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shadowkatJust finished watching the newest episode of Vamp Diaries and I must say after the season finale of True Blood, and Ringer, this felt like a breath of fresh air. Finally a writer who understands the soap thriller medium, how to do intriguing plot twists, campy angst, and yet write compelling characters who you actually do care about. I may make fun of Vamp Diaries - but the writing is actually pretty good - it doesn't try to be anything more than entertaining. Combines just the right level of thrills and romantic angst, with a touch of comedy. Plus unpredictable plot twists.
The trouble with Ringer - which isn't exactly in the same genre, is Gellar is not a compelling actress. I don't know what happened? She was compelling up until about the last two seasons of Buffy. Here, much like the latter seasons of Buffy, she comes across as almost too restrained, cold, like she is walking through the role. During Ringer? I thought - this role is miscast. She doesn't exude any warmth or nuance. And I hate to say this - but I noticed that as far back as S6-7 (and I'm not alone, a lot of fans complained about Buffy coming across as too cold, too aloof, too impersonal at times...thinking she was written and directed that way...but after having watched Gellar in a lot of films and in Ringer - I think it is how she is performing the role, in short it is her, not the writing and direction. But...it's weird, because it wasn't always the case. I think she just may be limited - unable to interpret older and more complex roles, due in part to a lack of theaterical training? I don't know. But really not compelling. I didn't see any chemistry or warmth between her character and any of the others in Ringer. This could be a writing or direction decision - but, I've seen her in other things - same problem.) Maybe it's just me? Maybe Gellar doesn't work for me?
Anyhow..watching Vamp Diaries after Ringer, makes Ringer look pretty bad in comparison. And True Blood for that matter.
There's this great sequence in Vamp Diaries that reminded me a little of what Williamson did in the first Scream flicks - he uses "spotlights" to build tension. And he sets it up well. You know who the villain is and what will happen, but you don't want it too...and you hope it won't.
You worry about the characters. It's a nice trick - often down in horror films - anticipation.
Makes the story even scarier. I actually think Kevin Williamson is fairly good at horror - or at the type of horror I tend to love, schlocky, scares me but makes me laugh at the same time, no nightmares or bad dreams. As opposed to X-Files and Fringe -which due to tend to lead to bad dreams.
* Damon is just getting sexier. I get that he's not everyone's cup of cocoa. But I find him hot as all get out. Lean, dancer build, with smoldering eyes with you can see with little difficulty.
Also snarky one liners. In addition - he's the classic bad boy with a hidden heart of gold, which apparently is a trope that hits my buttons in a good way. You think he doesn't care about anyone, and then you find out - nope he really does. Edgy, but nice guy underbelly. Also misunderstood.
*Stefan is getting more interesting and a bit darker. Although this is a trope I'm not overly fond of and feel has been overdone. The only one that did it well or to my satisfaction was possibly either Nick Knight in Forever Knight or Mitchell in Being Human. Most tv shows that do this trope tend to cheat or white-wash/retcon the character, so they don't have to kill him. It's basically, I lost myself to my addiction, and it was not in my control, so I'm not responsible for being this horrible killer and the heroine is justified in loving me. They don't take responsibility for their choices - it's someone else's fault. Either a curse, the drugs, possession, addiction,
or matrydom, take your pick. I find it tired. And I don't buy the justifications. The writers are cheating. They've taken a nice character to a dark place and don't want to do the hard work.
It can be done...but I rarely see it. We'll see what Williamson does with it - since he appears to have flipped the Damon and Stefan characters. Except Damon wasn't nearly as messy as Stefan in that he didn't really torture his victims or rip them apart. If I had to choose which one to meet in a dark alley and get killed by? I'd pick Damon. But then I'm not a fan of mental torture and pain.
*Elena is growing on me. (OF course I've watched Sookie all summer, and next to Sookie, Elena is complex and quite appealing. Also just saw Ringer, which makes the actress playing Elena look well like a Angelina Jolie in comparison.) I did feel sympathetic. Damon has been protecting her from the truth about his brother. Personally, I think he is wrong and should let her see what Stefan has done. He's not doing her any favors letting her stay in denial.
