Ty on T.V.

The grapevine is abuzz with potential spoilers (so you’ve been warned). TV Fanatic heard that TV Guide had an Original scoop. Soon “.  . . Esther… the mother of the Original family [will] pop up in a flashback that dates back centuries. Described as “strong and as fierce,” the character’s intentions will be to protect her loved ones at all costs.” Is Esther’s determination “to protect her loved ones at all costs” a purposeful or unintentional catalyst for their eternal life? Or will we meet them once they’re already on the blood diet? Who should be cast in this role? My two choices are below. 

Swoosie Kurtz might look nice with fangs

or how about Cristine Rose of “Heroes” fame? 

*Reviews for The Vampire Diaries will likely come on the Wednesday’s before a new episode. There’s a lot to digest.

Veins on tap for Klaus! He’s an environmentally friendly Original, trying to create hybrids and all. Wait a minute. These “hybrids” bleed from their eyes and rabidly attack The Brother’s Salvatore? As Damon said to Stefan after his younger bro compelled Andie to plummet to her death the week before, “not cool”. While Andie might’ve initially served as a glorified chew toy for Damon, the growth in his relationship with her represented his emerging humanity. Witnessing Stefan’s cruel exclamation mark on “let me go” confronted Damon with the disturbing revelation that Stefan would jeopardize his sacred morality to protect his loved ones, and how Damon, himself, once used similar tactics for selfish gains. He wanted to further his agendas, and inflict pain upon others, which always rebounds on the instigator, distancing himself from the potential of love. Tougher to swallow than vervain.  In fact, each character’s delicate grasp on the truth is challenged in the “The Hybrid”. They’ve only allowed themselves to accept what they thought they could handle. All must choose to bear much more by the episodes end.

 Reporters are an endangered species in Mystic Falls. Logan Fell anyone? As Andie Starr’s mysterious death is receiving the Morning’s Top Story treatment Damon is taking down the newspaper clippings tracking Stefan’s munchies sojourn. He’s giving up on his brother awfully fast considering that once Stefan overlooked much of Damon’s bloodshed, because he recognized his brother’s struggle with his vampiric nature versus his suppressed humanity. I think this was a conscious choice on the writer’s part to quietly illustrate the severity of Stefan being a ripper again. Of course we know he’s not full-blown psycho yet, but the brief moment still communicates a lot.  If stubborn Damon won’t even attempt to rescue Stefan at the thought of him having one too many late-night-bites, then the whole ripper thing trumps the havoc Damon once caused. This is all turned on its head before the previews for this week. Damon is a bite away from that “deathbed kissy thing” again when Stefan steals Ray’s heart—ripping it out through his back. Stefan echoes his sentiments from “The Birthday” to Damon, but by saving his brother he reveals that despite saying he’s “never coming back”, and going on a blood binge, he’s coherent enough to make the right decision. In Elena’s bedroom, Damon surrenders his version of the truth about Stefan to a fuller recognition of the issues complexity, which is that his brother is martyring himself for everyone he left behind in Mystic Falls. Now Damon is thrust into the role of reluctant hero.

 We all know Stefan would’ve worn tights and a cape if he could’ve at one point. Okay his Superman syndrome wasn’t that obnoxious, but he certainly never misses a chance to sacrifice himself. He’s in one unenviable situation with Klaus. But his position as Klaus’s “wingman” offers a front row seat to the Original hybrid’s masterplan. Stefan learns that Klaus’s goal is to sire more hybrids like himself, not for henchman purposes. Klaus isn’t that shortsighted. He desires a legion of “soldiers” and “comrades” for any potential threats. I think there’s someone out there who sends Klaus’s fangs aquiver, just like Katherine was upstaged by the  Original hybrid. Who could it be? How does one possibly out-badass the Curse of the Sun and the Moon storyline? Whoever it is already has blood on their hands. Katherine killed and misdirected to secure her freedom from Klaus, and he’s willing to turn werewolves against their will into part-vampires to keep this enemy at bay. But his recipe for hybrid creation is faulty. He assembled all the ingredients, but one escaped her intended death. Thus, Klaus’s reality is shattered when he discovers that his carefully orchestrated plan had unforeseen complications. He has to put the dream to rest temporarily, like the bodies of the rabid “hybrids” littering the campsite. Whether he knows that Elena is alive or not is up for debate. The look on his face when he lingered over the fate of the doppleganger is just as inscrutable as him feigning ignorance concerning Katherine being on vervain last season. He’s pleasured by seeing how sadistic people are when their hand is forced to serve his aims, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he does know she’s alive. However, he doesn’t seem to want to torture Stefan like he did Katherine. He wants a “comrade”, that’s why he healed Stefan of his wolfbite’s, not to mention his yet unrevealed motive for the perpetually V-neck clad brooder. In exchange for the cure to Stefan’s fatal bite, Klaus would only accept payment in Stefan’s will and morality. And you can count on the Original hybrid to collect.

