100 Reviews: 75
So we’re back to TVD again.
TVD: 1x06: Lost Girls
You know, this episode is quite important, and I do like it, but I’m not sure I have a lot to say about it. But one thing about rewatching s1, especially for critiquing it, is I’m reminded why it took me a long time to actually like the show. I always enjoyed the chaotic, always escalating plot, and the show had a nice mythology to it, but...there’s just nothing for me to really hold on to and invest in. Somewhere in s2 I finally *loved* Elena (and had Elijah to fascinate me), and it took until s3 for me to have a real ship to root for (my Elena/Matt shipping always having been of the ‘either endgame or endgame left open ended enough that I can assume they’ll get back together one day, I’m not deluded enough to think the show would bother with it happening in the story’) so going back to s1 is like...there are things I miss about what the show used to be, but I can see why it took me a long time to care all that much.
Considering how long an opening paragraph that was, the original point that this may not be a terribly interesting review...is either disproven or completely proven depending on whether that paragraph was all that interesting.
Anyway, in spite of this episode being called ‘Lost Girls’ I think it’s mainly about the guys. It’s the first concrete evidence that Damon’s whole hatred of Stefan really only lasts until someone else goes after him. And the fact that in all this Damon hasn’t spilled the beans Stefan wouldn’t to Elena shows that further. This is probably the first episode I would say is really focused on Damon, even if we are still getting a lot of it through Stefan and Elena. Stefan’s backstory tells us more about his relationship with Damon and Katherine than it tells us anything about Stefan himself.
Oh man is Stefan NOT telling Elena “everything” and while I know some of that is for Doyalist reasons by and large it really isn’t. Kind of like how I described he reveals in the last episode, it’s all presented as hollowly as possible, the series of facts he is ready to share is not the same as sharing “everything.” Aside from kinda sorta hinting at it there’s no reference to Stefan ever being anything but the guy he is now. He doesn’t exactly tell her the story of how he made the choice to become a vampire and certainly not how he pushed Damon into making the same choice. And the there-is-no-it-wasn’t-planned-Doyalist-excuse Katherine issue.
Speaking of Katherine I have a couple thoughts:
-How pissed would she have been if Damon (or anyone) had killed Elena before she could try and organize things for a deal with Klaus?
-While I don’t think Nina had quite figured out how to play Kat here, I can fanwank an in character reason for it, that she was playing the normal girl role and these are Stefan’s memories and perception of her. She comes off a lot more childlike, both in her playfulness and her sense of cruelty and entitlement. She’s doesn’t come off a cunning or even manipulative so much as...childish, but Stefan never had a reason to see her that way. I’ll keep an eye on it as I keep going with these old episodes, but I suspect Nina settling into the role will also be able to be explained by seeing more of other’s POV of Kat and even Stefan’s shifting attitudes towards her.
-All that and really Kat is written/performed/shown more as her book counterpart here too. Which is not a compliment, no one could prefer book-Kat to the character show-Kat is ultimately revealed to be.
I think I’ll save my Vicky thoughts for her swan song next TVD review. But I really wish we had gotten more of her relationship to Elena. I know we get some in 1x07, but these two have to have known each other their whole lives and I wish I was confident he breakdown at the end was that someone she’s always known just became a vampire, or even just overwhelmed by how complicated her life has gotten in the last ~24 hours, but I’m not confident we weren’t supposed to take it in reaction to things with Stefan. (I might have been more willing to go with the more interesting readings at one point, but I suppose I am holding my s4 bitterness against this.)
Also, when exactly did Anna (iirc) get around to feeding Logan vampire blood? There really doesn’t seem to have been time for that in what we see. But Logan’s death was another of those things that got me when I first saw it, he didn’t exactly have sacrificial lamb written on him, he read more as pseudo-romantic complication, but then Liz was obviously set up to take the complication role when he fell. Though...why *was* the civilian reporter sent out alone to hunt vampires? I suppose the task force isn’t just made of cops, but that does seem like a kind of bad choice on Liz’s part.
I haven’t really talked much about Elena’s reactions to what goes on here. And while it definitely interests me, I think I’m not delving into discussing them because...while her reaction to the reveals is more realistic than most characters in vampire stories (or even most that we’ll get on this show) it’s still kind of underwritten for me. And that ties back to me early point that this episode really isn’t *about* her or her reactions, it’s about all these plots and schemes going on around her and her subplot just happens to be about finding out that vampires are real. This episode is really about introducing Katherine properly (sort of), Vicky’s plot, Damon’s casual and petulant evil, Stefan’s reaction to Elena finding out (and Damon’s to a lesser extent); with *Elena’s* reactions themselves only incidental to all that. Maybe that’s why I’m not willing to give the ending the benefit of an interesting character reading, as with s4 Elena’s reactions aren’t allowed proper importance given what’s happening to her world (although it IS considerably better than anything in s4).
So...I think that was a really scatter-brained review, kind of all over the place and for being an episode I started off saying was a Damon centered episode I STILL can’t be bothered to actually talk about Damon. That was another part of why it took me so long to really warm to this show, I needed Katherine and the Originals to distract from Damon taking up screentime when I just never cared about Damon (not that I really cared about Stefan a ton, but more than Damon). Of course now I outright HATE the both of them and find going back to when I just didn’t care incredibly refreshing, unfortunately it’s also lacking most of the things I *do* care about too (except Matt being adorable, I do like coming back to a time when Matt was an actual character).
