100 Reviews: 65
Jul. 16th, 2013 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthLet’s go back to very beginning...but with lots of s4 bitterness...
TVD: 1x01: Pilot
Like I said in my last review, I really don’t rewatch season 1 all that much, which is kind of ironic since it’s really when the show was closest to what I wish it was; more focus on the human characters dealing with the invasion of the supernatural into their world, more awareness of the problem that vampires (and others) represent, Elena had more agency rather than being defined by her love interest of the moment, the show was aware of its own ridiculousness but didn’t completely drown in it.
For all of that...for how much s1 shows how far the show has fallen on a lot of stuff...I don’t really care about it. Like I said, the party doesn’t start for me until Elijah walks in; when all of a sudden this little, insular world that the first season and a third built up is blown wide open and our characters are just tiny pieces in a much bigger field.
Back on the plus side, s1 and the pilot in particular feel kind of quaint now. I actually think I like the pilot more now than I ever have before, in part because it’s NOT FUCKING S4, and in part because it is sometimes nice to return to a simpler time in the show (also smarter in the NOT s4 portion). Now, it’s not all that special, it’s not even all that good, but it feels satisfying to come back to it. I probably haven’t watched s1 in at least a year and a half, almost certainly not since I read the books...which come to think of it I can’t remember when I did that (checks posting dates...over a year, so yeah probably a year and a half since I bothered to watch this part of the show); and look at the mess the show has become in that time (I’m serious, I’m only watching TVD next year to be able to discuss it with a few lj friends and in the hopes of some material related to TO, on its own I just don’t care anymore).
Anyway, thoughts on the pilot itself...like I said I think this may be the most positive reaction I’ve ever had to the pilot. The first time I watched it I was...not exactly underwhelmed because I really hadn’t expected much but low-expectations-barely-whelmed. It’s not bad by any means, it’s just not going to draw me – or I feel most people I feel – in. But it has a pretty large cast to establish right off the bat, even if only in pretty broad strokes. Like I’ve kind of already said, part of why I like it more now is because *now* I love Elena and it’s nice to have an episode focused on her when she was an actual character.
(Wow, this is catching a lot of my s4 bitterness, not that anyone should be surprised, it’s basically the first TVD thinky thing I’ve written up since s4 ended and there was a lot of s4 bitterness simmering away that I try not to take out too much on s3 AU fic.)
My eventual love for Elena now finds a lot to love here, and my eventual Stefan bile finds some ways to flare up (not a ton but some, most more involving hypocrisy towards Damon), my eternal Matt love started here originally so there’s not a ton of change there, my eventual Caroline love is however confused (even if reading the books helped me understand where they started Caroline at but quickly decided that wasn’t what they wanted her to be).
As I’ve said before, pilots are always weird things to look back on once the show is established. For all the quaintness of not being completely fracked up all around, there are some things that are hysterical now (our first baby animal attack report. And isn’t Zak on the Council? So is he concluding animal attack = vampire, or is that the Council covering things up and he knows about it so goes to Stefan?), some things that are really hard to reconcile with what we come to know (I really find Caroline’s attitude towards Elena really hard to fit even with understanding why it’s so different here, same goes for the fog that no one uses anymore), and some things that are downright uncomfortable to look at in retrospect (it’s a general sense, but you do realize that like half the cast has died since the pilot even if a lot of them are still walking around).
Hi Matt “I still believe in us” Donovan, I will now go back to shipping you and Elena until Elijah shows up (and really after, because I still ship you with real-Elena, but real-Elena died for you unfortunately). Thing is, I think two years, four seasons, dating other people, her dying and being replaced by a life model decoy, and he still does believe in them; and that’s sad and pathetic unless you ship them, but ship them I do so I tend to like it and still believe in them too.
I can maybe fanwank Caroline’s early frienemy status, but trying to Watsonian it always runs into the fact that I can see the Doyalist basis. They were cribbing from the book in the pilot, and they probably thought they wanted to give Elena a frienemy rather than two friends, thinking the show needed Caroline to be the Cordelia in their borrowing from Buffy periods. And the show has never really cared to provide an in character reason why things were the way they were at the start of the show, and it’s too late now...at least without making the girls’ relationships important again and having them get drama about that.
