Community and The Vampire Diaries Review/Thoughts
Overall, this was a pretty good episode of The Vampire Diaries. It had certain character interactions I loved, and made the point very clear that the true romance of this series is between the Salvatore Brothers.
Things I liked: Alaric. He was very fun in this episode, his friendship with Damon is still going strong, and he got a few father/brother/uncle-ly jibes at Jeremy. Also - Caroline's speech about being like Scarlett and persevering was so wonderfully Caroline.
Things I didn't: The predictability. Jeremy didn't die. I didn't expect him to, and I would have been mad if they killed him, but it was kind of predictable that he'd survive. And Damon didn't die, which they never would have done because he's their big draw.
What surprised me: I'm so gullible. I actually thought Klaus was going to keep his bargain with Elijah. Oh, well, keeps the big bad around for another season. I was also surprised by the Stefan gorging on blood story, though I'm glad they're darkening him up (apparently Paul Wesley wanted to "dirty him up" a little so it would be a better character for him as an actor, and I admire his instincts. The character needed to get a little gray, and I'm glad they'll be exploring that side of him next year.
Community had a fun season finale, if it was a bit of a let down after the awesomeness that was last week and the gamechanger last year's season finale was for Jeff/Annie fans.
Community had it's fair share of fun this episode: Abed as Han Solo. The entire school fighting together. Magnitude's epic "death" scene. The Cougar Town extras. Britta and Shirley saving the day. Pierce. But last week was an episode that should go down in sitcom history (though I stand by my thesis that it's Modern Warfare that will go down in history even though Fist Full of Paintballs was the better episode), and this week couldn't live up to the hype that was part one of the two-parter. I loved the subtle Star Wars motif, and Abed/Annie really shakes everything up romantically on the show (though I still devotedly ship Annie/Jeff). It could have been better, but it was one of the better episodes of a stellar season. Next season my run a little smoother because Dan Harmon is actually going to plan out what he's going to do instead of planning only six episodes ahead. I don't know whether I prefer Joss' method of planning the beginning and the ending of a season and filling in the middle as he goes or Dan Harmon's flying by the seat of his pants method, but maybe they should both take a lesson from Rob Thomas and plan your season-long story ahead of time and fill it with monsters/mysteries/etc. of the week afterwards.
Things I liked: Alaric. He was very fun in this episode, his friendship with Damon is still going strong, and he got a few father/brother/uncle-ly jibes at Jeremy. Also - Caroline's speech about being like Scarlett and persevering was so wonderfully Caroline.
Things I didn't: The predictability. Jeremy didn't die. I didn't expect him to, and I would have been mad if they killed him, but it was kind of predictable that he'd survive. And Damon didn't die, which they never would have done because he's their big draw.
What surprised me: I'm so gullible. I actually thought Klaus was going to keep his bargain with Elijah. Oh, well, keeps the big bad around for another season. I was also surprised by the Stefan gorging on blood story, though I'm glad they're darkening him up (apparently Paul Wesley wanted to "dirty him up" a little so it would be a better character for him as an actor, and I admire his instincts. The character needed to get a little gray, and I'm glad they'll be exploring that side of him next year.
Community had a fun season finale, if it was a bit of a let down after the awesomeness that was last week and the gamechanger last year's season finale was for Jeff/Annie fans.
Community had it's fair share of fun this episode: Abed as Han Solo. The entire school fighting together. Magnitude's epic "death" scene. The Cougar Town extras. Britta and Shirley saving the day. Pierce. But last week was an episode that should go down in sitcom history (though I stand by my thesis that it's Modern Warfare that will go down in history even though Fist Full of Paintballs was the better episode), and this week couldn't live up to the hype that was part one of the two-parter. I loved the subtle Star Wars motif, and Abed/Annie really shakes everything up romantically on the show (though I still devotedly ship Annie/Jeff). It could have been better, but it was one of the better episodes of a stellar season. Next season my run a little smoother because Dan Harmon is actually going to plan out what he's going to do instead of planning only six episodes ahead. I don't know whether I prefer Joss' method of planning the beginning and the ending of a season and filling in the middle as he goes or Dan Harmon's flying by the seat of his pants method, but maybe they should both take a lesson from Rob Thomas and plan your season-long story ahead of time and fill it with monsters/mysteries/etc. of the week afterwards.