Hi guys! I've been thinking about if for few days & I decided to share it with you. All below are just my personal opinions, I hope noone will feel offended by them.
Recently I re-watched some season 2 episodes & I must admit, it's one of the best things I' ve seen on TV. Short, fast deveoper storyarcs, great & well developed characters, amazing haldeling of both main & secondary characters, all arcs perfectly tied up in the season finale. I liked season 1 very much, but in season 2 I was like crazy about TVD... And than season 3 came...
The first part was still good - we all want to kill Klaus. Stefan is the Ripper, Elenais getting stronger & getting closer to Damon, we know what we are fighting for. And than strage things start to happen... I won't make them in chronological order, I just want to list them more or less.
Characters sendoff. Well, in season two, sometimes characters were missing for one or two episodes without any hard for the show, but whole big cast was actually handeled consequently. In season 3 Jeremey & Tyler, so crucial characters, are being just sent off - suddenly writers are to lazy to write them in? Was there really no space for them in the show? Maybe not, becasue at the same time, we got...
Piontless & vanishing characters. Who on Earth was Jamie? The guy who appeard, kissed Bonnie & magically disappeared? Did we really need him? Or couldn't he actually do something? Same with Bonnie's mom - I want Bonnie to actually get some real storyline, but Abby didn't bring a lot - she appeared, became vampire & disapperaed. And the scenes she shoud have share with her daughter she shared with Caroline anyway.
Character's lost potential. Were you as surprised as me, when Mikael died the same episode he actually came back to life? The original vampire, who was chasing Klaus for centuries & that Klaus was so afraid of, was killed so easly? Or Finn & Sage - Finn seemed to be Esther's puppet, and when we get some character's potential to see him standing up to her, wanting to live, we get a sign of a great love story - he gets killed in the same episodes. And when we talk about killing...
Hybrids. Why does Klaus wants them anyway? Aren't they supposed to be powerful? But we saw them killed by vampires, humans, hunters... They seem to be weaker than normal vampires! Btw, i was really angry that Tyler became hybrid - there was so much more to tell about him as warewolf & his relationship with Caroline! Speaking of...
Klaroline. KC fans, please don't feel offended, I realize they share really cute scenes, I do enjoy them. But I still have no idea how & why were they "made" by writer. When I was watching Klaus giving his blood to her, I was like WTH!? The Big Bad Guy "I kill anyone who stands in my way" is suddenlt caring & all sweet to a girl he sees for like second time in his life? What's happening? For next few episodes I was still hoping for some ecplanation, like he was up to something or she reminded him of his human love or whatever, anything that would explain his behaviour - but nothing. I still absolutely don't get it.
Stefan's character's development. Here again I have no idea what the writers were doing. He became blood-addict Ripper again - ok. The truth is we saw him rather as a jerk than Ripper (are writers too afraid to really dig into Stefan's dark side?),but ok. We knew how difficult will it be to bring him back to normal, Lexi explained it. And it seems that at some point of season 3 his bloodlust just... melter away. We could have get Stefan's darkness, fight against himself, but we actually didn't. Other thing that I hated was the memory of Stefan & Klaus being friends. After something like that, viewers have right to expect something will change between Klaus & Stefan. But it didn't. Stefan relized "We were friends". That's all. No bond, no sentiments, no sign of understanding. No meaning of ths flashback.
Dragging of love-trangle. That's probably my biggest recent problem with TVD. It's becoming soap opera. Love triangle overshadowed all other plotlines. In season 3 Elena is acting like she had split personality. She'sgetting closer to Damon, they share mutual kiss, that she says that him loving her is the problem & throws herself back at Stefan, begging him without dignity to take her back, five episodes later she throws herself on Damon in a passionate kiss, than in 3x22 chooses Stefan again... The writers have no idea where they are heading - they are just trying to keep the triangle alive. Even if Elena's decision was weird (what was the point of whole season of SE growing apart? Elena acted like she was going to forget past months in a crazy hope that things will just get back to normal, instead of accepting the truth that things HAVE changed, what was the point of all events), I'm ok with it. But writers are crazy in their will to keeps both parts of fanbase satisfied - we got the pretty pointless "If only we met first" trick... And Stefan letting Elena die - to most unbelievable twist EVER.
