The TV Chick

Tonight’s third episode of Secret Circle was certainly an improvement over last week! I’m going to split this review into two parts this week because I think there’s an aspect of the show that’s really working and another aspect that needs some work…

The Past

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m much more interested in what happened to the old Circle, how they died in the fire, and what Charles and Dawn are up to now than anything happening with the teenagers.

First up, let’s talk about Zachary. He shows up out of nowhere, assaults Cassie in a parking lot, and then ends up trying to kill teenagers by the end of the week. Where has this guy been? He claimed he’s been on a boat and doesn’t get into town much, but I’m not sure I buy that. Is he magical too? How’d he know that Cassie was back and that they’d bound the circle? He’s obviously perceptive, but how much of that knowledge came from what Amelia told him and how much came from what he’s learned after the fire with whatever happened to Heather? Speaking of Heather, I hope we get answers about what happened to her soon. It was pretty clear that whatever happened was much worse than death; anyone else think Sally is a good candidate for that kind of accident? She’s spending an awful lot of time around magical people, so if I’ve learned anything from Vampire Diaries and True Blood, she’s either supernatural herself or going to get hurt soon enough.

Now, let’s move on to Charles and Dawn. Evil? Not evil? Too early to weigh in? I’ve never read the books, so I’m just going to throw out this theory with absolutely no outside knowledge…It feels like we’re headed down the path of adults versus teenagers, magically speaking. Dawn and Charles obviously don’t have their powers, but they’ve got that crystal. Is there a spell that could steal powers from their children’s circle? Because if that exists I’m pretty sure these two would be on that like an alcoholic on a free box of wine.

The Present

Plot-wise, not too much happened with the kids tonight. Sure, they survived an attempted murder and all that, but they still can’t work together to access the greatest potential of their powers. There were quite a few nice moments, particularly Nick and Melissa finally connecting emotionally at the end of the episode. Nick’s been the one character that hasn’t been developed thus far. We know both of his parents died in the fire, but that doesn’t really give him an excuse to be a womanizing jerk 16 years after the fact. Everyone else in the circle is surviving without at least one parent.

The other nice moment we got was between Adam and Cassie on the dance floor. Whew, their chemistry was on fire tonight. The writers are doing a really nice job building a complex love triangle (well, really love square with we include Luke, but I’ll get to him in a minute…). Diana isn’t a villain; we’re not given any reason to hate her, and she hasn’t done anything to deserve the heartbreak that’s definitely coming her way. Come on people, the spark between Adam and Cassie is just too powerful to ignore. In the meantime, we can enjoy looking at Luke. It’s been a big week for Zachary Abel. First he shows up on the finale of Awkward. and now he’s on Secret Circle. Cassie and Luke certainly had some good moments; it probably won’t last, but it should be fun for now.

I think the biggest problem with the kids’ story line is that they’re new to magic; they don’t have a whole lot going on in the supernatural world yet. Dawn, Charles, and Adam’s dad have years of magical experience behind them and quite a few secrets to go along with that. The teenagers don’t yet. There’s not much inherently interesting about the lives of typical high schoolers. I think once the show progresses a bit further the stories involving the Circle will become a little more about the magic and slightly less about who’s hooking up with who.

Overall, “Loner” was a much better hour than episode two. The writers gave us a lot of material to think about and are starting to build a foundation for a show that can nicely copy The Vampire Diaries model of burning through a lot of story quickly in a very skillful way.

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.