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shadowkatFinished cleaning out the fridge this morning. Tried watching Chicago Fire during it. But its the sort of tv show that requires a little attention and focus. So stopped it and watched it this afternoon.
1. Chicago Fire Review - this is Dick Wolf's new series. Dick Wolf was the creator of the Law & Order series. He tried to do a firefighter/rescue show in the past as spin-off to Homicide Life on the Streets, starring Reed Diamond, but it was short lived. Chicago Fire is unfortunately not as good as those series were, if anything it bears more in common with the old Billy Baldwin/Kurt Russell Firefighter flick BackDraft, although that film had a lot more going on in it. It also reminds me a little of the old 1970s series Emergency starring Randolf Mantooth, which I began to miss while watching it. Emergency was, oddly enough, more entertaining. It took itself a tad less seriously. The best of the firefighter genre is Rescue Me, which this isn't. Both a good thing and a bad thing. If you want to watch a gritty, reality based, firefighter drama that reminds you of Homicide Life on the Streets or The Wire - go rent Rescue Me. Although, I admittedly didn't make it through that one either. Too dark and misanthropic for me taste. Also a wee bit on the melodramatic side. Because let's face it - it's hard to do a drama about firefighter's well without delving into either personal melodrama or soap opera. There's no mystery to solve. It's basically sitting around until you get called out to fight a fire in a burning building. Not exactly conducive to film-making, fires. Plus expensive.
That said? Chicago Fire is along with Nashville the best shot of the season's pilots to date. Also amongst the best written. Which admittedly isn't saying all that much. It reminds me a lot of Nashville actually. While it is less soapy, it is more sappy. And trite. Nashville and Chicago Fire suffer from the same problem - recycled tv/movie plots. Making me wonder if these writers are given a bunch of plot staples for every possible show out there?
Here's the plot: Two rival fire squads. The Truck Squad run by Casey (Jesse Spencer of House who played Chase) and the Rescue Squad run by (I want to say Deacon). In the opening act, Casey's right-hand man, Darden is sent through a window into a burning building and gets trapped. He's burned to a crisp. Deacon blames Casey for the decision. A month later, Casey finally cleans out Darden's locker. Deacon is still giving him a hard time. A new recruit is hired to take Darden's place and joins the Truck squad, when he really wants to be with the Rescue Squad. (Honestly I can't tell the difference between the two of them, both go to fires, both rescue people, but whatever.) After a couple of mild dirty looks, much male posturing, and lectures by the Chief, Casey takes a ride with his crew and ends up a block away from a fire. So is the first to answer the call. In the course of rescuing people, etc, Casey and one of his men, get trapped in the blaze and knocked unconscious. Deacon and his crew rush in to save them. Deacon goes down in the hole they are stuck in, wakes Casey up and helps Casey get his man to safety. He also helps get Casey to safety. And Casey in turn saves Deacon. At the end of the episode, Deacon joins the Casey's squad in its hospital vigil waiting on news about their teammate, while an appropriate song plays in the background. (And I knew halfway through this was going to happen.)
Meanwhile, there's a few subplots. Two women rescue or EMT's who work for the squads get in trouble when one stabs a little girl in the heart with a needle while attempting to revive her. The girl survives, barely. They also have a problem with a shooter. Dawson - is the one who gets in trouble with the needle and makes the shooter back off. Dawson also has a huge crush on Casey. Casey has just broken things off with his fiance, a medical resident, because he wants kids and she wants a career. Meanwhile, Deacon is getting pain meds from Dawson's partner, a lanky blond. The Rookie comes on to Dawson's partner, only to discover she's a lesbian. The Rookie also is struggling to find his place in the unit, does he want to follow his Dad's path and be in the Rescue Squad or be in the unit he's assigned to? The old Chief advises him to stay put, with an apt exchange of platitudes.
Like most of Dick Wolf's series, Chicago Fires has diverse casting, but the minorities are in "Supporting Roles". The leads are two male hunks, Casey and Deacon.