I really have no complaints about Bonnie here. Jeremy is a *really* rough character model and the acting doesn’t help, but does bring out some good Elena bits. Tyler isn’t even a real character yet, and Vicky will never really be one. And Damon...exists; I really don’t give two shakes about Damon until we get into his Katherine issues. Speaking of, I appreciate that the show didn’t keep the Katherine thing some big secret from the audience when there’s no reason the characters wouldn’t bring her up, although Stefan randomly pulling out her picture was kind of strange.
(See, Kat isn’t in the episode and I have more to say on the Kat topic than I do Damon.)
Jenna also exists, but you can almost forgive them for not doing a lot with her in this episode. Part of the point is to establish how cut adrift Elena (and to a lesser extent Jeremy) feels and even though Jenna will prove to be a mediocre-at-best guardian even that would be more than this episode had room to deal with next to its main goals. Now, the fact that Jenna will continue to get the short end of the characterization stick means that I do sort of hold against the pilot for starting the trend of, but on its own it doesn’t bother me.
I do mostly like the journaling, although the last one was WAY too twee, and I sort of miss it even still...well Elena’s more than Stefan’s, but then I just like Elena so much more than Stefan. Anyway, I kind of wonder if there isn’t something symbolic in that; how first the writers took away Elena’s diary voice and then over time took away more and more of her voice entirely until she’s the hollow shell of a character we’re stuck with in s4; and where her diary, her first voice, is burned just as the last of her free will is taken away from her. Or I could be reaching and bad at symbolism, because I’ve never really cared much for symbolism and this is just a passing thought.
So...I guess we can conclude that if I keep doing these there’s going to be a lot of s4 bitchiness. It makes for an interesting contrast with last year’s reviews; when, while I disagreed with the show on some of its direction, I still mostly enjoyed it. And going back to my book reviews I was downright loving the show and astounded that the show was so good when the books were so bad. Oh what a difference a season as crappy as s4 makes.
Next time:
I’ll probably keep rotating things so something else...but then I usually like writing TVD reviews so we’ll see.
Always up for suggestions too
TVD: 1x01: Pilot
Like I said in my last review, I really don’t rewatch season 1 all that much, which is kind of ironic since it’s really when the show was closest to what I wish it was; more focus on the human characters dealing with the invasion of the supernatural into their world, more awareness of the problem that vampires (and others) represent, Elena had more agency rather than being defined by her love interest of the moment, the show was aware of its own ridiculousness but didn’t completely drown in it.
For all of that...for how much s1 shows how far the show has fallen on a lot of stuff...I don’t really care about it. Like I said, the party doesn’t start for me until Elijah walks in; when all of a sudden this little, insular world that the first season and a third built up is blown wide open and our characters are just tiny pieces in a much bigger field.
Back on the plus side, s1 and the pilot in particular feel kind of quaint now. I actually think I like the pilot more now than I ever have before, in part because it’s NOT FUCKING S4, and in part because it is sometimes nice to return to a simpler time in the show (also smarter in the NOT s4 portion). Now, it’s not all that special, it’s not even all that good, but it feels satisfying to come back to it. I probably haven’t watched s1 in at least a year and a half, almost certainly not since I read the books...which come to think of it I can’t remember when I did that (checks posting dates...over a year, so yeah probably a year and a half since I bothered to watch this part of the show); and look at the mess the show has become in that time (I’m serious, I’m only watching TVD next year to be able to discuss it with a few lj friends and in the hopes of some material related to TO, on its own I just don’t care anymore).
Anyway, thoughts on the pilot itself...like I said I think this may be the most positive reaction I’ve ever had to the pilot. The first time I watched it I was...not exactly underwhelmed because I really hadn’t expected much but low-expectations-barely-whelmed. It’s not bad by any means, it’s just not going to draw me – or I feel most people I feel – in. But it has a pretty large cast to establish right off the bat, even if only in pretty broad strokes. Like I’ve kind of already said, part of why I like it more now is because *now* I love Elena and it’s nice to have an episode focused on her when she was an actual character.