 An emotional exchange occurs in the scene following Klaus handing over the beer-bottle-of-blood to Stefan. Damon tells Elena that he’ll help her save Stefan but he needs her to answer a question. He wants to know where her ironclad stubbornness went on the mountainside, why did she suddenly decide to retreat in her mission to save Stefan? She talks around the truth by pointing out the obvious danger they were in, but Damon pushes her to confess that she was worried about him. Then she attempts to guilt him by saying, “yes I was worried about you. Why did you even have to hear me say it?” to which he replies, “because when I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt when he was gone.” Damon filled in the blanks for Elena, colored inside the lines of her feelings so that she could see the picture in vivid detail for herself: her love for the elder Salvatore may be surpassing the Friend Zone. In the past she might have rationalized her feelings away, but her actions have spoken for her. Now that this truth has finally surfaced Elena has to determine how she’ll negotiate the thin line between faithfulness to Stefan and whatever her connection is to Damon. My theory is that she’ll remain dedicated to rescuing Stefan from himself, but the time spent with Damon will switch her teams. In the season 2 finale Katherine told Elena “it’s okay to love them both,” and bookended the revelation with, “I did”, as if to say, “And look how I turned out.” How long can Elena maintain purity and honor on this slope without making it slippery with the blood of the two hearts she holds in her hands? Alaric asked, “You know what you’re doing there?” Who would?

 At least he walked up the Gilbert’s staircase with his belongings in hand. There was nary a whiskey bottle or stake in sight. Just the ring on his finger that revives him from supernatural death. A blessing, I’m sure he’d trade in his time of dying for the life of Jenna, and once upon a time Isobel. Now he’s stepped past Self Loathing’s doorstep and is at threshold to the discovery Elena made in the beginning of the series: we experience constant loss in life, but letting it define you is the greatest loss of all, because you’re giving yourself away. This seems like an easy truth to accept, but we often grow complacent in our misery. Moving past it requires all of ourselves. Especially now that he’s in a household with two teens who need guidance in both the world’s of the living and undead.

 With Alaric in the Gilbert house, it shouldn’t be too long before he’s clued in on the Ghost of Girlfriend’s Past haunting Jeremy, or at least grows suspicious. The main reality check Jeremy and Matt had to contend with in their latest ghostly encounters are their unresolved feelings for Vicky. So these truths weren’t dramatic like Tyler transforming in front of his mom or the shocker of Caroline’s own dad being the council member arriving to harm her, but more of a quiet and contemplative meditation on how we remember the dead. Jeremy can’t even recall his last memories of Vicky. Damon erased them at Elena’s request in season one. And Matt’s narrow perspective on vampires taints his recollections of his sister. We’ve seen those prejudiced attitudes change, such as when Carol Lockwood retracts her campaign against vampire’s after learning her own son is a werewolf. Yet will Matt be able to ever have a stainless image of Vicky, even in the supposedly neutralizing zone of death if her living personality traits have followed her beyond? She pleads to Jeremy, “I can come back. Help me come back,” then seconds later Ana shatters that statement with her warning, “Jeremy, don’t trust Vicky.”  This traces back to the choice of how we remember the departed: do we preserve their life in a mental memorial or invite their flaws into the image? The issue could lead to fights between Jeremy and Matt if one wants to save Vicky and the other points out she wasn’t always the most virtuous person.

