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I really enjoyed The Vampire Diaries, especially the Elena and Caroline scenes (although I did lol at the awkward fatherly scenes with Damon and Jeremy. The Jeremy actor has buffed up so much that he looks about 25 now!), and it feels like it's going back to the show I loved before the Original's. I tried watching the pilot for that show, but unfortunately it just reminded me of how much I needed a break from those characters... I've never liked Klaus much, but Elijah is really grating on me too now. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's a hit so they don't bring them back to TVD quite honestly!

Otherwise I haven't been watching that much tv. After Breaking Bad finished I did watch the first season of Dexter, I really loved it and was excited about catching up with the rest, but then season 2 just didn't do it for me at all. I was super into it with the first season as well, but my interest pretty much died after the second. In the beginning I was really fascinated by Dexter's character and his looking into his past, but by the end of the second season I just could not stand Dexter any more. Or Harry and his code for that matter. Or :shudders: Lila

The only characters I was really attached too were Deb and LaGuerta. Even with Doakes, I did like him more towards the end of season 2, but most of the time he was just so rude and abrasive that I couldn't even root for the one person that I should have. I mean he was the only one who did recognise Dexter for what he was, but urgh the way he went about stalking the guy and swearing at him just really turned me off. Maybe I will watch the fourth still as everyone always raves about that, but Idk

I'm thinking of trying out The Shield next maybe as I've seen some recs for that on BB posts

And woot,

seasonal_spuffy is now back on LJ!

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The Caroline-Elena stuff was so awesome. I loved it. And yeah, I think getting rid of the Originals has been SO GOOD for the show. Fingers crossed that they don't come back! xD

Heh the only thing that would have made it better would be if Matt had joined The Originals as well :P I wasn't a fan of his relationship with Rebecka on TvD, but I wouldn't have protested if they had decided to have him join her on the spin-off. Oh well

The ratings for the premiere didn't seem all that outstanding (a 0.9 in the demo), so I'm just hoping that it doesn't drop too badly when they lose TvD lead-in. But then I guess that anything is good for the CW these days, so they'll probably renew it for at least one more season no matter if the ratings drop or not...

LMAO, word on Matt! Ugh, he's just so assholish in his particular Matt Donovan way, RME.

But then I guess that anything is good for the CW these days, so they'll probably renew it for at least one more season no matter if the ratings drop or not...

*hopes*

I'm still surprised they didn't just pair it with TvD for the entire season, it seems such an odd pairing with Supernatural, but presumedly the CW must be pretty confident that it's going to be a hit and won't need TvD lead-in

Elijah is really grating on me too now.

+1 tbh

And that's coming from a former STAN of his. :(

Side note: I should probably dump this icon, lol.

Something about him became really off-putting for me in season 4, what once seemed noble and different just ended up feeling self-satisfied and pretentious :(

12_12_12 didn't help with that lol, because the more I read the smug interviews with the actor, the more it started bleeding through for me with his choices for Elijah and how ~above it all~ he likes to come across.

12_12_12 didn't help with that lol, because the more I read the smug interviews with the actor, the more it started bleeding through for me with his choices for Elijah and how ~above it all~ he likes to come across.

LMAO! Well as

ishi_chan pointed out a while ago, apparently he IS Elijah because they seem to think along remarkably similar lines! xDDD

And that's coming from a former STAN of his. :(

See, and this is why I don't want to watch more TVD or TO. I love Elijah to death; at least the Elijah of S2 and possibly S3. But I think the more we get of him, well, such characters should be used sparingly for a reason. Almost like the more developed he gets, the less developed he gets? Or, there was nothing wrong with what he was in the beginning? I'm getting dangerously close to saying OOC here, or saying that as the writers have to think up more things for him to do and more motivations for him to have, the more muddled the character becomes. Also, I much preferred the Originals when they were an actual terrifying thing, instead of more vampires who behave like teenagers.