(Wow, this is catching a lot of my s4 bitterness, not that anyone should be surprised, it’s basically the first TVD thinky thing I’ve written up since s4 ended and there was a lot of s4 bitterness simmering away that I try not to take out too much on s3 AU fic.)
My eventual love for Elena now finds a lot to love here, and my eventual Stefan bile finds some ways to flare up (not a ton but some, most more involving hypocrisy towards Damon), my eternal Matt love started here originally so there’s not a ton of change there, my eventual Caroline love is however confused (even if reading the books helped me understand where they started Caroline at but quickly decided that wasn’t what they wanted her to be).
As I’ve said before, pilots are always weird things to look back on once the show is established. For all the quaintness of not being completely fracked up all around, there are some things that are hysterical now (our first baby animal attack report. And isn’t Zak on the Council? So is he concluding animal attack = vampire, or is that the Council covering things up and he knows about it so goes to Stefan?), some things that are really hard to reconcile with what we come to know (I really find Caroline’s attitude towards Elena really hard to fit even with understanding why it’s so different here, same goes for the fog that no one uses anymore), and some things that are downright uncomfortable to look at in retrospect (it’s a general sense, but you do realize that like half the cast has died since the pilot even if a lot of them are still walking around).
Hi Matt “I still believe in us” Donovan, I will now go back to shipping you and Elena until Elijah shows up (and really after, because I still ship you with real-Elena, but real-Elena died for you unfortunately). Thing is, I think two years, four seasons, dating other people, her dying and being replaced by a life model decoy, and he still does believe in them; and that’s sad and pathetic unless you ship them, but ship them I do so I tend to like it and still believe in them too.
I can maybe fanwank Caroline’s early frienemy status, but trying to Watsonian it always runs into the fact that I can see the Doyalist basis. They were cribbing from the book in the pilot, and they probably thought they wanted to give Elena a frienemy rather than two friends, thinking the show needed Caroline to be the Cordelia in their borrowing from Buffy periods. And the show has never really cared to provide an in character reason why things were the way they were at the start of the show, and it’s too late now...at least without making the girls’ relationships important again and having them get drama about that.
I really have no complaints about Bonnie here. Jeremy is a *really* rough character model and the acting doesn’t help, but does bring out some good Elena bits. Tyler isn’t even a real character yet, and Vicky will never really be one. And Damon...exists; I really don’t give two shakes about Damon until we get into his Katherine issues. Speaking of, I appreciate that the show didn’t keep the Katherine thing some big secret from the audience when there’s no reason the characters wouldn’t bring her up, although Stefan randomly pulling out her picture was kind of strange.
(See, Kat isn’t in the episode and I have more to say on the Kat topic than I do Damon.)
Jenna also exists, but you can almost forgive them for not doing a lot with her in this episode. Part of the point is to establish how cut adrift Elena (and to a lesser extent Jeremy) feels and even though Jenna will prove to be a mediocre-at-best guardian even that would be more than this episode had room to deal with next to its main goals. Now, the fact that Jenna will continue to get the short end of the characterization stick means that I do sort of hold against the pilot for starting the trend of, but on its own it doesn’t bother me.
I do mostly like the journaling, although the last one was WAY too twee, and I sort of miss it even still...well Elena’s more than Stefan’s, but then I just like Elena so much more than Stefan. Anyway, I kind of wonder if there isn’t something symbolic in that; how first the writers took away Elena’s diary voice and then over time took away more and more of her voice entirely until she’s the hollow shell of a character we’re stuck with in s4; and where her diary, her first voice, is burned just as the last of her free will is taken away from her. Or I could be reaching and bad at symbolism, because I’ve never really cared much for symbolism and this is just a passing thought.
So...I guess we can conclude that if I keep doing these there’s going to be a lot of s4 bitchiness. It makes for an interesting contrast with last year’s reviews; when, while I disagreed with the show on some of its direction, I still mostly enjoyed it. And going back to my book reviews I was downright loving the show and astounded that the show was so good when the books were so bad. Oh what a difference a season as crappy as s4 makes.
Next time:
I’ll probably keep rotating things so something else...but then I usually like writing TVD reviews so we’ll see.
Always up for suggestions too
