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Non-spoilery review of The Secret Circle
Making my way through the season premieres and pilots...this morning? The Secret History Circle, which was oddly more compelling than Ringer. Neither were great pilots, but...here's the thing about pilots? Even if the pilot is brilliant, that is no guarantee the show will be. There are quite a few tv shows that had great pilots and went down-hill, due to changes in writers, networks, etc. While horrible pilots...can often just be the fault of network tampering, and five-six episodes in the show starts to actually get better. Examples include Vamp Diaries, Buffy, Gossip Girl, Fringe, etc. It's rare for a show to have a great pilot and be great from start to finish. (eg. The Wire). American TV shows tend to be a hit and miss bag.
Of the two? I think Secret Circle has a better chance right now of sticking around. The audience it is targeting is already there (being based on a best selling series of YA novels by LJ Smith who wrote the Vampire Diaries), and it has all the right elements to hold them, plus grab viewers who aren't targets. And as its lead, it has the very appealing young actress from Life Unexpected (and the best thing in Life Unexpected). It reminds me a little of Point Pleasant and that old Neve Cambell flick...The Craft - actually it is very similar to the set-up of The Craft. Add to this - it has a seasoned television and screenwriter/executive producer in Kevin Williamson. Williamson is the Joss Whedon of the teen horror soap...and had the hit Dawson's Creek on before or directly after Buffy. Dawson's actually started before Buffy and had similar number of seasons, also the leads of Dawson's have done better than the Buffy alums - Michelle Williams has gone on to be nominated for more than one Academy Award, Katie Holmes - multiple films, Joshua Jackson - Fringe and lots of films.
Secret Circle also has a good set-up. Sure it's been done a lot. But...it is compelling and popular. Teen recently loses parent, moves to new town, there's a secret about that town and all the people there, which no one wants her to know. And it has something to do with her own history and background. May even be connected to her father's death. The parent she never knew. It's not a good secret. And it turns her life and everything she knows upside down. Plus there's a mysterious boy, who turns her on but is unavailable for some reason. And either a bad boy or bad girl that could be her nemesis, and a nice new best friend who may not be all that she appears.
Magic is introduced as both a horror element and an element of romance and wonder - much like it was in Vamp Diaries and the flick The Craft. (Yes, everything's been done before, often more than once.)
The pilot was okay and I'll keep watching. Up next the sitcoms "Free Agents" where ASH is playing a smarmy boss and Hank Azaria is one of the leads, and Up All Night - with Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph - about a new mother who goes back to work for a divish talk show host.
[ETA: I have no idea why I wrote the Secret History throughout - except that something about the show's set up reminded me of Donna Tartt's novel. ]
Of the two? I think Secret Circle has a better chance right now of sticking around. The audience it is targeting is already there (being based on a best selling series of YA novels by LJ Smith who wrote the Vampire Diaries), and it has all the right elements to hold them, plus grab viewers who aren't targets. And as its lead, it has the very appealing young actress from Life Unexpected (and the best thing in Life Unexpected). It reminds me a little of Point Pleasant and that old Neve Cambell flick...The Craft - actually it is very similar to the set-up of The Craft. Add to this - it has a seasoned television and screenwriter/executive producer in Kevin Williamson. Williamson is the Joss Whedon of the teen horror soap...and had the hit Dawson's Creek on before or directly after Buffy. Dawson's actually started before Buffy and had similar number of seasons, also the leads of Dawson's have done better than the Buffy alums - Michelle Williams has gone on to be nominated for more than one Academy Award, Katie Holmes - multiple films, Joshua Jackson - Fringe and lots of films.
Secret Circle also has a good set-up. Sure it's been done a lot. But...it is compelling and popular. Teen recently loses parent, moves to new town, there's a secret about that town and all the people there, which no one wants her to know. And it has something to do with her own history and background. May even be connected to her father's death. The parent she never knew. It's not a good secret. And it turns her life and everything she knows upside down. Plus there's a mysterious boy, who turns her on but is unavailable for some reason. And either a bad boy or bad girl that could be her nemesis, and a nice new best friend who may not be all that she appears.
Magic is introduced as both a horror element and an element of romance and wonder - much like it was in Vamp Diaries and the flick The Craft. (Yes, everything's been done before, often more than once.)
The pilot was okay and I'll keep watching. Up next the sitcoms "Free Agents" where ASH is playing a smarmy boss and Hank Azaria is one of the leads, and Up All Night - with Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph - about a new mother who goes back to work for a divish talk show host.
[ETA: I have no idea why I wrote the Secret History throughout - except that something about the show's set up reminded me of Donna Tartt's novel. ]
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I quite liked it.
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