Edited 2013-10-09 03:12 (UTC)

Same for me, I loved Elijah's intro and when he was used sparingly, but once all of the originals were hanging around they seemed to act more like kids most of the time and it got harder to take them seriously, so the pilot for The Original's just felt a little bit ridiculous and self-important me when they tried

O/T But I felt the same way about Castiel on SPN too after a bit. He was so fascinating to me in the fourth season and could be such an imposing presence, and for me some of that got lost when they started using him more and more for comic relief and such later on because the fans responded so strongly to him and wanted him made a regular. I think TvD made a big mistake not to kill off Klaus as was originally intended for the end of season 3, because he just became more and more watered-down and ridiculous as they tried to think up reasons for him to stick around but not cause too much damage to the other characters

ETA Not to compare them exactly because I do think that SPN did a MUCH better job of integrating Cas into the show as a regular then TvD did with the Orignal's starting to overwhelm the show, but still sometimes I do miss the season 4 Castiel when they go really o/t with naive Cas and making him into a joke

Edited 2013-10-09 03:34 (UTC)

OMG ME TOO!!!!1 I compare Elijah and Castiel in my head all the time. Though as I haven't seen the last bit of TVD S4 or TO, I can't say how they're handling Elijah now. And I do think that Elijah got a better deal than the other Originals. Most of the time they were squabbling in S3/4, he was offscreen. But no, I compare them in how they're treated as the first representative of their group. When Castiel walked in those barn doors all badass and terrifying, you got this sense that all the angels were these super otherworldly, actually inhuman, never been human, beings. Then you got more angels. You got pretentious dicks like Uriel and smarmy bastards like Zachariah, and well, they're pretty human acting when it comes down to it. I did think Matt Cohen was pretty otherwordly as Michael, and I have no complaints about Lucifer, but the rest of them? No real presence there. So then we have Elijah. He's ancient and different and powerful and just above all this. So Originals are going to be pretty badass, right? Not so much. We get the rest of them, and then they're pretty much just like every other squabbling vampires we've seen. I really like non-human characters that SEEM non-human, you know? Both Castiel and Elijah did, but their performance was singular and what made them so popular wasn't replicated with subsequent characters (not that the other vampires or angel should have been clones, but I think you know what I'm saying).

But yeah, I haven't seen the most recent Elijah, so I can't comment on how much he's changed in treatment or not. And I haven't seen the most recent SPN either (and have no intention to on that). I do think Cas was integrated fairly well in S5, though they could have had less comic relief. But honestly, I would have rather had him be gone or dead than have him become the parody of himself that he's become, IMO. Though I sort think that about the show itself at this point, TBH. And I think it would have made more sense, story wise, for him to maybe guest star two or three times a season. But instead of doing that, they just had to find more things for him to do, and story lines for him to have, and it just gets further and further away from what the character started out as. But yes, the Originals were used too much. Or they were used wrong or something. (Sort of like Cas, I really just wanted them all to leave, because Mystic Falls is not the world, and maybe occasionally show up now and then. But no.) Like, I was SO impressed with Klaus' treatment in the first half of S3, because it actually made sense for this insanely powerful bad guy to be in town not killing our heroes. But then it went wrong. I can tell you exactly when it went wrong. 3.09. That was the last time I enjoyed Klaus. Coincidentally, I read that that was the episode where they changed their minds about killing him at the end of S3, so, yeah. It was a huge huge huge mistake to not kill him, IMO. Actually, right up until the end, I thought they were going to succeed at putting him in the coffin. That would have been nice. He would be out of the way, but still in play to be brought back after a season or two. But no, the writers fell so in love with Klaus that they kept him around to the detriment of the story, then gave him his own show. /rant

They haven't significantly changed Elijah's character I don't think, but for me it was all "whoa" and really exciting everytime Elijah got undaggered lol, and then when they did start using him more in season 4 I found myself getting more and more turned off by his character. Things like his hypocritical treatment of Katherine really stood out to me when he started lording it over Katherine and how he doesn't know if he can ever trust her, completely ignoring that Klaus and Elijah were the reason she had to flee for her life in the first place. That stuff was no doubt always there and consistent with his prior characterisation, but when he became more of a full-time character that's when it started standing out to me that he judged Elena and Katherine by very different standards and had a total madonna/whore complex.

Both Castiel and Elijah did, but their performance was singular and what made them so popular wasn't replicated with subsequent characters

I think a lot of people were underwhelmed by the presentation of Klaus after all the build-up because Elijah had led us to expect an even more awesome Original, and instead Klaus never felt like a really old vampire in the same way. Meh he always comes across more as someone who was changed in the 19th or 20th century to me

Actually, right up until the end, I thought they were going to succeed at putting him in the coffin.