*They don't appear to know what to do with my favorite vampire hunter and Damon's buddy. Alaric.
I like Alaric. But the character is at his best when he is interacting with Damon. And it made sense why he took off. Although...I had to laugh at the line:"You are 18 years old Elena, you can handle all of this yourself, in fact better by yourself than with my help or anyone else's." Alaric, dude, what universe are you from? Or country? I've yet to meet an 18 year old who can handle a kid-brother, who almost died and had a drug addiction, several vampires, a werewolf, and
high school, with no job. Speaking of - how is Elena affording all of this? Did she get a huge inheritance or something? And where oh where is social services? Although when you reach 18, social services does tend to leave you alone. Not sure how old Jeremy is. 16? 17? It's hard to tell when everyone playing the roles is in their mid-late twenties.
*Just to prove she's totally not capable - Elena is still angsting after Stefan and tells him when he calls her or she guesses it's him, even though no one has said a word, that she still loves him and to hold on to that. Uh, I get that you love him desperately, but seriously - he's killing people and hanging with Klaus, how do you know that's him and not Klaus or he's not under Klaus' influence? Oh well, I suppose we should give her kudos for not going after Stefan and letting Damon do it. Elena unlike Sookie is not completely stupid.
*Poor Andy. I rather liked Andy. They keep killing off supporting female characters that I like.
But I knew she was dead...or soon to be dead, when I noticed she was still hanging with Damon.
They set that up nicely actually. I was impressed with how that was plotted. We get the foreshadowing with Damon finding the female bodies that Stefan killed and knowing immediately that Stefan did it because his M.O. Then Stefan telling Klaus - he'll deal with Damon, no need for Klaus to get involved. Then the brilliant bit in the studio with the lighting and Stefan appearing, he plays with her, tortures her. Then instead of killing her - compells her, and has Damon watch as he compells her to kill herself. Which is a nice twist, since - right before that Alaric calls Andy Damon's compelled girlfriend, while we, the audience have been told that she's not really compelled, not any more. And is there of her own free will. She loves him for who he is.
Ironically, it is Stefan who does the compelling and it is a trick Damon would have done way back in S1 to torture Stefan, the brother's have changed places. Yet as Klaus states to Stefan - it's still all about your brother - you still care more about him than anything else, family is always strong, you always care the most about it. But after a while the blood will win out and you will no longer care. Meanwhile - Stefan got his point across to Damon, who is somewhat devastated by Andy's death, and has given up hope for his brother, while poor in the dark Elena holds out hope.
Nicely done. That's how you emotionally set up a scene. Alan Ball should take lessons. As should the writers of Ringer.
* Caroline and Tyler are building. And there's nice twists and curves there as well. I get the feeling that Tyler has fallen hard for Caroline. While Caroline isn't so sure. She still has a thing for Matt. I rather like Tyler (see bad boy trope above). While Matt is nice and I rather like him, he's also a bit whiny and boring to me. (Not a trope that I like all that much). Will state Matt's more interesting with Jeremy, and a lot more interesting now that he knows everything.
That twist at the end, I did not see coming - kudos. While all of Ringer's plot-twists, I saw a mile away. Mrs. Lockwood takes out Caroline - and does it in a clever fashion.
* Jeremy who sees dead people...is somewhat interesting as well. But they did something to the actor, he looks completely different. Hair-cut? Make-up? I know it's the same actor. But he appears to have somehow bulked up or grown? Very odd. In this case the dead people he sees are his dead girl-friends. Vickie wants help. Not clear what Anna wants...she seems more malevolent somehow. Love having both back - was annoyed they got killed off as well.
* Klaus is trying to make werewolves. Honestly, he should just have stayed in town and kept an eye on Caroline and Tyler - who are more than likely to do the deed for him. Because I'm guessing the best hybrids are born not sired. Not that he won't succeed in the latter of course.
* Stefan and Klaus are sort of fun in a purely scarey nasty way. I rather liked the torture by dart game, darts dipped in wolves bane. Clever.
