Teen Drama Dropout

Eighteen shows. More than 2,000 episodes. And too much angst to measure. What is the best teen drama of all time? We decide.

[teendramadropout]

Week 8: The Vampire Diaries Fun Facts

Here’s a fun fact for you, ICYMI: yesterday Nina Dobrev announced via Instagram that she will be leaving TVD at the end of season 6. We have LOTS of opinions about this piece of news, but let’s set those aside for now and dig into this exhaustive and entertaining set of facts:

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

You may remember Zach Roerig (Matt Donovan) as Cash, Tyra’s hunky cowboy boyfriend with a pill addiction in Season 2 of Friday Night Lights.

While Melinda Clarke will always be Julie Cooper to us, we loved seeing her as Kelly Donovan, another well-meaning but seriously problematic mom. Hey, just like Julie, Ms. Donovan also hooks up with her kid’s high school friend! (But we’d take Luke over Tyler any day of the week.)

In Season 1 of The O.C., TVD co-leading man Paul Wesley (Stefan Salvatore) played Donnie, another Newport outsider (I think he was supposed to be from Corona?) whom Ryan briefly befriends before Donnie brings a gun to a house party. Maybe he lost his humanity and was in a ripper phase? Extra fun (read: obscure) fact: Paul Wesley was billed as Paul Wasilewski in that role. Wesley (again as Wasilewski) also appeared in an episode of Smallville as Lucas Luthor, Lex’s half brother.

Fellow co-leading man Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) also appeared on Smallville in a six-episode stint. He played Adam Knight, who dates Lana so that he can learn Clark’s secrets and feed that information to Lionel Luthor, all in exchange for a special serum that will keep him alive. I don’t think it ends well for Adam Knight.

And yet another TVD-Smallville connection. Sara Canning (Aunt Jenna) can be seen as Kat in two episodes of Smallville.

Two TVD actresses turn up in Pretty Little Liars. Claire Holt, who sparkles as the seductive yet insecure Original vampiress Rebekah, had a multi-episode arc as Samara, one of Emily Fields’ first girlfriends. And Torey DeVitto had a recurring role on TVD as Meredith Fell, a doctor not afraid to bend the rules by using vampire blood to cure her patients. DeVitto also has a much more suspicious bracket appearance in her role as Melissa Hastings on Pretty Little Liars. She was also in One Tree Hill as crazy Nanny Carrie.

Original vampire Kol Mikaelson (Nathaniel Buzolic) shows up in Pretty Little Liars, too, as Spencer’s sobriety coach Dean.

Kayla Ewell (Vicki Donovan) has the rare distinction of appearing in four bracket shows. She played driven 4.0 student Angie Dahl on Veronica Mars, appeared on The O.C. as Casey, who dated doomed surfer Johnny until she hooked up with Volchok, and showed up in Freaks and Geeks as hot geek Maureen Sampson.

IMDB informs us that Kat Graham (Bonnie Bennett) shows up in a Season 3 episode of The O.C., but we’re not interested enough in that season of The O.C. to find out more. (We would at one point have said we weren’t interested in Bonnie either, but this jab is no longer true—we like her so much more in Season 6!)

Bonnie has a brief fling with a guy named Jamie in Season 3, played by Robert Ri’chard. Ri’chard was also in the third season of Veronica Mars as Mason, a basketball teammate of Wallace’s.

Notable Names and Notes

Alaric Salzman is my personal pick for favorite supporting character. He may not be as three-dimensional as Caroline, but he’s sexier. And his friendship with Damon is wonderful. Alaric is played by Matt Davis, who was in Legally Blonde as Elle Woods’ dick boyfriend Warner. Also, he was briefly married to Leelee Sobieski. OMG, I just can't

John Gilbert may redeem himself at the end of season 2, but he’s a shady character. He was also shady in Alias, where he played Julian Sark, a sometime-ally, sometime-nemesis of Sydney Bristow’s (Jennifer Garner). We like him so far as zombie sire Blaine DeBeers in iZombie!

Jeremy is played by the actor Steven R. McQueen, and yes, he is related to THE Steve McQueen (his paternal grandfather).

The Vampire Diaries has a spin-off, The Originals, which takes place in parallel to TVD starting in TVD’s season 5, and follows Klaus, Rebecca and Elijah’s adventures in New Orleans.

Nina Dobrev was in Degrassi—which was narrowly cut from our bracket—as single mother Mia Jones. She actually speaks Bulgarian.

Ian Somerhalder used to date Nina Dobrev, but they split IRL around the same time Damon and Elena broke up in season 5. Now he’s engaged to Nikki Reed, who (coincidentally) played a vampire in the Twilight movies. (Reed also shows up in Season 3 of The O.C. as Sadie Campbell, one of Ryan’s love interests who just seem meaningless because they aren’t Marissa.) According to the gossip rags, things have been frosty on the set ever since... and this may also be a contributor to Dobrev’s departure from the show.

More about Ian Somerhalder: he’s got his own charitable foundation. We’ll just leave this here.

Also, one time Ace saw (but did not meet) Ian Somerhalder at SXSW. He was wearing a stupid hat. Maybe not this hat

Jack Coleman, who plays Caroline’s dad Bill Forbes, was in Dynasty, though we know him from Heroes.

Music Alert

In the series premiere, Stefan does some top-notch brooding looking at an old photo of Katherine while Placebo’s cover of “Running Up That Hill” scores the scene. It’s haunting, but it’s still not as awesome as the Kate Bush original.

In “The Sun Also Rises,” the first of the two-part Season 2 finale, a Birdy cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” plays during Jenna’s funeral. It’s pretty sad.

The show’s own Kat Graham (credited as Katerina Graham) recorded a version of Garbage’s “Only Happy When It Rains” that appears in Season 2, Episode 10. Thankfully, you can barely hear it.

The National’s “Lemonworld” plays briefly during a scene in Season 2’s “The Dinner Party,” shortly before Alaric drives the white oak ash dagger through Elijah’s heart. I’m sure that’s exactly what the band had in mind when they wrote the line “I want to sit in and die” for the chorus. (“Don’t Swallow the Cap” plays in Season 5, Episode 7.)

The band playing Klaus’s party/wake for his father in Season 3’s “Homecoming” (the name of the episode as well as the dance) is My Morning Jacket.

Ed Sheeran’s “Give Me Love” plays when Elena dances with Damon at the Mikaelson’s ball in Season 3, Episode 14. It works.

Florence + the Machine’s “Never Let Me Go” scores a pretty intense Delena make-out session in Season 3, Episode 19.

Seriously, why did Damon even bother to put on his shirt if he wasn’t going to button it?

Elena has a Jamie Lidell poster up in her room for the first two seasons.

Proving that they can’t pass up a good vampire tie-in, the show’s producers have used at least two Vampire Weekend songs--“Giving Up the Gun” in Episode 21 of Season 1 and “Unbelievers” in the Season 5 premiere.

In Season 4, Episode 4, Elena and Damon dance to Calvin Harris’ megahit “Feel So Close” at a college party. That’s all well and good, but the newly turned Elena can’t control her vampire impulses, so she feeds on her fellow partygoers. Their blood is dripping from her lips. It’s pretty gross.  

The Raveonettes’ excellent “The Christmas Song” plays in Season 4, Episode 9; it is also featured in The O.C.’s “The Chrismukkah-Bar Mitzvahkkah.”

The show features lots of other quality songs too (the Dum Dum Girls, Lykke Li, Superchunk, Mates of State to name just a few more). But the coolest musical theme has actually been part of the current season (Season 6). As a clever nod to the 1994 prison world, the first 16 episodes were all named after 1994 songs: Madonna’s “I’ll Remember,” Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter” (released in 1992, but at its most popular, chart-wise, in 1994), Green Day’s “Welcome to Paradise,” Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Weezer’s “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here,” Morrissey’s “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get,” Pulp’s “Do You Remember the First Time?,” Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” Live’s “I Alone,” Gloria Estefan’s “Christmas Through Your Eyes” (technically released in 1993), Cheap Trick’s “Woke Up with a Monster,” Seal’s “Prayer for the Dying,” Soundgarden’s “The Day I Tried to Live,” Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” (a Teen Drama Dropout-approved karaoke choice), Cheap Trick’s “Let Her Go,” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Downward Spiral.”

If only there were still a chance for episodes titled “Regulate,” “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” “Loser,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “Boxcar,” “Seether,” “Feel the Pain,” “Savory,” “Supernova,” “Red Right Hand,” “Girls and Boys,” “Bull in the Heather,” “I Am a Scientist,” or “Jack Names the Planets” (some of these are, admittedly, less likely than others, but it was just too hard to choose)! But the show has one-upped itself by switching to titles named for turn-of-the-century songs in an ode to that second prison world. So far we’ve just seen “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” and “I Could Never Love Like That,” but the season’s final episodes are titled “Because,” “I’d Leave My Happy Home for You,” “I’ll Wed You in the Golden Summer Time,” and “I’m Thinking of You All the While.”

We’ll leave you with one of TDD’s very favorite musical moments from The Vampire Diaries: Damon cooking breakfast while dancing to Salt-N-Pepa’s “Whatta Man.”

Thanks, show!

Posted by Emily and Julia

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Week 8: Dawson’s Creek Fun Facts

Yes, we know it's Gilmore Girls Wednesday, but let's briefly flash back to a time when Wednesday meant a new helping of Capeside, and peruse these Dawson's fun facts:

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

We’ve already covered quite a few overlaps in previous fun facts (which makes sense given the cultural impact Dawson’s had). Scott Foley (Noel from Felicity) shows up as a jock in season 1. Jason Behr (of Roswell) plays an asshole student at Capeside High who ends up playing the Dawson character opposite Rachael Leigh Cook’s Joey in Dawson’s autobiographical movie. (Say that three times fast.) Chad Michael Murray briefly dates Jen (and kisses Joey) in season 6. Perennial “teen” actress Bianca Lawson is a rival of Dawson’s in a film festival. And finally, Jensen Ackles (who was in Smallville before he was on Supernatural) plays C.J., a guy who dates Jen before sleeping with Audrey while she’s on a bender. 

Taylor Handley (gross Oliver from The O.C.) plays the boyfriend of Joey’s professor’s daughter in three episodes in season 6.

Adam Kaufman plays Jack’s boyfriend Ethan in season 3 (Ethan and Jack’s kiss in the season finale goes down in history as one of the first gay kisses on network TV). We’ve seen him before in two bracket shows: he was Parker in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and on Veronica Mars he played the possibly-abusive-and-murderous boyfriend of a neighbor of Veronica’s played by Jessica Chastain.

Believe it or not, the hilarious Ken Marino (skeezy PI Vinnie Van Lowe from Veronica Mars) plays the professor whom Joey dates in season 5.  

And Marino's fellow Party Down caterer Jane Lynch shows up in one (and only one) episode as Pacey’s mom.

Mercedes McNab (Harmony from Buffy and Angel) plays the estranged wife of Joey’s mugger in “Downtown Crossing,” our pick for worst episode.

Seth Rogen appears in season 6 as (what else?) an uncouth stoner with whom Audrey hooks up. 

There are three notable guest appearances from Twin Peaks. In Season 2, Madchen Amick plays Nicole Kennedy, the high school film teacher who tells Dawson his movie sucks and then starts sucking face with his dad. (This is at least her third bracket appearance as we saw her as Nate’s ladyfriend Duchess Catherine Beaton in Gossip Girl and as Rory’s dad’s girlfriend Sherry Tinsdale in Gilmore Girls.) Sherilynn Fenn turns up in Season 5 as Alex, Pacey’s evil chef boss at Civilization. (And this is also at least her third bracket appearance, with the other two both in Gilmore Girls as two different but equally annoying characters.) Dana Ashbrook also torments Pacey as Rich Rinaldi, the slimy stock broker. (That plot was so lame.) Needless to say, we like them better as Shelly, Bobby, and Audrey. 

Notable Names and Notes

Before taking up a career playing exclusively creepy characters, Michael Pitt played a sweet freshman football player who dates Jen.

Dawson’s famous crying face appears in our best episode, “True Love,” when he encourages Joey to run after Pacey. Apparently the crying wasn’t scripted, he was just overcome with emotion.

Speaking of the meme-ification of James Van Der Beek, did you know he appears in a Ke$ha music video?

Rachael Leigh Cook is famous for taking off her glasses and transforming from nerdette to total hottie in She’s All That. Well, in Dawson’s Creek, she takes off all her clothes as a figure model in Joey’s art class, and then appears in one of Dawson’s movies (the one based on his relationship with Joey). 

Dawson’s had a real weakness for gimmicky plots, starting of course with the May-December romance between Pacey and his teacher. One more: in season 3, Pacey gets saddled with a mentee in lieu of being suspended. That kid is Jonathan Lipnicki, best known as the little kid from Jerry Maguire. 

The Simpsons voice actor Harry Shearer appears in two episodes as the kids’ high school principal.

Ali Larter is such a strange famous person to me. She’s pretty and famous, but I can never remember why. (It reminds me of this, actually.) Anyway, she’s on Dawson’s as Kristy Livingstone, a hot cheerleader type with low self esteem whom Pacey dates for a little while. (Somehow Pacey manages to get credit for recognizing girls for their true worth, even though he also is kind of a manwhore.)

Jennifer Morrison from Once Upon a Time plays Pacey’s wealthy, yacht club girlfriend at the beginning of season 5, but Savage is probably the only one who watches that show.

Tony Hale (Buster from Arrested Development) plays the doctor in season 4 who tells Dawson he has power of attorney for Mr. Brooks (filmmaker in a coma). To the best of our knowledge, this is the only time he has played a character who wasn’t just a different incarnation of Buster.

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas gets writing credit on two early episodes of Dawson’s, “Kiss” and “Road Trip.” The thought of Veronica-level quips being wasted on Joey Potter must have pained him, too, since the gig didn’t last.

There are a lot of “OMG, so dated” moments in Dawson’s. For example, Jack has a Gateway computer in season 6. And that season’s premiere features obnoxious early-2000’s celebrity Jack Osbourne, fresh off the first season of his family’s reality TV show.