 The writer’s are pushing our Mystic Falls gang through similar experiences in the context of their own overarching struggle. I’m pretty sure these disparate storylines will begin to intertwine into a breathless, singular mission before long. And when they do, there will be blood.

 Theories:

*Tyler and Caroline (werewolf and vampire hooking up in episode one) has GOT to factor into Klaus’s hybrid creation plan at some point. Right? 

Quotable:

“Happy birthday Elena. Stefan killed Andie. Cake?” –Damon

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 “So much brooding. Your self-loathing is suffocating you my friend.”-Klaus

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 “You’re the one who told me I could handle things on my own now.”- Elena

“Yeah. I meant like frozen dinners and SAT’s.”-Alaric

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 “No he’s not ok Elena. He’s any insufferable martyr that needs his ass kicked.” -Damon

out of 5 t.v. sets! 

P.S. comments and feedback are always nice. How do you think the storyline’s will converge? Is Vicky to be trusted? How will Elena’s feelings resolve themselves? What is Caroline’s dad going to do to her?!!!?? Disqus! 

*Cassie and Adam sharing a bright idea. 

Everyone knows discovering a posthumous letter from a parent means you’re pretty much screwed. Amelilia has kicked the bucket and left her daughter with cleanup on aisle five. Cassie Blake opts to forego the duncecap and witch’s hat for the safety of distancing herself from her supernatural heritage in “Bound”, episode two of “The Secret Circle”.  Her mom’s letter is Book of Revelations freaky, promising that “people will come for [your power]. People will come for you.” Can you blame Cassie for befriending Class President Sally Matthews so that she can join the mundane teen activity of organizing a seaside fair? However, upon further thought, I think I’d want to arm myself with The Secret Circle equivalent of Avada Kedavra if I read that unforeseen forces wanted me. But any opportunity to keep Sally Matthews around is reason enough for me. Hello, Kevin Williamson and Andrew Miller, can she pleeeeaseee be Chance Harbor’s Resident Human? I shift-control-3’d (screenshotted) the hell out of every scene starring her. Yea, she’s beautiful enough for me to get carpal tunnel in my thumb.

 Anyway, Cassie’s vow to remain Circless took twists and turns, that tested her resolve. Twice in the same day Faye displayed the urgency for why Diana wants the Circle bound. In chemistry class Faye pushed Cassie to unconsciously retaliate to her magical-bullying by causing Faye’s Bunsen burner to flare up like it’s dynomite (Taio Cruz voice). Then at the party on the docks, Faye did something that made want to start a petition for her imminent death-by-stoning—she began a little supernatural tête à tête with Cassie, that resulted in Sally Matthews crashing through the dock’s wooden railings, and smashing onto the boulders below. However, Faye was humanized via the utter horror on her face. She looked completely wrecked to have pushed the limits. What I loved about this scene is that it established the consequences. You can’t toy with power without expecting repercussions, and sometimes they’re deadly. We encounter these type of aftershocks daily. We underestimate or abuse our innate power and BOOM, you’ve got twice the trouble on your hands.

 Thankfully, Sally Matthews was revived by Faye’s mom, the dastardly Dawn Chamberlain. She used a crystal, a container storing a dwindling reserve of magic, to accomplish the task. Earlier in the episode we learned the crystal’s unique relevance. The week before we saw Charles Meade ignite Cassie’s house, killing her mom, and magically waterboard Ethan, without either attempting a counterattack. Logic suggested that these people should have been able to fight back. However,  this week we learned the Circle from 16 year’s ago was stripped of their powers, and the last of it resides within the crystal that Charles and Dawn are torturing or outright killing people with. I foresee a crucial moment when one of them tries to harness the crystal’s powers, but it’s on E. Oh, and Dawn almost one upped Charles in their escalating array of villainy. She caused her father-in-law to suffer a fatal heartattack without breaking a sweat. Like everyone else, I’m impatient to know what nefarious endgame Charles and Dawn are orchestrating. The best part will be their flawed jusitifcation of their actions. This episode we learned that the official account of what happened 16 years ago is that some teenagers went out on a boat and not all of them made it back. The thing about official accounts is they’re the E! True Hollywood Story of t.v.; they always leave the juiciest details out. 

