Belated Finale Reviews: The Vampire Diaries and Nikita

Blogger! Way to finally stop sucking!

It suddenly occurs to me that railing against a service that I use absolutely free of charge is kind of like criticizing the low thread-count of sheets at the Salvation Army... Rant over.

The crux of the matter is that the finales for two of my favorite shows were nearly a week ago. I'm at my best the following morning when I've had time to digest what happened, but not so much time that I've seen 19 other shows already. Henceforth, rather than the epically lengthy discussion of thematic tropes and narrative denouements, I'm going to keep it simple and just put random thoughts about the shows. Hey, if I'm still pondering the implications a week later, they must be at least kind of important.

On with the show! Er, shows!

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

...Geez, where to even begin? This show burns through so much story so fast that documenting my thoughts and feelings about something is kind of a moot point, what with that something probably getting its heart ripped out in the next episode. Remember Mason Lockwood? Uh, yeah, that was totally this season. Like, 12 episodes ago, rather than 12 years ago like it seems.

...Although this may seem like an odd finale for the show, I think it worked incredibly well. All conventional wisdom would suggest that the penultimate episode should have been the finale. The whole moonstone-soapdish-vampire-werewolf-kitchen sink-doppelganger-originals-jar of almonds-full moon storyline comes to a dramatic end and half the town gets killed in the process. Makes sense as the finale, especially for a show like this. That's actually the reason why I was so pleased to see the actual finale take a quieter, more character-based approach. At the end of the day, ritual sacrifices, deaths, and supernatural phenomenon are par for the course for these characters. Those are just the things that happen. When it all boils down, this is a show about people. It was lovely to see stirring character development as the big finish rather than just a whole lotta crazy going on. (Oh, don't get me wrong, it wouldn't be a TVD finale without the crazy, so there was plenty of that as well, but Damon, Elena, and Stefan were the real core here.

...As much as I hate to see Damon suffer (even if he looks damn good in the process--seriously, even all sick and sweaty and occasionally charred, um, yes please), having someone other than Elena at the center of all the peril was a refreshing change of pace. She's the damsel entirely too often and she isn't an interesting enough character for me to really care about her fate all that much. Damon, on the other hand, is someone whose fate I'm entirely invested in. Not that I thought for a second that he would really die or anything (I kinda sorta know how TV works, thanks), but with this show, all bets are off. Sure, he'll still be on the show, but in what capacity? I entertained notions of him being a ghost of some sort (which made it all the freakier when Anna and Vicki showed up later) or maybe some other kind of entity that Bonnie had somehow orchestrated.

...Speaking of Damon and his werewolf bite, I think this whole arc was established brilliantly and made for a rather satisfying pay-off in the end. So often with this kind of show, it seems like they're making stuff up as they go along. Here, viewers were made very well-aware of the horrifying ramifications of a werewolf bite with Rose, whose slow, agonizing death was as heartbreaking as it was unavoidable. It certainly raised the stakes for Damon, but again, I think we all knew they'd figure something out. With a show that has magic at its disposal, it's often way too easy and convenient to simply find a spell to fix whatever comes your way. This show isn't immune, but I think they manage it better than most. It actually made a hell of a lot of sense that Klaus' blood would be the key. It didn't feel lame or convenient. It genuinely made sense.

...Another story arc that paid off well was the Elena and Damon dynamic. This facet of the show has always been fun to watch in spite of the fact that Elena is about as interesting as the bowl of soaps that Damon genius-ly hid the moonstone in. Dear Damon, I realize you were going for a "purloined letter" kind of thing here, but it doesn't really work when it's in something that people will be touching. Constantly. Love, Viewers Who Still Can't Believe That Was the Best You Could Come Up With. Anyway, Elena has always been pretty damn dull as far as I'm concerned (through no fault of Nina Dobrev--Katherine is awesome afterall), so in terms of my "shipper" allegiances, I'm not irrevocably invested one way or the other. Quite frankly, I think Damon can do a whole lot better. The only reason it makes me happy to see Damon and Elena together is that it makes Damon so happy (I guess there's no accounting for taste... Heh, get it? Taste? Sorry.) Anyway, I have a point! The final scene between Damon and Elena was actually pretty lovely. Rather than the music swelling in some big dramatic swoon-worthy climax, it was a decidedly small, quiet moment. I'm sure there are many out there who would disagree, but I didn't find it to be a romantic moment at all, really. More than anything, it felt more like watching two dear friends, at the very end of their ropes, coping with the harsh realities of life. I really liked that they both looked so completely wrecked by that point. He was all near-death and sweaty and she was crying and sniffling. That was not a romantic screen kiss, which as far as I'm concerned, made it work all the better. It may not have been all that romantic, but it really does up the stakes for next season in terms of their relationship. Well done.

...Also upping the stakes, the fact that Stefan is off gallivanting around with Klaus. I think that made for a nice twist, but hasn't Stefan been drinking Elena's blood for a good long while now? Shouldn't he be fairly inured to the affects of blood? Maybe Stefan is playing him? Maybe he isn't as used to it as I thought? Whatever the case may be, it seems he'll be out of the picture for a while, so what's a girl to do? What she should have done ages ago. Picked the other Salvatore.

...So, apparently Alaric is Elena and Jeremy's new parental figure? I guess that makes as much sense as anything on this show. I really did like their scene together at the end though.

...Let me get this straight. With Jenna and Uncle John dead as a dead dead and Jeremy something supernatural now (finally!), the only humans left on the show are Alaric (more or less) and Sheriff Forbes? Oh, and Matt. Because you never know when you'll need someone to suck the fun out of a room. At some point humanity is really going to have to reconsider keeping Mystic Falls on their list of possible real estate.

