The Vampire Dairies

I was remiss last week in not posting about the second season premier of The Vampire Diaries, so I am going to talk about the first two episodes.

When season one ended, Katherine was back in Mystic Falls, and she was convincingly portraying herself as Elena, at least to Damon.  I think Damon believed what he wanted to believe, and if he had been thinking clearly he would have realized very quickly the woman he kissed wasn't Elena, but he was so thrilled with the thought that Elena kissed him, it clouded his judgement.

I was very worried that this would be the season of "Doppelganger Hijinks" (Damon's words, not mine).  I believe 9 shows out of 10 would have spent more than 1/2 this season with Katherine running around as Elena, fooling some, not fooling but evading others, wreaking havoc, and Elena more and more confused and thinking something was going on in her own mind.  Thankfully, this show is the 1 in 10, the one that defies the norm, and by the end of the first episode this season, Damon, Stefan, Elena, Bonnie, and even Caroline knew that Katherine was... well, Katherine, not Elena. 

This really exemplifies what makes The Vampire Diaries different from so many other shows on the air, both past and present.  The show moves along at a brilliantly fast pace and I give it up to Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, and the rest of their writing staff for not dragging plot lines out when the resolution is so much more interesting.

Uncle John lives!  While it looks as if he will live off camera, and away from Mystic Falls for now, I think it's great that Katherine didn't actually kill him.  David Anders is an asset to any show he graces, and just knowing there is potential for his return warms my heart.

Jeremy lives!  Damon broke his neck, in an angry, drunken rage, but before Uncle John left town, he gave Jeremy the family heirloom, the ring of life, and Jeremy was saved.  While Jeremy is the sulkiest member of the "in the know crew" he has his place, and he would have been missed if he had died.  I think he is going to become more of a presence this season, as things get even more intense between Damon and him.  I am not sure if they are going to be enemies, friends, or what yet, but I like their interaction together.

Caroline lives...  well, sort of!  So, Katherine turned Caroline, and now she's a vampire.  Will she be able to adjust to vampire life before Damon, or someone else, stakes her?  My guess is yes, but her turning is going to be an interesting process to witness.  She was a narcissist with an inferiority complex in life, how will that translate now that she's a vampire?  She killed that poor carny pretty lustily, but at least she did apologize for it.  Poor Matt, I wonder if he will ever find out his girlfriend, to whom he just professed his love, is a vampire.

The Lockwoods...  I think anyone who watches this show has by now decided that the Lockwoods are werewolves.  It would be really shocking if that wasn't the case, but I do think that's where this plot line is going.  Vampires and werewolves have a long, storied history, and they are most often enemies (Buffy notwithstanding).  Damon and Stefan laughed off the idea of them being werewolves as being ridiculous, but I think are very close to realizing that it's not only not ridiculous, but true.  Uncle Mason showed a bit of what he's capable of, and Tyler is starting to really question what is going on in his own family.  I can't wait to find out what the significance of the stone is that Mason was looking for and Tyler now has.

Bonnie is a real witch (to Damon)...  Bonnie's powers seem to continue to grow, and she is gaining more strength and control over them.  Bonnie would have killed Damon if it weren't for Elena, who stopped Bonnie from setting Damon on fire, even after Elena professed her hatred for Damon.  If Elena really hated Damon, and wanted him dead, she would have allowed Bonnie to kill him.  I think Elena's stopping Bonnie had as much to do with her feelings fro Damon as it did with her not wanting to let Bonnie become a murderer.

Stefan and Elena's midnight flight, and ferris wheel ride was romantic and touching, and the music choice was excellent.  I like them together, in the moments when all the supernatural stuff is set aside and they are just a sweet couple.  I believe them as a couple, which says a lot about the chemistry.

A couple of last things that I have to mention about this show.  I didn't start watching when it premiered last year.  I thought it would be a poor-man's Buffy, but WOW was I wrong.  There are pieces that do remind me of Buffy, of course, but The Vampire Diaries stands on its own as a strong show, with great writing and acting, and doesn't stand in the shadow of Buffy or any other show.  I owe my friend Kevin a huge debt of gratitude for getting me interested and invested in this show!

I also didn't get the appeal of Ian Somerhalder as Damon at first.  I was a HUGE fan of Lost, and never understood his appeal as Boone either.  I didn't like the Boone character, he was whiny and too easily manipulated, in my opinion, and I believe Ian didn't appeal to me because of this.  Within the first episode of TVD I totally changed my opinion.  Ian has matured a few years since his days on Lost, and Damon is such a well-written, well-developed character with such a sharp wit and biting sarcasm, I fell right under his spell.  Wow, vampire terms abound!