There's potential here, but it feels like Wolf is recycling old plots. Next week we have the politician whose son is a drunk driver, the week after Deacon's addiction to pain medication possibly due to an old injury, Dawson's crush on the unavailable Casey, Casey's love for Hallie, who doesn't want to have kids.
And the cast doesn't quite pull you in. There's no charismatic leads here. The closest might be the Chief and Deacon, but they lack the punch of Reed Diamond, Andre Braugher,
Yaphette Koto, and others. It's far too bland. And too many of the firefights look alike.
Wish a bit more attention had been paid to the men who ends up in the hospital at the end. And older guy, who had just been evicted from his home and was living at the fire house.
Or to the other paunchier older guy - who Casey tells that he can't keep covering for.
There's two potential tales there. But not overly interesting or innovative ones.
Like I stated above, in some respects it reminds me a little of Nashville, an over-reliance on old story tropes. But well-shot. Not quite as well cast. Nashville has stronger leads, and more potential - all it has to do is lose the politics.
It could get better, but I'll probably skip it. None of the characters pulled me in and the stories didn't intrigue me. Shame, I find workplace dramas fascinating and tend to have a weakness for the genre, but with firefighting, it is hard to do it well. Cop shows are admittedly much easier.
Overall rating? B-
2. Vamp Diaries or what everyone calls TVD (but TVD confuses me, I keep thinking it's an STD or shorthand for some Tivo device.)
Still amongst the best paced tv series on. If a bit on the convoluted side. This is a fun supernatural soap opera with rapid fire pacing. It ain't your Momma's soap or Dark Shadows for that matter (which was painfully slow at times).
Do wish it would stop teasing me over the potential killing of its leads. Every time it does, which tends to be once a week, I think, oh come on, we all know you aren't going to kill them. Stop teasing me. Besides if you do, they'll just come back as something else.
As two world-weary characters in another soap opera that I'm watching famously stated this week: "Oh don't worry, he'll show up again, we all know that no one in this town ever stays dead."
Does make it hard for the audience to grieve a character's death or take it seriously - when you know there's a 50/50 chance they'll pop up again.
Alaric died last year when Elena drowned. Because Stefan had to save the incredibly dull Matt. Actually Elena told Stefan to save the incredibly dull Matt over her. Don't worry Elena didn't stay dead, because un-beknowest to either Elena or Stefan, Meredith had healed her from critical injuries earlier that morning with Damon's vampire blood. As a result, Elena came back from the dead as a vampire, or half-vampire. You don't become a vampire in TVD Land unless you feed off a human or drink human blood.
Damon: Two choices, you either feed off a human and become a vampire, or you die. There's no third choice.
I can't help but wonder if Elena would have been quite as self-sacrificing if she'd known about this little wrinkle? Damon has already stated he'd have saved her in either event. He did not want her to become a vampire. He wanted her to grow old, have a life, and have children. Curious to know what Stefan would have done? Stefan seems to be without a brain and does whatever people tell him to do, like a very well-trained puppy dog. Elena tells him to sit, he sits, she kisses him. Elena tells him to fetch, he fetches, she chooses to spend her life with him. [Some ladies like well-trained puppy-dogs, I'm a cat person myself.]
Damon clearly has a mind and will of his own. Although Elena now knows he's as self-sacrificing as she is, and also has a bit of a martyr complex. Takes one to know one after all. There's a lot of these characters wandering about TVD, it's amazing they survive. Mainly because they keep fighting each other for who gets to be the martyr this week.
Anyhow, Stefan and Elena stupidly hold onto the desperate and romantic hope that Bonnie will selflessly find Elena on the other side, bring her back, and reverse the vampirism.
Jeremy and Damon are both a wee bit skeptical. As is Klaus who thinks Bonnie should be focusing on getting him back into his original body, because he's tired of being Tyler.
Don't know why - Caroline smothered him with kisses as Tyler. Granted he had just saved her life, she thought it was actually Tyler, and prior to that was convinced Tyler was dead. (No, Tyler merely agreed to let Klaus take up residence in his skin for a bit.)