Jeremy Sisto (a.k.a. Elton from Clueless) plays Joey’s dickish writer boyfriend in the series finale.

Music Alert

We’ve previously commented on how the music in Dawson’s is mostly cheesy 90s pop-folk (especially as compared to The O.C.’s much savvier song choices). But the biggest issue with Dawson’s Creek from a music point of view is that due to licensing issues, much of the original music, including the theme song, is stripped from the streaming versions of the show. Instead of Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait,” we get a song called “Run Like Mad” by Jann Arden, which is truly a miserable substitute.

Miraculously, the original theme is preserved in the two finale episodes, and it’s amazing how much better it is. The second biggest licensing crime, in my humble opinion, is the removal of Damien Rice’s “The Blower’s Daughter” from the end of season 6’s “Love Bites.” (Shout out to Casey, who also loved this song/moment.) And my pick for the third biggest crime is the removal of “Kiss the Rain” from “The Kiss." (Shout out to Silvia for this one.)

The producers originally planned to use Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in my Pocket” as the theme song, but didn’t get rights to it. It appears in the finale, though, when Pacey shows Jen a music-video style shoot that Dawson supposedly took years before (just a little revisionist history). Enjoy this vision of what might have been thanks to the good folks over on YouTube: 

I was all excited because I recently found a homemade mix CD entitled "Dawson's Mix...Ah, the memories."

I was going to provide the full rundown of tracks here, but a) I don't have a CD player in my computer and b) when I finally got my husband to let me use his computer, the CD wouldn't play. Here's a few songs that I'm confident are on there; with any luck I'll still figure out a way to share the full, maudlin track list:

Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be," which plays in the first season finale (and the series finale! Kevin Williamson, you did good) when Joey finds Jen and Dawson in bed together. I refuse to not like this song.

“Broken Road,” by Melodie Crittenden, which plays in the first season finale while Dawson is looking for Joey. When it plays again in the series finale, it is just one of the things in that episode that makes me cry. (Shoutout to Cristina.)

John Hiatt’s “Have a Little Faith in Me," which plays during Joey and Dawson’s second kiss, in season 2. It comes back in the finale, as well, when Joey and Pacey dance at Gail’s wedding.

R.E.M.’s “Nightswimming” plays during a scene when Jen and Dawson go skinny dipping. Literal much?

James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” plays during Mitch’s funeral. Just twist the knife, won’t you?!

Dawson’s Creek and Wes Anderson have exactly one thing, and only one thing, in common: Mark Mothersbaugh apparently did the score for Season 3.

There are two truly awful musical appearances by Katie Holmes in this show. First off, she sings “On My Own” from Les Miserables at the Miss Windjammer (yup) beauty pageant in season 1; it’s sort of a She’s All That moment where Dawson realizes that best friend Joey might be a little more. (Side note: could there be a more obvious song choice to communicate a message of unrequited love? It is absolutely amazing how dense Dawson is to Joey’s interest in him in season 1.) Second, as a freshman in college she joins a band (with Chad Michael Murray) which is, I kid you not, called Aggressive Mediocrity. They play a horrific cover of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.”

In the finale, someone asks where Audrey is and Joey says she’s singing backup for John Mayer. Um. OK.

Posted by Emily

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Week 8 Preview: Dawson’s Creek vs. The Vampire Diaries

"This is some alternate reality where our intellects are sharper, our quips are wittier, and our hearts are repeatedly broken while faintly in the background some soon to be out of date contempo pop music plays.” So says Michelle Williams (as character Jen Lindley) in an episode of Dawson’s Creek, and it is a fair description of the show, which ran for six seasons on the WB and is arguably one of the stronger entrants in the bracket.

There was a little too much man thigh on early Dawson's, I have to say 

Dawson’s Creek premiered on Tuesday, January 20, 1998, and though I can’t remember exactly what I thought of it, I do remember coming to school the next day and talking about it. I think the consensus was: this shit is revolutionary. Even though the kids on the show talked like no teenager in real life anywhere, the stuff they were talking about was relevant to all of us. Part of that was the sex talk, which was 80% of what anyone had to say about Dawson’s in the early days; even though it’s all pretty innocent now, I think at the time we were in disbelief that someone put any of it on TV. (Full disclosure: I’m not even sure I understood the famous “walking your dog” conversation until some wiser student or newspaper clued me in.) The other part—and I would argue this was the wha kept us watching—was that the show was calibrated just right to tap into a whole other set of teenage desires—not just sex but love. Belonging. Understanding. Self-knowledge. Joey was not the first girl next door to grace the TV airwaves, nor the first such girl to harbor an unrequited crush, but (despite frustratingly lackluster acting on Katie Holmes’ part) she was a convincing one. And the trio of Joey, Dawson and Pacey wasn’t the original love triangle (it wasn’t even the original love triangle on Dawson’s), but that didn’t stop me (and 4 million others) from watching them hash it out for six years.

 More amazing early Dawson's Creek fashion and style choices

The pilot sets it all up nicely (except for the Pacey bit, actually, which is interesting). We open in a boy’s bedroom, decorated with Spielberg memorabilia, and two teens watching E.T. Totally innocent, right? Well, but very quickly, the girl is telling the boy that she can’t sleep over as she has throughout childhood, because “I just think our emerging hormones are destined to alter our relationship, and I’m trying to limit the fallout.” Dawson’s response is less than nuanced (“What is it with all this When Harry Met 80s crap? We transcend that” and “Don’t get female on me, Joey” are two highlights), but he prevails on Joey to keep up their childhood tradition: “We’re friends, OK? No matter how much body hair we may acquire? And we’ll never speak of this again?” Famous last words. We transition into the opening credits with Dawson and Joey in bed, Dawson blissfully unaware, and Joey looking troubled.

Winter is coming...

As the episode goes on, we meet the rest of the core cast: new girl next door Jen, who moves from New York to live with her judgy Christian grandmother and has a troubled past, and screwball/screwup Pacey. We find out that Joey’s mom is dead from cancer; her dad is in prison for drug dealing; and she lives with her pregnant sister and her sister’s black boyfriend Bodie. She is what Jen’s grandmother calls “the wrong element.” Chip, meet shoulder. And by the end of the episode, we get it. Joey’s in love with Dawson. But Dawson has no idea. In fact, he has a thing for Jen. Nothing is ever going to be the same.

Over the next few seasons, there are a few cast additions and subtractions, and the relationships go through pretty much every permutation imaginable (spoiler alert?). When polar opposites Joey and Pacey get together in season 3, it goes from “will they or won’t they” with Joey and Dawson to “who will Joey choose?” It’s telling that Katie Holmes replaced Michelle Williams in the credits as the lead actress after season 1. There are several other forgettable love interests for all involved, especially after the characters graduate and go to college (ish) in Boston, but it’s really Joey, Dawson and Pacey we care about.

Dawson's was the brainchild of Kevin Williamson, fresh off the success of teen thriller Scream. It’s autobiographical (and it gets meta-autobiographical a few times when film-buff Dawson creates a movie, then a show, based on his relationship with Joey), though it’s worth noting that Williamson is gay.

These days, Dawson’s feels pretty dated, and I’m not just talking about the outfits. For example: Dawson and Pacey work at a video rental store. There are a lot of answering machines, even as late as the sixth season. They play Chumbawumba in the pilot. And according to this website I looked at, a person who was born the day of Dawson’s premiere would be 16 years old today. Considering I was the same age as the characters, that makes me feel pretty damn old. The question is, does Dawson’s hold up? If that 16-year-old watched it, would it feel stodgy in comparison to a Gossip Girl or a Pretty Little Liars (or, say, The Vampire Diaries)? Or would it resonate? For those of us who are decidedly not teenagers anymore, does it still retain its magic? That’s what we’ll find out in this matchup.

The Dawson’s Creek Watch List

Dawson’s Creek is available streaming through Netflix.

Pilot: “Pilot”

Best: “True Love,” Season 3 (a.k.a. Joey has to choose between Dawson and Pacey before Pacey takes off on an all-summer sailing trip)

Prom: “The Anti-Prom,” Season 3 (a.k.a. Dawson throws a very un-Logan-like Alternaprom when the regular prom won’t let Jack bring a guy as his date). Bonus: “Promicide,” Season 4 (a.k.a. everyone breaks up on prom night. Well, everyone that matters.)

Worst: “Downtown Crossing,” Season 5 (a.k.a. Joey gets mugged and deals with her father issues)

Finale: “All Good Things…” and “...Must Come to an End,” Season 6 (a.k.a. five years later, we reunite with the Capeside kids for one wedding, a funeral and A LOT OF TEARS)

A decade after Dawson’s, Kevin Williamson came back to the WB with The Vampire Diaries, which is based on a book series by L.J. Smith and about to begin its sixth season. And apart from the teen angst and requisite the love triangle, its setup could not be more different. And by this point in the post-Twilight era, it’s a familiar one. Girl meets boy. Boy likes girl. Boy is vampire. (Why is it always the boys, by the way? I guess because these books are written for girls, and girls like sexy bloodsuckers.)

  Just a 150-year-old high schooler, tossing around the ol' pigskin. Ain't no thang.

In the first episode, we meet Elena Gilbert, a high school junior in Mystic Falls, Virginia. The previous spring, her parents died in a tragic car accident that Elena inexplicably survived. In school, she meets the mysterious Stefan Salvatore. Stefan is a vampire, and has been one since back in the Civil War era. Stefan is “the good vampire.” His brother, Damon, is “the bad vampire” (with a heart of gold, of course).

The darkness and the light...

Damon drinks human blood, with relish. Stefan abstains (less because of some Edward-style moral high ground than because when he does drink the real deal he becomes an addict, and will rampage the countryside as the “ripper”). Naturally, both Stefan and Damon are in love with Elena—but it doesn’t stop there. The reason they’re drawn to her, and the reason they’re back in Mystic Falls after a century-plus, is because Elena is a dead ringer for Katherine Pierce, the woman who turned the Salvatore brothers into vampires back in 1865. 

One of the best things about TVD is the old-timey costumes that show up in flashbacks. Like this:

Like Pretty Little Liars, another long-running show of the modern era, the stakes (ha!) get higher and higher as the seasons go on. Apart from a tomb full of hibernating vampires who manage to get free, the main conflict in the first season is a lot of infighting between the main cast that creates havoc; Elena also learns more about her own origins. In the second season we get Katherine, werewolves and uber-baddy original vampires (what it sounds like). By the third season the originals are kind of the good guys (sometimes—there is so much backstabbing (again, ha!) in this show) when their mom—the original witch, naturally—shows up and tries to eliminate all vampirekind from existence. But these plots are almost incidental. On The Vampire Diaries, it’s the inner demons that are the hardest to defeat. 

The mythology of The Vampire Diaries goes way beyond just vampires, and it can be hard to keep track of. There are witches (Elena’s BFF Bonnie is one; for some reason most witches are black, at least in the early seasons). Werewolves (notably Elena’s classmate Tyler, who has an anger problem). Curses. Moonstones. Ghosts. Magical rings. Half-vampire, half-werewolf hybrids (Tyler again). Original vampires. Vampire hunters. Travelers (bodysnatching witches). A strange in-between spirit world called simply The Other Side. And more eerie doppelgangers. All this makes for a lively cast of characters, one of The Vampire Diaries’ strengths. The acting is often quite good, and the supporting characters buoy the core trio of Elena, Stefan and Damon when they’re starting to drag. But as the series has gone on, the inevitable events that come with being buddies with supernatural beings (or being one yourself) have come to pass, resulting in more complexities, more plotlines and more love triangles—with mixed results. Can The Vampire Diaries stand up against a classic like Dawson's Creek? Only our bracket can tell. 

The Vampire Diaries Watch List

The Vampire Diaries is available streaming through Netflix, except for the most recent (fifth) season.

Pilot: “Pilot" (a.k.a. we meet Elena and the mysterious Stefan, while meanwhile vicious deaths by "animal" begin to plague Mystic Falls)

Prom: “Miss Mystic Falls,” Season 1 (a.k.a. Stefan has a secret, which complicates the annual town beauty pageant)

Best: "The Sun Also Rises" and “As I Lay Dying,” Season 2 (a.k.a. the second season finale pair. After Klaus completes a tragic sacrificial ritual, Stefan makes a sacrifice himself that has baaad consequences.)

Worst: “Dead Man On Campus,” Season 5 (a.k.a. a worse version of the Initiative plot from Buffy, basically)

Finale: “Home,” Season 5 (a.k.a. with the Other Side teetering on the brink of collapse, and several beloved friends trapped there, Bonnie and the rest concoct a plan to bring them back). 

Posted by Emily

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Week 7 Counterpoint: Gossip Girl vs. The O.C.

By now you know that The O.C. handily beat out Gossip Girl for a spot in the Junior Varsity round. In fact, I was the lone voice of dissent, and since I was away on a work trip when the commentary was transcribed, I feel it is my duty to defend my beloved Gossip Girl. Okay, it’s not all that beloved, though I have definitely binge-watched an entire season over a weekend more than once. It’s certainly no Buffy, the lobster of teen dramas.  It’s more like 2 a.m. Taco Bell; you know it’s probably not good for you and completely devoid of actual nutritional value, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself and at those times it tastes really really good. But I digress.

Gossip Girl vs. The O.C. was an interesting matchup. Both series were created by Josh Schwartz, both had at their center a Carroway-esque, outsider-looking-in protagonist, and let’s be honest, both feature essentially the same archetypal characters. And while I agree with the statement made by my fellow POE members that without The O.C., there would be no Gossip Girl, that doesn’t change the fact that Gossip Girl did it better.

A character-by-character matchup illuminates the fact that both shows have their flaws. Ryan is an inherently more likeable and believable outsider than Dan Humphrey. I mean, Ryan comes from Chino and his mom literally abandoned him, whereas Dan lives in a loft in Brooklyn with a has-been rock star for a dad…how terrible for him. It makes him difficult to empathize with. Blair is a far better bitch than Summer (animal rights activism, really?), and the atrocity that is Mischa Barton’s acting is clearly no match for Blake Lively’s strangely likeable Serena. (She’s kind of a terrible person, but you still root for her.) The parentals on The O.C. have a slight edge, mostly because of the fantastic train wreck that is Julie Cooper-Nichols, and while Gossip Girl has no Seth Cohen, The O.C. has no male character who can live up to the magnificent bastard that is Chuck Bass.

