Movie Box Review

When the PaleyFest panels end, cast members often linger for a bit to sign autographs and otherwise make contact with the fans.  Therefore when the moderator says "Thank you" and the lights go up, there's usually a movement of audience members toward the stage.  But "movement" doesn't do justice to the full-scale rush that greeted tonight's salute to THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, a rock-concert level scramble that left onlookers ducking out of the aisles.

To some extent, that kind of response isn't a surprise:  Vampire Diaries is in its 3rd year as the unquestionably biggest--well, only--hit on CW, and the viewers who watch that network are younger and in better shape than those of the others.  Because of its genre and demographic, Diaries is also regularly underrated, almost never given full credit as one of the smartest, wittiest and most narratively satisfying serialized dramas on the air. 

The evening began with a screening of this coming Thursday's episode, the first back after a hiatus.  At the request of series co-creator/showrunner (with Kevin Williamson) Julie Plec, its climactic revelation won't be spoiled here, except to say that it's in keeping with the grand story twists that have marked this show from the beginning, and sets the stage for a new conflict to play out over the rest of the season.  

After a brief (inconclusive) discussion of said twist, the main part of the panel began.  Apart from Plec, most of the major cast members were in attendance:  Elena (Nina Dobrev), beloved of vampires and constantly stalked; brother vampires Stefan and Damon (Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder); Alaric (Matt Davis), who started as a vampire-hunter and is now Elena's guardian and a veritable vampire bud; witch Bonnie (Kat Graham); and relatively new vamp Caroline (Candice Accola).  

These folks have been together on a hit for years, and they're a loose, talkative bunch (the moderator mostly just had to toss in a question every so often and let them go).  Any spoilers were more in the nature of hints:  before the season is over, Elena will have to make "a" choice (but not necessarily "the" choice) between the brothers, we haven't seen the last of Klaus and the Original Vampires, it's possible that we'll meet Elena's parents in a flashback.  Plec was noncommittal about whether the show would ever consider following the L.J. Smith novels and making Elena into a vampire, or when evil Katarina, Elena's vampire doppelganger (just go with it) would make a return appearance.  Dobrev got the evening's biggest laugh when she wondered aloud why Gossip Girl got to film episodes in Paris and they were stuck in Mystic Falls.  Somerholder was appropriately Damon-ish caustic much of the time, but like his character, he could become surprisingly heartfelt, notably when he talked about how he'd survived the brutal audition process for the show.   Audience squeals greeted any mention of the Elena/Stefan/Damon triangle (and for those more interested in the tabloid side of things, Somerholder placing his jacket around Dobrev's shoulders made their night.)  

The Vampire Diaries airs in the toughest hour on television, the 8PM slot that's home to the deadly battle between American Idol and The Big Bang Theory, and yet its ratings have barely budged.  Beyond that success, it's as smoothly and effectively run as any series in primetime.  Young audience tastes change--Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a legend now, but when it left the air, its ratings had preceded it--and Diaries' status won't last forever.  Nonetheless, it should have plenty of frenzied audience response still ahead of it.

CW has announced the line-up for its 2011/12 regular season finales, as well as a late-season premiere:

First to exit will be ONE TREE HILL, which winds up its 9 seasons on April 4 with a 2-hour special.

On April 17, RINGER will be done for the season (and maybe longer).  Starting April 24, its timeslot will be filled by the new LA COMPLEX, which sounds like the return of the return of Melrose Place:  a group of Hollywood wannabes all live in the same apartment building, and no doubt suds fly.

The remainder of the network's shows end in mid- to late-May.

May 10:  THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and THE SECRET CIRCLE

May 14:  GOSSIP GIRL and HART OF DIXIE

May 15:  90210

May 18:  NIKITA and SUPERNATURAL

May 29:  LA COMPLEX

May 30:  AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL

CW's biggest only hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES returned to the schedule.

WHERE WE LEFT OFF:  The painstakingly-mounted plot to once and for all kill Original Vampire Klaus (Joseph Morgan) failed when Stefan (Paul Wesley), realizing that Klaus had rigged things so that if any harm came to him, Stefan's brother Damon (Ian Somerholder) would be murdered by Klaus's army of half-vampire, half-werewolf, virtually unkillable (you have to pull out their hearts and chop off their heads) hybrids.  Klaus, having been saved, freed Stefan from his Compelled loyalty, and Stefan promptly stole Klaus's entire semi-dead family in their coffins, where they'd been waiting for Klaus to eventually bring them back from the dead.  If Klaus hurt Stefan's true love Elena (Nina Dobrev) or anyone else, Stefan threatened, he'd destroy all the relatives.  Meanwhile, Elena let Klaus's sister Rebekah (Claire Holt) know that Klaus had, hundreds of years before, killed their mother, then stabbed Rebekah with the same kind of magic knife Klaus had used on everyone else in the family,  temporarily killing her.  Whew!

