The Secret Circle – The Witching Hour You Don’t Want To Miss

It goes without saying that Thursdays this fall on The CW will be dubbed ‘The L.J. Smith Night’ when both of the author’s popular book series, The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle, will finally be paired up to deliver more tales of teen angst with a supernatural twist to eager viewers. While The Vampire Diaries (which is returning for its third season) has already proven itself to be a viable contender on the TV battle land known as Thursdays, The Secret Circle doesn’t have that clout under its belt just yet given that it is one of the many new shows premiering this fall. So can The CW strike lightning twice with another L.J. Smith/Kevin Williamson supernatural hit?

Um, yeah!

The Secret Circle is a worthy lead out show from The Vampire Diaries and should capture not only fans of TVD and the TSC book series, but new casual fans as well. Set in the fictional town of Chance Harbor, Washington, TSC follows Cassie Blake, played with just the right amount of innocence by Britt Robertson (Life Unexpected, Scream 4), as she transitions from her life in California to the town where her mother grew up after a family tragedy. Upon arriving, Cassie quickly learns of her true heritage and how she’s connected with The Circle, a coven of teen witches who need Cassie to complete their circle and enhance their powers. Trouble ensues, power struggles are born, and a love triangle comes into play. In other words, the ingredients for a CW teen hit are in play and we’re already under its spell.

Before we go any further, there is one notion that we want to get out-of-the-way, and will probably have to reiterate throughout this review. The Secret Circle is not The Vampire Diaries. We repeat. The Secret Circle is not The Vampire Diaries. And to us, that’s a good thing.

The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle are their own entities playing in their own worlds. Don’t look for crossovers where Bonnie stumbles upon The Circle though some research to help the latest quandary to plague Mystic Falls. Cassie and crew have enough issues to deal with on their own, namely the power struggle that will go down between coven leader Diana (Shelly Hennig) and bad girl Faye (Phoebe Tonkin, who owns this role) as well as the group learning just how powerful they truly are. The Circle doesn’t have time to deal with anything TVD related and for that we are truly grateful.

With that said, it will be hard for some viewers to not fall into the habit of trying to compare and contrast both series, especially when it comes to some characters. For instance, people have already tried to dub hellraiser Faye as a female Damon Salvatore and that comparison couldn’t be any farther from the mark. Faye is bad and a villain of sorts, but she is only mean girl bad’ and not ‘homicidal bad’. Yet. So the comparisons to The Vampire Diaries are minimal at best and hopefully won’t distract the viewer from the other attributes the show has to offer.

The cast itself meshes pretty well despite having 9-10 characters to play with on the drawing board in the pilot alone. The dynamic between Robertson’s Cassie and Thomas Dekker’s Adam is as fluid as the raindrops the pair conjured together in the forest. The longing gazes and angst of a forbidden love is kept at a minimum between the two, which is a sharp contrast from the novels in which pages were practically dedicated to Cassie and Adam’s secret ‘tryst’ behind Diana’s back. While the attraction is there, it’s not given much screen time other than the proverbial “this never happened!” talk, which is typically imperative in those types of situations. While I would like to mention something else we noticed about the Cassie/Adam/Diana triangle, we’re going to hold off until the discussion review of the pilot episode to avoid spoiling the episode. Bottom line, we could possibly have another “Team” scenario with this love story.

While Cassie and Adam will be sharing googly eyes with each other, Faye and Diana will do their best to not wring each other’s necks in their rivalry over leading the coven. This storyline was a crucial plot point in the novels and is brought to life by Tonkin’s catlike portrayal of Faye and Hennig’s goody-two shoes take on Diana. There are times when you will root for each girl, and there are times where you will want to smack them silly. One other thing of note is the confusion of whether or not the girls are still cousins in the show. In the books, Faye and Diana are first cousins, but their familial ties might have been one of the many elements lost in adapting the books to series. Just as long as these two continue to snap at each other, we are good as gold.

The Circle itself has an interesting cohesion that wasn’t really tested in the pilot. While we got an idea of everyone’s personalities, we didn’t get a chance to see what each person will bring to The Circle in terms of their power. The reason behind this is explained in the show’s first hour, but if you’ve read the books, seen every clip since May, and read every interview/article pertaining to the show then you can easily deduce why The Circle isn’t so powerful from gate. Also, Nick Armstrong (Louis Hunter) and new character Melissa Glaser (Jessica Parker Kennedy) didn’t get much to work with, but we doubt these two will be sideline characters moving forward in the series.

One last character we want to mention is Gale Harold’s Charles Meade. In short, Harold’s portrayal of Diana’s father is downright creepy and menacing and will have you gasping for breath by his relentless behavior. Forget Faye. This guy is the main villain to look out for… and fear.

The pilot as a whole will leave you fidgeting to see episode two. Seriously. All summer long we have been dying to see what happens next with The Circle and just how powerful they can become. The pacing of the first witching hour is clear and to the point. Seeds of mythology are sprinkled throughout its foundation to blossom into juicy storylines later on down the road. The characters all have a mysterious nature about them and it seems as if they are all hiding something with Cassie (and the audience) being the only ones not in the know. Some fans of the books might be a bit upset over some of the liberties Andrew Miller (who developed the show from Smith’s book series) took to bring the novels to the screen, but some of those liberties were necessary and will make sense once they see the pilot. Hopefully.

Verdict? We are deeply under The Secret Circle’s spell with no signs of being released from it anytime soon. Again, the show might have some issues trying to establish the difference between it and its lead in show, but we truly believe that once fans take a trip to Chance Harbor they will know once and for all that it and Mystic Falls are of two different universes.

The witching hour is upon us. Will you tune in to be captivated?

Grade: A

The Secret Circle premieres September 15th @9/8c on The CW, or catch it now on iTunes for Free!