Next time:
(shrug, hopefully something less scattered when it comes to the write up)
Suggestion box always open
TVD: 1x06: Lost Girls
You know, this episode is quite important, and I do like it, but I’m not sure I have a lot to say about it. But one thing about rewatching s1, especially for critiquing it, is I’m reminded why it took me a long time to actually like the show. I always enjoyed the chaotic, always escalating plot, and the show had a nice mythology to it, but...there’s just nothing for me to really hold on to and invest in. Somewhere in s2 I finally *loved* Elena (and had Elijah to fascinate me), and it took until s3 for me to have a real ship to root for (my Elena/Matt shipping always having been of the ‘either endgame or endgame left open ended enough that I can assume they’ll get back together one day, I’m not deluded enough to think the show would bother with it happening in the story’) so going back to s1 is like...there are things I miss about what the show used to be, but I can see why it took me a long time to care all that much.
Considering how long an opening paragraph that was, the original point that this may not be a terribly interesting review...is either disproven or completely proven depending on whether that paragraph was all that interesting.
Anyway, in spite of this episode being called ‘Lost Girls’ I think it’s mainly about the guys. It’s the first concrete evidence that Damon’s whole hatred of Stefan really only lasts until someone else goes after him. And the fact that in all this Damon hasn’t spilled the beans Stefan wouldn’t to Elena shows that further. This is probably the first episode I would say is really focused on Damon, even if we are still getting a lot of it through Stefan and Elena. Stefan’s backstory tells us more about his relationship with Damon and Katherine than it tells us anything about Stefan himself.
Oh man is Stefan NOT telling Elena “everything” and while I know some of that is for Doyalist reasons by and large it really isn’t. Kind of like how I described he reveals in the last episode, it’s all presented as hollowly as possible, the series of facts he is ready to share is not the same as sharing “everything.” Aside from kinda sorta hinting at it there’s no reference to Stefan ever being anything but the guy he is now. He doesn’t exactly tell her the story of how he made the choice to become a vampire and certainly not how he pushed Damon into making the same choice. And the there-is-no-it-wasn’t-planned-Doyalist-excuse Katherine issue.
Speaking of Katherine I have a couple thoughts:
-How pissed would she have been if Damon (or anyone) had killed Elena before she could try and organize things for a deal with Klaus?
-While I don’t think Nina had quite figured out how to play Kat here, I can fanwank an in character reason for it, that she was playing the normal girl role and these are Stefan’s memories and perception of her. She comes off a lot more childlike, both in her playfulness and her sense of cruelty and entitlement. She’s doesn’t come off a cunning or even manipulative so much as...childish, but Stefan never had a reason to see her that way. I’ll keep an eye on it as I keep going with these old episodes, but I suspect Nina settling into the role will also be able to be explained by seeing more of other’s POV of Kat and even Stefan’s shifting attitudes towards her.
-All that and really Kat is written/performed/shown more as her book counterpart here too. Which is not a compliment, no one could prefer book-Kat to the character show-Kat is ultimately revealed to be.
I think I’ll save my Vicky thoughts for her swan song next TVD review. But I really wish we had gotten more of her relationship to Elena. I know we get some in 1x07, but these two have to have known each other their whole lives and I wish I was confident he breakdown at the end was that someone she’s always known just became a vampire, or even just overwhelmed by how complicated her life has gotten in the last ~24 hours, but I’m not confident we weren’t supposed to take it in reaction to things with Stefan. (I might have been more willing to go with the more interesting readings at one point, but I suppose I am holding my s4 bitterness against this.)
Also, when exactly did Anna (iirc) get around to feeding Logan vampire blood? There really doesn’t seem to have been time for that in what we see. But Logan’s death was another of those things that got me when I first saw it, he didn’t exactly have sacrificial lamb written on him, he read more as pseudo-romantic complication, but then Liz was obviously set up to take the complication role when he fell. Though...why *was* the civilian reporter sent out alone to hunt vampires? I suppose the task force isn’t just made of cops, but that does seem like a kind of bad choice on Liz’s part.
I haven’t really talked much about Elena’s reactions to what goes on here. And while it definitely interests me, I think I’m not delving into discussing them because...while her reaction to the reveals is more realistic than most characters in vampire stories (or even most that we’ll get on this show) it’s still kind of underwritten for me. And that ties back to me early point that this episode really isn’t *about* her or her reactions, it’s about all these plots and schemes going on around her and her subplot just happens to be about finding out that vampires are real. This episode is really about introducing Katherine properly (sort of), Vicky’s plot, Damon’s casual and petulant evil, Stefan’s reaction to Elena finding out (and Damon’s to a lesser extent); with *Elena’s* reactions themselves only incidental to all that. Maybe that’s why I’m not willing to give the ending the benefit of an interesting character reading, as with s4 Elena’s reactions aren’t allowed proper importance given what’s happening to her world (although it IS considerably better than anything in s4).
So...I think that was a really scatter-brained review, kind of all over the place and for being an episode I started off saying was a Damon centered episode I STILL can’t be bothered to actually talk about Damon. That was another part of why it took me so long to really warm to this show, I needed Katherine and the Originals to distract from Damon taking up screentime when I just never cared about Damon (not that I really cared about Stefan a ton, but more than Damon). Of course now I outright HATE the both of them and find going back to when I just didn’t care incredibly refreshing, unfortunately it’s also lacking most of the things I *do* care about too (except Matt being adorable, I do like coming back to a time when Matt was an actual character).
Next time:
(shrug, hopefully something less scattered when it comes to the write up)
Suggestion box always open