[wickedrum]

[Meliana]

A very lopsided smile. Kinda creepy.

[DigificWriter]

Thread.bump (sorry).

This Wednesday, I'm going to start watching this series for the very first time. Would anybody be interested in reading my first-timer thoughts on every episode?

[wickedrum]

sure!

though I might not remember every episode.

[Meliana]

Absolutely! Please do!

[DigificWriter]

Originally Posted by wickedrum (View Post) sure! though I might not remember every episode.

Originally Posted by Meliana (View Post) Absolutely! Please do!

Cool. I'll try to have my reviews of the first two episodes (I intend to watch them in pairs) up sometime Wednesday or Thursday.

[Meliana]

I look forward to it.

[DigificWriter]

I said that I'd be starting my TVD reviews tomorrow or Thursday, but somethings come up and so I'm temporarily pushing my viewing of Episodes 1 and 2 to Thursday night, meaning that my first reviews won't be posted until Friday or Saturday.

[Meliana]

Ok, thanks for letting us know.

[DigificWriter]

I just finished watching the first two episodes and decided to get my reviews up AQAP (as quickly as possible). In the interest of succinctness, I'm going to be reviewing things bullet-point-style, so here we go.

Pilot (TVD 101)
* Given the vampire theme, I went into the series expecting something akin to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but what I got was more like the 2018 reboot series Roswell, New Mexico, which I was not expecting but that I find to be pretty cool

* It took doing some research for me to figure out who most of the primary characters are, but I really like the cast, and the immediate standouts s, other than Elena and Stefan, were Damon and Jeremy

* Speaking of those four, I found it neat that there's kind of an inverse relationship between them in terms of their individual sibling dynamics, and it'll be interesting to see where things go

* I wasn't entirely expecting Damon to be the Angelus/First Evil analogue of the series, but I did like how they waited until basically the end of the episode to completely introduce him after starting the show out by just teasing his presence while using Stefan as a pseudo-red-herring

* As far as Pilots go, I liked this one a lot, as it did a pretty good job of setting up the central conflict of Stefan v Damon with Elena (and, more broadly, the entire town of Mystic Falls) caught in the middle, and am going to give it a solid 3 out of 5

The Night of the Comet (TVD 102)
* As I noted above, I had to do some research to figure out who most of the major characters were, but Episode 2 gave me more people to care about besides just Elena, Stefan, and Damon, specifically the Donovan siblings and Elena and Jeremy's aunt Jenna, who reminds me of a younger, hipper Joyce Summers (which is kind of fitting since her last name is the similarly-sounding Sommers)

* The Pilot kind of presented Matt as just the stereotypical ex-boyfriend foil character, but the second episode surprised me by making him into more of the archetypal suspicious investigative outsider character, which I like, especially by entwining him with Damon through the latter's stalking and tormenting of Vicki

* The series kind of telegraphed Bonnie actually being a psychic from her very first scene in the Pilot, but I was intrigued by the way that Episode 2 pretty much leaned into that right away with the whole 'touching Elena and Stefan' thing

* I'm not sure what Damon seducing and then biting Caroline (who is kind of a less shallow and less antagonistic version of early Cordelia Chase at this point) is supposed to accomplish or how it's any different than what Damon did with Vicki, but hopefully the next episode will make things clearer

* I was expecting it to take longer for Elena and Stefan to snog each other, but I like that the show went there as quickly as it did because it subverted expectations

* Episode 2 was a nice follow-up to the Pilot, fleshing out some more of the main cast and moving quicker than expected towards officially pairing up Elena and Stefan, and because of those factors, it earns itself .5 increase over the Pilot for a rating of 3.5

Even with only two episodes under my belt, I'm really liking the show so far and can't wait to see where it goes next.

[Meliana]

I'm glad you're enjoying it. It interesting to see how you see the characters, without the bias of knowing ongoing stories.

No I agree it's not like Buffy. There are some similarities of course.

