The Vampire Diaries: Season One (not that I've been quiet about it)
Why I liked a vampire show cashing in on the Twilight craze: It starts out a typical “pure normal girl falls in love with vampire,” but that ends up an entry to a show that’s really about small town mythology and history (and the rewriting of both). It also has a traditional “pure good girl” heroine who is assertive and stands up for herself and doesn’t put up with anything from anyone, and possibly the only Vampire Boyfriend I’ve ever really liked. (I like the pairing as much as I can the trope, but I’d just as soon they were platonic, TBH, at least until she was a bit older.)
I prefer the first half of the season to the second, even though a lot of the more interesting parts and characters show up in the first. But the first half has far fewer dead women and POC (as always, white guys don’t die nearly as much) more women talking to each other, and Damon was treated like the abusive sociopath serial rapist he is. The second half introduces a lot of interesting characters, but a lot of them get killed off so white men can angst or prove they’re ruthless and evil. I may have tons of rage over the last episode. Episodes 11-15 or so also have a pretty high concentration of trying to woobify Damon, which almost killed the show for me a few times. Like when he abducted and brainwashed a group of college girls to be sex toys he could feed off of, and the focus was all about his angst. (After that, I basically laughed at him the whole time? Mostly because his entire plotline really just emphasizes, for me, that the representatives of the character type are really kind of…weak and pathetic people who need others to give them purpose and validation, and wallow in angst and pity and hatred without it? Which basically means that I probably like Stefan because he‘s anti-normal vampire type.)
Random bits:
1. Bonnie’s hardcore anti-vampire-ness basically cemented her as my favorite forever. I understand it made fandom hate her. (it’s smart, people, and a much more reasonable reaction than most!) Now if we could just clue Caroline in, so the canonical I Hate Damon Club can really get down to business. (I may need to scour my caps for the perfect “wrath of Caroline” icon.)
2. Nina Dobrev improved amazingly as an actress over the course of the season. Like, at first everyone was pretty bad (Possibly, they were worried it was a bad Twilight TV series, and wanted an early cancellation until they realized it was actually going good places?) but they all got way better? But she improved especially.
3. There is something about actresses named Kelly that makes them amazingly hotter than anyone else around once they’re playing the mothers of teenagers. It happened to Kelly Rutherford in Gossip Girl, and it happened to Kelly Hu here.
4. It cracks me up that all the women who have sex with Damon are either using him to discard him after, have to have mind control used on them, or hate his guts after. Or are some combination of the above. I really hope this doesn’t change, as it’s kinda the only thing saving the show for me in its approach to Damon at this point.
5. I hate on vampires a lot and badboy vampires especially, but Pearl, Anna, Harper, Katherine, Stefan, and the show’s general approach to vampires prove that it doesn’t always have to be the case? It’s just the modern version of vampire mythology that I hate, and the show largely draws on older vampire myths for characterization and powers, outside of the Salvatores. I wish, though, that they hadn’t felt the need to invent things that could let vampires go into the sun, instead of going with the older myths of it being the age/strength of the vampire (or its maker) that gave it greater endurance.
6. A show about Emily (or her lineage) may now be my most craved genre show ever. Course, that would be a genre show about a powerful (in every possible sense) black woman-possibly multiple ones-and we can’t have that.
7. Jeremy Gilbert has finally taught me what Miracle Hate is. (Miracle Hate is when you think you hate a character as much as you possibly can, but then learn you were wrong.) Others have mentioned experiencing this phenomenon before, but I think this is the first time I’ve truly experienced it. (I mean, ok, technically, I hate Damon more, but at least Damon can be entertaining when he isn’t angsting and I’m not being beaten over the head with the inevitable redemption arc, and unlike Jeremy, he actually serves a purpose in the narrative.)
8. The show has a lot of fail to it and has a bad habit of falling into “damsel in distress” territory, but I do enjoy that a lot of the subplots tend to revolve around women trying to protect people, even though they aren’t always allowed to really do so.
9. While I obviously can’t turn off the critical part of my brain with the show, I can actually enjoy it the way I used to before I started noticing all these things? Like, the critical part of my brain is noting things and filing them away for future reference, but except for the really bad parts, I can largely enjoy the show the way I could enjoy fiction when I was 16?
10. Honestly, all of the above said, if it weren't for the last 10~ minutes of the final episode (except for some really annoying Jeremy bits) I would have lost a lot of interest in Season 2 because of the last 3 episodes? But Bonnie and *spoiler* had some major redeeming qualities going for them, and helped reinstate my faith.
ETA: Oh yes, and I am a total and complete hypocrit, because despite my feelings regarding multiple things involved, I could totally go for a onesided Bonnie/Damon (as long as it, say, stopped at season 5 Buffy, and didn't try to re-enact Season 6-7), if mostly because she's the only one who's never given him an inch, and probably can and will obliterate him if he acts up again. Also, I'd find it way more interesting than the inevitable triangle, which I dread as much as the inevitable redemption arc.
