100 Reviews: 71
So it turns out I did want to review something, but I wanted to do the easiest choice possible, so more TVD tonight.
TVD: 1x04: Family Ties
Oh look at the baby show, growing up right before our eyes. This is the first episode I think I really enjoyed first time through, and it still is, but the reasons why didn’t entirely jump out at me at the time (of course since I didn’t watch this “live” I didn’t have to wait and think between episodes either). Aside from the ending; the ending, like Elijah’s first appearance later on, throws open this world to become WAY more interesting than it was before.
This episode is just more meaty than the previous ones, the story more solid, the acting more settled, the characters more dynamic, the relationships more varied, the stakes much stakey-er, the world just feels more realized even before the ending reveals how much wider it is than this teenage romance stuff we’ve been focusing on. Not that it does away with the teenage romance stuff, that’s pretty much the show’s bread and butter (in that it’s okay for a while but without variation it gets really old), but it’s played out against a more interesting backdrop which makes it feel more alive (for now, eventually the backdrop gets SO MUCH more interesting than the teenage romance stuff that I want it to get out of the way so I can focus on the backdrop without distraction y the gross stuff going on in front).
While I’m indulging my s4 bitterness; sigh, Bonnie could you please warn Elena off these controlling douchebags NOW, when they’ve actually proven that that’s what they are; and Elena, could you please call these douchebags on their stuff NOW, not that they didn’t deserve it here but they deserve it even more NOW yet you don’t.
And in a move it sort of surprises me it’s taken me until episode 4 to start to indulge in, notice that the scene where Elena calls Stefan out on how trust has to be earned...happens out there on the Lockwood lawn where Elijah will pretty much tell her the same thing (“That doesn’t mean anything to me until you live up to it.”). One more of those parallels I just know no one intended to include.
This was basically a good episode for the entire cast of characters. Elena got some really good stuff to do with her friends and love interests (even before she called them out on their BS, but that was the best). Stefan got some much needed development in who HE is rather than just being generic vampire love interest (granted still defined in relation to Damon, but it makes more clear what he’s battling against becoming). Damon got to sass Twilight just as the show starts to grow out of the shadow of that series, he did some other somewhat interesting stuff too that will pay off down the road, but whatever it’s Damon. Even Caroline, in spite of still being Damon’s compelled little slave (have I mentioned how weird it is that as fandom has come to love Caroline more and more it hasn’t held this more and more against Damon?) actually started to feel like a character rather than just a role that happens to intersect with various plot points. Bonnie’s witch power go from being vaguely defined visions to being actual abilities, and at this point she has character issues related to that development rather than being defined by them. I feel like we actually started to get a little insight into Jeremy, still as Elena’s screwed up brother, but that he’s struggling with what’s happened too. Hell, Tyler and Jenna actually start develop as characters too. On top of which we introduce Liz, Carol, Logan and...Tyler’s dad that I thought was named Richard so they could get away with calling him Dick but I swear Carol called Charles here so maybe I do need to rewatch s1 more often (granted only Liz and Carol will survive long as characters, and often barely that, but which is important isn’t immediately clear here).
One of the interesting - and yes, well written - things about this episode is how the watch plot feels like it’s there to develop Elena and Jeremy’s relationship, have them fight over what’s the right thing to do about it and Elena to show her big sister role by realizing Jeremy needs this; and then we find out it’s actually part of a much bigger plot. That’s kind of a reflection of the way the show was growing here, it starts off feeling like it *could* be following the style the show has had so far but there’s really a lot bigger things happening here. Damon isn’t playing games with Caroline just because he’s a twisted evil-doer who gets off on it, he needed to be able to get in the Lockwood mansion to retrieve the crystal. Stefan didn’t agree to dance with Caroline because he was helpless in Damon’s schemes, but had his own. Zack isn’t just there to be thrown around by his vampire relatives, he’s growing vervain in the basement (which seems a lot more involved to get to than it does in later episodes). Logan isn’t just hitting on Jenna to give the “adults” on this show something to do, he’s got ulterior motives for getting close to her. Elena isn’t just a slightly better protagonist than Bella Swan there to make doe eyes at her vampire boyfriend (for now), she has standards (for now).
This episode is still pretty good, and some things I appreciated at the time I appreciate even more now and wish the show could find the will to bring back. This is the first big step the show takes into becoming the show that I’ve bothered to become obsessed with enough to be let down by it; if it had just remained the show it was in the first few episodes I probably wouldn’t have kept watching long (to be fair, I don’t think it would have lasted so long if it had remained that show, maybe not even long enough for me to bother checking it out) and really doubt I would have invested in it. It completely changes it’s paradigm without it feeling obvious that it’s doing that; yes it’s early enough that it’s expected it’s still finding its feet but it really pulls off a shift to a larger story while feeling like this larger world has always been going on in the background and we’re just now being allowed to see it.
Anyway, a pretty successful episode, and well timed to pull in people who might have been running out of interest in trying out this new show.
Next time:
Probably not TVD, having done two in a row, but we’ll see what it actually is.
