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10/31/2013

The Originals : What's The Point, Again ?



  Well, well, well ... So there's this "new" show. It's called the Originals and I have to admit, although I kind of like it, its existence does seem kind of pointless. The pitch is Klaus goes back to New Orleans with his brother and sister to protect his unborn child and start yet another conflict, with an old friend.




  But they soon found out Marcel, the old friend in question, has a dirty little secret, a pretty powerful secret, and at least now, we know just how powerful.




  So Klaus stabbed Elijah and handed him over to Marcel, in like the first 5 minutes of the show, in an effort to gain his trust (Marcel's). His body was stored in Devina's room (Marcel's not-so-secret-anymore weapon) and when he woke up and we got passed all the 'you un-daggered me, yeah I rock you want some blood ?' we actually got a few answers.




  Simultaneously, both Marcel and Sophie Devereaux are telling the story so we have all the pieces of the story. How convenient. So first shocker : an unsuspected relationship. Yep Sophie the witch and Marcel the witch hater (not really but could've fooled me) were together, but not like together together, no, sci-fi show together, a little sex, a little moral support then go home !




  So the whole story is actually really simple. Like 8 months ago, before the ban on the use of magic, the witches were planning on doing a harvest : basically a sacrifice ceremony to get more power. 4 girls were chosen to be (slain) a part of it and Devina was one of them.


Devina's BFF, yeah .. bummer.


  Marcel got word of it through the priest (who happens to be Camille's uncle) and managed to stop it before they killed Devina. He didn't do it for her, he didn't even know her until then but when he saw her, he, like, saw something in her, the most powerful witch in like, uh, the world? Let's settle for city. Yeah wink wink, gotcha. 




  As Devina recounts her story to Elijah, he is moved by her. Well, duh. The girl is Elena. That's the first thing that ticked me off, an innocent girl meant to die as part of a sacrifice in a ritual to gain power, sounds familiar right ? And to make it the exact same story let's have Elijah offer her a deal ! Why, what a good and unheard of idea. So we have Elijah protecting yet another innocent everyone's after. That's not very original but hey what are you gonna do ...


 


  Luckily, and surprisingly actually, Hayley kind of raises the bar. Sure, she's yet another Elena persona but not as whiny, which is refreshing. But she's just as I'll-do-what-I-want-I'm-coming-with-you-blah-blah-blah which is also good. It's like they took the best parts of Elena, threw away the alarmingly huge pile of crap that composes her personality and gave us Hailey. So props for that.




  For some reason Sophie the witch wants to go to where witches were killed the night before even though Klaus said not to. Rebekah decides to join. Field trip. They get there and oh, surprise, surprise there's a problem. One of Marcel's vampires sees them. So now they need to kill him before he goes to Marcel to tell on them.




  They do, and Marcel's too busy stalling them to get Devina out of the city to even notice they're stalling him. And vice versa. But they get him, they kill him, their secret is protected, Elijah's made his little deal with Devina so it's safe on that front too, and Hayley and Rebekah are apparently best buds now. Wow it's almost beautiful how it all just worked out.




  Elijah finally gets back home to his sister and then there's the second thing that ticked me off, even though it was pretty obvious from the first episode that this was coming. The looks they're giving each other, I mean, could you be more obvious ?!




  So we have been blessed with yet another triangle. I don't know that it's a love triangle, because I'm not getting the feeling that Klaus is gonna fall in love with Hayley, but she is carrying his baby and Elijah on the other hand is obviously going to fall for her, so yeah a triangle of some sort.




  See my point ? Another Elena, another deal, another team good/team bad situation and another triangle. I feel like I've seen all this a million times over. We get it the Vampire Dairies is your baby, get over it. If it's gonna be the exact same show at least mix them together, that would be interesting. The way things are, it's bordering on absurdity, it's like everything that happened in the Vampire Diaries, well, never happened. Klaus seems to have a little thing for Camille the human barmaid, and is still warming up to Hayley, but is Caroline still like, the love of his life ? Elijah and Katherine. Completely over ? 'Cause last time we saw the two of them she was freely giving him the cure and confessing her feelings for him, which were obviously reciprocated.




