The Originals went in waves this year, as Vampire Diaries often did back when it was a show you bothered to watch. The beginning was to whet your interest, then it got incredibly boring, and just when you were about to abandon the show, they threw in an epic curveball. I covered that back at the beginning of the year. After that we rode out silliness of Marcel-Rebecca until it led to Rebecca leaving New Orleans, which was admittedly well done, and then we just had a giant sausage fest of a show. Yes, yes, Elijah and Klaus are physically pleasant to look at, but oh my god are they annoying when there is literally nothing happening. So, Plec yanked in some new blood and created stories from nothing for us to attempt to care about.
But the finale, that was solid.
I rewatched it tonight, weeks later, because I was in the mood for something convincingly sad yet optimistic. This finale delivers on fulfilling not only the critical arc of the season (and series in many ways), but also in opening up the change of tide for next season. One of Vampire Diaries gifts was their ability to always come up with something new after nothing was left. There are so many plot points in Vampire Dairies that were super critical for like, two episodes, and then were resolved, and you’re left going, “What now?” for a hot second before they show you what. It was always weaved in so convincingly that you were mad you didn’t see it coming. I mean, until TVD 100% jumped the shark, whatever. Before that though, it was the show I looked to for constant surprise. It impressed me as a show.
I wanted The Originals to take over for that. They didn’t. But this finale has given me hope that it might. That there is more to come. The cast is so, so good and the themes are [generally] very adult. If it was based on TVD, it probably wouldn’t be on the CW. So, I am hopeful that the writers can pull it off next season, but we will see.
The 100 finale is this week, and that will conclude all finales for the network’s spring. The to be continued from last week left me bored, so I’m not holding my breath for the finale. The TVD finale was emotional, but trite (fade to white? For real? LOST ripoff). The Starcrossed finale SUCKED (I want to write about guys, I really do, but I have literally no inspiration to do so. I’m still annoyed by how lame it was). I mean, Carrie Diaries’ finale was solid. Carrie Bradshaw is a selfish idiot from all ages, point and case. So, that was fine. But it wasn’t GOOD. It wasn’t compelling in the way that The Originals’ finale was. I really, really enjoyed The Originals finale. It left me surprised, it gave me emotion, and it made me actually want to watch next season.
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What did you think? Did you watch The Originals at all this year? Did you for a quick second also think it was Caroline when Rebecca got out of the car at the end? Have you seen Joseph Morgan act in any other role…was he good? I heart him.
