I'm just as conflicted, but more hopeful.The Secret Circle seems to operate in the same basic universe of The Vampire Diaries, but so far focuses on witches exclusively. The pilot follows Cassie Blake (played by Britt Robertson, whom you'll remember hating as Lux last year... at least I sure did) as she journeys to her mother's home town to live with her grandmother, following the, um, "accident" that killed her mother only minutes into the pilot. Upon arriving in small town Washington state (which, near as I can tell, has the highest per capita of pretty people on the planet, second only to Mystic Falls), she finds out that she actually comes from a long lineage of witches, as do 5 other teenagers in town and their parents. It's a lot of ground to cover in only 43 minutes and it made for a few misfires along the way. The pilot piles on the plot exposition and foundational elements necessary for the actual narrative to begin, establishing the six primary families involved, the universe in which the show operates (which I'm calling Mystic Falls East), the principles of magic in said universe, some of the mythology of the series, and the over-arching narrative drives that will guide the first season. Given the amount of ground they covered in such a short period of time, I'm actually pretty surprised that it came across as successfully as it did. While there were certainly aspects of the pilot that felt rushed, it took time for some small moments and presented memorable, if characters--characters that I want to know more about, even if I'm not entirely sure I'll be investing whole hog in the future. The characters have yet to be fleshed out, and after only one episode are really more superficial than substantive, but I'm intrigued enough to want to give them time to grow. At this point, the writers essentially picked one personality trait for each character to embody rather than giving a range. Some critics may pooh-pooh such a one-note portrayal, but when you have that many characters to establish that quickly, I think it's best to pick one feature for viewers to hold onto and worry about imbuing layers later on. Had they presented each character in his/her wide range of facets, the pilot would have felt even more rushed than it did. They piqued my interest with the basics and I'm more than happy to wait for more substance and depth later on.
Presenting characters in simplified terms comes with mixed results, however. While I understand and appreciate stripping characters down to their basic constitution for the sake of the pilot, each character's likability weighs heavily on which single dimension is chosen. Cassie is given the most range, what with her being the central character, but I found her to be one of the least engaging characters from the pilot. As mentioned above, I hated her as Lux in Life Unexpected for a number of reasons, most of which have carried over to The Secret Circle. Apparently it wasn't just her old character that I despised. It's her. It's difficult to pinpoint what exactly irks me about her, but it's ever-present. I guess she just comes across as a whiny sad-sack whether her character warrants it or not. Her mother recently died in The Secret Circle, so her moodiness is consistent with her character arc, but that doesn't make her any more endearing. Any number of actors can pull off the brooding in a way that makes me love them, but Britt is just a total turn-off. She comes across as one of those people who's constantly pissy, but who isn't snarky or edgy enough to make it work. It's as though it's the world's constant job to make amends and apologize
for her life not going exactly the way she wants it to. Hell, I saw her in an interview and couldn't believe she was the same humorless wet blanket she is in her roles. Sigh. I'm really hoping she grows on me over time, what with her being the main focus of the show, but at this point, I was kind of hoping the car fire would win.Were this a one-woman show starring Cassie, I certainly wouldn't be soldiering on, but luckily, the other cast members hold a fair bit of promise. It's hard to know exactly what these characters will be like in the long run because from the pilot, they fall into very specific types, particularly the teenagers. Along with pretty sad-sack Cassie, we have sweet, sensitive Adam, dismissive badboy Nick, mega-bitch Faye, twinset-wearing type A personality Diana, and token minority contestant Melissa (who, aside from being the only non-white character on the entire show, near as I can tell, had very little screentime in the pilot--she was essentially Faye's submissive sidekick at this point). Brass tacks, there's not a lot of depth yet, but I appreciated that the writers gave me specific personality traits to latch onto so that I could remember who was who. It's to the writers' credit that I remembered all their names without trying and could keep them all straight in my head. There were about a dozen major characters to establish in the pilot, so that's no easy feat. To the show's discredit, I liked the second-string characters far more than Cassie, and in particular, feel more invested in the parents than the kids. That said, until the writers flesh out the cast, I only have one impression of them and that impression isn't always good. Faye, in particular, practically smothers you with her role as sadistic rebel bitch in a way that felt incredibly forced and disingenuous. She more than any other seemed like a cardboard cutout of a "type" they wanted in the show and will benefit the most from some extra dimensions. Even as ham-fisted as her portrayal
was, I'm still more intrigued by her than by Cassie. This show is supposed to be a companion to TVD? I think we found our Elena. Only less endearing... Wow, let that sink in.The other teenagers hold more promise, with Diana in particular, striking a nice note. I immediately like her and in spite of her basic presentation in the pilot, felt like she had more depth than the others. The fact that I liked her so much poses a problem for the will-they-or-won't-they romantic set-up between Cassie and Adam, who is Diana's boyfriend. On the one hand, I like Diana more, so the thought of anyone choosing Cassie over her is off-putting at best, but on the other hand, Adam is played by Heroes alum Thomas Dekker, so maybe Diana would be better off... I don't hate Dekker the way I hate Britt Robertson, but he just didn't really seem to pop onscreen that I would I would expect the male lead to. I'm hopeful that as these characters grow on me, I'll be more invested in their romantic entanglements and whatnot, but for these two, it's going to take a hell of a lot for me to pull for them as a couple.