But none of this is really the point. The point of both these shows, in my mind at least, is pure escapism, both for the viewer and for the outsider protagonist who finds himself thrown into a surreal world of excess and wealth. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Southern California and the O.C. kids were a little too much like my actual high school experience, but none of it ever really wowed me, and it wowed me even less through adult eyes. Keggers on the beach? Yawn. Drunken escapades in Tijuana? Who hasn’t done that? Julie sleeping with her daughter’s ex-boyfriend was a pretty good one, but on the whole, the clothes weren’t flashy enough, the cars weren’t expensive enough, and the escapades were a little too realistic for the genre. The Gossip Girl kids don’t need expensive cars. They all have private drivers. Serena’s dirty little secret? It’s not that she slept with her BFF’s BF, it’s that she did a lot of drugs and maybe accidentally killed someone only she doesn’t remember because of the drugs. Chuck runs a multi-billion dollar company when he’s like 16. Jenny smuggles drugs by sewing them into her dress, right after launching her own fashion line and dropping out of school to live with a crazy model…at the age of 15. And Blair marries a prince. A prince! Serena has an affair with a congressman…oh, wait, I guess that one isn’t so far-fetched.

B still can't believe The O.C. won either

At its core, Gossip Girl appeals to one of the most fundamental of teen fantasies: that you are important enough for someone to track your every move, care about who you were with, what you ate, what you wore…basically that you can be a celebrity without having to do anything that actually makes you famous. It allows the viewer to enter a fictitious world where money is no object, 16-year-old girls can sip martinis at hotel bars, 17-year-old boys can own burlesque clubs, and there are no real consequences because even the most horrendous acts are forgiven because you’re one of the elite. Gossip Girl does this exceptionally well.

Sad trombone

Is it going to the final round? No. Will I binge-watch an entire season again some weekend my husband is out of town? Probably. Which is more than I can say for The O.C.

Posted by Savage

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Gossip Girl vs. The OC, the Cocktail Edition

I got behind on my cocktail blogging, but that doesn’t mean that I stopped inventing cocktails. It's time to bring back our Friday happy hour cocktail matchup.

We’ve long since passed the Felicity vs. Gilmore Girls matchup, but I have recipes...recipes! Unfortunately there are no pictures because we drank them too fast to take pictures. Ok, I just forgot to take pictures, but you get the point. This particular matchup was the first time I had a larger group taste-test the cocktails, and coincidentally it was the first time the winning show’s cocktail won the matchup.

The Gilmore Girl:

1oz Grand Marnier

½ oz Canton Ginger Liqueur

½ oz mint simple syrup

Champagne

The Gilmore Girl is classy and a little bit spicy, but refreshing too. Shake the first three ingredients over ice. Strain and pour into a champagne flute. Top with chilled champagne.

The Felicity:

1 ½ oz Campari

½ oz Green Chartreuse

½ oz mint simple syrup

½ of a grapefruit, squeezed

The Felicity is bitter and complicated, just like Felicity. Maybe that’s why people didn’t like it as much as the bubbly one. Mix all ingredients in a shaker. Shake over ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.

Now for the current matchup: Gossip Girl vs. The OC. This one was tough. In fact, I can’t actually remember who won. I think it was a tie and several members of the POE (we got together to watch some OC. episodes which yielded this amazing photo of Seth Cohen in a sunset vest) kept changing their minds as to which one was more delicious, myself included.

The O.C.

2 oz coconut rum (Malibu preferred, but we used Parrot Bay)

several mint leaves

2 oz pineapple juice

soda water

We were fresh out of tiny pink umbrellas, but we did have fresh pineapple.

The O.C. is fruity and refreshing. It features coconut-flavored rum because that’s what kids from Southern California beach towns drink in high school. I should know... I was once a high school kid in a Southern California beach town. Muddle the mint with a little pineapple juice. Add the rest of the pineapple juice and the rum. Shake over ice. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice and top with soda water. Garnish with a slice of fresh pineapple, and if you can find one, a paper umbrella. Pretend you are sitting in your own private cabana on a Southern California beach with a cabana boy who will bring you this cocktail and also rub sunscreen on your back.

The Gossip Girl

2 ½ oz vodka (Grey Goose or something fancy-pants)

½ oz rosemary simple syrup

splash of pear juice

Taken on a brocade chaise lounge, as is only fitting.

The Gossip Girl is simple and elegant, but very, very expensive. It doesn’t need to call attention to itself. It knows you’re looking at it. It knows you want it. Go ahead, take a sip. It’s strong, just the way you like it. Mix all ingredients in a shaker. Shake vigorously over ice and  pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary.

** For those of you who haven’t read my cocktail blog, infused simple syrups are the easiest things on the planet to make. Pour one cup sugar into one cup water. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Dump a bunch of whatever you want to flavor it with in (mint, rosemary, basil, ginger, lavender…) and leave on a very low heat until the flavor is as strong as you like it. Cool and strain into a mason jar or other container. Use for cocktails or homemade sodas.

Happy Friday and happy mixing everybody!

-Savage

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Week 7 Matchup Recap: Gossip Girl vs. The O.C. (Part 3)

In Part 2 of our Gossip Girl/The O.C. recap discussion, we were discussing the endings of both shows (in particular Gossip Girl). In this, our final part, we pick up recording again after viewing the flash-forward sections from both finales, and Sarah is trying to convince us that Summer is pregnant at her wedding. Warning: we start to lose the thread just a little.

S - I mean, her stomach’s a little puffed out, little flowers blocking the stomach, she goes—

A - Oh, like she was throwing up. Yeah, I thought it was the “Cohen, ew.”

E - it’s the, “ew—Cohen—gross.”

S - I mean, there are multiple ways to interpret the scene.

A - Well...

E - Not pregnant.

A - I dunno, that’s a bit of a stretch.

S - …is it?

A - That’s several steps removed, it’s like—

E - Julie Cooper was pregnant at her wedding.

S - Right, and she says as she’s walking down the aisle like, she’s like—

A - Who, Julie Cooper did that?

S - Yes, and then Summer does like, the same thing!

A - Oh.

E - And Seth is just like, ha ha, ha ha, not shocked at all?

S - Yeah. he’s like, I get it. I knew you were pregnant.

J - No.

E - No no no no no.

A - I thought he was like, ”yeah I know you think I’m gross but actually you’re marrying me.”

J - Yeah.

E - Yeah. It’s adorable.

S - Guys—I really—if you watch the entire episode and you see Julie walk down the aisle, you’d be like—

E - We could go back. We could go back. So—what I think is my trump card with why The O.C. is better than Gossip Girl, and I have already told Julia this. Is that the stakes are so much higher on this show.

S - Yeah.

E - Ryan’s life is—it’s a redemption story. Like, he could end up in jail. But he ends up a fucking architect, and he ends up passing it forward. It’s—the stakes are so much higher on The O.C. and it like redeems that, and you feel so much better about everything because of that.

J - I agree.

E - And [Seth and Ryan] have the best relationship ever.

A - Yeah. It’s like a real buddy comedy.

E - Like, so many TV shows, like—like, one of the top relationships in any of the shows in the bracket—

J - Seth and Ryan.

E - ...has got to be Seth and Ryan.

J - Right.

S - Yes.

E - It’s like, Veronica and her dad, the Taylors, Seth and Ryan… I mean there’s—

J - I think that’s true. Lorelai and Rory—

E - Lorelai and Rory.

A - I don’t know, I don’t like Lorelai and Rory.

[Very long detour into the relative merits of Gilmore Girls. We emerge on the other side talking about the episode where Emily Gilmore’s mom comes into town.]

E - We should do a thing about grandma episodes. Because there’s the nana episode on The O.C., there’s also the episode that we watched—the Gossip Girl episode with the grandma who comes in and lies.

J - Oh yeah. We watched that one, but she’s a bigger part of the other seasons. I’m trying to think of other shows with grandmas.

E - There aren’t that many I guess.

J - Well, hmm...not on Buffy, not on Veronica Mars, not on Friday Night Lights...

E - Well, yes. Matt Saracen’s grandma.

S - Ohhhh!

J - True. She’s awesome, she’s the best grandma by far.

E - The episode with the wedding when he takes her—

S - Ohhhh!

E - Oh my God it just kills me every time.

J - That IS the best episode.

E/J/S - It’s so good.

S - Did we ever talk about picking “The Son”?

J - Is that the one where his dad…?

E - Yes, I think we did.

S - I watched it anyway, don’t worry guys. I went deep on Friday Night Lights.

J - I just rewatch Friday Night Lights sometimes, like generally.

E - I’m pretty excited for the second round when we actually get to watch more anyway. 'Cause we have to watch more.

A - So, embarrassing question. I actually don’t know where the bracket is right now.

J - We took a long…

E - There’s been a long… sort of lull. We’re close to being done with the first round.

J - Savage getting a job was not helpful.

E - And I’ve been really busy at my job too.

S - Everyone got really busy at the wrong time.

E - So we have to do Gossip Girl vs O.C., and the next week is Vampire Diaries versus Dawson’s Creek.

J - That perked her ears up. [Ace really only watches The Vampire Diaries, out of all our bracket shows. So there's a reason she never posts anything.]

A - Well you know, I just don’t see how Dawson's Creek stands a chance. So, I have to...just, ever since following Ian Somerhalder on Facebook I just know like so much more about this man.

E - Like he dresses as a mermaid?

A - Mer MAN! Mer MAN! Um…

E - That was... so disturbing.  

S - Are he and Nina Dobrev gonna get back together? [Note: this all took place in April, pre-Nikki Reed.]

A - I don’t know… all I know is that he loves his animals.

E - I want them to, because you know, I’m on team Damon.

A - She’s a lot younger than him i think. oh you mean on the show or real life?

E - In real life, but it's because of my show allegiance.

S - IRL.

S - She’s like 12 years younger than he is. At least. I want to say she's like 25 and he’s like 37.

A - I think he’s 35.

J - I want her to speak Bulgarian again.

A - Oh yeah, that was cool.

S - Um… he really is hot, guys.

A - He’s only 5’9”.

A - I’m only 5’6”. You’re like—

A - I’m 5’6”. 5’5 ¾”. I don’t know.

J - How tall is he? He’s short?

A - 5’9”.

J - Fine for me.

E - Taller than Tom Cruise.

S - You could wear a 4-inch wedge. Guys, wedges are amazing, sidenote.

A - But then I’d be taller than him.

J - Yeah, she wants to be shorter than him.

A - But that's the only limiting factor. The height thing.

E - And the stupid hat.

A - I actually like the stupid hat.

J - No.

S - I like the hat. [Side note: Ian Somerhalder really does wear a lot of hats.]

A - Also the realization that I had nothing to say to him. I was six feet away and I was like, “I gotta get closer!” but like—what would I do if I did? [Ace was at SXSW and was just outside a party where Ian was.]

S - You say “hey!”

J - “I work at Yahoo.”

S - “I like what your foundation’s doing.”

E - “I care about animals.”

A - “Coal sucks. Hashtag, coal sucks!”

J - Uh, Cole was in the Pretty Little Liars episode.

A - No, like coal, like, the carbon.

J - Oh I thought you meant—

E - Cole from The Vampire Diaries is in Pretty Little Liars.

E - Also, this is important. Not important for the recording—

A - Oh, you’re still recording?

E - Well, I stopped it for a little while and then I started it again.

A - Did you get merman?

[And scene.]

So, there you have it. The final vote was 5 to 1 in favor of The O.C. versus Gossip Girl, despite passionate opinions on both sides. Ultimately, our decision was that the shows share so much in common (starting with Josh Schwartz, a setting of obscene wealth, and basically all the characters, and going all the way up to the finales—two weddings, flash-forwards, etc.), but The O.C. was first, for which it deserves credit. Gossip Girl was a better-produced, more polished upgrade (like most New York wardrobes compared to California ones), and it has its great qualities, but it's not as revolutionary. On top of that, the stakes on The O.C. are much higher, and the show's ultimate focus on the Cohen family bringing Ryan into the fold and helping him find a home, ground the show and make it much more meaningful in the long run. 

We'll be back soon with our lone dissenter's counterpoint, and then it's on to another match between two shows—one a 90s classic, one a modern hit—by the same creator: Dawson's Creek vs. The Vampire Diaries.

[teendramadropout]

Week 7 Matchup Recap: Gossip Girl vs. The O.C. (Part 2)

When we last left off, four of us were discussing the epic Gossip Girl vs. The O.C. face-off over wine and Chinese food. In this second part of our recap, we discuss the potential of a coastal bias and the Gossip Girl finale (including spousal privilege and similarities to The Lion King). Rampant spoilers to follow, natch.

Ace - Guys, is this an east coast/west coast thing?

Emily - I don’t know.

Sarah - Um, I mean...it might—hmm.

A - I mean, not to say—

E - Savage loves Gossip Girl. Savage was unequivocally pro-Gossip Girl. Absolutely pro-Gossip Girl. She loves the….

Julia - She somehow doesn’t find Dan Humphrey to be like, the WORST person in the world.

A - Dan’s just so boring.

J - He’s the worst! Dan Humphrey is the worst!

E - She loves the um… she loves the Gatsby-ness of it.

S - The extravagance.

A - The theat-ah.

J - He’s also like not even an outsider. He’s obviously rich too if he lives in DUMBO, in that loft.

S - That loft… is nice.

Struggling ex-rock star, my ass.

E - I also, just… basically, I find it completely unbelievable that everyone forgives Dan for being Gossip Girl.

J - I’m cool with that, I think it’s funny.

E - It’s funny that he’s Gossip Girl, but it’s like… It’s kind of funny but—it’s believable that he’s Gossip Girl but it’s not believable that they’ll all be fine with it. They’re all fine with it, and it’s like they had to be because it’s like the end of the show.

A - When did they reveal it?

E - The last episode.

A - No, but like when in the last episode?

J - Like the last 10 minutes, because then there’s like—

E - I couldn't tell if it was because I knew it already but it was strongly implied throughout the episode that it was him and then they actually reveal it in a kind of hard to decipher way toward the end.