ETA 2: Comments can be a spoiler free-for-all for the season. Season 2 trailers (which I have seen) and book spoilers (which I have not read) are out.
I prefer the first half of the season to the second, even though a lot of the more interesting parts and characters show up in the first. But the first half has far fewer dead women and POC (as always, white guys don’t die nearly as much) more women talking to each other, and Damon was treated like the abusive sociopath serial rapist he is. The second half introduces a lot of interesting characters, but a lot of them get killed off so white men can angst or prove they’re ruthless and evil. I may have tons of rage over the last episode. Episodes 11-15 or so also have a pretty high concentration of trying to woobify Damon, which almost killed the show for me a few times. Like when he abducted and brainwashed a group of college girls to be sex toys he could feed off of, and the focus was all about his angst. (After that, I basically laughed at him the whole time? Mostly because his entire plotline really just emphasizes, for me, that the representatives of the character type are really kind of…weak and pathetic people who need others to give them purpose and validation, and wallow in angst and pity and hatred without it? Which basically means that I probably like Stefan because he‘s anti-normal vampire type.)
Random bits:
1. Bonnie’s hardcore anti-vampire-ness basically cemented her as my favorite forever. I understand it made fandom hate her. (it’s smart, people, and a much more reasonable reaction than most!) Now if we could just clue Caroline in, so the canonical I Hate Damon Club can really get down to business. (I may need to scour my caps for the perfect “wrath of Caroline” icon.)
2. Nina Dobrev improved amazingly as an actress over the course of the season. Like, at first everyone was pretty bad (Possibly, they were worried it was a bad Twilight TV series, and wanted an early cancellation until they realized it was actually going good places?) but they all got way better? But she improved especially.
3. There is something about actresses named Kelly that makes them amazingly hotter than anyone else around once they’re playing the mothers of teenagers. It happened to Kelly Rutherford in Gossip Girl, and it happened to Kelly Hu here.
4. It cracks me up that all the women who have sex with Damon are either using him to discard him after, have to have mind control used on them, or hate his guts after. Or are some combination of the above. I really hope this doesn’t change, as it’s kinda the only thing saving the show for me in its approach to Damon at this point.
5. I hate on vampires a lot and badboy vampires especially, but Pearl, Anna, Harper, Katherine, Stefan, and the show’s general approach to vampires prove that it doesn’t always have to be the case? It’s just the modern version of vampire mythology that I hate, and the show largely draws on older vampire myths for characterization and powers, outside of the Salvatores. I wish, though, that they hadn’t felt the need to invent things that could let vampires go into the sun, instead of going with the older myths of it being the age/strength of the vampire (or its maker) that gave it greater endurance.
6. A show about Emily (or her lineage) may now be my most craved genre show ever. Course, that would be a genre show about a powerful (in every possible sense) black woman-possibly multiple ones-and we can’t have that.
7. Jeremy Gilbert has finally taught me what Miracle Hate is. (Miracle Hate is when you think you hate a character as much as you possibly can, but then learn you were wrong.) Others have mentioned experiencing this phenomenon before, but I think this is the first time I’ve truly experienced it. (I mean, ok, technically, I hate Damon more, but at least Damon can be entertaining when he isn’t angsting and I’m not being beaten over the head with the inevitable redemption arc, and unlike Jeremy, he actually serves a purpose in the narrative.)
8. The show has a lot of fail to it and has a bad habit of falling into “damsel in distress” territory, but I do enjoy that a lot of the subplots tend to revolve around women trying to protect people, even though they aren’t always allowed to really do so.
9. While I obviously can’t turn off the critical part of my brain with the show, I can actually enjoy it the way I used to before I started noticing all these things? Like, the critical part of my brain is noting things and filing them away for future reference, but except for the really bad parts, I can largely enjoy the show the way I could enjoy fiction when I was 16?
10. Honestly, all of the above said, if it weren't for the last 10~ minutes of the final episode (except for some really annoying Jeremy bits) I would have lost a lot of interest in Season 2 because of the last 3 episodes? But Bonnie and *spoiler* had some major redeeming qualities going for them, and helped reinstate my faith.
ETA: Oh yes, and I am a total and complete hypocrit, because despite my feelings regarding multiple things involved, I could totally go for a onesided Bonnie/Damon (as long as it, say, stopped at season 5 Buffy, and didn't try to re-enact Season 6-7), if mostly because she's the only one who's never given him an inch, and probably can and will obliterate him if he acts up again. Also, I'd find it way more interesting than the inevitable triangle, which I dread as much as the inevitable redemption arc.
ETA 2: Comments can be a spoiler free-for-all for the season. Season 2 trailers (which I have seen) and book spoilers (which I have not read) are out.