Not much else. But it was a fun episode. The dialogue is clever and the pacing moves. Also the characters and actors playing them continue to be compelling. It's by no means great tv, hello, supernatural horror soap opera, but it's not trying to be. It just wants to be fun and it achieves that in spades.
Vamp Diaries is another example of tv series that turned out to be a lot better than the initial pilot. The pilot was cringe-worthy and stupid. The series is a blast.
So, I'm guessing I should give Ringer a chance. Momster and I have decided to, but not for Gellar, for Ion Gruffold. Sigh. Yes, we are shallow, we admit this.
The trouble with Ringer - which isn't exactly in the same genre, is Gellar is not a compelling actress. I don't know what happened? She was compelling up until about the last two seasons of Buffy. Here, much like the latter seasons of Buffy, she comes across as almost too restrained, cold, like she is walking through the role. During Ringer? I thought - this role is miscast. She doesn't exude any warmth or nuance. And I hate to say this - but I noticed that as far back as S6-7 (and I'm not alone, a lot of fans complained about Buffy coming across as too cold, too aloof, too impersonal at times...thinking she was written and directed that way...but after having watched Gellar in a lot of films and in Ringer - I think it is how she is performing the role, in short it is her, not the writing and direction. But...it's weird, because it wasn't always the case. I think she just may be limited - unable to interpret older and more complex roles, due in part to a lack of theaterical training? I don't know. But really not compelling. I didn't see any chemistry or warmth between her character and any of the others in Ringer. This could be a writing or direction decision - but, I've seen her in other things - same problem.) Maybe it's just me? Maybe Gellar doesn't work for me?
Anyhow..watching Vamp Diaries after Ringer, makes Ringer look pretty bad in comparison. And True Blood for that matter.
There's this great sequence in Vamp Diaries that reminded me a little of what Williamson did in the first Scream flicks - he uses "spotlights" to build tension. And he sets it up well. You know who the villain is and what will happen, but you don't want it too...and you hope it won't.
You worry about the characters. It's a nice trick - often down in horror films - anticipation.
Makes the story even scarier. I actually think Kevin Williamson is fairly good at horror - or at the type of horror I tend to love, schlocky, scares me but makes me laugh at the same time, no nightmares or bad dreams. As opposed to X-Files and Fringe -which due to tend to lead to bad dreams.
* Damon is just getting sexier. I get that he's not everyone's cup of cocoa. But I find him hot as all get out. Lean, dancer build, with smoldering eyes with you can see with little difficulty.
Also snarky one liners. In addition - he's the classic bad boy with a hidden heart of gold, which apparently is a trope that hits my buttons in a good way. You think he doesn't care about anyone, and then you find out - nope he really does. Edgy, but nice guy underbelly. Also misunderstood.
*Stefan is getting more interesting and a bit darker. Although this is a trope I'm not overly fond of and feel has been overdone. The only one that did it well or to my satisfaction was possibly either Nick Knight in Forever Knight or Mitchell in Being Human. Most tv shows that do this trope tend to cheat or white-wash/retcon the character, so they don't have to kill him. It's basically, I lost myself to my addiction, and it was not in my control, so I'm not responsible for being this horrible killer and the heroine is justified in loving me. They don't take responsibility for their choices - it's someone else's fault. Either a curse, the drugs, possession, addiction,
or matrydom, take your pick. I find it tired. And I don't buy the justifications. The writers are cheating. They've taken a nice character to a dark place and don't want to do the hard work.
It can be done...but I rarely see it. We'll see what Williamson does with it - since he appears to have flipped the Damon and Stefan characters. Except Damon wasn't nearly as messy as Stefan in that he didn't really torture his victims or rip them apart. If I had to choose which one to meet in a dark alley and get killed by? I'd pick Damon. But then I'm not a fan of mental torture and pain.
