TV is the New Reading

Happy holidays, everyone!

In this week’s topic, Happy Holidays, everyone!

While putting together a batch or two of Christmas cookies this weekend I was able to catch up on a marathon of “The Vampire Diaries” on the CW.

I really haven’t been able to watch the show during its regular air dates because it’s been up against “FlashForward” on ABC and “Bones” on FOX and if either of those were off the air it was also up against “Community” and “Parks and Recreation” on NBC, which incidentally have been stepping up well from what I’ve been able to see. Why do all the networks feel like they have to put their best shows on Thursday night – especially the CW, which is consistently blown out of the water?

Anyway, having an opportunity to catch up, my initial reaction holds: While it might be a shadow of Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” series, it’s some of the best vampire storytelling available today. It’s interesting that within the first dozen episodes they make such obvious shout-outs to vampire-with-a-soul Angel as to call Stephen Salvatore a “broody forehead,” which was a constant source of fun on the “Buffy” series. Stephen is a good vampire who chooses not to drink human blood. His brother, Damon, is a bad vampire who feeds and even kills and doesn’t cover his tracks that well.

There’s an old anti-vampire Circle in place and because of Damon’s activity they’re gearing up. But new vampires are turning up all the time, good guys and bad guys, and while no one has really explained what the guiding principle is on that – or like Mammy Yokum says, good is better than evil because it’s nicer – the show is lacking a little bit in direction. And because you can’t just have vampires, we seem to also have witches and possibly werewolves and by the end of the marathon I was seeing this indestructible robot thing. It’s not “Buffy” warmed over, exactly, so much as it is “Buffy” situations reimagined. The central character, Elena, is way more complicated and interesting than Bella, and as vampire consorts go, Caroline is perfect for Damon.

There’s a lot of side chatter as young, pretty people hook up and break up and have Founders Day formals and parties and endless dances because it’s the CW whose target demographic seems to be 14 years old and female. This keeps the story from moving along too quickly. It takes something like half a dozen episodes for Elena to even find out Stephen is a vampire, and then another half a dozen episodes for her to fall in bed with him, only to run away in horror because as it turns out she looks exactly like Katherine, the vampire who sired Damon and Stephen in the first place back in 1864. See, when they were talking about his ex-girlfriend Katherine before, Elena thought she was just some girl in some other town – not some other century, and certainly not her long lost twin sister or something. It’s a teen drama but you don’t have to shut your brain off to enjoy it. It’s not especially complicated and the dialogue isn’t going to wow anyone, but there’s enough action and there’s enough going on that it holds one’s attention.

Christmas specials

As the cookies were getting done I reflected on the Christmas episodes I was seeing. One in particular, a new “Doctor Who” episode that aired this weekend as a Christmas gift from BBC America I will have more to say about down the road.

But I got a chance to see the Christmas episode for “The Big Bang Theory" on CBS, which could really have aired at any time. The only aspect of it that stood out was the guest appearance by Christine Baranski as Leonard’s cold, analytical mother, who keeps in much closer contact with Sheldon than she does with Leonard. Leonard's mom is getting a divorce, and Penny takes her out for a drink and Leonard's mom obsesses about a busboy and then has an inappropriate interlude with Sheldon. The only really holiday aspect of the episode was that the credits were in red and green, there was a tree being decorated and Sheldon dismissed Frosty the Snowman as a bit of frozen, supernatural ephemera who stole someone’s hat.

Much more in the theme of things but also not one they can air from year to year is “The Office” on NBC, in which Jim said Phyllis could dress as Santa Claus, which she’s always wanted to do, and which infuriates Michael because he’s always the Santa. He reappears as Jesus and heckles Phyllis before trying to reconcile with her. There’s a tree and it falls over which is fun, Andy gets the 12 Days of Christmas for receptionist Kelly, which is just an upsetting number of live birds running all over and making a mess. Most of why it’s fixed to this specific timeline is they advance the overall plot – the employees discover Dunder-Mifflin is being sold. So in all likelihood, “Secret Santa” isn’t a great candidate for a perennial Christmas-themed episode.

Another one that they'd have some trouble airing year in and year out is the Christmas-themed episode for "Accidentally on Purpose." The freshman CBS comedy revolves around a 20-something chef getting mid-30something Jenna Elfman's character pregnant and moving into her apartment to help her with the baby. Jenna's parents don't approve but find the 20something to be a standup guy and when he proposes to her she doesn't say yes right away, but there's no way they can keep the baby in there and the question on the table in any revisitable way so however they decide to do this, that was absolutely the first-season Christmas episode.

“Community” also had a great Christmas episode, or more to the point, a winter holiday episode, in which everyone’s different religions came together for one reasonably pleasant holiday party – following a knock-down drag-out brawl in the winter display.

And “Parks and Recreation” also had a holiday episode in which there was gift giving and tree-lighting, but I think the most dramatic Christmas-themed episode I saw was on “Desperate Housewives,” in which the Jingle Belles – that is, all the wives on Wisteria Lane – came together to sing Christmas carols amidst the exuberant Christmas decorations they put up. Some were fighting with each other, however, and Bree told Gabi and Lynette to go fight someplace else.

Susan’s brought Katherine’s daughter Dylan back to have her mother committed because Katherine stabbed herself with a knife Mike had touched to get back at him for leaving her for Susan. Katherine pretty much outs herself as a crazy person and Dylan’s got no choice but to commit her. Also contributing to the drama is Mona, who we’d never met before, trying to blackmail the Bolens, a couple with a mysterious past. Who do you suppose is going to win in that matchup?

And Orson is beginning to suspect that Bree and Carl are getting close, but he’s finally willing to grant her a divorce. Just as well because Carl was about to make a very public declaration of his love via a banner on a plane. Sadly, he hired both of the Bickersons to fly the plane to display this banner. They were bickering in the cockpit, threatening each other with divorce when suddenly Mr. Bickerson’s heart gave out. Mrs. Bickerson brought the plane down actually on Wisteria Lane. It crashed into the Christmas decorations and crushed someone who was in Santa’s Workshop, killing them.

Certainly I’m interested in learning who, but my goodness, so many things are always happening in this cul-de-sac with maniac murderers on the loose and tornados and houses burning down it might not be a bad idea for everyone else to just move.

Most new programming is shut down for the Christmas season and will return along with a very full slate of premieres in the new year. Until then, happy holidays!

Back Back to Shows Back to Main Page Next