TVD review - stand by me

[pocochina]

So for a TVD episode, very little actually happened here. Some traveling, some exposition - nothing really happens until the last scene.

And yet.

AND YET.

I think it was one of the best episodes of the show. Possibly the best episode. I mean. Can we talk about how much I loved an episode that featured neither Tyler nor Klaus? Oh, we can't?

Comments

[pocochina]

I'm yet to get over 2x01 and 4x06, and 4x15 is certainly close to those two on my list.

YES. And for all the popular Plec-snark, she wrote or co-wrote all three of these episodes of excellence, along with Masquerade and The Departed. We all know how I feel about the SHUT UP, WOMAN!!! attitude about her anyway, but looking at just what she's clearly credited for (never mind her contributions as a co-creator and showrunner), I think it's pretty clear that girfriend has some serious game.

I got (as predicted) slayed by Elena's "Where is your science?" and (unexpectedly) by Damon's "I can't show up without Bonnie".

omg, yes. And THAT SCENE on the porch with Stefan which was just perfect. I think I kind of take Damon for granted because he's just one of My Characters in that way. But I really agree. A lot of his stuff this season has been subtle in a way that I wouldn't have expected to associate with Damon, but it's happening beautifully.

See, what I don't understand (and this is a genuine question, I really DO NOT understand, and I tried) is that... there wasn't that much outrage when Elena had Jeremy compelled in s3. It was an issue discussed in fandom, there was SOME outrage around it, but nothing compared to what's going on now. Now, it might be because right now the victim is the main character, so the action itself has a bigger impact on the plot of the whole show. It's possible. But is it also related to Elena being a woman?

It's a really ugly discrepancy, no doubt. I think it's partly about Elena being a woman, which IMO is still pretty disturbing? I think it's important that we be more critical and vigilant about the agency of female characters because The World, but...that doesn't make abuses of male characters less wrong, just less common.

I think there's also a skepticism we apply to power plays romantic relationships that we don't apply to familial relationships, and I don't think that's okay either. Because it has the same problem of shifting the "acceptable victim" designation, rather than pinpointing the problem as being with the victimizer. And because on some level that designation still relies on sex being this bad thing that contaminates relationships, so we have to be ~wary of dangerous waters? Which is just a world of no.

[pocochina]

Jeremy is one of those parts of the show where I just am skeptical that something happens so consistently entirely by accident. Like, I don't think they just accidentally forgot about him, when his arc was more of a big mythological deal and the hunter thing was so integral to the first few episodes of the season. I don't think the line about "reprogramming" was a Freudian slip. I don't think his anger at Damon and fear of getting too angry with Elena was in any way surprising. I think that Jeremy's story this season was about what happens when someone has the survival of them and theirs on the line so many times, and has their vulnerability within their group brought home so many times, that they are susceptible to losing touch with their inner selves. I think that story would've lost a lot of its power if it had been called out toward the end, because it's the kind of thing that gets rationalized and ignored until it comes to a tragic end.

I guess maybe the 1x07 case seems more excusable to people because Elena was new to the whole supernatural thing, had less life experience than Damon, etc. (I've also seen people say 1x07 was less objectionable because it was addressed in the text with Jeremy getting angry at Elena for having him compelled, whereas people have less confidence that the aftermath of 4x15 will be addressed satisfactorily by the text.)

I think that's a big part of it. I think the audience, at that point, is also very new to the idea of compulsion, and the exposure to it was either Damon victimizing Caroline in ways that would have been bad whether or not compulsion was involved, or handwaved by Stefan's seemingly nbd compelling his way into keeping his own secret. And so Jeremy's story there was the means by which the show made clear that no, compulsion in and of itself is a Bad Thing, not just a tool, and so Elena and the audience not necessarily getting it at the beginning of that story makes sense.

[upupa_epops]

Yeah, I am guilty of complaining about Julie Plec's unfortunate interviews, a lot, but I shut my mouth after 4x06. Clearly Plec is an awesome writer who is required to say stupid marketing-related things in interviews. I'm really curious to hear what she'll say about her characters when the show is over, her contract is over and she doesn't have to sell TVD anymore.

I think I kind of take Damon for granted because he's just one of My Characters in that way.

That's usually the case with me, but this time, he caught me unprepared.

You know, as problematic as it is to have so many ambiguous, murky stuff on a teen show, I'm kinda glad TVD went there? It's making me question my own reactions as a feminist viewer, re-examine myself. I like that.

[pocochina]

as problematic as it is to have so many ambiguous, murky stuff on a teen show

This kind of stuff I'm not even as bothered by? Teens aren't dumb. They know the world is a fucked-up place. Showing desperate people doing desperate things respects their intelligence. It's the Caroline/Matt type things, that get shown as good when they are clearly unhealthy, which worry me.

[pocochina]

It's a tough balance. I hate the idea of being the Positivity Police, you know? Because that's really silencing. And there's frustration, which is subjective and valid, and then there's just general showrunner skepticism, which IMO is pretty much always objectively warranted. But there's also a SHUT UP, WOMAN pile-on vibe which would make me wary even if I didn't think she was doing a great job this season, which I really do.

I think Plec speaks from the characters' perspectives a lot, and I think that bottomless ability to do so is what lets TVD be a show where even secondary and tertiary characters are so beloved. And I have a lot of sympathy for that, tbh, I think it's gotta be tough to try to write a character for twelve hours a day and then turn around and say how terrible they are? I don't think it's an accident that most acknowledged villain protagonist shows - Dexter, Breaking Bad, &c - are short seasons, rooted around one character's POV. Because it's exhausting to try to deal with cognitive dissonance and play devil's advocate with yourself. TVD is an ensemble show which runs for full seasons, and it looks to me like her strategy for doing justice to the characters (who again, I think are all great) is...very method.

ie, she has a really consistent use of the "X character tells the truth"? What she means is that "Caroline/Elena/whoever is not misrepresenting the world as she sees it," not "Caroline/Elena is a detached and neutral narrator of the world as it is." Which, you know, maybe she should be more specific, I don't have an issue with that criticism? But that's not an uncommon use of that phrase, or even for people to have really convinced themselves.

And like upupa-epops is saying upthread, this is a marketing thing she has to do; there's a certain spin she has to put on the show just to keep it going. And like we've talked about, there's just no way that a teen anti-heroine would fly, as unfair as that is. There's just this backwards in high heels thing, where not only is she supposed to be a female writer in a hostile world, writing about a female character in a 'verse which deals with a lot of highly gendered issues, and she's also supposed to sell that while also doing Morality 101 on 24/7 viral media? Jesus, I'm tired just typing that out.

Again: easier for me to say because I ignore writer opinions 90% of the time anyway. But from my perspective, the pile-on is... uncomfortable.