Hopefully it will continue to entertain you.

[DigificWriter]

There are a few things I forgot about wanting to mention while doing my initial reviews:
* I don't know if she flubbed the line or made an intentional choice, but Nina Dobrev's reading of "Hi, bird" in the Pilot was very funny

* I compared TVD to Roswell, New Mexico, but completely forgot to reference the fact that I recognized Michael Trevino from that series

* It occurred to me upon reflection that the one unifying theme of the TVD franchise could be interpreted as 'Family''

* I talked about Damon being the Angelus analogue, but it didn't occur to me at the time that Stefan is the Angel analogue, and I find it interesting that TVD took a single archetypal role and split its defining characteristics between two different characters

[Meliana]

One ongoing theme of the franchise is also how to deal with inner darkness. That comes up time and time again. In that sense Damon and Stefan are like that, but many twists and turns are ahead!

[DigificWriter]

New reviews.

Friday Night Bites ((TVD 103)
* Just when I thought I had settled on the right comparison for this show, the writers went and changed things from a 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'/'Roswell, New Mexico' hybrid to 'Dark Shadows meets One Tree Hill', going full-on primetime Soap Opera with pretty much every character and relationship

* I thought they were going to make something out of the dichotomous parallels between the Gilbert and Salvatore siblings, but they kind of made Jeremy's story more about Vicki and Tyler, which is fine but not quite as interesting

* I know he's not a good guy, but I think there were more interesting ways to go with regards to Damon ensnaring Caroline and using her primarily to try and mess with Stefan

* Not gonna lie; I wasn't even a tiny bit bothered by Damon killing Mr. Tanner; I did like how his death actually gives us real stakes (no pun intended), though

* Bonnie is starting to give me serious Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Tara Maclay vibes with the way she's slowly starting to uncover her true abilities, and I love it

* While not quite as strong as Episode 2 for me, 'Friday Night Bites' does get props for starting to build out storylines for more of the main characters and for subverting my expectations yet again vis a vis the kind of show it wants to be, so I'm giving it a 3.3 out of 5

Family Ties (TVD 104)
* The 'Dark Shadows meets One Tree Hill' vibes of the show were introduced in 'Friday Night Bites', but they got even stronger with this one, especially with the two love triangles of Elena-Stefan-Damon and 'Vicki-Jeremy-Tyler'

* The show also redeemed the Damon/Caroline story by giving it some actual purpose and weight

* I've got a bad feeling about where the show is headed with Jenna's storyline, and not just because this Logan Fell character just screams 'shady douchebag' to me

* I thought it was pretty clever of Stefan to outsmart Damon by using the latter's entrapment of Caroline against him

* Verbena (Vervein) is more of a flower than an herb, but whatever, Stefan; I do want to know why it has a weakening effect on vampires both mentally and physically, though, because that's not been part of any other vampire-related mythology that I'm familiar with

* There's too much delicious fun to be had with Damon as the Angelus archetype character, so it's kind of obvious that he's not going to be locked up for very long

* Bonnie is definitely getting a Harry/Hermione/Tara Maclay-type story with the slow build towards fully figuring out exactly who she is and what she can do, although it also kind of reminds me of the way the Charmed reboot series went about building up its protagonist characters and their powers

* I did not see that final scene with the 'adult council' of the Lockwoods, Sheriff Forbes, and Logan Fell coming at all, and I really can't wait to see where that story thread is going to lead

* Although not quite as obviously epic in scale as Buffy episodes like 'Angel', 'Surprise/Innocence', 'Bad Girls/Consequences', 'The Initiative' or 'No I in Team/Goodbye, Iowa', 'Family Ties' feels at the moment like it's going to end up being the same kind of pivot point story in the long run of the first season, which gets it a 3.7 out of 5

[Meliana]

Sounds like you're still enjoying it overall. Thanks so much for the reviews. It's really appreciated.