*Elena is growing on me. (OF course I've watched Sookie all summer, and next to Sookie, Elena is complex and quite appealing. Also just saw Ringer, which makes the actress playing Elena look well like a Angelina Jolie in comparison.) I did feel sympathetic. Damon has been protecting her from the truth about his brother. Personally, I think he is wrong and should let her see what Stefan has done. He's not doing her any favors letting her stay in denial.
*They don't appear to know what to do with my favorite vampire hunter and Damon's buddy. Alaric.
I like Alaric. But the character is at his best when he is interacting with Damon. And it made sense why he took off. Although...I had to laugh at the line:"You are 18 years old Elena, you can handle all of this yourself, in fact better by yourself than with my help or anyone else's." Alaric, dude, what universe are you from? Or country? I've yet to meet an 18 year old who can handle a kid-brother, who almost died and had a drug addiction, several vampires, a werewolf, and
high school, with no job. Speaking of - how is Elena affording all of this? Did she get a huge inheritance or something? And where oh where is social services? Although when you reach 18, social services does tend to leave you alone. Not sure how old Jeremy is. 16? 17? It's hard to tell when everyone playing the roles is in their mid-late twenties.
*Just to prove she's totally not capable - Elena is still angsting after Stefan and tells him when he calls her or she guesses it's him, even though no one has said a word, that she still loves him and to hold on to that. Uh, I get that you love him desperately, but seriously - he's killing people and hanging with Klaus, how do you know that's him and not Klaus or he's not under Klaus' influence? Oh well, I suppose we should give her kudos for not going after Stefan and letting Damon do it. Elena unlike Sookie is not completely stupid.
*Poor Andy. I rather liked Andy. They keep killing off supporting female characters that I like.
But I knew she was dead...or soon to be dead, when I noticed she was still hanging with Damon.
They set that up nicely actually. I was impressed with how that was plotted. We get the foreshadowing with Damon finding the female bodies that Stefan killed and knowing immediately that Stefan did it because his M.O. Then Stefan telling Klaus - he'll deal with Damon, no need for Klaus to get involved. Then the brilliant bit in the studio with the lighting and Stefan appearing, he plays with her, tortures her. Then instead of killing her - compells her, and has Damon watch as he compells her to kill herself. Which is a nice twist, since - right before that Alaric calls Andy Damon's compelled girlfriend, while we, the audience have been told that she's not really compelled, not any more. And is there of her own free will. She loves him for who he is.
Ironically, it is Stefan who does the compelling and it is a trick Damon would have done way back in S1 to torture Stefan, the brother's have changed places. Yet as Klaus states to Stefan - it's still all about your brother - you still care more about him than anything else, family is always strong, you always care the most about it. But after a while the blood will win out and you will no longer care. Meanwhile - Stefan got his point across to Damon, who is somewhat devastated by Andy's death, and has given up hope for his brother, while poor in the dark Elena holds out hope.
Nicely done. That's how you emotionally set up a scene. Alan Ball should take lessons. As should the writers of Ringer.
* Caroline and Tyler are building. And there's nice twists and curves there as well. I get the feeling that Tyler has fallen hard for Caroline. While Caroline isn't so sure. She still has a thing for Matt. I rather like Tyler (see bad boy trope above). While Matt is nice and I rather like him, he's also a bit whiny and boring to me. (Not a trope that I like all that much). Will state Matt's more interesting with Jeremy, and a lot more interesting now that he knows everything.
That twist at the end, I did not see coming - kudos. While all of Ringer's plot-twists, I saw a mile away. Mrs. Lockwood takes out Caroline - and does it in a clever fashion.
* Jeremy who sees dead people...is somewhat interesting as well. But they did something to the actor, he looks completely different. Hair-cut? Make-up? I know it's the same actor. But he appears to have somehow bulked up or grown? Very odd. In this case the dead people he sees are his dead girl-friends. Vickie wants help. Not clear what Anna wants...she seems more malevolent somehow. Love having both back - was annoyed they got killed off as well.
* Klaus is trying to make werewolves. Honestly, he should just have stayed in town and kept an eye on Caroline and Tyler - who are more than likely to do the deed for him. Because I'm guessing the best hybrids are born not sired. Not that he won't succeed in the latter of course.
