The Vampire Diaries Review: Starving for Suspense
Matt Richenthal
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Remember when Damon and Elena had sex for the first time?
Of course you do. Who forgets hot Delena sex?
Do you also remember how Stefan and Caroline sat around, compared recent clues and determined that Elena was sired to Damon and that's how the installment ended?
Fast forward to The Vampire Diaries Season 5 Episode 14 and... yup. Sound familiar?
It's been a complaint for awhile now that TVD is growing a bit stale, that storylines are being recycled (the love triangle, Katherine on the verge of death). But whether the writers realized it or not, they literally copied an exact scene from a previous season this week.
I wouldn't pick this nit if it weren't symbolic of the state The Vampire Diaries is in overall. There's no forward momentum, the stakes feel miniscule.
Were you on the edge of your seat at any point during "No Exit?" Did you think there was any chance Stefan would kill Damon or Damon would kill Elena Katherine?
We knew from the moment Katherine inhabited Elena's body that she would eventually be found out. What other alternative possibly existed? So we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for that moment for weeks and that's exactly what tonight's episode felt like.
The waiting game. And as Homer Simpson once remarked, the waiting game sucks (let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos!).
It was simply a boring hour of television, there's not much to analyze. Tyler can't forgive Caroline for sleeping with the guy who killed his mother? Makes sense, didn't think he would.
Stefan came to the rescue of a troubled, dark Damon? We've seen that plenty of times before.
Matt pretended to get it on with Nadia in order to text Caroline and save Elena? Okay, that was pretty cool.
But the suspense level of The Vampire Diaries Season 5 in general is at an all-time low. Where's the crazy and exciting villain? Where's the sense that anything could happen at any time? Where's the cliffhanger that leaves you jaw in pain from hitting the floor so hard?
I don't want to bash the show. You can go back and read my Vampire Diaries reviews; no one has been a bigger fan since Day One. But we're going on five seasons now, it's understandable the writers would be out of ideas and there's simply little excitement being generated at this point.
(There was also, once again, absolutely no Bonnie. Wouldn't the series have been better off just letting her die instead of saving a character it has no use for?)
Questions the hour raised:
- What does Dr. Wes want with Enzo?
- Matt made his mom grilled cheese sandwiches? So that's where he perfected his Grill skills!
- Hmmmm.... what should the Travelers have for a theme song?
- Ummmm... how did Damon leave the house? If the Travelers had removed the spell when they took Enzo, couldn't he have just ran away when Stefan and Katherine arrived?
- Seriously, how could everyone not have realized it's been Katherine this whole time?
Can the season be saved? I sincerely hope so. Am I being overly harsh? You tell me. Check out a promo for The Vampire Diaries Season 5 Episode 15 and let's hear your honest take:
Where do you stand on The Vampire Diaries these days?
Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.
