The CW is somewhat desperately trying to be the place to be for the young adult demo. With shows like Gossip Girl and Top Model, they're in a good place. 90210, well I hear it's trying to get better and Supernatural fulfills the teens-love-horror/comedy quotient. This season they're trying to ratchet up their growing stranglehold by revving up the reboot bandwagon with a new Melrose Place and beating the current vampire trend with a stick with Vampire Diaries.
Melrose Place: New Drama, new bar, same pool.
While the preseason press touted the return of original cast-member Laura Leighton (the once-and-future corpse Sydney Andrews) and Thomas Calabro (evil Dr. Michael Mancini) and of course the acting debut of Ashlee Simpson-Wentz (perhaps "touted" was the wrong word. As well as "acting"), they failed to mention that the slick, ultra-stylized reboot was actually pretty watchable. Sure, the characters are wooden and somewhat one-dimensional, but it's been two- episodes and I'm not bored.
But, it's not the tired murder plot, or the crazy character names (Auggie Kirkpatrick? Really?) keeping me in so far. No, it's the fantastic performances of Katie Cassidy (daughter of Partridge David) and as current uber-bitch Ella and Stephanie Jacobsen (fantastic in Battlestar Galactica: Razor) as hooker-with-a-stethoscope Lauren. Not to gush, but these two need to be in every story as they have more energy and presence than the rest of the cast combined. And yes, I just said that about a failed pop-star/daughter of a 70's cheeseball.
So far, the show is pure soapy goodness: webcams, art theft, sexually ambiguous Brits, and fantastic outfits collide to create a really fun show.
Current Questions: Why were they all so comfortable lounging in an around the iconic pool less than a week after their "beloved" landlady was found floating dead in it? Does David (Shaun Sipos) have a purpose? What about Violet (Simpson-Wentz), besides the long-lost-daughter angle which, again, really? Will Lauren keep hooking? And, if so, will she keep doing it with the gorgeous Niall Matter (yay for Syfy actors being represented on broadcast TV! [sidenote: it's been said to death but how dumb is that name? No wonder your shows, FANTASTIC actors and more respectable TV movies-yes there are some- are mocked when they appear on something that reads like VD])
Vampire Diaries: Insert "suck-related" joke here
While vampires are all the rage- and really when are they not?- taking a 20 year-old young adult series and translating it to the small screen would be a stretch even with better material. Having never read the source material (although I did read the Wikipedia entry on it and, wow. Just, wow) I can only go by what's on screen: A very bland teen soap featuring gorgeous people doing things that vary wildly from typically teen to vaguely menacing to outright scary-in-a-not-really-scary-way. The actors aren't "bad" per se, simply so boring as to not make an impression. The shining exception is the character of Damon (Ian Sommerhalder) who oozes the menace his super-vamp is supposed to convey. The pilot got 100% better once he arrived.
Sadly, the main couple, the comet-crossed-lovers if you will are so deeply boring I couldn't tell if they were kissing in episode 2 or holding each other up. Yes, he's a vampire and tortured. We've seen it (Angel, Spike, Mick St. John, Bill Compton, Alex Elder, Blade, and Edward "disco-skin" Cullen) in better - and worse, it must be said- places so many times it's become a joke. So producers, let's move it along shall we? There's slow build and then there's painful dialogue, fake tension, phony bonding over journaling, and of course supposedly insidious...fog...?
We know where the story is going and there must be a way to, if not speed it up, maybe let it play out more organically while allowing the tension to come from the delicious villain as opposed to the oh-so-tired inner turmoil/teen angst.
Current questions: Is the psychic/witch thing going to be explored, or just toyed with? Or, do we have to wait for Jasmine Guy? Will the viewers even be able to sustain for that long? With so much other "drama" going on, do we actually need the unrequited love of the drug-dealing younger brother or the overwhelmed aunt? Damon is a great villain (so far, in 2 episodes) but if he continues to eat all of Elena's (the somewhat interesting in a somnambulistic way Nina Dobrev) friends and acquaintances, there won't be much time for brother Stefan (the ultra-hot and that's really all Paul Wesley) to moon over her now will there? The owner of the vampire home- Stefan and Damon's nephew- how does he fit into his family's "secret"or will he not be around enough to matter? Will anyone realize that both Stefan and Damon are way too old to reasonably pass for high schoolers- like, 21 Jump Street old- or was the whole town mass-glamoured?
The "3-episode rule" is in effect.