Gemma Malone – Google

Exactly the kind of fantasy romp I needed on my screen. Doesn't take itself too seriously, doesn't try to be more important or groundbreaking than it is. Just fun dialogue, tight episodes, and writers who clearly know that the character development and relationship dynamics are the most important part of it all--the actual plot is fine, but it's all more of a catalyst for Willow, Elora, Kit, etc. on their journeys than the main focus of the show itself. You don't need to have watched the movie beforehand but it helps, and the show is definitely in the same line of campy fantasy.

I wanted to love it as a fan of the books, and some changes were made quite well, but I can't get over how poorly explained the world was, how poorly fleshed out the characters were, and how bland the world of the books was made out to be. I understand that the first movie failed, so the show went in the opposite direction, but frankly, from the point of view of a book fan who wanted to love the show, the majority of characters are completely unidentifiable as their counterparts outside of name (I'm talking personalities here--the racial diversity is great), the relationships are sanded down with all good tension removed or sped up, the setting changed from the subversive (for the genre) American landscape and changed to generic European vampire stuff. I get it, filming in Romania is cheaper, but that doesn't mean you can't pretend it's somewhere else. The vampire court being in the Pocanos is something that made the book series stand out to me! One of my favorite aspects of the book series is how lopsided and codependent the Lissa-Rose friendship was, and the fact that Lissa did not even consider the Rose-Dimitri relationship until book 4 (after he was 'dead'/turned!). Starting out from such a toxic place is what makes their friendship interesting, seeing how they change over the course of the novels. It was a slowburn as much as Romitri was (another thing removed from the show, they had way too many kisses this season) and incredibly satisfying in the end. The general concepts and lore are all there I suppose, but every plot point was rushed and confusing; way too much happened in every episode, but also not enough happened. Everything was plot-important but almost nothing had any earned emotion tied to it. After the first 3 episodes or so I kept watching but simply relaxed my brain while having it on in the background. I multitasked, I played Stardew Valley. I feel like I got as much understanding out of watching like that as I had while paying attention to the first couple of eps. I got a Peacock subscription for this thing, and I dropped out... 6 episodes in? 7? I'll probably tune in again if Sydney shows up at some point, though I'm scared of what personality traits they'll erase from her, too. Last thought: they really had to give Victor's husband the same name as his book-canon brother???? That threw me off so much.