TV Review: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “1912”

By SEAN ELLIOTT / Contributing Writer

Posted: March 25th, 2012 / 10:40 AM

Cassidy Freeman in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES - Season 3 - "1912" | ©2012 The CW/Bob Mahoney

Stars: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder
Writer: Julie Plec & Elisabeth Finch, Based on the book by L.J. Smith
Director: John Behring
Network: The CW, airs Thursday nights
Original Telecast: March 15, 2012

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES has a habit of giving audiences slam bang endings when they take breaks, and really strong episodes to kick off the show when it returns. That is why the return from a break episode “1912” is so perplexing to me. It just wasn’t good. It was boring, and there was little or nothing going on besides a few minor revelations that really don’t mean squat in the bigger picture.

Revelation numero uno is that Alaric (Matthew Davis) might actually be the psycho killer that the storyline has up to this point been pinning on Dr. Fell (Torrey DeVitto). Seems that Alaric’s magic ring has a history of causing it’s wearer to go a bit nuts and kill off members of the Council (that being the secret Council that knows all about the supernaturals living in Mystic Falls).

So what if this is a somewhat jumbled storyline that no one really cares about? Let’s take the time to try to make Alaric a somewhat interesting character again and pull focus away from all of the original vampire drama of the earlier episodes of this season. I have to ask reading public….does anyone out there really love Alaric? I feel bad for Matthew David because the character was interesting in the beginning and when he was possessed he was interesting again, but other than that he’s just someone to dangle over Elena’s (Nina Dobrev) head.

And while on the subject…is Dr. Fell supernatural? Isn’t the ring that Alaric wears supposed to only protect him from death and injury at the hands of supernatural beings? Or was it just the vampire blood that she gave him that healed his gunshot wounds? I honestly am getting a bit confused and really just wish this particular story would disappear.

Whenever VAMP DIARIES heads back to the past, it’s usually for a good reason. This episode I am not sure what that reason is. There’s the big set up to have Sage (Cassidy Freeman from SMALLVILLE) come back into the modern world, but why was she introduced in the first place? She shows Damon (Ian Somerhalder) a new way to exist as a vampire in the past and he in turn tries to show Stefan (Paul Wesley)…which backfires and leads to the creation of the “Ripper” persona. But there really isn’t that much going on in these flashbacks.

This whole episode just felt like filler. HUGE chunks of the main cast were absent, and the story didn’t really go anywhere. Plus, there wasn’t even one party. With a sigh I end this review hoping that the next episodes are up to par.

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