You saw my ten highlights of The Originals season two, now here’s my ten lowlights, in no particular order.
1. Can Davina grow up now?
Enough of the freaking revenge talk all the freaking time! Grow up little girl and be the powerful, awesome, badass witch you were arbitrarily made to be. I love Davina as a character and her growing power has been given a natural course (being a Harvest girl and all), but shouldn’t this chick finish high school or something? Learn a few things about restraint and maturity? Does she not understand that her world would be boring without Klaus so she should stop scheming to kill him? Especially when his death results in the death of all the other vampires she loves? Just resurrect Kol and go live a happy life or something. Yes, I know what show I’m watching.
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Can I say that this whole family of vampires being resurrected as witches rubbed me the wrong way? Sure, Finn and Kol were fun to watch as new characters, heck, it even gave Finn a freaking personality, but I didn’t care for the new Esthers (either of them) and the new Rebekah. Try though she may, new Rebekah couldn’t hold a candle to what Claire Holt brought to the character and she’s not a half bad actress at all. Suddenly witchcraft is dominating my vampire and werewolf show instead of being a balanced part of it. It just doesn’t seem right that there are more witches in the Original family now instead of vampires. I accept Freya as being a witch, after all she was never turned into a vampire, but now Rebekah, Finn, and Kol are witches too? Here’s to a more perfect balance next season.
3. Klaus finally meet his real Dad and…kills him
Huh? Why did we even need to meet Klaus’ werewolf Dad, who was also miraculously resurrected? (I though that only happened with witches.) So Klaus could kill him hours after meeting him? Especially when they bonded? Especially when his Dad had more charisma than all the werewolves combined? All because the dude knew Hope’s secret because he could see on the Other Side? Yet Esther didn’t know about Hope because witches are dead somewhere else? His death brought Esther pain? Hello Esther, do you not know your son after a thousand years of so? He’s a bit of a loose cannon and kills for far lesser reasons than he did. You should have sent Daddy Dearest far away.
4. Since we’re on the subject of random killings…
I already talked about Aiden, but is any death really shocking anymore? I know Mikael was an unstable whackjob and he probably did deserve to be staked, again, but right after a redeeming moment? His first since…ever? Geez show, can’t someone enjoy at least a small amount of happiness before being killing ruthlessly for no good reason? Plus I liked Sebastian Roche in that role, even though it became very obvious they didn’t know what to do with his character. Starting a relationship with Freya was a step in the right direction. At least they could have explored that more before Klaus killed him because he wasn’t his favorite.
5. Elijah and his long strange trip
Elijah is a 1000 year old vampire. He’s killed people, A LOT. He knows this. He’s lived with it. He’s rather numb to it. What’s the point of making him face the inner monster by remembering the first kill? Oh, because he didn’t realize he killed her? To me, killing an Elena doppleganger was a good thing. Why isn’t he over her by now?
I accept it was a spell too but this whole “inner monster” thing ended up plaguing him all season long. That ended up weakening his story considerably. Elijah’s path often confused me because he was sullen, withdrawn, moping, off doing stuff that wasn’t all that interesting, and went on a random killing spree in a restaurant that no one called him out on. Just another day at the office! I wish I could say that this was all so he could come out the other end a better man but all he really did was tell Klaus to go f*** off. Who knows, maybe this season long strife is what was required to get him to that point. I just didn’t enjoy what went into getting there. Klaus being an unstable dick would have sufficed.
6. The Vampires were neutered this season
I love Marcel and he makes for a far more stable and reasonable leader than either Klaus or Elijah. But what did he and his crew do all season other than hang out at the warehouse and fight some werewolves every now and then? They even let Finn incapacitate them and then turn them into stark raving killers! This was hardly the vision of taking their city back after the attack at the end of last season by the Guerrera werewolves. Even the starcrossed love story between Josh and Aiden took front and center over them hanging out across the river and helping out the Mikaelsons here and there. I’m ready to see them take their shot at running the town and putting those witches back in their place. Plus, wouldn’t Marcel and Freya make a nice pair? (Rushes to check out fan fiction).
7. It sucks to be a witch
Oh, there’s a awful prison in a Victorian house where bad witches are sent? Or maybe it’s the insane witches, because magic turned a few screws loose. Or maybe trouble making witches that weren’t in line. Or maybe vampires who were put into a witch’s body and double crossed by their sibling witch. Or maybe it’s supposed to be a holding place for other doubled crossed witches, like a long lost Mikaelson sister witch that everyone thought was dead. While the Freya reveal at the end of it all was awesome, the path to get there wasn’t. Watching a bunch of witches together trapped in an old Victorian house was a lot of exposition that didn’t go anywhere and it wasn’t a great introduction to the new Rebekah. Why can’t we see Davina spend time in this place instead of poor innocent Claire? She needs a time out after her little tantrums.
8. Oh, the lack of Humanity!
Remember in season one when humans were actually part of this power struggle? That they had a say in what was going on? Instead of rich human plots, we got witches overload with stories like Eva Sinclair. Why was that plot even necessary? It just took away from others that deserved some air time, like Cami and Marcel. Ah, remember Cami and her uncle? (smiles at their actual plots in season one). She’s the only human left in New Orleans? Here’s to hoping that she actually gets to use that room of toys that her uncle left her as a means of defense and getting back some control in the city rather than playing babysitter and doing the “will they or won’t they” dance with Klaus.
9. Where-wolf?
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Jackson, but he is so…bland. And he’s the alpha, which makes all the other werewolves even more boring than him. He and Hayley were really cute together and I adored their wedding, but a lot of their scenes, especially the idea of running away from Klaus, felt mostly like filler. It was a story that moved too slowly in a mytharc that plays like a runaway freight train. The same could be said for the entire werewolf story (except the Vampire/Werewolf torrid gay love affair) and I found myself fast forwarding through most of the compound bits.
10. Have I mentioned the show is pretty dark?
I know that this is a thing in current sci-fi dramas, but I do think a show can be too dark. Game of Thrones I get, because the end of the world is coming (I think). It still hard to watch and cannot be absorbed too much in one sitting. Here, this is a power struggle for freaking New Orleans between werewolves, vampires, and witches. There are redeemable characters in this story last I looked. I accept that this show likes to blur the lines between good guys and bad guys, so much so sometimes we wish they would all kill each other, but a viewer can take only so much darkness and tragedy. The body count is pretty high and this town doesn’t notice? There’s no real character redemption, no story of last love or triumph, no steadfast loyalty by anyone, no moral code, and episodes often leave you more exhausted than the feeling that you’re ready for more. I do confess that the feeling of dread left the episodes of this show piling up on my DVR quite a bit this season. Yes, I caught up eventually, but these weren’t always enjoyable evenings, despite the better and consistent storytelling this season.
What were your lowlights for this season? Will you be checking out The Originals season three out of excitement or trepidation? Or will you be skipping it entirely? Will joining The Vampire Diaries on Thursdays help or is that too much dark vampire story for one night?