J - Yeah a little bit. And it’s towards the last 10 minutes cause then there’s a flash forward to the future, like five years in the future, roughly…

S - With the wedding, yeah.

A - Who’s getting married?

J - Serena and Dan!

A - Gross.

Especially this dress, amiright?

J - And Rufus is dating Lisa Loeb!

E - That’s amazing. It’s true.

A - But is she Lisa Loeb as Lisa Loeb?

S - I think she’s actually Lisa Loeb.

J - And they don’t talk about it but that’s like—

E - She’s barely in it, she’s just like talking.

A - What about Blair and Chuck?

E/J/S (in unison) - They get married.

J - And they have a baby.

S - Named Henry.

J - And Blair runs the company—her mom’s company—and speaks Chinese.

E - Blair and Chuck get married at the end of the...

[interlude for opening wine bottle, during which Julia says, “it’s not the coldest white wine, but in the interests of drinking…”]

E - Blair and Chuck get married in the last episode because Chuck somewhat accidentally—basically accidentally pushes his father off a building. They’re having a fight and then he falls, and he kind of stands there staring and the dad’s hanging off the edge. It’s like—it’s like Scar, in The Lion King.

S - Yeah…

E - He lets—OK, except for the claws. But except for the claws it’s like Scar in The Lion King, he lets him fall, and then he…

Except also in The Lion King it's the good guy that this happens to, rather than the bad guy. But whatever.

J - [handing out wine charms] You can be the owl…

E - And then he falls and then they’re like, oh my God, they’re going to accuse us of murder, and then basically they’re like... but if you marry each other…?

S - You have a spousal privilege.

E - Then you have a spousal privilege. It’s very complex to be honest.

S - It was not a nice proposal.

E - Like, you have to imagine that the teenagers who were watching it were like, what the fuck is happening?

S - And he was wearing a ridiculous outfit.

E - And then they get married at the Met. Don’t they get married at the Met?

S - I don’t know..

E - They get married at the Met.

S - Well, that’s appropriate.

J - No, they meet at the Met, and then they get married in the park.

E - Oh right they all—everyone meets there and then they like walk out.

Of course Chuck would wear a white suit to his wedding.

S - OK.

J - I really like Chuck and Lily’s relationship.

E - And somewhere in the middle of it, Blair says something to—

J - [handing out another wine charm] You get the fox…

E - About Dan, and how he couldn’t, ever, she says something disparaging about Dan, which is like…

A - Blair does?

E - Yeah. And how he would never be part of their world, situation.  And then like five minutes later they reveal that he’s Gossip Girl.

S - Yeah.

A - So who’s Kristen Bell?

J - She’s in the finale!

E - She is in the finale, with Summer!

J - You should watch the last five—the flash forward if you’d like, Ace, it’s pretty awesome.

E - Oh yeah we can watch that. That would be fun. [pause] Do you think it’s east coast west coast? I was saying it can’t be because Savage is pro-Gossip Girl.

S - But SoCal is also just so different than the rest of California.

J - That’s true, and it speaks to some of us, but—Belton likes it better!

E - Yeah, but I grew up NEXT to The O.C.

J - That’s what her point is.

S - I just mean for me, I don’t really—I don’t really see myself as SoCal-like.

E - No. And she’s not—

A - It’s not ‘cause you’re from there.

J - I just think it was new and refreshing and… Gossip Girl is like… I really liked it. I watched it all the way. I didn’t stop at all.

S - I thought season 1 of Gossip Girl was quite good.

E - Season 1 of Gossip Girl was good. It was fun to watch.

A - So like the cultural references of like, meeting on the Met steps and stuff, like… I’m not voting for either, I think I’m equally unprepared for … but though they’re the same show, they’re kind of different shows.

E - They are definitely different shows.

S - A lot.

E - And I do think they’re very...you’re definitely right that the shows are very west coast/east coast, I think.

A - The thing is I don’t know if i get any of The O.C. cultural references so I just see it as like kind of a fun show about rich people, who are like, kinda funny.

E - Which is how I kind of feel about Gossip Girl. That is interesting.

A - I’m so caught up in the “Ughh, that’s not how—what? That’s not—argh—how the things… no one does... what!?” The O.C. is more like, I’m disengaged from it in a very entertaining way, and then Gossip Girl I’m like, “it wouldn’t be like that! Oh actually that’s—that’s totally true.”

E - That’s actually kind of fascinating because one of the things that I enjoyed watching The O.C. was definitely the fact that’s like—that’s totally the way it is. Like the first episode in particular when he’s like, “this is how it’s done in Orange County,” I was like, “what?! this is stupid, this is the dumbest show of all time,” but then there were like other moments when I was like, “oh my God... this is what it’s like in Orange County.” Like a LOT of it is not inaccurate. And like Sandy Cohen going surfing every morning, like—I did not know anyone who did that but there are absolutely lots of people who I’m sure...

J -  I knew people like that.

S - When I used to live in the Outer Sunset, people went surfing every morning. And walk back barefoot, like a couple blocks to their house.

E - And, like, I didn’t go to high school with Seth Cohen, because, if I had—I would have obviously married him.

S - Right.

E - But, um, I went to high school with dudes who were not far off. Like I went to high school with guys who like if you combined a couple of them, like, they were Seth Cohen. [Ed. note: I have no idea who I was talking about... mainly because I didn't know anyone Jewish in high school.]

S - Yeah. Interesting.

J - We can in fact watch both flash forwards from the ends of both episodes.

A - They both have them?

E - It’s true.

...We proceed to watch the flash forwards. You should too, and come back next week for the final piece!

[teendramadropout]

Week 7 Bonus: Gossip Girl Fun Facts

WE'RE BACK! Our brains froze at the prospect of choosing between Gossip Girl and The O.C. and we had to go off the grid for a few months. Also, we all got new jobs and or were leaning in in some other way. Sometimes TV suffers in comparison. But just in time for the fall  season, we’re diving back in and are pleased to present to you these fun Gossip Girl facts! 

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

We’ve already mentioned Leighton Meester on Veronica Mars. (Sadly, her character Carrie Bishop was re-cast for the movie.) And of course Kristen Bell is the omniscient voice of Gossip Girl. But Krysten Ritter and Ryan Hansen—Gia (tear) and Dick in Veronica Mars—also appear in one episode of Gossip Girl as a young Lily Van Der Woodsen’s sister and a musician, respectively. Also, it’s not exactly a bracket appearance, but Dreama Walker, who plays Hazel Williams on Gossip Girl, was in Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 with Ritter and bracket member James Van Der Beek.

Kristen Bell finally makes a cameo in the series finale alongside none other than The O.C.’s Rachel Bilson. It’s a beautiful thing.

Georgina Sparks is played to perfection by Michelle Trachtenberg, best known as Dawn “Wait, Buffy has a sister?” Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Julia loves her best, though, as Nona F. Mecklenberg, little Pete’s best friend and Iggy Pop’s daughter in The Adventures of Pete & Pete.)

Armie “Winklevii/Lone Ranger” Hammer was last seen in an episode of Veronica Mars. He appears in Gossip Girl as a sort of con-boyfriend of the rich.

Tamara Feldman (Poppy Lifton) appeared in one episode of Smallville as a shape-shifting Native American girl with feelings for Clark. (Like most bit roles in Smallville, she ends up dead.)

Joanna Garcia Swisher, who plays Nate’s girlfriend Bree Buckley in season 3, appears in three other bracket shows. A decade before Gossip Girl, she was head cheerleader Vicki Appleby in Freaks and Geeks; she appeared in one episode of Dawson’s (thanks IMDB), and was one of Claudia’s friends on Party of Five. She was also in Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Nate has an affair with an older woman (OK, that happens more than once), Duchess Catherine Beaton, played by Madchen Amick. We’ve already seen the Twin Peaks alum in Gilmore Girls, and we’ll see her in Dawson’s Creek as well. 

Notable Names and Notes

Penn Badgley was in a short-lived (and, we’re pretty sure, in retrospect, terrible) WB show, The Mountain. His hair looked like this:

The Mountain also starred Oliver Hudson, who appears in our bracket as Eddie in Season 6 of Dawson’s.

Does the name Mark Piznarski sound familiar to you? He directed 14 episodes of Gossip Girl (including the pilot AND the finale). He also directed two episodes of Veronica Mars (including that pilot), and is the namesake of Veronica Mars’ ultimately hapless Logan-alternative, Stosh “Piz” Piznarski. This little fact makes us intensely curious about him.

No show these days is complete without a terrible backdoor pilot, it seems. Gossip Girl’s was called “Valley Girl” (intended to set up a show of the same name). Like Schwartz and Savage’s later show The Carrie Diaries, it was supposed to take place in the 80s, following a young Lily Van Der Woodsen (nee Rhodes).

Kelly Rutherford (Lily) was in the TV series of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. There was a TV series of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (with Adventures inexplicably in the plural)?

Penn Badgley was apparently named after Penn tennis balls. His dad bounced one to deal with stress during his wife’s pregnancy. This isn’t really a fun fact so much as a WTF fact.

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley’s families were friends, so the future co-stars and couple first met when they were 11.

Wallace Shawn is best remembered as Vizzini from The Princess Bride, or, if you’re us, Mr. Hall from Clueless. Inconceivably, he is also in Gossip Girl as Cyrus Rose, Blair’s eventual stepfather. 

Onetime Disney actress Hilary Duff has a character arc in season 3 as Olivia Burke, a Hilary Duff-style movie star who goes out with Dan. She has a pivotal role in our worst episode when she, Dan and Vanessa have a threesome in an attempt to keep Olivia in college. (Side note, the score to this moment seems to be a singer-songerwriter cover of T.I.'s Whatever You Like.)

Music Alert

The pilot opens to Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” playing over footage of Serena staring out the window of a Metro North train (but those don’t look like the usual Metro North seats). It’s a song that manages to be both energetic and wistful, and it nicely sets the tone as the show starts.

In Season 1’s “Seventeen Candles,” we watch Serena play Lynyrd Skynrd’s  “Freebird” on Guitar Hero. It’s one of the single lamest things we’ve ever seen.

“Whatever (Folk Song in C)” by Elliott Smith plays on the turntable when Dan and Serena almost have sex for the first time. It’s a lovely song, and the scene is actually pretty sweet.

It’s awesome when Serena gets the whole school to ignore Dan after their breakup, returning him to his Lonely Boy status with a snap of her fingers. And it’s even more awesome that Santogold’s “Shove It” provides the soundtrack to this scene.

Rufus’ has-been rockstar status finally pays off—Sonic Youth performs a live acoustic version of “Starpower” at his wedding to Lily!

M83’s beautiful Too Late” scores the scene where Blair comforts Chuck on the anniversary of his father’s death. It’s a very touching moment, and a favorite among Chair fans. It probably would have remained more poignant if Bart had actually died and not reappeared in Season 5.

Robyn performs “Hang with Me” at Blair’s 20th birthday party. It’s rad. Then Blair and Chuck have hate sex (literally—they say that they hate each other like a hundred times in the preceding moments) on a piano while “Dancing on My Own” plays.In the Season 4 finale, Blair and Chuck crash a stranger’s bar mitzvah and then seriously get it on (in a secret room attached to the bar mitzvah ballroom) while practically all of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” plays.

There’s an amazing cross-over with another bracket show during our “prom” episode “Hi, Society.” The Pierces perform “Secret”—which we now know and love as the theme song to Pretty Little Liars—live at cotillion.

In a bizarre twist, bespectacled 90s musician and nerd sex symbol Lisa Loeb appears in not one but two episodes. Most notably, she is in the finale for a total of about 30 seconds as Rufus’ hipster wife. There is no explanation, but it kind of just works.

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Week 7 Bonus: The O.C. Fun Facts

A show as popular—and as pop-culture savvy—as The O.C. was bound to have a lot of fun facts. So this is a bit of a long one....

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

We’ve already mentioned a few crossovers in past posts, like Samaire Armstrong on Freaks and Geeks, Adam Brody on Gilmore Girls, and three castmembers from Pretty Little Liars in bit roles on The O.C.

Melinda Clarke (everyone’s favorite MILF Julie Cooper) appears in Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries as the alcoholic single mother of cutie football player Matt Donovan. Total typecasting.

Colin Hanks plays the star of The O.C.’s show within a show, “The Valley.” We last saw him on Roswell as Alex Whitman, Liz Parker’s friend who is killed by Emilie de Ravin’s character, Tess.

Willa Holland (Kaitlin) appears on (where else?) Gossip Girl for a handful of episodes as Agnes Andrews, a model who helps corrupt Jenny Humphrey and later burns all her clothes.

Rachel Bilson appeared in one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a potential slayer named Colleen (and also on Gossip Girl, as herself, in the finale).

Adam Brody was in one episode of Smallville. So was Chris Carmack (Luke); he’s now on Nashville, with Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton. And Michael Cassidy, who plays Summer’s season 2 boyfriend Zach (described by Josh Schwartz as “the WASP Seth, a.k.a. the anti-Cohen”), is in a handful of episodes in Smallville season 7. He looks like a poor man's Paul Rudd.

In "The Outsider," The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley plays Donnie, a tough guy with a pretty face from Riverside who works at the Crab Shack with Ryan. He gets into a fight with the Newport kids at Holly's party and brandishes a gun. When Ryan tries to knock the gun away, it goes off, hitting Luke in the shoulder. 

Notable Names and Notes

These days it’s hard to look at Chris Pratt without seeing lovable goofball Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation. Once upon a time, though, he was pretty much universally hated: Pratt played Che, a fellow student of Summer’s at Brown, who talks a lot about spirit animals and stages animal cruelty protests. 

In certain circles, Cam Gigandet is known as James—the vampire who pursues and tries to kill Bella Swan in the first Twilight movie. On The O.C., he’s similarly villainous as Volchok, Ryan’s rival and the cause of Marissa’s demise in Season 3. 

Two other Twilight stars appeared on The O.C.: Nikki Reed (Twilight’s Rosalie, minus the awful dye job) is one of Ryan’s love interests, and Jackson Rathbone (Jasper) is one of Kaitlin’s exes.