While Bonnie's busy figuring out how to turn Elena human again, Elena is experiencing the weirdness of becoming a vampire. (Note to date Elena has watched three of her friends become vamps due to the actions of Damon, Katrina, and Stefan.)No one but Jeremy and possibly Bonnie seems at all worried about the effect all of this may have on Bonnie, and whether she can do it without seriously injuring herself, her power, or anyone else. Because you know, it's Elena. Or the fact that Bonnie made a classically insane decision to help Klaus in order to save all their vampire friends (Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and now Elena from Alaric's staking of Klaus. If Klaus got staked, his line died with him.)
Meanwhile, there's a new sheriff in town, or rather a priest who has taken over the town council and intends on ridding the town once and for all of supernatural creatures, specifically vampires. He's not doing a bad job of it either. He rounds up all the vervaine. Arrests then releases the sheriff, the mayor, and the doctor (who are all women by the way - kudos, Mystic Falls). I've no idea why the guy releases them. You'd think he'd keep them under arrest and therefore unable to warn anyone? But no. Anyhow, he also rounds up all Alaric's weapons and hunts down Rebecca (somehow Damon who is with Rebecca, actually he's trying to kill at that point, escapes), Stefan and poor half-vamp Elena.
Takes them to his Cattle Ranch (which has no cattle, so just ranch). Doesn't take their rings though. You'd think he would? Maybe he doesn't know about them? Alaric was better at this.
While he's doing this, Damon, who managed to elude capture has reunited with the doc and Matt. He puts a rescue plan in action. Not sure why the Doc is on the loose. Tyler/Klaus is in the woods with Caroline - where she's making out with him, until he slips and calls her love. She pauses and thinks, okay, what? And he comes clean, rather quickly. To give Klaus credit, he does try to stop her at different points, but gives in. She is all over him. The writers are going out of their way to make it clear to their viewers that Klaus is not raping Caroline nor is Caroline raping Tyler. Klaus may be a lot of things, but he is not a rapist. Go writers. (Kudos to TVD for being aware of their viewers skittishness and triggers on this sensitive topic. Supernatural fans are very skittish on this bit. Mainly because it is a definite trope in the supernatural romance genre that goes back 200 years. They are understandably sick of it.)
Sigh, I'm becoming a Klaus/Caroline shipper against my will. I'd say I preferred Tyler and I like her with Tyler, but it all gets a bit dull after a while. I don't like romantic relationships on tv, they are either insanely sappy and trite with lots of teen angst, or insanely abusive. Middle road doesn't appear to occur to the writers. Do see it a bit in the more adult regular dramas, a la Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, FNL, Game of Thrones, and The Good Wife.
Back to Elena,her puppy-dog Stefan, and Rebecca (who I'm beginning to feel some sympathy for). Elena tries to escape self-righteous Minister/Wannabee Vamp killer guy before he figures out she's turning into a vampire. Too late, figures it out and throws her into a cell with Stefan and Rebecca. Separate cells actually. So that we and Rebecca are forced to witness Stefan and Elena's woeful lover's goodbye speech. Elena tells Stefan, chocking down her tears, that she picked him over Damon. That she was crossing the bridge to come back to him. And thanks him for honoring her decision to martyr herself for Matt (who has got to be the least developed and blandest character in the series, and the perpetual damsel. He's also perennially unlucky in love, along with Jeremy. And has lost all his family members, along with Jeremy. Actually Jeremy and Matt spend most of the series almost getting killed off. They have a lot in common. There should be a spin-off, where the two characters play vampire hunters that travel the country hunting monsters. No, wait, we already have a series like that, it's called Supernatural. Never mind. Oh well, rest assured, the moment these two characters get remotely interesting, the writers will kill them off. Won't happen any time soon, since Elena is running out of characters to martyr herself for.]