 Diana thinks this happened, because they’re parents Circle wasn’t bound. Her campaign for binding the circle appeared to have hidden motivation several times throughout the episode. It was never really key dialogue that instigated my suscipion, but rather a vocal inflexion here or a shady facial expression there. Yet when her and Adam were in his jeep, she seemed so sincere in her declaration that she’s clueless in her assumed leadership position. I want to believe her. In fact I want her to remain the Glenda the Good Witch of the bunch, because it’d make the love triangle between her, Cassie, and Adam that much more distinct. Offhandly, I can’t pinpoint a love triangle featuring three likable characters. There’s usually the one person who causes civil war amongst the fandom. I’m not saying I don’t want to see her change, but I hope any progression to darker territory is slow, so that we can see how three realistic high schooler’s handle this very mature situation. She already outed her insecurity, which Adama answered with a passionate kiss. The interesting catch is he made a conscious decision to kiss her. Now compare that to moment’s later when Cassie’s in his jeep and the streetlamp showers them with sparks. One relationship is predicated on the choice to be with the person, while the other is uncontrollable, primal, destiny. The Secret Circle is exploring the complicated dynamics of romance. We often find ourselves choosing to act on a feeling with someone we’re attracted to, then having that unexplainable magic that happens effortlessly with someone else. The whole star-crossed lovers scenario between Cassie and Adam is bound for an unpredictable swerve or two (because Kevin Williamson has to brew some mischief) and it’s all evidenced by the fact that their parents didn’t end up together.

 Finally, I wanted to end with my glee over Nick magicking himself a new haircut between episodes one and two. And I was happy he and Melissa got more screentime; they definitely got the short end of the broom in that regard last week. Their hookup was great, because of the way it revealed their character’s. Nick is a jerk and Melissa is battling self-esteem issues. The metaphor is fascinating; so many girls, or people in general really, put themselves in degrading situations without realizing their own power. I can’t wait to watch Melissa’s journey to self-actualization. OH, and I specified girls because of the way Nick treated Melissa after they had sex. Just a few more observations, I promise. I would have loved a scene between Cassie’s grandma and Faye’s grandfather, because they’d have to know each other considering the intergenerational scope of the story. I wonder why he didn’t clue her in to the outlawed magic going on right under her nose…better yet, why did Ethan contact Faye’s grandfather instead of Cassie’s grandma? She already lives in town. At laaaaasssst, Cassie has to be related to Forrest Gump, because homegirl run’s everywhere! I’m surprised she didn’t cross-country her way to Chance Harbor.  Until next week folks! 

*I know I kind of left out the actual purpose of the episode, the Binding Ritual, but I know that it delivered us right onto the threshold of epic. 

Quotable:

“…Don’t go bragging.”- Melissa

“Like I’d brag about you.”-Nick

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“You can stand to lose a button.”-Faye

“I’m a principle. I have to be buttoned.”- Principal Chamberlain

“Well live vicariously though me.”-Faye, as she adjusts her cleavage.

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“I don’t want someone telling me what I can eat for lunch, must less which parade I can rain on, ya know?”- Faye

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“So what do I tell Diana? She won’t stop with the Binding Ritual crap.”-Nick

“You tell her to shove it up her hoo-ha.”-Faye

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“Would you hit that? I’d have to leave my self-esteem at the door.”-Faye to Melissa.

out of 5 T.V. sets

*Leave me your feedback. Are you as obsessed with Sally Matthews as I? What stunt will Faye pull next? What’s are your thoughts on the love triangle between Adam, Cassie, and Diana? Who’s that man chasing Cassie in the promo for “Loner”? Let me know what you’re thinking in the comments!*