* Stefan and Klaus are sort of fun in a purely scarey nasty way. I rather liked the torture by dart game, darts dipped in wolves bane. Clever.
Not much else. But it was a fun episode. The dialogue is clever and the pacing moves. Also the characters and actors playing them continue to be compelling. It's by no means great tv, hello, supernatural horror soap opera, but it's not trying to be. It just wants to be fun and it achieves that in spades.
Vamp Diaries is another example of tv series that turned out to be a lot better than the initial pilot. The pilot was cringe-worthy and stupid. The series is a blast.
So, I'm guessing I should give Ringer a chance. Momster and I have decided to, but not for Gellar, for Ion Gruffold. Sigh. Yes, we are shallow, we admit this.
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Date: 2011-09-17 07:25 am (UTC)SMcQ does look different - more grownup or something. Hairs a little darker but that's not quite it.
I'm still waiting to see how both Ringer & Secret Circle work out, it's really too hard IMO to judge by just the first few episodes. Vampire Diaries took a while to get good and then it got really good.
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Date: 2011-09-17 04:13 pm (UTC)Very true. And I know far too much about what networks do with pilots and the first few episodes...to judge by them any longer. Networks will fiddle and be on top of the writers, weakening the writing and show, up until about the fifth or sixth episode, then they tend to get busy or bored and stop, and the writers are left alone to do their thing.
And..you're right about Vamp Diaries - it had a horrible pilot and the first five episodes were sluggish, then all of a sudden it took off. While other series that I've seen like Joan of Arcadia, BSG,
Caprica...all had great pilots and first five to six episodes then fell apart later on. Fringe had a good pilot, but the first 6-7 episodes were not good.
Which means networks are silly to judge by pilots.
So will give both some time...because there's potential under the surface. Secret Circle has the mystery about the past. (And I'm almost convinced that the actor playing the Charlie (Diana's Dad) is the same actor who played Elijah. OR someone who really resembles him.
So far Secret History is more compelling than Ringer, which is odd, since I was expecting the opposite. But Williamson is really good at this sort of thing...while the writer's and producer's of Ringer feel a bit untested.
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Date: 2011-09-17 06:22 pm (UTC)Everyone had the same reaction, KW was clearly after an "Elijah type".
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Date: 2011-09-17 09:22 am (UTC)Have been watching Being Human recently. It's interesting. Must say Mitchell's return with the other vampires after the little boy's accident didn't really work for me. Too hasty perhaps, and the set up too much build on evident strings. I don't know but I'll continue to watch it.
Hope your health problems will find a solution and you'll better soon. Hugs.
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Date: 2011-09-17 04:58 pm (UTC)My favorite character is actually a supporting one - Nina.
But...I will state that Mitchell's arc in the last two seasons is the best I've seen of that particular trope, in that Mitchell actually addresses his inability to take responsibility for his own actions.
But I can't say I'm in love with Being Human and it often takes itself a bit too seriously.
Hope your health problems will find a solution and you'll better soon. Hugs.
Thanks.