And season 4 continues the list of fails.
Don't get me even started on the sire bond. The worst part is that Julie said she had it on her mind since the end of S3. Really? I would forgive writers all this plot holes if they admited they came up with it in 4x07, when Elena magically got sired & started listening to Damon, but if they really did plan it all along & STILL handeld so badly, it's really unexcusable... Elena fighting Damon on drinking from grils on mystic Grill & espcially in college,going to kill Connor against his will, not calling Stefan when Damon told her, not stopping raging on him when she found about the Jemery-deal... I still don't understand how anyone could write it so badly. But it's not about logic, right? It's only a cheap trick to reset the triagle.
Other most painful thing in season 4 is my poor Caroline. This is the fastest un-development of a character I've seen. She got so mautre, brave, amazing in season 3, how could the push her to her season 1 self in like 4 episodes? And all her hate for Damon? She had every reason to hate him, what he did to her in S1 was absolutely awful & I'd understand if she'd hate him since then.i we saw her raging on him all the time that would be logical & natural. But meanwhile she was totally fine with him - they playd charades, she came to him with Tyler/Sarah situation in 2x08, and now she suddenly recalled he hurt her? I fee like she just jumped in time to the end of season 1.
All in all this season was kind of too slow. I think we need a clear plotline, because dragging Elena's relationships as the main show's accent can be boring even for even hardcore ship-fans. For now, Silas, cure & hunter arcs seem to be too much of secondary action to draw people's attention. Season 2 proved that TVD work better with clear action-plotlines than purly character-driven plotlines.
Well, that's been tons of grumbling. Please, don't get me wrong - I still love the show. Tha's exactely why it hurst me so much to watch it being ruined by sloppy writing. I remember this feeling from House MD or One Tree Hill & I really don't want TVD to go this way. It's still the same group of people who are working on the show, so I have faith they'll find the way to fix things. But they have to know where they are heading. Right now, I'm afraid they are not really sure.
Recently I re-watched some season 2 episodes & I must admit, it's one of the best things I' ve seen on TV. Short, fast deveoper storyarcs, great & well developed characters, amazing haldeling of both main & secondary characters, all arcs perfectly tied up in the season finale. I liked season 1 very much, but in season 2 I was like crazy about TVD... And than season 3 came...
The first part was still good - we all want to kill Klaus. Stefan is the Ripper, Elenais getting stronger & getting closer to Damon, we know what we are fighting for. And than strage things start to happen... I won't make them in chronological order, I just want to list them more or less.
Characters sendoff. Well, in season two, sometimes characters were missing for one or two episodes without any hard for the show, but whole big cast was actually handeled consequently. In season 3 Jeremey & Tyler, so crucial characters, are being just sent off - suddenly writers are to lazy to write them in? Was there really no space for them in the show? Maybe not, becasue at the same time, we got...
Piontless & vanishing characters. Who on Earth was Jamie? The guy who appeard, kissed Bonnie & magically disappeared? Did we really need him? Or couldn't he actually do something? Same with Bonnie's mom - I want Bonnie to actually get some real storyline, but Abby didn't bring a lot - she appeared, became vampire & disapperaed. And the scenes she shoud have share with her daughter she shared with Caroline anyway.
Character's lost potential. Were you as surprised as me, when Mikael died the same episode he actually came back to life? The original vampire, who was chasing Klaus for centuries & that Klaus was so afraid of, was killed so easly? Or Finn & Sage - Finn seemed to be Esther's puppet, and when we get some character's potential to see him standing up to her, wanting to live, we get a sign of a great love story - he gets killed in the same episodes. And when we talk about killing...
Hybrids. Why does Klaus wants them anyway? Aren't they supposed to be powerful? But we saw them killed by vampires, humans, hunters... They seem to be weaker than normal vampires! Btw, i was really angry that Tyler became hybrid - there was so much more to tell about him as warewolf & his relationship with Caroline! Speaking of...