  And are they even aware that while they're happily playing house, Silas the biggest bad of all time, the guy they spent an entire season trying to kill, is roaming the streets of Mystic Falls ? That Katherine has taken the Cure ? And Stefan, Klaus's best bud has lost his memory ? That last one is kind of a stretch, I can understand why he wouldn't care 'cause honestly, who does ? But I'm getting off topic, this is not called The Vampire Diaries, it's called The Originals. Deal with it. I'd like to feel like I'm not watching the exact same story lines over and over again, I already have the actual Vampire Diaries for that.


10/30/2013

Revolution : Charlie And Monroe



Wow it's been a while ... Since last year, our TV screens have been blessed with a fresh new young show called Revolution. The whole concept is what would the world be like if every single electricity powered device just stopped working. For ever. This little baby quickly learned how to walk on its own 2 feet and now we have this : the second season. Like, Revolution 2.0, new and improved. Especially with this new very interesting character combination.




So this was episode 2, I think, we open on Charlie sneaking into a two-man camp and Monroe sleeping like a baby. A sleeping-prisoner-about-to-get-shot-in-the-head baby.




Charlie was actually doing really well, she'd managed to knock out one of the two guys and the other appeared to be sleeping. Emphasis on appeared.




So she gets shot, they tie her down in the empty pool along with her mortal enemy and get ready for their trip while private Ryan over here is actually tending to her wounds. Aww, so sweet, thank you, yeah, buh bye.




The whole point of this post is actually Charlie and Monroe. So, Monroe's her uncle's former best friend, from before he got all crazy power hungry I don't care who has to die to make me king are they dead yet? Well, it happens. But if only it was just that, she might just have a slight dislike of the man. But as it so happens, he had her dad killed and her brother kidnapped, her sort of step-mom died trying to rescue the brother who also died right after they did rescue him, and also he held her mom prisoner for like 10 years, and there's still the part about him being kind of a mass murderer in general. So, yeah, awkward.





But you know, at least he tries to make conversation, like 'hey what brings you here, would you by any chance happen to know who nuked Atlanta and Philadelphia ?' That kind of stuff. And since apparently the writers couldn't find a witty retort for her or something she just shuts up and stares. And from time to time, she looks the other way. Very constructive and exciting dialog. Just the way I like it.


 


At some point he does get a reaction out of her when he goes into how he's as guilty as the guy that dropped the bombs because he's the one that let him in the super tower of command or whatever.




I kind of dig the whole you're lying, no I'm not, yeah you are, watch your mouth, I'm gonna kill you thing. More precisely, I kind of dig the dark, tortured, blue-eyed type thing.




Then Blondie the bounty hunter cuts her almost loose (like get the rest of the rope you own damn self, I ain't your manservant) and the bitch is all sparkly eyes and no might. What, she's just so sure she'll catch up to them it's not even worth one bitchy comment ?!




So they take Monroe in the van/carriage, and leave Charlie to fend for herself in the wild. But thank God, Sebastian Monroe is awesome in addition to being a megalomaniac. He spent the entire day prying a sharp little bit of tile off the pool wall, and so now he's free and you bounty hunters might as well go kill yourselves right now because seriously, let's take a minute to think about this whole thing. You're a bounty hunter looking for an ex-freaking-dictator (or President or General or whatever, but a renowned dangerous guy), you finally get him, some chick, who obviously knows him better than you do, tells you he's gonna escape and kill you, basically that he is dangerous and that you are underestimating him and what do you do ?? Dump the bitch, not search him, and leave him alone in the back while you're driving (sorry, riding) at like 8 miles an hour. I feel for you moronic bastards, it must be hard being that stupid but seriously, you had it coming.