Damon decides to use Matt as bait to kill the people holding Elena and Rebecca captive and save them. Meanwhile, Stefan and Rebecca team up to take out a guard, the guard shoots Stefan, but they do kill him, causing him to bleed profusely next to Elena, who in turn manages to drink his blood from the floor. (Thankfully we are spared from actually having to watch this.) Damon takes out all the guards, but does not kill the preacher guy (which is unlucky for the town council, which I'll get to shortly). So the bait trick worked.
While he is successful in killing the guards, he's not successful in killing Matt. Elena saves Matt, much to Matt's dismay. Matt attempts to whine about this to Stefan, but Stefan won't have it. You get to live, he tells Matt, show a little appreciation. Poor Matt, it must suck being the perennial damsel and not the hero. He'd intended on rescuing Elena from the vampires...instead he ended up being amongst the reasons she became one.
Damon reiterates to Elena that he would have saved her not Matt. And he doesn't regret it.
And he is a selfish bastard. Hey, at least he's honest. Stefan is too, he saved Matt because he was afraid Elena would hate him forever if he didn't. Everything he does is to win her favor, which isn't quite the same thing as having a conscience. I liked the character better when he and Elena were on the outs, at least he had a bit more back-bone.
Meanwhile, poor Bonnie tried to save Elena and was warned to stop or else by her dead Gran.
So she did. But Klaus, Tyler, and Caroline forced her to use dark magic to save Tyler from Klaus. Klaus actively threatened to rip out Tyler's heart unless Bonnie switched him back to his own body. Bonnie tried to call his bluff, but he retorted that he could jump into any of their bodies and she had no clue whether he had another witch working for him. (Seriously if he did, don't you think he'd have gone to that witch prior to now? Come on. A point Jeremy tried to raise, but no one listens to Jeremy. Jeremy also tried to tell Bonnie she shouldn't be sacrificing herself for Tyler...I'd agree with that. Bonnie is another one of these self-sacrificing characters. Jeremy is in the Matt role, helplessly watching her do it and not liking it one bit.)
Well, turns out, that Bonnie isn't sacrificing herself in this case, but her Gran. Clever spirits. They've got Bonnie and Elena's number by now. Not to mention Damon's and Stefan's.
Okay, fine, if you don't care about yourself, we'll punish someone you care about instead.
She has to watch her Gran's soul get torn asunder on the other side because of her use of dark magic to switch Klaus back into his body and free Tyler. Saving both men, but losing her Gran. Message sent home - no more black magic for Bonnie. Klaus goes back home to pack up his hybrid blood in the hopes of creating more hybrids and a new family. But his sister has an ax to grind with him for not saving her over Caroline. So she destroys his hybrid blood. Which pisses him off enough to disown her permanently and snap her neck. (She'll survive, actually far better than if he'd staked her which he's done in the past.) To be fair, he is right - she was safer than Caroline and harder to kill. Also he does have a bone to pick with her over Elena's death. But from her end, she has stuck by him no matter what and what has he given in return? Repeated stakings. Dishonesty. And a bad attitude.
Seriously, what is a little sister to do? Brothers are a pain in the ass, aren't they?
So not worth the effort. You're better off Rebecca, trust me.
Meanwhile on the other side of town, the preacher has tricked the town council into a meeting in the woods, in his cabin. He unhooks the gas on the stove. Apparently no one on the council has a sense of smell? Or the gas is odorless? And locks the door. The Reverand tells the town that he has come up with a fool-proof plan to kill the vampires. That they must make an ultimate sacrifice. They will come for the vampires another, better way. Before the council can say, "Whatcha Talking About Rev? What way -", the good Reverend clicks on his lighter and the cabin blows up. [That was quick. Although I seriously doubt we've seen the end of the Good Reverend or the town council. They'll be back. There were too many hints dropped throughout the episode by Bonnie's Gran and Bonnie regarding the spirits on the other side being restless and angry and gathering to do something. Bonnie, Elena, and Klaus have royally pissed them off. Also the whole bit at the end reminded me a little of the evil preacher in Poltergiest. How much you want to bet they return as either zombies or ghosts/poltergiests by the second half of the season?]