Klaroline. KC fans, please don't feel offended, I realize they share really cute scenes, I do enjoy them. But I still have no idea how & why were they "made" by writer. When I was watching Klaus giving his blood to her, I was like WTH!? The Big Bad Guy "I kill anyone who stands in my way" is suddenlt caring & all sweet to a girl he sees for like second time in his life? What's happening? For next few episodes I was still hoping for some ecplanation, like he was up to something or she reminded him of his human love or whatever, anything that would explain his behaviour - but nothing. I still absolutely don't get it.
Stefan's character's development. Here again I have no idea what the writers were doing. He became blood-addict Ripper again - ok. The truth is we saw him rather as a jerk than Ripper (are writers too afraid to really dig into Stefan's dark side?),but ok. We knew how difficult will it be to bring him back to normal, Lexi explained it. And it seems that at some point of season 3 his bloodlust just... melter away. We could have get Stefan's darkness, fight against himself, but we actually didn't. Other thing that I hated was the memory of Stefan & Klaus being friends. After something like that, viewers have right to expect something will change between Klaus & Stefan. But it didn't. Stefan relized "We were friends". That's all. No bond, no sentiments, no sign of understanding. No meaning of ths flashback.
Dragging of love-trangle. That's probably my biggest recent problem with TVD. It's becoming soap opera. Love triangle overshadowed all other plotlines. In season 3 Elena is acting like she had split personality. She'sgetting closer to Damon, they share mutual kiss, that she says that him loving her is the problem & throws herself back at Stefan, begging him without dignity to take her back, five episodes later she throws herself on Damon in a passionate kiss, than in 3x22 chooses Stefan again... The writers have no idea where they are heading - they are just trying to keep the triangle alive. Even if Elena's decision was weird (what was the point of whole season of SE growing apart? Elena acted like she was going to forget past months in a crazy hope that things will just get back to normal, instead of accepting the truth that things HAVE changed, what was the point of all events), I'm ok with it. But writers are crazy in their will to keeps both parts of fanbase satisfied - we got the pretty pointless "If only we met first" trick... And Stefan letting Elena die - to most unbelievable twist EVER.
And season 4 continues the list of fails.
Don't get me even started on the sire bond. The worst part is that Julie said she had it on her mind since the end of S3. Really? I would forgive writers all this plot holes if they admited they came up with it in 4x07, when Elena magically got sired & started listening to Damon, but if they really did plan it all along & STILL handeld so badly, it's really unexcusable... Elena fighting Damon on drinking from grils on mystic Grill & espcially in college,going to kill Connor against his will, not calling Stefan when Damon told her, not stopping raging on him when she found about the Jemery-deal... I still don't understand how anyone could write it so badly. But it's not about logic, right? It's only a cheap trick to reset the triagle.
Other most painful thing in season 4 is my poor Caroline. This is the fastest un-development of a character I've seen. She got so mautre, brave, amazing in season 3, how could the push her to her season 1 self in like 4 episodes? And all her hate for Damon? She had every reason to hate him, what he did to her in S1 was absolutely awful & I'd understand if she'd hate him since then.i we saw her raging on him all the time that would be logical & natural. But meanwhile she was totally fine with him - they playd charades, she came to him with Tyler/Sarah situation in 2x08, and now she suddenly recalled he hurt her? I fee like she just jumped in time to the end of season 1.
All in all this season was kind of too slow. I think we need a clear plotline, because dragging Elena's relationships as the main show's accent can be boring even for even hardcore ship-fans. For now, Silas, cure & hunter arcs seem to be too much of secondary action to draw people's attention. Season 2 proved that TVD work better with clear action-plotlines than purly character-driven plotlines.
Well, that's been tons of grumbling. Please, don't get me wrong - I still love the show. Tha's exactely why it hurst me so much to watch it being ruined by sloppy writing. I remember this feeling from House MD or One Tree Hill & I really don't want TVD to go this way. It's still the same group of people who are working on the show, so I have faith they'll find the way to fix things. But they have to know where they are heading. Right now, I'm afraid they are not really sure.