Long before The Secret Life of the American Teenager or The Descendants (let alone Divergent or The Fault In Our Stars), Shailene Woodley played Kaitlin Cooper, Marissa’s younger sister. After the first season, Woodley was replaced by Willa Holland (and Kaitlin was SORAS'd, becoming inexplicably older). 

If you were alive at a certain time you will remember Rachel’s boyfriend Joshua on Friends. (Not Josh. Joshua.) That’s Tate Donovan, who plays lovable screwup Jimmy Cooper on The O.C.

Mischa Barton was the little dead girl who vomits in The Sixth Sense. She was also the star of a terrible Disney channel movie based on one of Emily’s favorite-ever books, A Ring Of Endless Light. 

Jeri Ryan shows up in Season 3 as one of Kirsten’s fellow rehab patients who turns out to be a scammer.

Possibly the most notable star to come out of a guest appearance of The O.C. was Olivia Wilde. Long before House or Tron, she was Alex Kelly, who runs the music venue the Bait Shop and dates both Seth and Marissa. It was a BIG DEAL when she and Marissa kissed. Related: Wikipedia is not immune to bad Wikia-style writings. Look no further than the description of how Alex and Marissa get together: “Later on, though, at The Bait Shop, Alex is listening to Rachael Yamagata sing a sultry tune when Marissa approaches her from behind and takes her hand, weaving their fingers together. They exchange smiles.” Also, Josh Schwartz described Alex as “our Nat, if you will,” a reference to the owner of the Peach Pit in Beverly Hills, 90210. Nat looks a little different than Alex, though:

Josh Schwartz is pretty close with Rachel Bilson. Not only does she appear in the finale of Gossip Girl (in a Schwarzian meta moment), but she’s also the star of another Schwartz/Stephanie Savage production, Hart of Dixie. Plus, she was maid of honor at his wedding and is the godmother of his kid.

U.C. Berkeley established a Sandy Cohen Public Defender Fellowship, which Peter Gallagher has helped present over the years in front of The O.C. at Boalt, “a growing organization with about 60 members dedicated to following the teen drama that ensues each Wednesday night at 9 p.m.”

Music Alert

Music was a huge part of The O.C. The show has, hands down, the best theme song in the bracket with Phantom Planet’s “California.” (Ira Glass was a big fan.) The opening riff, the soaring chorus, references to the 101 (this is a show set in Southern California after all)...it’s impossible to imagine a better fit for the show. But that’s just the beginning. Seth Cohen was super into indie rock, and it’s fair to say that the show contributed to the genre’s rise in popularity in the mid-aughts, both through music featured on the show (sometimes through live performances at The Bait Shop) and the show’s six released soundtracks. The soundtracks included songs from A.C. Newman, The Album Leaf, Band of Horses, Beulah, The Dandy Warhols, Death Cab for Cutie, Imogen Heap, Interpol, The Killers, LCD Soundsystem, Low, The Raveonettes, Of Montreal, The Perishers, Pinback, Rogue Wave, South, Spoon, Stars, Sufjan Stevens, and The Walkmen. Here are just a handful of good music moments from the show.

Modest Mouse at the Bait Shop

Seth included Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes albums in his Seth Cohen Starter Pack (his Chrismukkah gifts). A Transatlanticism poster hung in his room. When I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning and Digital Ashes in a Digital Urn broke into the top 10, Seth told Ryan that he felt “like the rest of the world’s finally caught up to me.”

One more Death Cab moment of note: While driving to Tijuana, “Movie Script Ending” plays in the car. Summer bashes the song with a great line—“It’s like one guitar and a whole lot of complaining”—which gets Seth all riled up. Julia used to play that song a lot sophomore year of college, and her roommate similarly hated it.

In Season 1’s “The Model Home,” Marissa reveals that she listens to “punk”—specifically, The Cramps, Stiff Little Fingers, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols, much to Seth’s dismay.

Later in the same episode, Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah” plays, and Marissa tells Ryan that the song reminders her of him. It also plays in the closing scene of the Season 1 finale, as Marissa watches as Ryan and Theresa drive away from the Cohen’s home. (Imogen Heap’s version of the song plays during Marissa’s death sequence in the devastating Season 3 finale.)

Luke’s tone-deaf rendition of Rooney’s “I’m Shakin” in Season 1’s “The Third Wheel” is pretty hilarious.

It’s super sweet when Seth plays Ryan Adams’ cover of “Wonderwall” on his turntable and dances with Summer in “The Truth.” 

The Season 2 finale is a fantastic episode with one of the best season finale cliffhangers we can think of. Those harrowing final moments were scored to Imogen Heap’s “Hide & Seek.” Julia can’t hear that song now without thinking of Marissa shooting Trey (in defense of Ryan). The SNL parody was pretty funny too: 

The show released a special Chrismukkah-themed soundtrack. Julia's favorites tracks are “The Christmas Song” by The Raveonettes and “Just Like Christmas” by Low. Each year she plays both on heavy rotation come December.

Ryan’s favorite band was Journey, so Seth hires a Journey cover band to play at Ryan’s birthday party. Seth actually hires a Foreigner cover band because “they’re about ten times cooler than Journey.”

Ryan and Marissa share a touching moment at the end of Season 3’s “The Last Waltz,” dancing together in the pool house to “their song”—Youth Group’s “Forever Young.”

Several bands debuted new singles on the show. Arguably the most notable of these was Coldplay’s “Fix You” which featured in the scene when Caleb died. (It was really sad.)

On The O.C.’s 10th anniversary, MySpace did a feature with the music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas which is definitely worth reading. There was an even more in-depth piece at the same time which looked back on every single episode and the music from each.

Posted by Julia and Emily

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Week 7 Preview: Gossip Girl vs. The O.C.

When The O.C. premiered on FOX in August 2003, it is safe to say that it blew up. I remember watching previews for it during that summer. Because it was on FOX, and because it took place essentially in my backyard* of Orange County, and because this is what the previews were like, I was confident it was going to be terrible. But… it wasn’t. Yes, it was soapy as hell—a clear successor to both Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson’s Creek, which had had its finale earlier in the year—but it was also very smart, and very funny. Not only was The O.C. the highest-rated new drama of the 2003–2004 season among adults aged 18 to 34, but it was also immediately part of the Zeitgeist. From the fashion to the music to the stars, everything about The O.C. was suddenly in vogue.

(Seriously. The stars were everywhere, Death Cab for Cutie was suddenly mainstream, my friend threw an O.C.-themed birthday party which I attended dressed as Marissa, reality TV show Laguna Beach debuted the following fall... I could go on.)

But as Marissa could tell you, some stars are too bright to burn for long. After its promising start, The O.C.’s subsequent seasons received mixed, then terrible, reviews. By the time the truncated Season 4 came along, viewership was half what it had been in Season 1 and the run was just 16 episodes.

In the “rough” town of Chino, California, Ryan Atwood is a teen on the verge of becoming a criminal when he crosses paths with Sandy Cohen, a Berkeley-educated public defender with a heart of gold who just happens to be married into one of the wealthiest families in sun-and-privilege-soaked Newport Beach. Sandy and his wife, real estate mini-mogul Kirsten, take in Ryan to raise him alongside their own son Seth, a smart, indie-nerd kid who’s an outcast himself. (Ryan and Seth’s relationship is one of the best parts of the series.) Ryan pretty much immediately falls for the girl next door—the beautiful but troubled Marissa Cooper—while Seth burns for Marissa’s best friend Summer. Marissa, Ryan, Seth and Summer are the show’s core foursome, but there’s also plenty of time devoted to the parents: Marissa’s dad Jimmy is in financial trouble; mom Julie Cooper is an oversexed social climber; Sandy has his own issues with the material world of Newport; and Kirsten has a strained relationship with her mega-mogul father.

Crop tops and skinny cargos and wrist cuffs, oh my

Though Ryan is the most obvious outsider, each character struggles to fit in in his or her own way, and the show often deftly explores themes of alienation, class issues, addiction, mental illness, death, and loss against a backdrop of fashion shows, black-and-white balls, beachside beer pong parties and boardwalk hangs. And though the show, as befits its setting, includes its fair share of #firstworldproblems (real estate scams and embezzlement are not always the stuff of teen drama), the characters and their relationships always take front and center. 

The family that selfies together stays together

The O.C. Watch List Episodes of The O.C. can be purchased through iTunes and Amazon Prime.

Pilot: “Premiere” Prom: “The Debut” (a.k.a. Seth is torn between Anna and Summer, and Marissa watches her family fall apart as her dad Jimmy Cooper gets exposed—and punched out—for stealing money from his clients) Best: “The Best Chrismukkah Ever,” Season 1 (a.k.a. Marissa continues her downward spiral, Sandy Cohen sticks it to his manipulative father-in-law, and Seth Cohen introduces America to a new super-holiday, thus changing our lives forever) Worst: “The Summer Bummer,” Season 4 (a.k.a. Che (a.k.a. Chris Pratt a.k.a. Andy Dwyer) gets Summer kicked out of Brown and Kaitlin Cooper is generally just a mean girl) Finale: “The End’s Not Near, It’s Here,” Season 4 (a.k.a. we forgive the show for its many transgressions when we’re treated to a delightful flash-forward sequence that wraps everything up beautifully)

The O.C. was created by Josh Schwartz, who was, when the show debuted at age 26, the youngest-ever creator of a TV show. The fall after The O.C. wrapped its lackluster final season, Schwartz was in the spotlight again, this time for Gossip Girl—an adaptation of a popular young adult series by Cecily von Ziegesar. (Actually, Gossip Girl is, like The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, a production of Alloy Entertainment, a book packaging unit that’s now part of Warner Brothers. I am fascinated by Alloy. You could be too—I recommend starting here.)

Gossip Girl and The O.C. have more in common than just their showrunner. Like Ryan Atwood, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) is an outsider eager to find his place amidst the wealthy upper crust. But Gossip Girl’s elite bunch wouldn’t be caught dead wearing flip-flops on the California shore. Instead, they parade around the halls of the Upper East Side’s elite private schools like the royalty they might as well be, with names like Waldorf, Van Der Woodsen and Archibald. And Dan has more in common with Seth Cohen than Ryan anyway—he’s a literary striver from Brooklyn with a washed up 90s pop star cum art gallerist for a father. 

Dan wears a lot of vests and talks about F. Scott Fitzgerald and stuff

Dan’s got the hots for Serena (Blake Lively, with legs for days as always), who, in the first episode, has just returned to the Upper East Side after a few months’ mysterious absence. It turns out Serena has some skeletons in her closet, as well as (like her mom Lily, who once was a groupie in love with Dan’s father Rufus; in this Gossip Girl parallels The O.C.’s Jimmy Cooper and Kirsten Cohen) a taste for flouting the customs of the Constance Billard court. Serena’s best friend (and sometime frenemy) is Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), a perfect princess with a headband and a bit of a vindictive streak when things don’t go her way. Her Prince Charming, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), may have let his eyes wander to Serena some time back. Rounding out this core cast is Nate’s best friend, Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). Chuck gets his kicks off of bow ties, expensive booze, expensive women, spending his massive inheritance, and emotional manipulation that verges on sadism.

Oh yeah, Dan has a sister, too—Jenny, pictured on the right

So far, so good. But Gossip Girl would not be Gossip Girl without its titular character—an anonymous blogger who, thanks in large part to tips sent via phone snapshots, chronicles the lives of Serena, Blair and the rest in excruciating detail, providing “your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite.” (One wonders, when one sees what people like Captain Archibald and Bart Bass gets up to, why the scandalous lives in question are almost always those in high school. But whatever.) Voiced by Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell, Gossip Girl’s true identity is a secret until the final episode of the show, and I’ll withhold it here for now as a matter of principle.

I think this photo is adorbs

As a societal phenomenon, Gossip Girl came along at an interesting time in the mid/late-2000s. In its unabashed display of opulence, it could be seen as yet another symbol of the pre-crash economy, with teenagers blowing cash on couture and Dom Perignon. It’s also pretty interesting from a technological perspective. When the show started, it felt very current, what with the Gossip Girl site itself (a kind of Gawker for the under-18 legacy set) and the ubiquitous cameraphones watching the characters’ every move. Watching it now, you’ll notice that the early tips are sent on flip-phones (later, Blackberry and Android dominate, which we all know is total bull; Blair would always have the newest iPhone) but you can’t deny that Gossip Girl was prescient—if it were on the air now, there would be a lot more talk about the surveillance state, and how the Internet enables anonymous, vicious school bullying. (Then again, there is a show on the air now that touches on all of these themes, and that’s Pretty Little Liars, in which the anonymous A goes far beyond mere ubiquitous knowledge of the Liars into the territory of stalking, blackmail, threats, and bodily harm.)

Gossip Girl was also one of the first shows of the DVR era that remained true appointment television, at least in the first couple seasons—you couldn’t go anywhere on the web the day after an episode without reading a recap, and not just on niche, old-timer sites like Television Without Pity. I’m pretty sure Gossip Girl helped recapping go mainstream. (If you’re planning to skip actually watching Gossip Girl, which I don’t recommend, you should probably take yourself over to Vulture and dig into its recap archives.) It also benefited from the rise of Tumblr, which launched just months before Gossip Girl and quickly became the home of hyper-obsessive “single serving blogs” like What Chuck Wore. I might even argue that it was the first teen drama of the modern Internet era.

While the prospect of choosing between these two Josh Schwartz masterpieces is a little daunting for some of us, this is one of the more well-matched pairs in the bracket and we’re so excited to start watching!

The Gossip Girl Watch List Gossip Girl is available streaming through Netflix.

Pilot: “Pilot” Best: “Victor, Victrola,” Season 1 (a.k.a. Chuck hosts a party at a burlesque club and he and Blair get it on in the back of a limo) Prom: “Hi, Society,” Season 1 (a.k.a. Cotillion, Upper East Side-style, complete with devious matriarchs and love triangles) Worst: “They Shoot Humphreys, Don’t They?” Season 3 (a.k.a. some boring stuff happens involving Jenny wanting to make the perfect Cotillion debut and Dan has a threesome with Vanessa and Olivia, played by Hilary Duff) Finale: “New York, I Love You XOXO,” Season 5 (a.k.a. Gossip Girl’s secret identity is revealed and we get a nice glimpse into the lead characters’ futures...spoiler alert—Rufus is dating Lisa Loeb!)