And Elena and Stefan watch the sun rise (or the flames from the cabin hit the sky) in a lover's embrace. [Don't worry, it's short-lived. They'll be at odds by the end of the season. Rule of thumb regarding serial tv shows, if the lead couple is happy and/or together at the beginning of the season, the rest of the season involves tearing them apart. Otherwise there is no conflict and the audience will wander off to watch Last Resort, Big Bang Theory or something else, Thursday's are crowded.]
Overall a fun ride. But I miss Alaric and Michael who were more entertaining villians. Also miss Klaus and Rebecca's' brother, whose name escapes me.
1. Chicago Fire Review - this is Dick Wolf's new series. Dick Wolf was the creator of the Law & Order series. He tried to do a firefighter/rescue show in the past as spin-off to Homicide Life on the Streets, starring Reed Diamond, but it was short lived. Chicago Fire is unfortunately not as good as those series were, if anything it bears more in common with the old Billy Baldwin/Kurt Russell Firefighter flick BackDraft, although that film had a lot more going on in it. It also reminds me a little of the old 1970s series Emergency starring Randolf Mantooth, which I began to miss while watching it. Emergency was, oddly enough, more entertaining. It took itself a tad less seriously. The best of the firefighter genre is Rescue Me, which this isn't. Both a good thing and a bad thing. If you want to watch a gritty, reality based, firefighter drama that reminds you of Homicide Life on the Streets or The Wire - go rent Rescue Me. Although, I admittedly didn't make it through that one either. Too dark and misanthropic for me taste. Also a wee bit on the melodramatic side. Because let's face it - it's hard to do a drama about firefighter's well without delving into either personal melodrama or soap opera. There's no mystery to solve. It's basically sitting around until you get called out to fight a fire in a burning building. Not exactly conducive to film-making, fires. Plus expensive.
That said? Chicago Fire is along with Nashville the best shot of the season's pilots to date. Also amongst the best written. Which admittedly isn't saying all that much. It reminds me a lot of Nashville actually. While it is less soapy, it is more sappy. And trite. Nashville and Chicago Fire suffer from the same problem - recycled tv/movie plots. Making me wonder if these writers are given a bunch of plot staples for every possible show out there?
Here's the plot: Two rival fire squads. The Truck Squad run by Casey (Jesse Spencer of House who played Chase) and the Rescue Squad run by (I want to say Deacon). In the opening act, Casey's right-hand man, Darden is sent through a window into a burning building and gets trapped. He's burned to a crisp. Deacon blames Casey for the decision. A month later, Casey finally cleans out Darden's locker. Deacon is still giving him a hard time. A new recruit is hired to take Darden's place and joins the Truck squad, when he really wants to be with the Rescue Squad. (Honestly I can't tell the difference between the two of them, both go to fires, both rescue people, but whatever.) After a couple of mild dirty looks, much male posturing, and lectures by the Chief, Casey takes a ride with his crew and ends up a block away from a fire. So is the first to answer the call. In the course of rescuing people, etc, Casey and one of his men, get trapped in the blaze and knocked unconscious. Deacon and his crew rush in to save them. Deacon goes down in the hole they are stuck in, wakes Casey up and helps Casey get his man to safety. He also helps get Casey to safety. And Casey in turn saves Deacon. At the end of the episode, Deacon joins the Casey's squad in its hospital vigil waiting on news about their teammate, while an appropriate song plays in the background. (And I knew halfway through this was going to happen.)
Meanwhile, there's a few subplots. Two women rescue or EMT's who work for the squads get in trouble when one stabs a little girl in the heart with a needle while attempting to revive her. The girl survives, barely. They also have a problem with a shooter. Dawson - is the one who gets in trouble with the needle and makes the shooter back off. Dawson also has a huge crush on Casey. Casey has just broken things off with his fiance, a medical resident, because he wants kids and she wants a career. Meanwhile, Deacon is getting pain meds from Dawson's partner, a lanky blond. The Rookie comes on to Dawson's partner, only to discover she's a lesbian. The Rookie also is struggling to find his place in the unit, does he want to follow his Dad's path and be in the Rescue Squad or be in the unit he's assigned to? The old Chief advises him to stay put, with an apt exchange of platitudes.