And after all this, when he sees his (let's call him his) partner, dead, killed by Monroe, the dude has the nerve to be all "OMFG You killed him !!" *shocked beyond recovery*




The fighting scene was actually pretty nice but clearly the production did not care about making it screen-cappable. But in short, captain America gets his ass kicked and would have died if it wasn't for Charlie barging in with a freaking iron bar and assaulting Monroe like a crazy woman.




Honestly she wasn't bad or weak and she gave him a run for his money, she went at him with all she had, which made it pretty impressive, and that's why it's kind of sad that he knocked her wheezing to the ground with one punch. Now granted it was to the stomach, and he has like twice her muscle strength. But still, tough.




After that he ran to the weird van/carriage and took off. So Charlie kept going on foot in the company of the blond Action Man. It was all bonding, and what appeared to be the shy beginnings of sexual tension (very shy beginnings) when out of nowhere, Monroe just swoops in and knocks out what's-his-name with the butt of his gun. Best. Move. Ever. And contrary to popular belief, he's not an ass (bordering on psycho-killer) with everyone. No, just stupid Ken dolls. Sweet, innocent yet strong Charlie doesn't fall into that category, so we get another productive dialog.




   Actually he just found patriot wanted posters on him (which Charlie is really torn up about) and her mom (which affects her a little more).




The patriots are the common enemy and the two of them are the enemies become allies. It's expected but the good kind, like yes thank you so much for doing that, it's everything I could have wished for-kind of expected. So once they get all the information they're gonna get (achingly close to none) out of Blondie, Monroe feels like shooting him and Charlie's like 'no I don't like killing' so, sadly, they let him live. But Monroe does knock him out again, so that helped.





Then Monroe has the best idea of all times : 'hey let's go on a road trip (!!!) and after that we can help your mom'. And she's like 'no thanks, I'm going now but you can shoot me if you feel like it.'





Little did she know he can follow the tracks she thought she wasn't leaving. And she should be glad for it because the next night (or not) some guys drug her to do God knows what to her, she fights them off, quite admirably I might add, until the drugs start taking effect.




But luckily, Monroe is amazing and he followed her, so now he can save her. Also a really nice fight scene not made with the fact that some people might have liked to screen-cap, in mind.


He comes in

He's done


 After that they're back in the forest. At night. And it's raining. Enters the sexual tension. Yeah I know I'm presenting it like they're gonna jump each other right there in the mud. Calm down everybody, they're not, but one can hope.




She's still going for stoic indifference, except this time he actually has some information that she wants. Like what the hell is going on. And that's where the sexual tension slowly and very subtly makes itself known. Step one : a slight hint. "Don't worry, I was a complete gentleman the whole time." Yeah, I see what you're doing, you naughty bastard.




Step 2 : Attract attention to your lips. Well played.




Step 3 : Prolonged physical contact while talking about the life and death situation they have, yet again, found themselves in.




Anyway the conclusion to this little interlude is that he's coming with her and she doesn't have a choice, so ... Yay !!!




And off they go. Literally riding into the sunset together. Coincidence ? I think not.




They're so similar and yet so different. They've both been through rough stuff but not the same kind of rough stuff. He has more experience, maybe he's been through more than her, but she started going through traumatizing events as a little girl. Then she had a peaceful life for a few years and at twenty she lost half her family, and started having to fight for her survival. He's done so many horrible things he has little sense of what's right or wrong, she's lost so much, cold rage became a defense mechanism and maybe a powerful habit. He's a bit more broken than her but she's morbidly suspicious of anyone she doesn't know. And they'll both fight to the death for someone they love. So really, my point is : he's sassy, she's sassy. More of that please.




I'm sorry but all that just spells love-hate relationship ! Now granted, the age difference, the fact that he's her uncle's ex-childhood best friend, and their entire history in general make it really hard to slowly get them to a place where they can be attracted to each other, but this is maybe the best character combination ever, on this show. It just works, so if there is to be a Charlie-Monroe ... thing, I'm totally shipping that !