...Ramblings aside, I can't possibly go on any further without mentioning the biggest twist of them all. Uh, Anna and Vicki?!?! AWESOME. Well, Anna's return is awesome. Vicki's? Meh. It's not so much the individuals that makes this stellar, of course, it's the fact that apparently Jeremy sees dead people now? No, just dead vampires? Only dead girlfriends? I don't know what this all means and I can't wait to find out! Maybe he actually did ingest some of Caroline's blood, but was brought back before he could transition to a vampire, so he's back from the dead and the undead, which means that he only sees dead people who are also undead people!? Yeah, I'm the one who wrote that sentence and I still got lost before I got to the end.

...As cheesy and obligatory as the festival, carnival, fund-raiser, school dance, town meeting, founder's day fill in the blank is, I really enjoyed the Gone with the Wind motif if for no other reason than it made from some beautiful shots of the characters with the movie playing in the background. It also affected the plot in a way that made sense, so that's always appreciated as well.

...Final thoughts: I'm very stoked for next season which has been hailed as the "season of the originals". Yes, please! Elijah became more than a little badass toward the end of this season and Klaus makes for a hell of a big bad. I long ago stopped worrying that they'd run out of stories to tell, but I do have one nagging concern for next season that I can't seem to shake. Kevin Williamson (and Julie Plec?) is one of the showrunners and he'll be doing double-duty next year. His new pilot, The Secret Circle, got picked up by the CW and will be a companion show to TVD on Thursdays. In theory, "Yay! We get another show from a writer I love!" In actuality, this scenario usually plays out in disappointing ways. The original show almost always suffers and the new project almost never rises to the level of the original. Only time will tell, and I'll be posting clips and whatnot from The Secret Circle in a few weeks, but from what I've seen so far, I'm less than thrilled.

NIKITA

...First and foremost, our girl Nikita got picked up for a second season! I only had a small handful of shows I was genuinely worried about, and Nikita was near the top of that list. (The Chicago Code was the top, and we all know how that turned out.) The bad-ish news? Nikita has been moved to Fridays. On any other network, that's where shows go to die, but on the CW, that designation can be applied just about anywhere...

...There's a lot that can be said about the finale, but I'm going to try to keep this quick (much quicker than TVD at any rate). At the top of my list, if you can believe it, I'm so happy that Birkoff survived the finale! (Not where you thought I was headed with that sentence, is it?) I had heard from reliable sources that Amanda would kill a series regular in the finale. After doing a little math and tapping into a little TV logic, the only viable candidates would be Percy or Birkhoff. In looking at the series as a whole, it didn't make a whole lot of sense for Percy to die (especially at the hands of Amanda), so I had a sinking feeling Birkoff would be biting the dust. I rather adore Birkhoff, so this was an unsettling conclusion to come to. Much to my delight, it was Alex who died. And only for 26 seconds. I should have known better than to take spoilers at face value.

...Speaking of Birkhoff (who, it just occurred to me, played Pyro in X-Men 2, which I had never realized before), it was unduly satisfying to see him working with Nikita and Michael instead of against them. I knew instantly that Birkhoff was the one who let Michael go, even if Michael was too bitter to notice. I can't wait to see what kind of a dynamic is struck next season. Birkoff is kind of held hostage by Division, so it's unclear where he'll end up. Double agent? Inside man? Double-crosser?

...Bigger question, who's running Division? I love Melinda Clarke, so to see her take charge was extremely satisfying. Let's face it, she's always been a hell of a lot more terrifying than Percy anyways. It's as though Lady Heather decided to work for a secret branch of the government (which is instantly the most promising pilot pitch I've heard in ages).

...I was a little afraid when Nikita and Michael got together that all the sizzle and intensity would be lost, but I'm still as invested as ever. The dynamic is certainly different, but there's still a certain tension there. With them seemingly on the run for next year, they're going to have a whole lotta time together to work out their issues.

...Not sure what to make of Alex at this point. I'm sorry, was anyone surprised for even one second that Nikita was the agent who killed her family? Didn't we all already know that? Have I just been assuming that was the case since day 1? How did it never occur to Alex? Regardless, I was glad to see that the writers opted for Alex to respond with a fair bit of logic rather than the usual narrative trope of, "You killed my family, you must die now!" Alex is pissed that Nikita didn't tell her. She understands that Nikita was doing a job, just as Nikita understands that Owen was doing a job when he killed Danny. I half expected this to be one of those ever-frequent TV set-ups for the character to become a basket case and completely forget about context. Thankfully, that's not the case. Alex may not want to work with Nikita, but she doesn't want her set on fire either.

...Character I never realized I adored until the finale? Agent Ryan. "You break me out of prison the minute you get the chance, okay?" Ha! So great. I quite appreciated that Nikita kissed him on the cheek. Aside from a truly dazzling display of badassery, it was a nice reminder of how fond she is of him. The viewers didn't forget about that and neither did the show.

...Finale thoughts: This show isn't perfect and this season wasn't perfect, but it made for a hell of a ride. I think the set up for next season opens a lot of doors for the story and I'm quite confident it'll be stronger than this season. There were a lot of narrative constraints on this show, based largely on the concept of the show, but now those barriers have largely been removed. That should make for more cohesive storylines with fewer repetitive elements. It'll be weird to not have it paired with TVD, but hey, I'll take a solid Friday viewing option any day. Oh, and it'll be on opposite Chuck, so you know, zero competition. ;) Seriously though, if you can only watch one show at 7 on Fridays, make it Nikita. Trust me.