Like most of Dick Wolf's series, Chicago Fires has diverse casting, but the minorities are in "Supporting Roles". The leads are two male hunks, Casey and Deacon.
There's potential here, but it feels like Wolf is recycling old plots. Next week we have the politician whose son is a drunk driver, the week after Deacon's addiction to pain medication possibly due to an old injury, Dawson's crush on the unavailable Casey, Casey's love for Hallie, who doesn't want to have kids.
And the cast doesn't quite pull you in. There's no charismatic leads here. The closest might be the Chief and Deacon, but they lack the punch of Reed Diamond, Andre Braugher,
Yaphette Koto, and others. It's far too bland. And too many of the firefights look alike.
Wish a bit more attention had been paid to the men who ends up in the hospital at the end. And older guy, who had just been evicted from his home and was living at the fire house.
Or to the other paunchier older guy - who Casey tells that he can't keep covering for.
There's two potential tales there. But not overly interesting or innovative ones.
Like I stated above, in some respects it reminds me a little of Nashville, an over-reliance on old story tropes. But well-shot. Not quite as well cast. Nashville has stronger leads, and more potential - all it has to do is lose the politics.
It could get better, but I'll probably skip it. None of the characters pulled me in and the stories didn't intrigue me. Shame, I find workplace dramas fascinating and tend to have a weakness for the genre, but with firefighting, it is hard to do it well. Cop shows are admittedly much easier.
Overall rating? B-
2. Vamp Diaries or what everyone calls TVD (but TVD confuses me, I keep thinking it's an STD or shorthand for some Tivo device.)
Still amongst the best paced tv series on. If a bit on the convoluted side. This is a fun supernatural soap opera with rapid fire pacing. It ain't your Momma's soap or Dark Shadows for that matter (which was painfully slow at times).
Do wish it would stop teasing me over the potential killing of its leads. Every time it does, which tends to be once a week, I think, oh come on, we all know you aren't going to kill them. Stop teasing me. Besides if you do, they'll just come back as something else.
As two world-weary characters in another soap opera that I'm watching famously stated this week: "Oh don't worry, he'll show up again, we all know that no one in this town ever stays dead."
Does make it hard for the audience to grieve a character's death or take it seriously - when you know there's a 50/50 chance they'll pop up again.
Alaric died last year when Elena drowned. Because Stefan had to save the incredibly dull Matt. Actually Elena told Stefan to save the incredibly dull Matt over her. Don't worry Elena didn't stay dead, because un-beknowest to either Elena or Stefan, Meredith had healed her from critical injuries earlier that morning with Damon's vampire blood. As a result, Elena came back from the dead as a vampire, or half-vampire. You don't become a vampire in TVD Land unless you feed off a human or drink human blood.
Damon: Two choices, you either feed off a human and become a vampire, or you die. There's no third choice.
I can't help but wonder if Elena would have been quite as self-sacrificing if she'd known about this little wrinkle? Damon has already stated he'd have saved her in either event. He did not want her to become a vampire. He wanted her to grow old, have a life, and have children. Curious to know what Stefan would have done? Stefan seems to be without a brain and does whatever people tell him to do, like a very well-trained puppy dog. Elena tells him to sit, he sits, she kisses him. Elena tells him to fetch, he fetches, she chooses to spend her life with him. [Some ladies like well-trained puppy-dogs, I'm a cat person myself.]
Damon clearly has a mind and will of his own. Although Elena now knows he's as self-sacrificing as she is, and also has a bit of a martyr complex. Takes one to know one after all. There's a lot of these characters wandering about TVD, it's amazing they survive. Mainly because they keep fighting each other for who gets to be the martyr this week.