Standard suggestion box link
TVD: 1x04: Family Ties
Oh look at the baby show, growing up right before our eyes. This is the first episode I think I really enjoyed first time through, and it still is, but the reasons why didn’t entirely jump out at me at the time (of course since I didn’t watch this “live” I didn’t have to wait and think between episodes either). Aside from the ending; the ending, like Elijah’s first appearance later on, throws open this world to become WAY more interesting than it was before.
This episode is just more meaty than the previous ones, the story more solid, the acting more settled, the characters more dynamic, the relationships more varied, the stakes much stakey-er, the world just feels more realized even before the ending reveals how much wider it is than this teenage romance stuff we’ve been focusing on. Not that it does away with the teenage romance stuff, that’s pretty much the show’s bread and butter (in that it’s okay for a while but without variation it gets really old), but it’s played out against a more interesting backdrop which makes it feel more alive (for now, eventually the backdrop gets SO MUCH more interesting than the teenage romance stuff that I want it to get out of the way so I can focus on the backdrop without distraction y the gross stuff going on in front).
While I’m indulging my s4 bitterness; sigh, Bonnie could you please warn Elena off these controlling douchebags NOW, when they’ve actually proven that that’s what they are; and Elena, could you please call these douchebags on their stuff NOW, not that they didn’t deserve it here but they deserve it even more NOW yet you don’t.
And in a move it sort of surprises me it’s taken me until episode 4 to start to indulge in, notice that the scene where Elena calls Stefan out on how trust has to be earned...happens out there on the Lockwood lawn where Elijah will pretty much tell her the same thing (“That doesn’t mean anything to me until you live up to it.”). One more of those parallels I just know no one intended to include.
This was basically a good episode for the entire cast of characters. Elena got some really good stuff to do with her friends and love interests (even before she called them out on their BS, but that was the best). Stefan got some much needed development in who HE is rather than just being generic vampire love interest (granted still defined in relation to Damon, but it makes more clear what he’s battling against becoming). Damon got to sass Twilight just as the show starts to grow out of the shadow of that series, he did some other somewhat interesting stuff too that will pay off down the road, but whatever it’s Damon. Even Caroline, in spite of still being Damon’s compelled little slave (have I mentioned how weird it is that as fandom has come to love Caroline more and more it hasn’t held this more and more against Damon?) actually started to feel like a character rather than just a role that happens to intersect with various plot points. Bonnie’s witch power go from being vaguely defined visions to being actual abilities, and at this point she has character issues related to that development rather than being defined by them. I feel like we actually started to get a little insight into Jeremy, still as Elena’s screwed up brother, but that he’s struggling with what’s happened too. Hell, Tyler and Jenna actually start develop as characters too. On top of which we introduce Liz, Carol, Logan and...Tyler’s dad that I thought was named Richard so they could get away with calling him Dick but I swear Carol called Charles here so maybe I do need to rewatch s1 more often (granted only Liz and Carol will survive long as characters, and often barely that, but which is important isn’t immediately clear here).
One of the interesting - and yes, well written - things about this episode is how the watch plot feels like it’s there to develop Elena and Jeremy’s relationship, have them fight over what’s the right thing to do about it and Elena to show her big sister role by realizing Jeremy needs this; and then we find out it’s actually part of a much bigger plot. That’s kind of a reflection of the way the show was growing here, it starts off feeling like it *could* be following the style the show has had so far but there’s really a lot bigger things happening here. Damon isn’t playing games with Caroline just because he’s a twisted evil-doer who gets off on it, he needed to be able to get in the Lockwood mansion to retrieve the crystal. Stefan didn’t agree to dance with Caroline because he was helpless in Damon’s schemes, but had his own. Zack isn’t just there to be thrown around by his vampire relatives, he’s growing vervain in the basement (which seems a lot more involved to get to than it does in later episodes). Logan isn’t just hitting on Jenna to give the “adults” on this show something to do, he’s got ulterior motives for getting close to her. Elena isn’t just a slightly better protagonist than Bella Swan there to make doe eyes at her vampire boyfriend (for now), she has standards (for now).
This episode is still pretty good, and some things I appreciated at the time I appreciate even more now and wish the show could find the will to bring back. This is the first big step the show takes into becoming the show that I’ve bothered to become obsessed with enough to be let down by it; if it had just remained the show it was in the first few episodes I probably wouldn’t have kept watching long (to be fair, I don’t think it would have lasted so long if it had remained that show, maybe not even long enough for me to bother checking it out) and really doubt I would have invested in it. It completely changes it’s paradigm without it feeling obvious that it’s doing that; yes it’s early enough that it’s expected it’s still finding its feet but it really pulls off a shift to a larger story while feeling like this larger world has always been going on in the background and we’re just now being allowed to see it.
Anyway, a pretty successful episode, and well timed to pull in people who might have been running out of interest in trying out this new show.
Next time:
Probably not TVD, having done two in a row, but we’ll see what it actually is.
Standard suggestion box link