WHERE WE ARE: The midseason premiere of Kevin Williamson's series was a somewhat unusual episode, but all, as it turned out, for the good:  at least for now, the series got rid of its single drippiest character, Elena's little brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen).  Jeremy just didn't figure into the "This is insane, but what the hell" spirit the rest of the characters have, and the show never really knew what to do with him--he was involved with witch Bonnie (Kat Graham), he fell for a ghost, he was constantly narrowly escaping death, Elena had to worry about him all the time, and basically he was an appendage and an annoyance.  Now he's been Compelled by Damon to move to Denver and date live girls, and he should live and be well.

The other major event of the episode, for those particular shippers, was what appeared to be a major Damon/Elena kiss, which will surely have repercussions down the road, as Stefan seems too consumed for now by his deal with the witch spirits to hide the coffins from Klaus to have much time for romance.  Thinking of romance, Alaric (Matthew Davis), recovering from one of his now-you're-dead-now-you're-not experiences, met a comely doctor we seem sure to be seeing more of down the road.

All of these events meant that the episode had little time for other characters--charming vampire Caroline (Candice Accola) didn't appear at all.  Disappointingly, although Elena made a deal with Klaus to give Rebekah back in exchange for Jeremy's safety, Klaus instantly re-killed Rebekah, since he knew that because she was now aware he was guilty of matricide, she'd be trying to kill him as soon as she regained consciousness.  But now that all this narrative shoe leather has been laid down, next week the show should be back to its usual speedy form.

Vampire Diaries obviously suffers from content restrictions that True Blood doesn't have to worry about (one can only imagine how that hybrid decapitation would have been lovingly detailed on HBO), but its plotting and wit are often superior to the more celebrated show.  (Come on:  half-vampire, half-werewolf, unkillable hybrids?!?)  Diaries hits the right tone of wry humor mixed with deadly serious storylines, and while it's not anywhere near the pantheon of Buffy as high school comedy-horror goes, it's consistently entertaining in a way most broadcast dramas can only envy.

In the ratings, Diaries is American Idol by CW's terms, and even though it's down a bit from last year's average, that still leaves it the 600-pound gorilla of the network's schedule.  As long as the series can stay as inventive and amusing as it's managed so far, it deserves to be invited into America's households to continue its undead reign.

America gives a warm "Welcome Back" to ABC's Wednesday line-up.

ABC:  With new episodes airing for the first time in a month, the network's shows (admittedly airing against lots of repeats and low-level specials on the other networks) took every half-hour of the night.  Everything was up from its last new episode in early December, although glass-half-emptiers might note that SUBURGATORY and REVENGE were only up 0.1 from what had been (excluding Thanksgiving Eve) their previous series lows.  Still, up is up, and a particularly ingenious HAPPY ENDINGS was only 0.2 off its season high.

FOX:  An off-night GLEE repeat didn't give much of a lead-in to a new MOBBED, which could only manage a 3d place 1.2 in its hour.

CBS:  A special I GET THAT A LOT pulled a not-bad 2.3, good enough for 2d place in the hour, then repeats held on to 2d place the rest of the night.

NBC:  The network's last night of repeats until it launches its "unfunny women in their 20s" 8PM hour of sit-coms next week.  The night's high point was a 1.1 for the SVU repeat.

CW:  Finally new episodes return to CW tonight, but there was still time for one more night of SECRET CIRCLE repeats with their 0.3 ratings.

Tonight, yes, CW unwraps new episodes of guilty pleasure Vampire Diaries and guilty not-so-much-pleasure Secret Circle, while ABC has 2012's first new chapters of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.  CBS, FOX and NBC (goodbye for now, Community) air reruns.

With baseball out of the way, last night was a picture of what a "typical" Thursday will look like.

FOX:  The return of BONES was a very healthy 0.6 higher than its season premiere last year (when it was in the 8PM slot), and roughly on par with the numbers it was doing last Spring, when it had American Idol and its 6+ rating as a lead-in.  If it can hold at that level with a 45% lower lead-in from X FACTOR, FOX will be very happy indeed.  X Factor comparisons, meanwhile, are somewhat skewed by the fact that this was the show's first 1-hour episode, meaning that half of its running time faced off with Big Bang Theory on CBS.  With that in mind, a less than 10% drop from its previous Thursday average barely registers.

NBC:  That sigh of relief was the network seeing THE OFFICE return to a rating that starts with a "3".  However, that still puts it in 3rd place for its timeslot.  Otherwise, although the numbers for the night's other shows were all up by 1-3 tenths without baseball competition, not a single show scored over a 2.1.  And it's getting to be time to cut PRIME SUSPECT loose with its sad 1.2 rating.

ABC:  Nothing demonstrates the decreasing importance of November sweeps more than the fact that ABC is using it to burn off episodes of CHARLIE'S ANGELS.  (The last Thursday of Sweeps features a special 20/20 with Regis Philbin followed by a 2-hour PRIVATE PRACTICE ) GREY'S ANATOMY continues to run 20% below last season's average, making Private Practice--which admittedly faces no real competition from NBC in the hour--look comparatively impressive by running even with last year.