While the teenage contingent is obviously the primary focus of the show, for me, the real draw is the parents. Maybe I'm just getting old, maybe it's that they have a longer history and are more knowledgeable of their own mythology, but I found them to be much more intriguing. Gale Harold was the real star of the show for me and it's not just because I adored Brian Kinney on Queer as Folk. The pilot opens with his character Charlie using supernatural forces to kill Cassie's mother. It was honestly a hell of a way to open the show and drew me in instantly. His character is deliciously evil, but charming and casual at the same time. I don't know if you know me, but that's my kind of character. More than anything though, it was his use of magic that I found to be the most effective and, well, magical. While the teenagers would simply think an event into existence or earnestly ask something happen (seriously, you're just going to ask the rain to stop? "Stop this storm! Please?! Oh, you're mean."), Charlie's magic had a bent to it that I found really appealing and, in the world of the show, pretty terrifying. In the opening sequence, he's seen pouring water from a bottle onto the ground. My first thought was whether or not it was actually some sort of flammable material that he would light on fire or if part of his powers including using water as a conductor for other forces. As it turned out, he used the water from the bottle to connect with the water from Cassie's mother's sink, kind of like an object voodoo doll. The same 
goes for the matches he struck, causing the mother's kitchen to ignite more and more forcefully with each strike. That sequence, in conjunction with the relative silliness of the teenagers approach to magic got me wondering if the rules are different for different witches, if it's a generational thing, or if the fact that the teenagers form a complete circle is what makes the difference between needing a conductor and being able to will the clouds to start storming without a second thought. The fact that I was invested enough to start thinking about these things is a good sign for the series as a whole. A lot of the magic was fairly cheesy for the teenagers at this point, chanting dorky sentences and staring at something till it gave in, but I'm hopeful for better in the future. If there's one thing viewers learned from TVD, it's that cheesy elements can be phased out quickly and effectively (remember the crow? and the fog? and the diaries?). So let it be with The Secret Circle. If I could make one recommendation for the show (aside from retroactively casting Kristen Bell as Cassie, circa her Veronica Mars days), it would be to fully embrace Charlie's brand of spellcasting. The most effective and terrifying scene of the pilot was when Charlie makes Adam's dad start to drown while they were simply talking. It was honestly pretty chilling to hear Charlie ask if Adam's father knew what it felt like to drown, then to see exactly what that would look like, water spewing from the father's mouth as he gasps for air. Gale Harold did a lovely job with the role, making his character truly menacing without being completely one-note. More of that, please.Did I mention that Charlie and Adam's father were talking to one another at the Boathouse Grill? Which is exactly the same as Mystic Grill, only more boaty? Okay, I realize this show is supposed to pair well with The Vampire Diaries, but in a number of ways, I wish The Secret Circle weren't so obviously conceived as a "companion piece." I love TVD and am happy to see that universe expanded, but holy hell, even the title cards look the same.
What's that you say? You're family history is supernatural and mysterious and has been studiously preserved in a leatherbound journal? That doesn't sound familiar at all! Seriously, throw in a few shamelss product placements for Bing and they're barely distinguishable at times. Aside from the universe of the show having a similar milieu, there were so many story elements that overlapped with TVD that it almost got oppressive at times. It was mostly little things and occasional thematic elements, but the familiarity bred some contempt. I realize that the creative teams have a number of key players in common and that the source materials come from the same source, but having so many elements in common made the writing almost seem lazy at times. Hell, I'm pretty sure that family journal was the same prop used on TVD. Yay for recycling? As with TVD before it, I'm hopeful that The Secret Circle will quickly separate itself from the shackles of the source material and will emerge as its own animal. Without Ian Somerhalder on board, I'm not sure how successful they'll be, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.This pilot had a lot of off-putting elements, but I think it has a lot of potential. The creative team is strong and its produced by Craft and Fain (which I'm sure means nothing to you, but believe me, it matters), so I think they have a nice shot at making this work. It all really depends on where they go with the major character profiles. The foundational elements certainly have what it takes, so for me, it all boils down to characters and execution. If they
can't flesh out the personalities on the show, or if the actors can't pull it off, they're doomed. I think they'll de-cheese the magic pretty quickly, so that's not really one of my main concerns. They've shown that they can make the magic come across incredibly well with Charlie, so it should only be a matter of time before that carries over to the rest of the cast. These niggling elements aside, I'm genuinely intrigued by the mythology of the series. I don't know what exactly happened in the past of why the parents are hell-bent on getting Cassie into their sights, but I'd like to. Where the story goes with this will ultimately determine how invested I become, but for now, my interests have been piqued, even in spite of some weaker aspects in the pilot.All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic. While in my heart of hearts I'm hoping The Secret Circle is a companion to The Vampire Diaries in terms of starting off weak and then becoming insanely awesome, that's a hell of bar. Being as Damon-less as they are, I'm not sure they have any real possibility of rising to those heights, but I still think the show has enough going for it that it could really draw me in in the long run. If they can casually 86 the cheesier aspects and develop the characters, we could have a winner on our hands down the road, even in spite of the Britt Robertson of it all. Seriously, why are people casting her?
Pilot Grade: C+
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