I really thought that too :( It would have been a nice send-off too with the intense looks between Stefan and Klaus, so it's a real shame that they kept him round for so long after that when there wasnt all that much point to him still being in Mystic Falls for season 4. I think his crush on Caroline was meant to be one of the ways of giving him more dimension after they choose not to kill him off (and I know the actor was campaigning on twitter for a love interest for those reasons), but that was when his character first became ridiculous to me when he just instantly seemed to fall for her and drew pictures of her with his horse :P

Edited 2013-10-09 09:59 (UTC)

Yeah, after all the buildup to Klaus, he wasn't that spectacular. Some people seem to like the fact that he wasn't all he was build up to be, but I really don't.

And the Klaus/Caroline was definitely about keeping him around.

Things like his hypocritical treatment of Katherine really stood out to me when he started lording it over Katherine and how he doesn't know if he can ever trust her, completely ignoring that Klaus and Elijah were the reason she had to flee for her life in the first place.

Yeah, that rubbed me the wrong way. And see, until we saw him doing that in S4, I could sort of make sense of it. Like he was all feeling for her in 1492, and then in modern day is ready to hand her over to Klaus. I just figured they had had another run in in between there and she had actually betrayed him (because that's a thing she does, lol). But then we get S4 and they're apparently together without a word of explanation, and then they're not and he's talking about trusting her and it's just a mess.

ha I'm the opposite with The Originals actually. They annoyed me on TVD because they didn't belong there but on their own show...well that's where they are meant to be so they don't annoy me there. I hope it can be decent. But weirdly I'm not sure I can really go back to TVD.

I thought that I would possibly like them more on their own show, which is why I wanted to give the pilot at least a shot, but I just found myself more and more turned off by Elijah as the episode went on to be totally honest. Everything just felt so unearned and ridiculous in trying to be really grand and epic, even though the originals acted like melodramatic spoilt children most of the time on TvD. I can't take it seriously with how seriously the show seems to take itself if that even makes sense

With TvD I was pretty fed up with it last season, but so far there seems to be a bit more life to it with Elena and Caroline at college. I already like it a lot more than the fourth season premiere, so I'm hoping that they can keep it up

Edited 2013-10-08 18:47 (UTC)

I ever saw the attraction of Elijah (or Klaus). Good riddance! I will probably watch The Originals (though I haven't been arsed to watch the first one yet) in the way I used to watch Angel - in batches because the only reason I'm watching is to understand potential crossovers.

Hmm yeah I will probably watch it again if there's a TvD character like Caroline crossing over, but other than that I'm not planning to follow it as a regular thing

I was super into it with the first season as well, but my interest pretty much died after the second.

GET OUT! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

LOL, no, but really, there are some good moments post-S2, but it's really not worth it. It will only lure you into thinking the rest is worth watching, and... no. There are better uses of your time.

Heh I've seen a lot of people in BB posts complaining about Dexter, so I know that the end is disappointing, but everyone seems to see the first four seasons as still very much worth watching so I was surprised to lose interest as fast as I did. Well to be fair season 2 was certainly worth watching objectively speaking, I think that I just wasn't very invested in the characters that year? Other than Deb mostly. It started off strong, but then kind of lost me towards the middle

Edited 2013-10-09 02:19 (UTC)

I thought S3 was actually not that great? S4 is kind of uneven, but John Lithgow as Trinity is excellent. And I liked S5 because of the arc with Julia Stiles. S6 is terrible. S7 looks like it's going to recover, but then fumbles it at the end, and S8 is just the worst. Deb actually has some great stuff in S7 and 8 (she is the only one), but I cannot it good conscience recommend watching just for that.

But yeah, other than Deb, you will probably NEVER care about anyone at Miami Metro. They get even less interesting without Doakes, and the show as a whole gets dumber. And if you can't stand Dexter and Harry/the code in S2, you will probably want to kill yourself soon, since that NEVER goes away.

The more the show delves into the code the weirder I find the whole thing, and I'm never sure how we're actually supposed to take it. I just think it's really fucked up that Harry separated Dexter from his brother and never took him to any kind of therapy after the brutal death of his mother, but I get the feeling that the show wants us to see his character more ambiguously and to believe that Dexter was destined to have the urge to kill no matter what? Harry just gives me an icky feeling when he seems to take for granted that Dexter is a 'monster' and that there's no other way to treat him

and I'm never sure how we're actually supposed to take it

Neither is the show. Honestly, Dexter frets over the meaning of the code every season, then comes to a realization about it, is content, and then does the whole thing over next year. The writers just keep throwing out these existential questions, but never give you any hints of answers you should be drawing.