Anyhow, Stefan and Elena stupidly hold onto the desperate and romantic hope that Bonnie will selflessly find Elena on the other side, bring her back, and reverse the vampirism.
Jeremy and Damon are both a wee bit skeptical. As is Klaus who thinks Bonnie should be focusing on getting him back into his original body, because he's tired of being Tyler.
Don't know why - Caroline smothered him with kisses as Tyler. Granted he had just saved her life, she thought it was actually Tyler, and prior to that was convinced Tyler was dead. (No, Tyler merely agreed to let Klaus take up residence in his skin for a bit.)
While Bonnie's busy figuring out how to turn Elena human again, Elena is experiencing the weirdness of becoming a vampire. (Note to date Elena has watched three of her friends become vamps due to the actions of Damon, Katrina, and Stefan.)No one but Jeremy and possibly Bonnie seems at all worried about the effect all of this may have on Bonnie, and whether she can do it without seriously injuring herself, her power, or anyone else. Because you know, it's Elena. Or the fact that Bonnie made a classically insane decision to help Klaus in order to save all their vampire friends (Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and now Elena from Alaric's staking of Klaus. If Klaus got staked, his line died with him.)
Meanwhile, there's a new sheriff in town, or rather a priest who has taken over the town council and intends on ridding the town once and for all of supernatural creatures, specifically vampires. He's not doing a bad job of it either. He rounds up all the vervaine. Arrests then releases the sheriff, the mayor, and the doctor (who are all women by the way - kudos, Mystic Falls). I've no idea why the guy releases them. You'd think he'd keep them under arrest and therefore unable to warn anyone? But no. Anyhow, he also rounds up all Alaric's weapons and hunts down Rebecca (somehow Damon who is with Rebecca, actually he's trying to kill at that point, escapes), Stefan and poor half-vamp Elena.
Takes them to his Cattle Ranch (which has no cattle, so just ranch). Doesn't take their rings though. You'd think he would? Maybe he doesn't know about them? Alaric was better at this.
While he's doing this, Damon, who managed to elude capture has reunited with the doc and Matt. He puts a rescue plan in action. Not sure why the Doc is on the loose. Tyler/Klaus is in the woods with Caroline - where she's making out with him, until he slips and calls her love. She pauses and thinks, okay, what? And he comes clean, rather quickly. To give Klaus credit, he does try to stop her at different points, but gives in. She is all over him. The writers are going out of their way to make it clear to their viewers that Klaus is not raping Caroline nor is Caroline raping Tyler. Klaus may be a lot of things, but he is not a rapist. Go writers. (Kudos to TVD for being aware of their viewers skittishness and triggers on this sensitive topic. Supernatural fans are very skittish on this bit. Mainly because it is a definite trope in the supernatural romance genre that goes back 200 years. They are understandably sick of it.)
Sigh, I'm becoming a Klaus/Caroline shipper against my will. I'd say I preferred Tyler and I like her with Tyler, but it all gets a bit dull after a while. I don't like romantic relationships on tv, they are either insanely sappy and trite with lots of teen angst, or insanely abusive. Middle road doesn't appear to occur to the writers. Do see it a bit in the more adult regular dramas, a la Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, FNL, Game of Thrones, and The Good Wife.
Back to Elena,
Damon decides to use Matt as bait to kill the people holding Elena and Rebecca captive and save them. Meanwhile, Stefan and Rebecca team up to take out a guard, the guard shoots Stefan, but they do kill him, causing him to bleed profusely next to Elena, who in turn manages to drink his blood from the floor. (Thankfully we are spared from actually having to watch this.) Damon takes out all the guards, but does not kill the preacher guy (which is unlucky for the town council, which I'll get to shortly). So the bait trick worked.
While he is successful in killing the guards, he's not successful in killing Matt. Elena saves Matt, much to Matt's dismay. Matt attempts to whine about this to Stefan, but Stefan won't have it. You get to live, he tells Matt, show a little appreciation. Poor Matt, it must suck being the perennial damsel and not the hero. He'd intended on rescuing Elena from the vampires...instead he ended up being amongst the reasons she became one.