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Date: 2011-09-17 06:46 pm (UTC)Honestly, I think this is the case. I try not to say if often because I have enough issues with the character of Buffy that it sounds a bit grudge-like. But the truth is, having watched SMG in several things from when she was quite young, it seems to me that she only has a few go-to modes. She can to big hyperbolic soapy angst (which we saw both in her soap stint and in BtVS). Those are BIG EMOTIONS, and she can play those BIG EMOTIONS. And she plays them BIG. She's also good at bitchy. She can do bitchy well. In fact it's what she was best at when she was young. Cutesy worked when she was young, but alas with all of us, cutesy works less and less well as we age. It's an age appropriateness thing. A sixteen year old being cutesy plays cute. As you grow older, it begins to seem strained or fake (not that I saw her doing cutesy in Ringer. Just that it's one of her modes). What she struggles with is subtlety. I think she's trying subtle as a more mature mode of expression... but it lacks... I don't know. Something. It seems distant, removed, and...well... not expressive. I'll compare it to a scene from Fringe. Early on in Fringe I was quite dismissive of Anna Torv. I didn't think she was all that good. But there's the scene in a recent season where she's sitting still, in a chair, trying to handle something, trying to be strong, not angry, not destroyed. She's trying to put a brave face on it, and she's still... and you can really see that her heart is breaking behind her eyes. It's there. So subtle. She pulls off the strained "I'm okay" vibe she needs to project... and also oh-so-subtly pulls off that it's a brave face and that underneath she's destroyed. That's when I changed my mind about Torv. She's good. She's just playing a very restrained character in Olvia, but the actress? Knows she's doing it, is doing it deliberately, and when it's needed for the character can show you that underneath there's a lot going on. I haven't seen SMG pull that off anywhere near as successfully. She needs bigger moves -- tears, hystrionics, deep frowny-frowns. She can't do it standing still... but she tries. Subtle isn't what she's good at.
Maybe with Ringer she'll re-embrace her soapy roots. She can do soapy well.
As far as Elena Vs. Sookie, the thing with Sookie is that it really makes no sense why Bill and Eric are obsessed with her (makes more sense for Bill than Eric. But still doesn't make much sense). Elena on the other hand works better with Stefan and Damon. First off she's freaking gorgeous, second, she's Katherine's doppleganger so she harkens back to what lured them both into vampirism in the first place. Plus, she offers them both sympathy, and they both crave that. Basically, I understand her attraction for the male characters more than I understand Sookie's. I just have a hard time buying that 1000 year old bad-ass Viking is overwhelmed by Miss Mary Sunshine with the perky tits.
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Date: 2011-09-17 09:04 pm (UTC)I think you are right about SMG. I've also seen her in a lot of things, and yep, three modes - the BIG emotions, the cutesy giggly vulnerability (which works far better when you are 16-25, but not so much in your 30s - See Anna Paquin's attempts at Sookie for an example), and bitchy. It's the three roles she did on Buffy - Buffbot was cutesy, Faith/First - Bitchy and Big Emotions, and Buffy - big emotions and cutesy.
And I'm probably picking up on it - because I've been watching Fringe, and you're right, Anna Torv gets across the subtlety that SMG can't quite pull off. Torv is more polished in her performance than SMG. SMG's performance lacks that polish. The role she's playing in Ringer - requires a lot of polish and subtlety. I keep thinking of Maggie Q in Nikita - who does pull it off.
If Ringer gets soapy...it might work. I haven't seen her do soapy in a while. In her last three movies, she kept trying to do subtle and failing miserably at it - which is why they all went straight to DVD.
Basically, I understand her attraction for the male characters more than I understand Sookie's. I just have a hard time buying that 1000 year old bad-ass Viking is overwhelmed by Miss Mary Sunshine with the perky tits.
Agreed. Eric's attraction to Sookie makes no sense to me either.
I can see why she's into him, but why on earth is he into her - outside of the fairy bit? Maybe it is that simple - it's the fairy blood? That's the only thing that makes sense.
Damon and Stefan's mutual attraction to Elena, I understand. I can see why they are both smitten with her and vice-versa. Although I think the triangle is more complicated on that show - because I think it's more Stefan/Damon/Elena than Stefan/Elena/Damon. Just as I think it was more Stefan/Damon/Katrina...from Damon's pov it is Damon/Elena/Stefan. But from Elena and Katrina pov's I think it's actually Elena/Stefan/Damon. LOL! (Which I sort of find more interesting. The fact that Stefan is willing to sacrifice his soul, Elena, etc to save Damon. But not sacrifice Damon to save Elena or Kathryn for that matter. BroRomance tropes romance in Stefan's pov.)
Of course, I am neither a guy nor gay, so maybe I'm not the best person to judge regarding Sookie's appeal? Maybe after 1000 years of angst and snark, Miss Mary Sunshine with perky tits is a turn-on?
He clearly has a thing for blonds...look at Pam. Although I can see the appeal of Pam a lot better.