CBS:  It's hard to believe CBS is content with PERSON OF INTEREST's 4th place finish in its hour, almost 20% lower than its RULES OF ENGAGEMENT lead-in, but the show's back order suggests otherwise.  Nevertheless, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the network experiment with other programming in the hour.  THE MENTALIST, despite weak competition from NBC in its hour, is running about 10% below last year.

CW:  The network's one successful night continues to hold well, with VAMPIRE DIARIES' 1.5 not all that far behind NBC for the hour.

Tonight is, in a way, the whole Fall for NBC:  if GRIMM, without Game 7 World Series competition, can build or even hold its number from last week, it could win its hour and allow the network to claim an actual 2011 hit.  Also, A GIFTED MAN is nearing its make-or-break moment on CBS.

November sweeps began with a baseball bat in its hand, and for one network, that bat was the one wielded by Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables.

NBC:  A disaster, although its full extent won't be known until the World Series is over next week.  COMMUNITY and PARKS AND RECREATION tied all-time lows (and for those shows, that's really low), and THE OFFICE had its lowest ever rating on a Thursday, which means the network will have zero non-football shows this week with even a 3 rating.  NBC could take a tiny bit of solace from the 0.1 uptick for WHITNEY, but all that promotional effort this week aimed at PRIME SUSPECT came to naught, with an even lower rating than last week's episode.  And the news just gets worse:  Awake, the midseason multiple-dimension cop show that would be the obvious substitute for Suspect in the Thursday lineup, has been forced to take an unscheduled break in production for several weeks because of script problems.  And the cherry on the whipped cream on the network's cake is that tonight's series premiere of GRIMM will have to launch against the first World Series Game 7 in 9 years.   Truly:  Ow.

ABC  It's nice to be a female-skewing network when the competition is a sports event.  IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, from 1966, doubled what Charlie's Angels had been doing at 8PM (but why are Angels episodes still scheduled for the next 2 sweep Thursdays?).  Then GREY'S ANATOMY and even PRIVATE PRACTICE were up, despite the fact that FOX doesn't usually air programming in the 10PM hour.

CBS:  A little bruised by baseball, with the 8-10PM shows all down from last week.  Surprisingly, though, even against the unusual FOX competition, THE MENTALIST held even with last week.  (Note:  rather than face World Series Game 7 tonight, the network has substituted reruns for their entire schedule.  This means the next 1 or 2 ratings for A GIFTED MAN will be life-or-death for that show.)

FOX:  We don't know just what the network's number was last night due to time-zone adjustments for live sports, but we know it was good.  Last night and tonight are the reasons there's still some value for the network in staying in the baseball business. 

CW:  Their target audience of women 18-34 has little interest in baseball, and both VAMPIRE DIARIES and SECRET CIRCLE did just fine.  (Vampire tied NBC in its first half-hour, and its rating was higher than Prime Suspect's).

Once-glorious Thursdays continue to become just another broadcast network night.

NBC:  Before the season started, all the attention on THE OFFICE was focused on how the show would replace Steve Carell.  But it's turning out that the bigger problem this season is the weirdly dark tone the series has taken--last night's episode had a premise that sounded funny (the warehouse guys hit the lottery and quit en masse), but chose to delve into the bleak depression of Daryl, who repeatedly begged Andy to fire him and put him out of his misery.  Viewers apparently feel the same way, as ratings have gone steadily down since the premiere; last night the show was almost 25% below last season's average.  As The Office goes, so goes WHITNEY, which like its fellow back orderee Up All Night is now doing a barely-passable 2.3 rating.  The rest of the the night was even worse, with COMMUNITY, PARKS & RECREATION and PRIME SUSPECT all under a 2.

ABC:  The news wasn't much better at the Alphabet.  Last night's GREY'S ANATOMY was 30% below last season's average, although that was still good enough for 2d place in the hour.  PRIVATE PRACTICE was also down over 20% from last year, which thanks to Prime Suspect was again good enough for 2d.  CHARLIE'S ANGELS is just playing out its string; it wouldn't be a surprise to see double-pumped episodes of ONCE UPON A TIME in this slot, once it premieres in 2 weeks.

CBS:  With last night's drop, THE BIG BANG THEORY is running even with last season, so that's a success story.  HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN was fairly steady behind it but lost a hefty chunk of its lead-in, and the question for CBS is whether they think RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (currently scheduled for the limbo of Saturdays) would do better in the slot.  PERSON OF INTEREST is an unacceptable 4th place in its hour (will the network try a run of Unforgettable there to see if it can find a foothold?), but THE MENTALIST perked up to win at 10PM.

FOX:  X-FACTOR is winning the night for FOX by a 25% margin, and that's all that matters.  (But no one will be watching tonight's deciding Phillies-Cardinals playoff game with more attention than FOX executives.)

CW:  VAMPIRE DIARIES is holding fairly steady with last season (down about 15%).  But even with that lead-in, SECRET CIRCLE isn't doing better than the network's other new shows that have less help.  However, none of them would be as compatible with Diaries as Circle is, not to mention that the network will want to keep Kevin Williamson happy, so a back order should be coming soon.

Tonight, the main interest will be to see if the scrutiny of A GIFTED MAN becomes a death watch.