The Vampire Diaries S5 E1

Where we left off:

Elena has her humanity back, the sire bond is broken, she professed her love to Damon, and she gave Stephan the cure—who returned it to her. Elena, whose obsession with killing Katherine is what brought back her humanity, feeds Katherine the cure at the end of a knock-down, drag-out doppelganger brawl.

Bonnie, who still hasn’t told anyone that she died bringing Jeremy back to life, successfully closes the curtain to the other side, leaving Jeremy alive in the land of the living, saying goodbye to dead Bonnie.

Caroline, having said a sweet goodbye to Klaus, is awaiting Tyler’s safe return.

Klaus, Elijah, and Rebecca are off to their own spinoff, but not before Rebecca and Matt go on Eurotrip together.

We said another sad goodbye to Lexi and Alaric (be still, my heart), who returned to the other side while Stephan traveled to dump Silas’ body only to find out, his body wasn’t there! When Bonnie died, Silas was freed to return to his shadow-self/doppelganger form, EVIL-STEPHAN. Silas then promptly trapped Stephan in the safe and dropped him into the quarry.

But, at least they all graduated!

Where we are after the season premiere:

Elena, now seriously dating Damon, is off to college! She and Caroline are roommates, and I literally laughed out loud when I saw their "dorm room." Obviously, TV shows get some creative license with designing film-able dorm rooms, but this dorm room is the size of a real dorm's entire floor and looks like another room from the Salvatore house. There is also a mysterious, murderous vampire on campus who kills their new roommate, who has an unknown connection to Elena's dad. And Tyler isn't coming back any time soon. Let's expect him back within 30 minutes of Caroline finding a new crush.

Bonnie is still dead, watching over the action, and talking about it with alive-Jeremy. Jeremy is trying to settle into life after coming back from the dead. Some kids from school try to pick a a fight with him, but he goes all hunter on them in the middle of a crowded hallway. Those guys probably had it coming picking a fight with someone who had basically doubled in muscle size since HE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD. 

Silas comes back to Mystic Falls posing as Stephan for about 15 minutes before Jeremy (and Bonnie) figure him out. Watching actor Paul Wesley play Silas is really fun -- he is great! The VD writers sure didn't drag out that charade. Even by VD standards, that was a fast-moving plot development that I was grateful for, since the audience is already in on the secret. Meanwhile, Stephan is psychically communicating with Damon and Elena from his safe-prison at the bottom of the quarry. Damon, always the "turn it off" advocate, is telling Stephan to end his suffering, but Elena says to keep it on "for her." Or the Elena in Stephan's mind says that. That will be a fun reunion!

Katherine is now very human and looking to Damon for protection. To avoid being turned over to Silas, she gets Jeremy into a serious car accident which results in a very touching moment for Damon as he reacts to seeing Jeremy in danger of dying. (Watching that, deep down I knew that they couldn't have killed off Bonnie to bring Jeremy back just to kill him again in the first episode, but I was still on the edge of my seat!)

And after his Eurotrip with Rebecca including an Eastern European threesome, Matt's now back in Mystic Falls, where he was followed by the threesome lady. She had stolen the Gilbert invincibility ring. Once he has it back, a creepy guy makes his eyes go all black, and we don't know where this is headed. Based on the True Blood season where the black eye thing happens, this is not a good sign. Do we need more villains with Silas on the loose? 

There's a lot going on to start the season, but with some family connection for Elena to investigate, Damon trying to resolve the Silas situation without telling Elena while Stephan is telepathically connecting to Elena, and some new villains afoot, this should be another exciting season. 

PS-es:

- Elena's hair looks fantastic with a little volume. Also, it doesn't look like Elena and Damon's chemistry has suffered due to Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder's breakup IRL. 

- Quote of the episode, from Katherine: "I have BLISTERS, Damon!"