XOXO, Emily

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Week 6 Matchup Recap: Pretty Little Liars vs. Smallville

The POE voted 4-0 in favor of Pretty Little Liars over Smallville (one expert abstained because she wasn’t able to watch all of the episodes). This really wasn’t much of a surprise; the 4 “aye” votes watch PLL regularly and are pretty big fans. We're excited to take this opportunity to talk about PLL in more depth and to discuss our impressions of the highs and lows of Smallville based on the episodes we watched. (The shows don't have much in common, however, so please forgive what will be a disjointed recap....)

There is a lot to say about Pretty Little Liars as a teen drama, and given the subject matter of this blog, we'll certainly get there. But the show also positions itself as a mystery-thriller telling the story of what happened to teen queen Ali DiLaurentis. In this regard, it's not all that unlike Twin Peaks (which is decidedly not a teen drama, though it has its fair share of soapy moments, especially in the Donna and James plot line) and Veronica Mars, which drew viewers in with the unsolved murders of Laura Palmer and Lilly Kane, respectively. And just as in those shows, the path to solving the mystery of Ali's disappearance uncovers seemingly hundreds of other mysteries in its wake. The key curveballs here are (1) Ali turns out not to be dead but rather hiding from her would-be murderer and (2) this would-be murderer—the hooded, gloved, shadowy, evil A—seems to have it out for Ali's four best friends, the show's titular liars, tormenting them and their loved ones every chance he/she gets.

As a mystery-thriller, PLL can be quite compelling and even downright scary. (Much to my chagrin, I've had to watch a few scenes through my fingers and I've let out a yelp of fear more than once.) A seems to be truly evil—whether hurting Caleb's mom in a car "accident," driving a car through Emily's house, or framing Ashley Marin for the murder of Detective Wilden—and while it seems he/she could've killed the Liars by now if he/she wanted to, A certainly makes a daily habit of putting the Liars in fear for their lives. I mean, it must be exhausting to live like Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily, always on edge and always in constant danger.

This Ali "shrine" in A's lair is not un-scary

This raises an interesting question: Why do teenage girls tune into this show in droves when they likely (hopefully!) can't relate to being stalked and threatened on a daily basis? The show is hugely popular; it is the most tweeted about series in television and it is a significant contributor to ABC Family's success. Are the teen fans tuning in for the mystery or the drama?

The answer, most likely, is both. The thrilling suspense of PLL's central mystery certainly propels the show forward, but that mystery has also begun to fold in on itself in increasingly absurd ways that can test even the most dedicated viewer's patience. And while the show deftly plays on the very real scariness of living in a modern surveillance society where everything we do seems to be seen by someone, it doesn't exactly give us (nor does it aim to) a realistic view of that world. But as the show's central mystery—and all of its satellite mysteries—flirt with new levels of ridiculousness, we (I?) feel as compelled as ever to keep watching.

I think that's really the result of the show's rich character development and the depth to which it explores the characters' relationships with one another. The four Liars are, for the most part, well-drawn characters rounded out with flaws and strengths alike. Spencer is a classic overachiever weighed down by the pressure of her family's expectations and pressure. Her relentless drive to solve the mystery of Ali's disappearance has passed the point of obsession. Hanna is strong and fearless, but also a touch too impatient. Aria is creative and understanding, though she also makes terrible decisions, like having an inappropriate romantic relationship with her high school English teacher, Ezra. Emily is warm and trusting, but that trust can make her very naive and vulnerable. The acting can be quite good; Troian Bellisario (Spencer) and Ashley Benson (Hanna) are both excellent, though Lucy Hale (Aria) and Shay Mitchell (Emily) are likeable too. Then there’s Ali herself, who routinely stole the show in flashbacks (like this one, also below, where she threatens to hold her breath until she passes out just to get her mom to cave) as the Liars' missing, manipulative, self-centered friend with more secrets than you can shake a stick at (I mean, she had a secret identity, Vivian Darkbloom, inspired by Lolita...enough said). We’re looking forward to Sasha Pieterse (Ali) having a bigger role in upcoming Season 5.

Ultimately though, it's the Liars' friendships that really anchor the show. These girls have been through some dark stuff—Ali's disappearance, funeral, and then reappearance; cheating parents; troubled and/or cold and calculating siblings; even crueler step-siblings; drug addiction; a genius classmind who is an evil mastermind who sometimes tries to kill them (Mona); a murdered girlfriend; depressive and/or dishonest boyfriends (the list goes on)—but they remain dedicated friends through it all, knowing it's them against A, or the world, or both. In fact, given how often the adults in their lives (parents, older siblings, teachers, cops) disappoint them, they really have no option but to rely on one another.

This is just one example of Aria's insane wardrobe

And while there are certainly lots of other great teen drama elements—fabulous clothes (except for Aria, who, as this article so aptly put it, “always looks like she got into a fight with an arts and craft store and lost”), cute boyfriends—I think that the central friendships among the Liars are very compelling in how relatable and touching they are. 

The cast of Pretty Little Liars

I don't have that much to say about Smallville. I enjoyed the episodes we watched well enough (except for "Thirst," which was really awful). I found myself rooting for Clark and Lana as a couple and then for Clark and Lois as a couple. I applauded Clark's final transformation into Superman (who doesn't want to believe in heroes, at least sometimes?) and I was touched by Jor-El's motivational speech explaining that Clark's time in Smallville with the good, honest Kents is what truly shaped and prepared him to become the superhero that will save the human race. I just never really got a sense of who the characters were (with the possible exception of Pa Kent and Lex Luthor).

The main reason is, clearly, that I've only seen a fraction of Smallville episodes—and many of those I saw over a dozen years ago—whereas I've seen all of PLL (and I've seen it much more recently). After all, Smallville was on the air for *10* seasons. That is no small feat, and we're simply not going to get a very full picture of a show of that scope in just 5 episodes. But even putting that (obvious) reason aside, nuanced character development just wasn't really the show's focus. Too much time had to be spent on supernatural threats of the week (or every few weeks) and setting formidable villains. That kind of episodic focus can really detract from character development (unless the show is Buffy or Veronica Mars, but those shows may just be true outliers in terms of quality).

"Thirst," our worst episode, was super terrible.

Moreover, Smallville always had to contend with the existing Superman mythology. Sure, other shows in this bracket are derived from other works, but something tells me that fans of PLL and The Vampire Diaries don't freak out that much (and may even prefer it) when those shows deviate from their source material. I'm guessing that's not the case with fans of Superman, who is arguably the single most iconic character in American pop culture. And even when the show introduced interesting character motivations, it seemed to eventually back away from those complexities. For example, I found Clark's guilt about being the literal cause of so much hurt and destruction (brought about when his spaceship crashed to Earth in the meteor shower) a compelling emotion worth exploring. I then found out from the Smallville wikia (by the way, that "document" is one of the most perplexing things I've ever seen on the Internet in the depth of its detail and its complete disregard for the basic rules of the English language) that Clark later learns in Season 7's "Apocalypse" that even if he hadn't come to Earth, the meteor shower would have still occurred, causing just as much damage, and the world would have been worse off for not having a burgeoning superhero amidst its ranks. That seemed kind of lame.

At the end of the day, it's not really a surprise that we voted unanimously for PLL, though I would've liked to have seen some more episodes of Smallville. I'm interested to see how PLL fares later on the bracket though....

Posted by Julia

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Week 6 Bonus: Pretty Little Liars Fun Facts

Pretty Little Liars sends its readers further down the rabbit hole every week, and inspires rabid fandom worldwide. These fun facts will get you started on that very rewarding path...

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before...

Bianca Lawson made a big impression as Kendra the Vampire Slayer in Season 2 of Buffy. (She also has a far less memorable role as Nikki Green on Dawson’s Creek.) Despite the fact that she’s now 35 (!), she has a recurring role as Emily’s girlfriend, Maya, in Seasons 1 and 2 of Pretty Little Liars. 

Lucy Hale (Aria Montgomery) was in an episode of The O.C. as Kaitlin Cooper’s boarding school roommate.

Both Ashley Benson (Hanna Marin) and Janel Parrish (Mona) appear in The O.C.’s “The Summer Bummer” (our candidate for worst episode of that show, and which we’ll be watching next week) as Kaitlin’s nemesis Riley and Riley’s BFF, respectively.

Torrey De Vitto plays Spencer’s very suspicious older sister Melissa Hastings. You may recognize her as Meredith Fell, Mystic Falls’ resident doctor (who uses vampire blood to heal patients) on The Vampire Diaries, or psycho stalker/kidnapper Nanny Carrie on One Tree Hill. 

Claire Holt, who played Original vampiress Rebekah on The Vampire Diaries, shows up in Season 2 as Emily’s girlfriend, Samara.

Another Original vampire, Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic), recently had an arc as Spencer’s addition counselor/life coach. Emily is curious as to what will happen between Kol and Spencer next season….

Sean Faris, a.k.a. Detective Holbrook—who regularly dispenses detective novel recommendations and flirts with Hanna—had a small role in Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries as Ben McKittrick, who is trying to help Anna open up the tomb.

Bryce Johnson, the very creepy Detective Wilden, shows up in an episode of Glee.

Notable Names and Notes

Troian Bellisario, who really anchors the show as Spencer Hastings, grew up close friends with the Olsen twins. She even co-starred with them in one their many, many movies, Billboard Dad.

Ashley Benson had a non-speaking role as one of the mean girls from Jennifer Garner’s teenage past in 13 Going on 30. But she’s more known for her role in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers alongside James Franco (hey! Freaks and Geeks!), Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez.

Laura Leighton (Hanna’s mom Ashley Marin) was on Melrose Place (both the original and the 2009 reboot).

Nia Peeples (Emily’s mom Pam Fields) and Tammin Sursok (Jenna Marshall) were both on The Young and the Restless during 2007-2009.

Holly Marie Combs (Aria’s mom Ella Montgomery) was one of the three witch sisters on the WB’s Charmed, the first couple seasons alongside Julia’s fave Shannen Doherty.

Chad Lowe (Aria’s dad Byron) is probably best known for being Rob Lowe’s less attractive little brother. His second claim to fame is that he was married to Hillary Swank, who famously forgot to thank him in her Oscars acceptance speech in 2000. (That’s why Lena Dunham thanked Chad Lowe when she accepted her Golden Globe in 2013.) But he’s also had a huge variety of recurring TV roles, including on Melrose Place, 24, E.R., and Popular, a non-bracket teen drama which also featured PLL’s Bryce Johnson (Wilden).

Lucy Hale played Robin Scherbatsky’s little sister Katie on How I Met Your Mother. 

Producer Marlene King has said that they had to make “like, 20” of the yellow tops that Ali wore the night she disappeared.

“Can you ever just be whelmed?” “I think you can in Europe.” Larisa Oleynik has had quite a few memorable roles over the years: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s heart’s desire in the 90’s classic 10 Things I Hate About You, the titular role in The Secret World of Alex Mack, Ken Cosgrove’s wife on Mad Men, California blond babysitter Dawn in The Babysitters Club movie… the list goes on. In Pretty Little Liars, she’s Maggie, the (spoiler) supposed mother of Ezra’s love child. 

The show nods to several Hitchcock classics over the course of its four seasons. In second season finale “UnmAsked,” the girls visit an isolated motel, the Lost Woods Resort, where they meet with a creepy innkeeper Harold Crane, an obvious nod to Norman Bates in Psycho. Hanna takes a (luckily nonfatal) shower there, too, and discovers that while she was under the water A may have been in their room. (This is a pretty awesome blog entry that shows some other parallels.) The first season finale features a chase up a bell tower in an homage to Vertigo. And the coffee shop where the Liars meet to discuss the latest A shenanigans is called Rear Window Brew. (Total side note: the guy who plays Harold Crane was also Inspector Spacetime in NBC’s excellent, weird Community.)  

Andrea Parker plays Ali’s mom Jessica DiLaurentis (except, just FYI, in the pilot). While researching this post, we discovered two amazing facts about her: first, she was Julia Roberts’ body double in Pretty Woman, and second, her “breakout” moment occurred when she appeared in the iconic Seinfeld episode “The Contest.”

In Season 1, an FBI agent named Agent Cooper comes to Rosewood to try to solve the disappearance of Ali DiLaurentis. If that’s not an homage to Kyle MacLachlan’s beloved Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks, we’re not sure what is. The PLL Agent Cooper is a lady, though, and we don’t recall any scenes where she orders cherry pie.

In “Grave New World” (which we’ve selected as the series’ worst episode), Hanna keeps seeing two little girls (or so they seem) wearing red coats. (The Liars had had previous run-ins with a few other girls wearing red coats, who turned out to be Ali and CeCe.) This is a straight-up allusion to Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 film Don’t Look Now, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie and easily one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen. Hats off to PLL for this pretty awesome (and sophisticated) horror film reference.

Shay Mitchell runs a blog on the side with her best friend. 

Music Alert

Pretty Little Liars has some of the least memorable music in the bracket. Maybe it’s just that we’re too old, or that it’s too current, but the songs don’t even have the benefit of nostalgia (e.g., Smallville, One Tree Hill). Anyway, there’s not too much to say about it with a few exceptions noted below….

The Pierces’ “Secret” is excellent as the show’s theme song. Like, it’s definitely among the top half of theme songs in the bracket. Kudos to Ashley Benson for recommending it to the show’s producers.

When Emily and the other Liars learn that the cops found Ali’s body (spoiler: it wasn’t really hers!), “Suggestions” by Orelia Has Orchestra plays. It actually works really well. The same song plays when Emily find out that Maya has been murdered at the end of the Season 2 finale. It’s heartbreaking.

Several of the actors on the show are taking a page out of David Austin Green’s “rap career” and trying to have success as musicians as well. Tammin Sursok, Sasha Pieterse (Ali DiLaurentis), Tyler Blackburn (Caleb), and, of course, Lucy Hale all have released stabs at musical glory, ranging from single tracks to full albums.

