The CW has amassed a pretty solid line-up of shows these days, created big fanbases that watch one, two or all of them, if they have time during the week. Though most of them are standalone shows, Supernatural, Jane the Virigin, The 100 and Reign (the last of which may be the weak link and not survive another year), four of their major shows are pairs. That would be Arrow and its spin-off The Flash, and The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals. While I think Arrow and The Flash are still in a pretty good place, only 3 and 1 seasons into their lifespans respectively, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals are wavering in my eyes, at 6 and 2 seasons respectively. I understand why The Originals exists. When Klaus and his Mikkelson family of Original Vampires were introduced into The Vampire Diaries, they were instantly hated by fans, but soon eventually loved as they shifted from outright villains to anti-heroes. Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah were three fantastic characters, and giving them their own show seemed pretty logical, if not sad for The Vampire Diaries who lost a solid chunk of their cast as a result.
Unlike The Vampire Diaries, which has the cast usually pretty united against a common threat, or working together to achieve an end, The Originals has been full of shifting alliances between werewolves, vampires, witches and humans, often times even turning the Mikkelsons against one another. The show introduced Marcel as the lead villain right away, yet by the end of the season, he was unquestionably one of the good guys. Now in season two, the show seems to be stagnated creatively a bit more. The new conflict has the Mikkelson’s refighting old battles that already took place in The Vampire Diaries. The destruction of the other side allowed the Mikkelson patriarch, Michael, to escape and continue his quest to kill Klaus. Similarly, their mother, Esther, came back from the grave along with two of their dead brothers to try and put them down as well. These are identical battles that were fought in lengthy plotlines during The Vampire Diaries, and it seems exhausting we’re about to repeat them all over again.
Similarly, The Vampire Diaries seems to be reaching for new ideas as well. It’s now gone quite a while without a strong villain, as the Traveler plotline of last season revealed a chanting enemy that was more annoying than threatening, and now in this new season, we really don’t even have a clear villain yet, other than the one human vampire hunter and one also human trapped witch serial killer.
In short, I think the two shows need each other. I’m not sure it was ever a good idea to separate out the two from one another, as The Originals seems to have never really found its footing, and The Vampire Diaries has struggle in one way or another since the spin-off (I didn’t think the previous year’s Silas plotline was great either). Furthermore, The Originals has essentially lost what was one of its greatest assets, Rebekah, who for reasons unknown (is she on another show somewhere?) has only appeared in a handful of episodes even though the new show was supposed to be about the entire Mikkelson family, not just the two brothers Klaus and Elijah who are always at each other’s throats.
The two shows have also struggled with meaningful crossovers. Tyler came to The Originals once to do not much of anything. Klaus returned to Mystic Falls to seduce Carolyn and upset Tyler. The destruction of the Other Side let Michael free, but other than those three minor points the shows rarely overlap at all, and might as well be in separate universes.
In my mind, The Vampire Diaries would benefit from assimilating the cast of The Originals, as I’m not sure it deserves to exist as its own show at this point. I’d almost argue that The Vampire Diaries jumped the shark the moment the Mikkelson’s left, and bringing them back could help with some of its stagnation problems.
But the fact is both shows are probably performing well enough on their own to warrant their continued separate paths. But if the day ever does come where The Originals is starting to noticeably underperform, I hope they bring the Mikkelson’s back into the fold.
[Photos via The CW]
Follow Us
For someone who claims that the shows are suffering, should at least get spell the characters names correctly and get their in-show mythology correct. Mikael is Mikael, not Michael, Caroline is Caroline not Carolyn and Mikaelson is spelt Mikaelson not Mikkelson. Mikael (not Michael) was resurrected by the witch Davina and it had nothing to do with the collapse of the other side, neither did Esther’s resurrection, that had to do with her remains being consecrated in New Orleans and her spirit becoming one with the Ancestral Magic of the witch ancestors of New Orleans which in effect transferred her spirit to the ground of New Orleans, which is separate from The Other Side as explained in the show. As for Finn and Kol’s resurrection from The Other Side that has yet to be explained in the show’s canon. As a passionate superfan myself who devoutly watches both shows and is a very active member of several groups, forums and the official Wikia for both shows, I can tell you that TVD and TO are anything from struggling and stagnate. It wouldn’t trend on Twitter worldwide or be watched all over the world if the shows were “stagnant” would they? We have a very large fanbase and we know how great the shows are. They wouldn’t get renewed if they were failing would they? Funny how critics spout lengthy opinions about shows that they clearly know nothing about.