Dare I raise my hopes for “Vampire Diaries”?
Posted By Hilath
I am normally not a fan of teenage TV series. I can’t bring myself to watching cute people for the sake of their cuteness though many of my friends do. There has to be some driving narrative engagement in order to, er, enhance their cuteness.
Recently, I was quite amused when a supposedly heterosexual male friend of mine gave me a DVD containing the first three episodes of “Prison Break” season 1.
“Wentworth Miller is damn cute and I now totally hooked into ‘Prison Break’,” the friend commented.
I think he must have detected the amused look on my face because he then hurriedly added as an afterthought: “Oh, the plot is totally engaging.”
I checked out the three episodes and I could see the popular appeal of this series which, even from these three episodes, I saw the “formulaic” conventional Hollywood filmmaking techniques, tired cliches and utter predictability.
As for Miller himself, if anybody gets a kick out of staring at a cute person whose only acting seems to be frowning and blandly staring like a velociraptor at the people he’s having conversation with, I guess “Prison Break” will give them satisfaction.
For me, there’s no difference between sitting on a sofa and staring at a wax work or a poster of Miller for hours. I just don’t see why I should spend so many hours viewing a “moving image” (film) of Miller if his character and emotions do not emerge from it. Rather, a photograph which has nicely captured the “soul” and essense of Miller would be, um, more rewarding to watch for hours at an end. I wonder whether I can convince my friend to do that. :D
So needless to say I was never bothered about “Beverly Hills”, “Melrose Place”, etc.
I have the same regard for the trashy teenage novels as well.
“Sweet Valley High” where the cool Jessica and her nerdy twin Elizabeth live a “clashing” life with the same plot baked in the oven over and over again.
And I got fed up of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys when the only thing that later turned out to be of interest was the teaming up of these “super sleuths” where the plot mostly concerned the tension over a possible Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy love affair much to the jealousy of Nancy’s boyfriend Ned Nickerson.
But L.J. Smith’s fantasy “Vampires Diaries” books were something that I enjoyed then in my teenage, alongside S.E. Hinton’s gritty real life books examining the pains of our teenage lives.
So I am daring to hope that the TV series based on the “Vampire Diaries” that’s coming out this year is worth a watch.
From what I have heard and read about “Twilight”, and despite the misgivings I have about it after seeing some video clips, I am going to watch it this week. One of my teenage relatives still advises me against it and her latest revelation today about the books was that the author’s excuse why her vampires do not burst into flames when touched by daylight yet still cannot go out into the sunlight is because the “Twilight” vampires’ skins unusually sparkle in the sun! How corny can an author get?
Many friends are baffled when I tell them that the only series I have watched are the 10-episode “Taken” and “Lost.” I can understand the engaging factor of a series, how it draws you into it, in a way that is quite unlike the way a feature film draws you. But perhaps that is exactly why I am deliberately staying away from being engaged by TV series. I am too afraid of getting lost in so many good series out there and later, too late in life, realising that I should have spent more time exploring the exciting and interesting outdoors.
PS: For your interest, here’s an interesting link titled First Look at “The Vampire Diaries” which gives more information about the upcoming series based on L.J. Smith’s best-selling books. One reason why I am daring to hope that this series will be worth a watch is because “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”’s writer Kevin Williamson is behind the series. There is also another 3-minute trailer accompanied with the article.
Already people are comparing this to Twilight and calling it wannabe-Twilight. How ironic is that? Heheh… I am willing to give any series a chance (I watch Legend of the Seeker, after all) but the casting on this series and the trailer doesn’t raise my hopes much. But that’s probably because I was a fan of the books and any changes they make in the series won’t be easy to digest for me. But I am not gonna complain about it if the changes they make are good and necessary to the story (unlike Legend of the Seeker) and keep the plot moving and engaging enough to grab my interest.
And by the way, that comment about Wentworth Miller’s acting chops is hilarious. Talk about wooden acting heheh. I liked the first season though, it just got ridiculously silly after that.
I’m not sure but i think you said you are going to watch the twilight movie, so I’m warning you. Dont watch it! Dont waste two hours of your life. There are million better things you can do. Even reading the book (although I wouldnt recommend that either) is a better alternative. Take it from someone who learnt this the hard way.
Thanks AzMyst and Fali.
Fali: I think I better follow my own advice. That is, see for myself. But I know you guys are probably right about “Twilight” because from what I have heard about “Twilight”.
But I think I better check it out at least, just to see how bad it is! heheh… I usually do that. For instance, just this week I tried watching “Punisher: War Zone” and Aindhy was right, I had to stop after watching half an hour. It is one movie which belonged alongside a MuhammaKalo or Yoosay “unintentional comedy”. At least in the case of Frank Miller’s “The Spirit” I could watch it until the end with much amusement :)
However, “Quantum of Solace”, despite some friends actually liking it, was the worst James Bond film for me. I don’t know why. I didn’t enjoy both the action and “story” (if there was any!!!) in the film.
Cheers.
Isn’t it funny, how Prison Break implies people wanting to make a break for it from prison? It probably made sense for season one and yet, in season 2, when everyone was out, it was still Prison Break? Right!