Posted by Julia and Emily

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Week 6 Bonus: Smallville Fun Facts

Smallville was (somewhat unbelievably) on for 10 seasons, so it's not surprising that it featured an impressive number of guest stars, including many from other versions of the Superman story.

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before...

James Marsters won hearts as the bad-boy vampire Spike on Buffy. He appears on Smallville as Brainiac, an artificial intelligence created by Jor-El and disguised, at first, as a professor at Clark’s college. (If you’re looking for evidence that Smallville is a needlessly complex show, see the Smallville Wikia entry on Brainiac.)

Everyone’s favorite bad-brother vampire Ian Smolderhalder Somerhalder has a multi-episode arc in Season 3 as Adam Knight, a resurrected teen whom Lionel Luthor has spy on Clark and Lana.

Cassidy Freeman plays Tess Mercer (Lex Luthor’s half sister and LuthorCorp successor) beginning in Season 8. You might recognize her from The Vampire Diaries as Sage, the powerful vampire who is (inexplicably) in love with one of the Originals, Finn—and a one-time mentor to Damon.

Jimmy Olsen is played by Aaron Ashmore, who, in addition to being the twin brother of Shawn Ashmore (Iceman in the X-Men movies), appeared on Veronica Mars as Troy Vandegraff, the blippiest of Veronica’s boyfriends and arguably the worst. (In Season 1, he’s revealed as a drug dealer; he is not—good for him!—a rapist, though he’s suspected of it in the Season 2 episode “The Rapes of Graff.”)

Now known for Supernatural (where he co-stars with Gilmore Girls’ Jared Padalecki), Jensen Ackles also played Lana’s love interest Jason Teague in Season 4. He was also Jen’s boyfriend C.J. in the sixth season of Dawson’s Creek.

Tori Spelling appears in a recurring role as Linda Lake, the Daily Planet’s gossip columnist.  Her Beverly Hills, 90210 husband, Brian Austin Green, plays John Corben/Metallo. He has various superpowers, including a heart made of green kryptonite.

Adrianne Palicki of Friday Night Lights appears in one episode as a woman who pretends to be Clark’s biological cousin Kara.

Notable Names and Notes

Carrie Fisher plays Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Pauline Kahn in “Thirst.”

Smallville was big on using actors from the Superman films in the show. Christopher Reeve appears twice in Smallville as Dr. Virgil Swann, a scientist who helps Clark understand his origins by deciphering an encoded message that turns out to be sent from Krypton.

Clark’s father Jor-El is voiced by Terence Stamp, who played General Zod in Superman and Superman II.

Margot Kidder—Lois Lane from the original films—shows up in Season 4 as Bridgette Crosby, a member of the Veritas secret society and assistant to Dr. Virgil Swann (played by her Superman co-star Christopher Reeve).

Annette O’Toole, who plays Clark’s mom Martha Kent on Smallville, appeared as Lana Lang in 1983’s Superman III.

Jonathan Schneider, who plays Clark’s dad Jonathan, is best known for his role as Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard.

Dean Cain—who is best known for playing Clark Kent in the ‘90s hit television series Lois and Clark—has a special guest appearance as Dr. Curtis Knox in Season 7.

Pam Grier (!) played villain Amanda Waller in Season 9.

Smallville shares a weird overlap with Battlestar Galactica, with multiple actors making appearances in both shows. Michael Hogan (BSG’s Saul) plays Slade Wilson in Season 10; Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta) is Dr. Emil Hamilton, a member of the Justice League; Tahmoh Peniket (Helo) appears as two different characters in Seasons 3 and 6 (and was also in Man of Steel); Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster) plays a doctor in multiple episodes; Sam Witwer (Crashdown) is Doomsday; Kandyse McClure (Anastasia Dualla) is Harmony, one of Dawn Stiles’ lackeys in “Spirit”; and Aaron Douglas (Chief) is one of Lionel’s mercenaries in Season 7.

Amy Adams appears in Season 1 as an overweight teenager (Adams wore a fat suit) who develops a supercharged metabolism and the ability to absorb fat from other people thanks to unwittingly ingesting green kryptonite. Adams plays Lois Lane in 2013’s Man of Steel.

Music Alert

The Smallville soundtrack is a bit like listening to a generic late ‘90s/early ‘00s radio station (I assume those exist). The show incorporates songs from Lifehouse, Eagle Eye Cherry, Papa Roach, Eve 6, Pete Yorn, the All-American Rejects, and Jimmy Eat World. It’s a bit unremarkable.

That said, it’s kind of impressive that Lifehouse performed “You and Me” (and some other songs) live at Smallville High’s prom during “Spirit.” Lifehouse was a pretty huge deal at the time. The show features several Lifehouse songs throughout its run.

John Schneider (Jonathan Kent) is also a country musician. His song “Good Ol’ Boys” plays during Season 1’s “Nicodemus.”

At least two Superman-themed songs turn up on Smallville: Stereophonics’ “Superman” in Season 5’s “Splinter” and Five for Fighting’s “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” in Season 1’s “Stray” and Season 3’s “Hereafter.” I can’t believe I just spent time listening to these songs. Truly regrettable.* At least 3 Doors Down’s “Kryptonite” wasn’t played on the show (though other 3 Doors Down songs did).

The A.V. Club put together this list of Superman-inspired songs. How many music lists put Soulja Boy alongside Sufjan Stevens?

You’d have to be pretty immune to, well, feelings not to have been at least a little moved when John Williams’ Superman theme plays at the end of “Finale.”

*This is Julia speaking. Emily actually (unfortunately, in retrospect) liked that Five for Fighting song in high school. It was a mainstay of STAR 98.7, which was basically "a generic late ‘90s/early ‘00s radio station" during, well, the late 90s/early 00s. Alongside the Counting Crows and Sheryl Crow and the Verve Pipe and stuff, It also featured (for eight years!) everyone's favorite sell-out success story, Ryan Seacrest (basically before he was famous, or at least before he was American Idol-level famous and could buy $40M homes and stuff), who did the afternoon show, "Ryan Seacrest for the ride home."

Posted by Emily and Julia

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Week 6 Preview: Pretty Little Liars vs. Smallville

After the realism of Week 5, we shift genres this week as thriller Pretty Little Liars faces off against superhero epic Smallville.

One of just three shows in the bracket that is currently on the air, Pretty Little Liars follows four best friends—Spencer, Hanna, Emily and Aria (a.k.a. the Liars)—as they try to uncover the truth about what happened to their friend, Alison DiLaurentis. A year after Ali’s mysterious disappearance, the Liars start receiving menacing text messages, emails and notes from someone named “A,” who threatens to expose their deepest, darkest secrets—secrets only Ali knew. As the show progresses, we learn that Ali was no saint but rather a toxic combination of charisma and manipulation, and she had lots of enemies, any one (or more) of whom may have wanted her dead and may now be tormenting the Liars.

Each week, the Liars search for clues about this evil A is and what he/she/they did to Ali. Though we’ve gotten a fair number of answers, there are countless open questions and A remains as shrouded in mystery in ever as a terrifying, omniscient villain who puts the Liars in constant fear for their lives. But Pretty Little Liars isn’t just a mystery-thriller.  Just as much screentime is devoted to the characters’ romantic entanglements, complex family dynamics, and battle-tested friendships, hitting all the touchstones of great teen drama. Add in some very capable performances—especially from Troian Bellisario (Spencer), Ashley Benson (Hanna), and, more recently, Sasha Pieterse (Ali)—and you get the delightful mix of suspense and drama that makes the show work so well.

Pretty Little Liars, which just wrapped up its fourth season on ABC Family, is based on a successful series of young adult novels. But the show seems well on its way to surpassing its source material in both popularity and depth. The recent Season 4 finale inspired approximately 1.5 million tweets—compare that to the measly 895,000 tweets about Mercer’s round 1 upset against Duke that same week. After you watch the episodes below, we think you’ll understand what’s so addictive about Pretty Little Liars and you may want to join the conversation as well….

The Pretty Little Liars Watch List Pretty Little Liars (except Season 4) is available streaming on Netflix. Season 4 can be purchased through iTunes and some episodes are also available on Hulu Plus and ABC Family’s website.

Pilot: “Pilot” Prom: “unmAsked,” Season 2 (a.k.a. the Liars go to a masquerade ball, have a run-in with the mysterious Black Swan, and confront the seriously deranged and dangerous Mona Vanderwaal) Best: “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” Season 3 (a.k.a. Spencer simultaneously loses her grip on reality and uncovers more important clues about A and Ali while institutionalized at Radley) Worst: “Grave New World,” Season 4 (a.k.a. the Liars follow a lead to a creepy party in creepy Ravenswood in this backdoor pilot for the now-cancelled show named after said creepy town) Finale: “A Is for Answers,” Season 4 (a.k.a. the most recent season finale, in which #AliTellsAll about the night she disappeared)

It’s safe to say that Superman is among the most iconic characters in American pop culture.  First introduced in a comic book series in the 1930s, the story of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent with a cape-wearing, flying superhero secret identity has been told in just about every medium possible, from radio shows to animated series to a Broadway musical to live-action movie franchises. It’s hard to imagine coming across someone who didn’t know at least one thing about Superman or his alter ego—what his costume looked like, that part of Clark’s disguise was a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, that Superman’s weakness was Kryptonite, or that Clark was in love with his Daily Planet colleague Lois Lane. And while those familiar with Clark’s origins likely know that he was raised in Smallville, Kansas, no previous incarnation of the Superman story focused so completely on Clark Kent’s teenage years as did Smallville.

Clark (Tom Welling) has a lot in common with your average American teenager. He can be shy, he doesn’t feel like he fits in, and he harbors an unrequited crush on his neighbor and classmate, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk).

Sure, he’s actually an alien with superhuman strength, but the show does a good job in its early seasons of emphasizing Clark’s human emotions and struggles, defining him against that unblemished image of perfection that Superman is best known for. One of the most compelling things about Smallville is that it introduces Clark as a kid racked with guilt—the meteor shower that brought him to Earth also caused significant destruction in his adopted town, killing Lana’s parents, stripping young Lex Luthor of his hair, and infecting many inhabitants with dangerous metahuman abilities. This guilt gives Clark’s character complexity, something that always seemed a bit lacking in other depictions of Superman.

Clark’s relationships with his parents, Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O’Toole), and his friends anchor the show, especially in the first five seasons that are set primarily in Smallville. Clark’s friendship with Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), the intrepid editor of Smallville High’s newspaper, The Torch, underpins the entire series. There’s also Clark’s complicated relationship with Lex Luthor (portrayed with ample intensity and charisma by Michael Rosenbaum), who transforms from an inquisitive billionaire heir to a megalomaniacal evil supervillain over the course of the show. Let’s just say that Clark and Lex give a whole new meaning to the word “frenemy.” Smallville also shows us how Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and Clark evolve from friends into the one of the most iconic pop culture couples ever.

The Smallville Watch List Smallville is available streaming for purchase on Amazon Instant Video.

Pilot: “Pilot” Prom: “Spirit,” Season 4 (a.k.a. a Prom Queen candidate develops special powers) Worst: “Thirst,” Season 5 (a.k.a. Lana’s sorority sisters turn her into a vampire) Best: “Reckoning,” Season 5 (a.k.a. the 100th episode, in which Clark reveals his secret to Lana but soon after confronts a devastating tragedy) Finale: “Finale,” Season 10 (a.k.a. Clark saves the world and becomes Superman)

Posted by Julia

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Week 5 Matchup Recap: Felicity vs. Gilmore Girls

Circa 2001, there was possibly no one out there who loved both Felicity and Gilmore Girls as much as I did. By that point, Felicity was well into the questionable second half of the series, but I was still loyal; and Gilmore Girls was brand-new and amazing. I vividly remember the giddiness that my friends and I shared over the Season 1 finale, despite the fact that obviously Lorelai should never have been with Max no matter how many yellow daisies he gave her.

Rewatching them as an adult, there is still magic in both shows, though they’ve also both aged. Watching the first season of Felicity is often like watching early Sex and the City—you ask yourself, how did I not realize how absolutely insane this protagonist is when I watched it the first time? Setting aside the whole basic concept of following a guy you’ve only actually talked to once across the country for college, you’d think that even if you were nuts enough to do that, that you would then recognize that possibly you should not read his college admissions essay; or if you had read that essay that maybe you should not talk to him about that essay. It’s painful to watch Felicity flail around claiming to be “over” Ben and then doing something insane that proves that she’s not.

At the same time, the show also captures, in a very real way, the growing pains and subsequent rewards associated with college, whether you’re a nutjob or not. Even just partway through the first season, you can see Felicity starting to stretch herself. She has a better understanding of other people, more confidence and—perhaps most importantly, since she already had a certain amount of chutzpah—self-awareness, in a way that’s slightly less self-defeating than her early, obsessive rumination. By the end of the show, her hair is straightened, and her nuttiness is similarly tamed. In other words, it’s apropos that the theme song for the latter two seasons crooned “can you become the new version of you?”

I also think that, over the course of the show, you can see how, despite her crazy, Felicity and Ben really do end up being right for each other. After they’re robbed, and Felicity’s grandmother’s necklace is stolen, Ben gives her a new one; in the process of giving it to her he says that she makes him nervous:

To me, that says all you need to know about Ben and Felicity. Felicity always felt an irrational connection to Ben, but somehow, and perhaps because of that, Ben felt a connection to Felicity. (I guess you could argue that he always felt it too, given what he writes in her yearbook in the pilot: “I’ve watched you for four years, always wondered what you were like—what was going on in your mind all that time when you were so quiet, just thinking, drawing in your notebook. I should have just asked you but I never asked you. So now, four years later, I don’t even know you, but I admire you.”)

So, Felicity has merit for its (somewhat) realistic treatment of the emotional experience of being a college student. But then, the show had to go and do something incredibly stupid. With five episodes left in the fourth season, Ben follows Felicity to Stanford and all is well. And then… it’s not. Felicity discovers that Ben has cheated on her, and in her rage, allows Meghan to do an elaborate time travel spell that sends her back to the moment, at the beginning of her senior year, that she slept with Noel on the roof. It’s a fucked-up self-starter version of Sliding Doors—Felicity decides that she should have chosen Noel, and so she does it.

