondered if they were going somewhere with that.
-I really hope Caroline gets to kick Damon's ass at some point.
-I was pretty sure from early on that they'd get the tomb open and Katherine wouldn't be in it. I'm very curious about what the connection is between her and Elena. Was she actually reborn? Would she have chosen that for some reason? They took care to have her last known sighting be before Elena's birth.
-You know what I loved? That scene where Harper the vampire comes out and sees the world for the first time in 145 years. They don't give him a big speech about how different things are, but just looking at his face, you have to think about what a huge deal that would be for a black man to go to sleep during the confederacy and wake up in the 21st century. I liked that they didn't beat us over the head with that, and I like that it's the kind of show where people who aren't the main characters get to have their own lives and motivations.
-I'm having a little bit of timeline confusion: Stefan and Damon were still human when Katherine allegedly died. I suppose they both had her blood in their systems, but do we know how they actually died? If they mentioned it at some point, I've forgotten.
However: The Vampire Diaries! I watched the pilot when it first aired and thought it was awful. But I forced myself to sit through the first few episodes this weekend, and then it was off - once it gets going, it REALLY gets going.
-Thank god they gave up on the diary entry voiceovers.
-I really like Elena, which always helps. She seems fairly sensible, and brave, and she doesn't put up with crap. The Katherine connection helps explain why a 160-year-old vampire would subject himself to high school for her, but I can buy that Stefan has become interested in her in her own right.
-I remember when teenage characters drinking, using drugs or having sex on tv was a big deal. I guess Gossip Girl smashed whatever taboos were left into the ground pretty thoroughly. And then had an orgy on their remains.
-OTOH, I'm pretty deeply unconvinced that any of these people are actually in high school.
-The pacing here is really awesome. Things actually happen every week! There are cliffhangers, and then they get resolved! Elena finds out about vampires relatively early on, and she and Bonnie don't keep secrets from one another for very long. It's refreshing.
-The vampire mythology they're using is also interesting. No mention of souls, no mention of God. Crosses and holy water have no effect, but herbs do. It's much more secular than the Buffyverse. And the mind control is both convenient and creepy.
-I love Bonnie, and I love her storyline. Magic! Floating feathers and starting fires! The prospect of her kicking vampire ass at some point in the future! I missed her in the last few eps.
-Jasmine Guy as somebody's grandmother is SERIOUSLY disconcerting, however.
-Gina Torres! Gina Torres making out with Ian Somerhalder! Nice.
-It's interesting that they've shown four witches so far and all four have been African-American women. There's always the possibility that that metaphor will end up in a bad, bad place, but I will tentatively say I like the way they've framed it as a power of women that men have persecuted and tried to control.
-If Pearl is 400 years old and Anna is her daughter, then it follows that Anna is roughly the same age, minus a few decades, and older and more powerful than the other vampires. They seem to have an interesting backstory, at any rate, and I love the relationship dynamic there, where Anna had gotten used to making her own choices for 150 years and isn't as willing to knuckle under anymore.
-There's good stuff here in general for people who like stories about women: Elena, Bonnie and Caroline's friendship is central to the show. Maternal figures are numerous and prominent. Magic is something wielded by women. The most powerful vampires we've seen are women. The deaths of female characters have meaning and repercussions (Vicki, even Lexy). Damon, Stefan and Alaric's stories start out kind of manpainish (alas, my lost love, whose death motivates me to do xyz!), but turn out to be something else (the lady ditched you for better options and just didn't bother to say goodbye - oops?). And the central conceit of the show is not so much "two brothers compete over a woman" as it is "woman sees two hot brothers, decides she wants them both".
-Of course, I like the menfolk too. Stefan is kind of Angel-lite, but he's grown on me. Damon is hilarious, and Ian Somerhalder seems to be having a blast chewing the scenery. I was glad they gave Matt more to do, as he struck me as having some potential. Alaric I love, and I hope he sticks around. Jeremy was much improved after Damon gave him a personality transplant, but I worry that he's backsliding lately; I don't have a very high tolerance for teen boy emo. Jeremy and Tyler seem to have a proto-slashy dynamic going on at times, to the point where I wondered if they were going somewhere with that.
-I really hope Caroline gets to kick Damon's ass at some point.
-I was pretty sure from early on that they'd get the tomb open and Katherine wouldn't be in it. I'm very curious about what the connection is between her and Elena. Was she actually reborn? Would she have chosen that for some reason? They took care to have her last known sighting be before Elena's birth.
-You know what I loved? That scene where Harper the vampire comes out and sees the world for the first time in 145 years. They don't give him a big speech about how different things are, but just looking at his face, you have to think about what a huge deal that would be for a black man to go to sleep during the confederacy and wake up in the 21st century. I liked that they didn't beat us over the head with that, and I like that it's the kind of show where people who aren't the main characters get to have their own lives and motivations.
-I'm having a little bit of timeline confusion: Stefan and Damon were still human when Katherine allegedly died. I suppose they both had her blood in their systems, but do we know how they actually died? If they mentioned it at some point, I've forgotten.
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(Anonymous) 2013-05-26 10:23 am (UTC)(link)no subject
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The first episode really is dire, I should warn you. But most of the things that annoyed me about the first couple of episodes went away pretty quickly.
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