Revenge is a dish best served by a vindictive blonde in the pilot to ABC’s new drama titled—wait for it—Revenge. Amanda Clark has rechristened herself Emily Thorn as she returns to the scene of childhood tragedy in the Hampton’s. Years ago some Hampton socialites framed her dad for channeling money to a terrorist organization that downed a flight of about 200 Americans. We see the SWAT Team break into the Clark’s beachfront house and drag a protesting Mr. Clark out while a horrified elementary school aged Amanda screams and cries. Now Amanda has returned to avenge her father. She’s on a warpath, using the perpetrators personal sins to make them self-destruct, and acting as the human embodiement of karama herself. Of course this colors Amanda my favorite shade of crayola—morally gray. What’s so intriguing about her vengeance tour is that the show is dealing with such an ancient concept, philosophized by Confucius and spiritualized by the bible, in a modern context. Revenge strikes hard in opening with Confucius’ quote, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,” then the voiceover explaining, “When I was a little girl my understanding of revenge was as simple as the Sunday school proverbs it hid behind.” Here, the show is pretty much setting the act of revenge up as the most epic, motherload of all human endeavors. It is saying what we’ve been taught about revenge trivializes how damning and complicated it really is. It suggests that Amanda wasn’t prepared for the full scope of the bloodsport she’s entering. Aren’t we fortunate that we get to watch her endure this all for us?

 I hope I haven’t made Revenge sound too much like a thesis statement. Sure there’s depth for miles, if you care to indulge that path, but on a surface level it’s great t.v.

 We’re introduced to all the essential cast in a scene that pulls you in like the tide lapping against the darkened beach in the opening moments. A gunmen shoots Daniel Grayson, who thanks to flashback’s we learn is Victoria Grayon’s “tragically privileged spawn.” Oh, the life styles of the rich and the famous. Silver spoons and bullet’s in their back. Victoria is the H.B.I.C. While her son is dying on the beach, she’s throwing an extravagant fire-and-ice themed engagement party for him and Emily Thorn (the alias of our unforgiving heroine). We get our first view of Emily in a nice instance of juxtaposition: the cold hearted killer is running her hands along an ice sculpture while she’s wearing a red dress, symbolizing the duality of her nature. Or human nature in general. She’s being watched by the mysterious Nolan, who looks like a druggy version of Owen Wilson. Then we’re thrust into the discovery of Daniel’s dead body on the beach. He’s found by his sister and a guy she planned on doing more than strolling through the sand with. The moment is compelling for several reasons.

 First, we see who Daniel Grayson’s murderer is, and because the rest of the episode occurs five months prior to these events, we’re left questioning what drove that person to make this horrible decision? And what will happen to this person once the other character’s discover his guilt? Ruh-roh, a mystery for Scooby and the gang this is not; shits bound to get real!

 Secondly, Emily/Amanda’s facial expression is appropriately difficult to fathom. Was she behind Daniel’s murder? Or did her reigns on revenge slip from her grasp, resulting in a death she didn’t plan? From what I can guess, she didn’t want him dead. I’m not sure if their romance is genuine, but I sense she only wants to hurt those directly responsible for ruining her father. Anyway, the point is the scene was well-acted.

 If you made it this far in the review I wanted to reward you by saying Revenge is the best pilot I’ve ever seen. The characters are dynamic, which is really helped by seeing who they are five months in the future as opposed to the past ( because then you’re wondering how’d they get here? ).The potential for awesome is all over the mysteries. The show is thoughtful entertainment. And the story is both satisfying and thirst quenching. Simply put, I want more Revenge.  

Quotable:

“Yo! 8 Mile, private party here!” yelled at the hoodie-clad murderer.

“Mom you are too young and too pretty to be this senile.” -Charlotte Grayson.

“Remind me to buy her a cat bell.”- Victoria Grayson

“Compared to what my other friends are wearing this is practically a burka.”- Charlotte Grayson, after her mom comments on her skimpy bikini. 

“Don’t worry about it. It’s probably the universe’s way of telling me I need a wardrobe change.”- Daniel Grayson, after getting a martini spilled on him. 

Five out of Five t.v. sets! 

 *Because this was the pilot (first) episode, which are inevitably hard to pull off, the show gets the full 5 rating for being so good on the first try. 

*Make sure to leave a comment with your opinion!