Damon reiterates to Elena that he would have saved her not Matt. And he doesn't regret it.
And he is a selfish bastard. Hey, at least he's honest. Stefan is too, he saved Matt because he was afraid Elena would hate him forever if he didn't. Everything he does is to win her favor, which isn't quite the same thing as having a conscience. I liked the character better when he and Elena were on the outs, at least he had a bit more back-bone.
Meanwhile, poor Bonnie tried to save Elena and was warned to stop or else by her dead Gran.
So she did. But Klaus, Tyler, and Caroline forced her to use dark magic to save Tyler from Klaus. Klaus actively threatened to rip out Tyler's heart unless Bonnie switched him back to his own body. Bonnie tried to call his bluff, but he retorted that he could jump into any of their bodies and she had no clue whether he had another witch working for him. (Seriously if he did, don't you think he'd have gone to that witch prior to now? Come on. A point Jeremy tried to raise, but no one listens to Jeremy. Jeremy also tried to tell Bonnie she shouldn't be sacrificing herself for Tyler...I'd agree with that. Bonnie is another one of these self-sacrificing characters. Jeremy is in the Matt role, helplessly watching her do it and not liking it one bit.)
Well, turns out, that Bonnie isn't sacrificing herself in this case, but her Gran. Clever spirits. They've got Bonnie and Elena's number by now. Not to mention Damon's and Stefan's.
Okay, fine, if you don't care about yourself, we'll punish someone you care about instead.
She has to watch her Gran's soul get torn asunder on the other side because of her use of dark magic to switch Klaus back into his body and free Tyler. Saving both men, but losing her Gran. Message sent home - no more black magic for Bonnie. Klaus goes back home to pack up his hybrid blood in the hopes of creating more hybrids and a new family. But his sister has an ax to grind with him for not saving her over Caroline. So she destroys his hybrid blood. Which pisses him off enough to disown her permanently and snap her neck. (She'll survive, actually far better than if he'd staked her which he's done in the past.) To be fair, he is right - she was safer than Caroline and harder to kill. Also he does have a bone to pick with her over Elena's death. But from her end, she has stuck by him no matter what and what has he given in return? Repeated stakings. Dishonesty. And a bad attitude.
Seriously, what is a little sister to do? Brothers are a pain in the ass, aren't they?
So not worth the effort. You're better off Rebecca, trust me.
Meanwhile on the other side of town, the preacher has tricked the town council into a meeting in the woods, in his cabin. He unhooks the gas on the stove. Apparently no one on the council has a sense of smell? Or the gas is odorless? And locks the door. The Reverand tells the town that he has come up with a fool-proof plan to kill the vampires. That they must make an ultimate sacrifice. They will come for the vampires another, better way. Before the council can say, "Whatcha Talking About Rev? What way -", the good Reverend clicks on his lighter and the cabin blows up. [That was quick. Although I seriously doubt we've seen the end of the Good Reverend or the town council. They'll be back. There were too many hints dropped throughout the episode by Bonnie's Gran and Bonnie regarding the spirits on the other side being restless and angry and gathering to do something. Bonnie, Elena, and Klaus have royally pissed them off. Also the whole bit at the end reminded me a little of the evil preacher in Poltergiest. How much you want to bet they return as either zombies or ghosts/poltergiests by the second half of the season?]
And Elena and Stefan watch the sun rise (or the flames from the cabin hit the sky) in a lover's embrace. [Don't worry, it's short-lived. They'll be at odds by the end of the season. Rule of thumb regarding serial tv shows, if the lead couple is happy and/or together at the beginning of the season, the rest of the season involves tearing them apart. Otherwise there is no conflict and the audience will wander off to watch Last Resort, Big Bang Theory or something else, Thursday's are crowded.]
Overall a fun ride. But I miss Alaric and Michael who were more entertaining villians. Also miss Klaus and Rebecca's' brother, whose name escapes me.
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Date: 2012-10-14 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-14 02:25 pm (UTC)