Thoughts on The Good Wife After Binge-Watching 4 Seasons

I thoroughly enjoy this show. It’s not primarily a drama about a good wife, it’s primarily a lawyer show. To me, Good Wife fits more into the Law and Order category than a more family-based drama like Parenthood. Which I love!

Watch it for the guest stars! Every actor who has ever been on television has guest starred on this show

as a lawyer, judge, or criminal. It’s fun to watch! Just to name a few: The P and VP from Scandal, Russell Edginton, Arlene, and the vampire Jason and Lizzy Caplan killed from True Blood, Michael J. Fox, Shue’s wife from Glee, and my favorite, Maura Tierney from ER—the best ER reunion ever. Just to name a few.

The cast of characters is a good one -- in no particular order:

Chris Noth as the Bad husband: he is perfect for this role—it’s basically the same as Big.

Alan Cumming as Eli Gold: I would like this character better if Alan Cumming played it more as himself: gay and British. It feels like Eli was written as a standard, Olivia Pope-style fixer but the actor has molded him into something different, and slightly better.

The Florrick kids: Played by real kids! Written as real kids! They have just the right amount of screen time.

Jacky: Mary Beth Peil will always be Grams from Dawson to me. Jacky's most important function seems to be catalyzing Alicia to take action in her life.

Kalinda: Aside from the plotline where husband comes back for her, I generally like Kalinda and was genuinely heartbroken when her and Alicia’s friendship ended. She does need some more depth, though – keeping her so mysterious all the time gets gimmicky. Also, her wardrobe veers into "pirate hooker" territory sometimes; with so many other well-dressed women on the show, her awful wardrobe stands out more. 

Cary- I love Cary. His character made such a nice transition from bratty associate to ASA nemesis to coworker. I love how he tries to make out with everyone, and how that strategy generally ends up working for him.

Will- I love Will even more. I love his dark circles and how he’s 90% win-at-all-costs and 10% sweet, good guy. I loved the episode with his sisters. And obviously, I love the Will and Alicia tension, and I think the show feels like something’s missing when they don’t acknowledge it.

Juliana Margulies as Alicia- My biggest conflict with Alicia is that the show doesn’t fully address her decicion making process about going back to Peter. I like how she consistently acts in her own best interest, but I wish the audience got more insight into her process. Juliana Margulies is a great actress, though, and nails this role. 

Christine Baranski as Diane- Diane is the best. She's impeccable and the pillar of sanity amid the craziness of the firm. Diane has a similar presence as (though nothing else in common with) Samantha from SATC. 

Overall, this series is great, and recommended for lovers of lawyer shows and love triangles. As a fan of both, I am wildly curious about how season 5 will start!

Miley Cyrus on SNL

If I was Miley's publicist, I would be pretty pumped about Saturday's SNL performance. The cold open about the VMAs and her brief but well-played monologue (and promos) struck a good balance between self-effacing and not-apologizing. Her musical performances were solid (for Miley) and earnest (despite her ridiculous-to-the-point-of-distracting wardrobe choices), and I think it was a great choice to do We Can't Stop acoustic, especially given the shutdown spoof of the We Can't Stop video.

I also thought this was a pretty funny SNL episode overall. The cheerleaders/alien sketch was the kind of wacky that gets better the more times you see it. I appreciate the effort behind Vanessa Bayer's poetry teacher, but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around the character -- I hope she gets to do that character again this season. The Morning Miami skit was great, and I couldn't take my eyes off of Bobby Moynihan. Same with Aidy Bryant in the Girlfriends Talk Show sketch -- she killed in that sketch, particularly when she sang. I giggled appropriately at the 50 Shades audition sketch impressions.

The problem with watching SNL on Hulu the next day is that you can' watch Weekend Update, intact, all the way through. They break it up into different scenes, sometimes they don't play in order, and they don't show some of the news-style jokes at all. Update is usually my favorite part of SNL, so I don't understand why it can't be viewed as one full segment, or at least in full as separate clips in order.

Now I have to go back and watch the Tina Fey/Arcade Fire episode!