Oh I've just remembered another thing that was super-weird to me in season 2! When LaGuerta was trying to get her old position back, she did it by sleeping with her replacement's partner which conveniently turned her into this really obsessive and crazy person who became incapable of acting professionally at work without crying about how she knows that she knows her man is cheating on her. What even was that???

Dexter S2 was really not that great, IMO, mainly because of Lilah and Dexter's relationship problems and 'addiction problem'. But S3 and S4 are much better, IMO. Though 4 is a good stopping place, though I personally love 5.

Yeah I think that the way Dexter acted with Lila was mostly what turned me off his character tbh! I found it hard to connect to him the way that I did in season 1, and once I lose my connection with the main character it's hard for me to stay invested as I tend to watch from a very character-centric POV

I am curious to watch season 5 for Julia Stiles, so maybe I will give some more seasons a shot. I didn't dislike season 2 exactly, I just wasn't really feeling it after a while

I HATE Lilah. Hate hate hate her. One reason is that she isn't a character in her own right. She's just there to be 'love interest'. Whereas Rita IS a character in her own right, even if she's also a love interest. But it was typical TV drama crap where Dexter and Rita 'break up' and then Dexter does something and then Rita is mad about it. But yeah, I also found the whole drug analogy ridiculous. If that season had solely been about the Bay Harbor Butcher investigation, it would have been great. But anyway, if you like Deb, Deb really grows character wise and career wise from the uncertain cop who's on vice duty. S5 was like my season, because it gave me something I had always wanted, and I loved the dynamic between Dexter and Julia Stiles' character. But yes, whatever you do, DO NOT watch past S5, lol. It will only kill your brain cells.

:nods along with everything you're saying: I was intrigued with the early episodes being about dealing with Dexter being discovered as the Bay Harbour Butcher, but everything seemed to get pretty weird once he was going to rehab and Lilah was his sponsor.

Heh I'm feeling a bit more enthusiastic about going on to watch more now actually if you also disliked season 2 but still liked the later seasons. I always got the impression that seasons 1-4 were just considered the shows peak (on ONTD at least people were arguing about whether season 4 or 2 were the best season overall...), so the fact that I was losing interest so early made me wonder if it was just going to be all downhill from there for me

I always got the impression that seasons 1-4 were just considered the shows peak

Well, I don't know how much you know, so I don't know what to say without spoiling you. I get the impression that a lot of people disliked S5, though a lot of people on my flist really liked it, as did I. I'm not sure if other people disliked S5 because of S5 itself, or because of the game changer at the end of S4.

(on ONTD at least people were arguing about whether season 4 or 2 were the best season overall...)

People were arguing whether season TWO was the best? lol.

Oh I don't care about spoilers for most shows lol, I'm vaguely spoiled on a lot of basic plot points like I know that Deb will later fall in love with Dexter and that she finds out who he is etc, and that Rita dies at the end of season 4. It was hard to miss the fan outrage over those events, even when I wasn't watching the show or following the characters :P

And yep, there was an article on ONTD recently with a reviewer ranking all the seasons in order. They were saying that season 4 is the popular choice for favourite, but they would go with season 2, and a lot of the comments were agreeing with them. I was in the middle of watching season 1 at the time, so that made me excited to get to season 2 if it was supposedly even better

I'm vaguely spoiled on a lot of basic plot points

BUT DO YOU KNOW OF THE BRAIN MELTING FINALE? lol

But yeah, the killing Rita thing was definitely a game changer, and it changed the direction of the show a lot, because there was no longer this 'life' of Dexter, no familiar trappings of a girlfriend/wife and her kids. I know I was stunned and didn't think the show could be good after that. It was good for one season after that, lol.

Dexter becames a lumberjack in hiding, right? *g* Yeah people have been complaining about that show all season in BB posts and drawing comparisons between how both shows are choosing to end it, so I always had the idea that I should stop after the fourth or fifth season!

AHHH, DEB. SHE WAS THE BEST <3

Honestly, the first four seasons of Dexter are amazing. The fifth one isn't so bad either. The last three are truly terrible, though, and the series finale was incredibly awful :( It sucks, because it was my favourite show for such a long time.

Aww yeah, I've been seeing all the Dexter complaints on ONTD. It sucks when your favourite show lets you down really badly with how it ends

I totally agree about TVD. :D

And Dexter, yeah, don't watch the last season. I would probably choose not to, in hindsight.

Heh cute icon!

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