The first time travel episode—because there are many—is one of the worst episodes in the entire bracket. It doesn’t even make internal sense. Felicity says she discovers Ben kissing Claire the day she got Noel’s wedding invitation. The next scene she’s sobbing on the phone to Meghan, and then the next scene she’s showing up for the wedding without Ben; no one knows they’ve broken up. She also apparently hasn’t even talked to him since she witnessed the kiss, since he then shows up to explain himself. Now, tell me the last time you got the invitation to a wedding four days before the wedding? And are we also supposed to believe that Felicity ran away from Ben after discovering him with the other woman and he doesn’t manage to catch her to say anything at the time? It also bugs me that when Felicity goes back in time she doesn’t like, have to avoid her former self—no, she just *is* her former self, with curly hair and all, though she has all the awareness of modern Felicity.

But these things are just surface problems, of course. The deeper problem with the time travel plot is that it makes Felicity a show that can’t commit to an ending, or to building a relationship that people believe in enough despite another alternative, and therefore basically feels the need to “prove” to you (in a completely absurd way) that, in fact, the ending that they already chose is the right one. So they use up five whole episodes to explore an alternative, during which not only does Felicity still end up with Ben but also they literally kill off Noel, like, just in case we needed some extra convincing. The finale, then, is spent on long flashbacks—primarily to the first season, as if the writers know that everyone is so fed up that they should probably just stick to the stuff they know we like—as Felicity explains her history to the creator of the time travel spell (played by Kurt Fuller) so that he can undo it. She then wakes up from a fever in the real, current world and forgives Ben (again) and ends up with Ben (for, like, the third time).

The real icing on the terrible time travel cake is that in the modern day, Elena, who was dead (already a terrible plotline) at the time Felicity time-traveled, is alive at Noel’s wedding, which muddles the whole “waking up in a fever” Wizard of Oz-style thing. Apparently, scenes were cut from the finale which explain that the time travel was real, and that Felicity had convinced Elena to go to Duke instead of Columbia so that Elena does not get hit by a car.

I’m going down a rabbit hole here, but that’s because the time travel is so perplexing that you can’t help it. And unfortunately, its effect is to eclipse the rest of the show. We only watched episodes from the first and fourth seasons for this matchup, so the part of me that still loves Felicity—the part of me that maybe is a little bit Felicity—likes to think that maybe if we’d watched more, or distributed the episodes more, that I would have been more invested in the end of the show and more forgiving of the time travel. I think that was the case when I watched it in 2002. But this time, I found it really hard to take.

Unlike fellow members of the POE who a) own it on DVD or b) routinely record old episodes, I hadn’t really thought twice about Gilmore Girls since I quit watching it sometime in the middle of the sixth season. I hadn’t even thought much about quitting it—it was not only not an agonized decision, it was not a decision at all. So it was not without skepticism that I started watching it last week.

Some of that skepticism is, I think, merited. The early episodes, especially the pilot, are weaker than I remember them. They’re not bad, just slightly artificial, like the characters had yet to settle. There are moments that verge on caricature, like Sookie’s unbelievable klutziness in the kitchen, or Dean’s speech to Rory around why he likes her. Speaking of Dean, the acting is also a bit stiff in early episodes, starting with Jared Padalecki and going all the way up to Alexis Bledel and excepting really only Lauren Graham who, I must say, pretty much always sparkles.

But as the show goes on, and even just over five episodes, you can feel it hit its groove. The trademark fast dialogue feels more believable; the characters’ quirks and disagreements ring true and and make them whole. Even the “worst” episode ("Secrets and Loans") wasn’t that bad—sure, the central conflict arises and is dealt with in under 40 minutes and has no real consequences for the overall story arc, but there are some very funny—and true to character—Lorelai/Emily moments; the changing nature of their relationship is a crucial part of the show. There’s also a telling scene with Luke and Lorelai, when he tries to give her a loan without coming out and saying so, and she spots the subterfuge and refuses.

That even the episode we selected as the worst still offers something re: major relationships is telling. Unlike other shows we’ve seen (ahem, 90210), the key players in Gilmore Girls remain mostly the same from start to finish; the same relationships are mined for stories on the same themes for seven seasons. Even Rory, who, relatively speaking, undergoes the most dramatic life changes throughout the show as she goes from shy high-schooler to less-shy college graduate, is not nearly as changed as similar characters on other shows, as referenced in the speech Lorelai gives her daughter when Rory is about to leave for her reporting job: “Don't be too shy. Don't be too forward, but don't be too shy. ‘Cause, you make a lovely first impression, but—you really grow on people too.” (I loved this scene.)

In fact, with the exception of Veronica and Keith Mars, no characters in our bracket better exemplify how such a strange, fraught, funny combination of emotions can exist simultaneously between parent and child than Lorelai and Rory. From the first episode, when Lorelai is both ecstatic about Rory’s admission to Chilton and resentful (in a funny, self-deprecating way) over it; to the dance episode, when Lorelai defends Rory to Emily after Rory falls asleep at Patty’s with Dean yet scolds Rory as soon as Emily’s back is turned; to the aforementioned finale—there are countless examples.

But Lorelai is the true heart of this show. Her romance with Luke is the romantic relationship to root for (in a departure from the norm, the teen protagonist does not end up attached at the end of the show, which I think is perfect). It’s Lorelai’s side of the mother/daughter relationship that feels the most fraught; if something goes wrong with Rory, Lorelai has the most to lose. And I was surprised this time around by how important the Emily/Lorelai relationship is to the show; it’s actually really heartwarming when Lorelai surprises her parents in the finale by assuming she’ll still be there for Friday dinners despite the fact that Rory will no longer be around to attend them. If you watch the finale and you find yourself crying—like we all did—it’s really because of Lorelai.  

Which is to say: is Gilmore Girls really a teen drama? Perhaps not—but it’s a whole story, and it’s a moving one. And for this reason, if not for others, it triumphed over Felicity in this round, 4-1.

Who gets your vote? Submit your thoughts in our Student Council vote. 

Posted by Emily

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Week 5 Bonus: Felicity Fun Facts

Felicity provides some of my favorite fun facts, from Brian Krakow's frankly disastrous appearance in Season 1 to the many crossovers with one of creator J.J. Abrams' later shows, Alias. 

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

Chris William Martin plays Greg, the guy who runs the health center where Felicity organizes the sit-in over the morning-after pill in Season 2 (he also dates Felicity). Later, he was Uncle Zach Salvatore, an early human casualty in the first season of The Vampire Diaries. He’s also in the Veronica Mars episode "Drinking the Kool-Aid" as the feel-good leader of the "cult" that Veronica investigates. 

Brian Krakow, we knew you when. Devon Gummersall makes yet another appearance in the bracket as the “The Pink Guy,” otherwise known as Zach, who date rapes Julie in Season 1.  

Before he was Noel, Scott Foley played high school jock Cliff on Dawson’s Creek. He’s now on Scandal as Jake Ballard (side note: Shonda Rhimes must really like his work because he also had an arc as Henry Burton on Grey’s Anatomy).

Notable Names and Notes

Especially in the first season, episodes often close with Felicity listening to a tape sent to her by Sally, her older friend and former tutor. Felicity explains in the pilot that she can’t talk to anyone the way she can talk to Sally, which is why they mail each other tapes. (This is also how the attendees at Felicity’s first college party end up hearing her deepest darkest feelings about how she can “actually picture herself being with a man… sexually… for the first time.” Taping your innermost secrets = dangerous.) Sally is voiced by Janeane Garafalo.

Jennifer Garner plays Hannah, Noel’s charming musician girlfriend, in Season 1. You might remember she and Scott Foley were married for about three years starting in 2000—they met on the set.

When J.J. Abrams created Alias, he borrowed quite a few cast members from Felicity. In addition to the show's star Jennifer Garner, Alias included Greg Grunberg (Sean on Felicity), Amanda Foreman (Meghan) and Rob Benedict (Richard), who all played colleagues of Sydney Bristow at the CIA. And Kevin Weisman (who had a much longer running role on Alias as Marshall Flinkman) shows up in a couple of Felicity and Buffy episodes. (Related: David Anders, who played Julian Sark on Alias, appears in The Vampire Diaries as Elena’s uncle/dad John Gilbert. He was also in NBC’s Heroes, with Gilmore Girls’ Milo Ventimiglia and Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell.) Amanda Foreman was on Parenthood for a while, too.

Donald Faison, whom we’ll forever know and love as Turk from Scrubs and Murray from Clueless, plays Tracy, Elena’s virgin boyfriend.

As anyone who was young in the 90s knows, Amy Jo Johnson was the pink power ranger before she was Julie Emrick. When you search “julie emrick” on Google, these are the suggestions you get:

Also, when we were bored and drunk one night in college, my friend Laurel and I decided to dress up like Julie Emrick. (Told you we were really bored.) We put on mismatched earrings and made pouty faces.

Do you remember when Amy Smart was a thing? I thought she was so pretty when I was in high school. Anyway, she played Ruby, Noel’s girlfriend who got pregnant (not with his kid).

Also filed under late-90s famous people: Simon Rex plays Eli, the art student who takes Felicity’s virginity. If you watched a lot of WB around the turn of the millennium, you might remember that he also had his own show, Jack & Jill, with Amanda Peet, Jaime Pressly, Justin Kirk (the brother on Weeds) and now-serious actor Sarah Paulson. Julia—more recently, he was in the “Tik Tok” video.

Ben’s dad is played by Three’s Company’s John Ritter.

In the miserable depths of the latter seasons of Felicity, Noel goes through a quarter-life crisis and marries Javier’s cousin, played by Ali Landry, a.k.a. the Doritos Girl.

In Season 1, Elena has an affair with her professor, played by Chris Sarandon—otherwise known as Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride.

Music Alert

In just four years on the air, Felicity had two theme songs. The first, for Felicity’s freshman and sophomore years, is by Amy Jo Johnson. The junior and senior year intro song is co-composed by show creator J.J. Abrams. Here is a handy compilation of both: 

Otherwise, the music on Felicity is firmly in the 90s singer-songwriter genre, with artists like Sarah McLachlan and Heather Nova making multiple appearances. (We mark the second bracket appearance of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” also.) From the Amazon.com review of the soundtrack: “Stultifying slow, midtempo balladry with often painful lyrical imagery is the rule here.”

Posted by Emily

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Week 5 Bonus: Gilmore Girls Fun Facts

We’ve already mentioned Matt Czuchry (Logan) and Chad Michael Murray (Tristan)’s multi-bracket appearances, but the Gilmore Girls is chock full of actors and actresses that we’ve seen and will see throughout the bracket. We’ve included some of the more notable appearances in this post.

I Think I’ve Seen You Somewhere (In This Bracket) Before…

Before he won our hearts as Seth Cohen, Adam Brody was Dave Rygalski, Lane’s boyfriend and fellow band member. 

Danny Strong, who plays Paris’ boyfriend and Yale Daily News (aka the YDN) editor Doyle McMaster during Rory’s Yale years, first endeared himself to me as geek-turned evil mastermind-turned Scooby Gang member. He plays a central role in one of my very favorite Buffy episodes, “Earshot,” and I was very moved by his touching speech giving Buffy the Class Protector award in “The Prom.” (He was also in Mad Men and is a successful screenwriter. He’ll be writing the Mockingjay screenplay adaptation.)

Adam Hendershott was one of Rory’s YDN colleagues, but he’ll always be Butters from Veronica Mars to me. (Danny Pudi, best known as Abed on Community, was also a writer on the YDN staff.)

Krysten Ritter is fun to watch as Rory’s senior-year friend Lucy, especially after we got to see her in a significant role in the Veronica Mars movie last week.

Arielle Kebbel, who played Dean’s wife Lindsay, was always a bright spot on The Vampire Diaries as Stefan’s oldest friend, Lexi. (Sarah, she was also Paige Thomas on Life Unexpected, which I know you’re a fan of!)

Dave Allen—unforgettable guidance counsellor Jeff Rosso on Freaks and Geeks—has a small role as Stars Hollow’s second troubadour. (You also saw him on screen for about 30 seconds in the Veronica Mars movie.)

Keiko Agena (Lane) had a bit role Beverly Hills, 90210’s “Agony” and also appears in three episodes of Felicity.

Max Perlich is a fine actor whose career ranges from Can’t Buy Me Love to Drugstore Cowboy to Gummo. He makes an excellent bracket appearance in the two-part Season 2 Buffy finale as Whistler, the good-meaning demon who gave Angel his purpose and warned Buffy about the doom-inducing awakening of Acathla. He also has a small role on Gilmore Girls as Jackson’s cousin Rune, whom Lorelai begrudgingly joins on a double-date with along with Sookie and Jackson.

Notable Names and Notes

Two very notable Twin Peaks alumna appear in Gilmore Girls. Madchen Amick (Shelley Johnson) plays Sherry Tinsdale, Christopher’s ex and Gigi’s mom. Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne) shows up in two different roles. We first see her as Sasha in Season 3’s “Here Comes the Son,” the backdoor pilot for Windward Circle, the Jess Mariano-centric spin-off that never was. She then has a recurring role in Seasons 6 & 7 as Anna Nardini, Luke’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of April, the daughter Luke didn’t know he had.

Lauren Graham published her debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel, last year. Her dad is a candy industry lobbyist. She also used to be roommates with Connie Britton of Friday Night Lights fame. And she has a key role on Parenthood.

The role of Sookie St. James launched Melissa McCarthy’s career, and she’s easily one of the most successful, well-known stars (at least currently) from any of the bracket shows. Also, we just learned that she is Jenny McCarthy’s cousin.

Kelly Bishop always held her own as matriarch Emily Gilmore. Do you remember her as Baby’s mom in Dirty Dancing? She also had a successful Broadway career. 

Liza Weil (Paris) and Keiko Agena (Lane) both have notable—though ill-fated—roles on Scandal as Amanda Tanner and Britta Kagan, respectively. And Gregg Henry (Mitchum Huntzberger, Logan’s dad) has a recurring role on Scandal as the manipulative, despicable Hollis Doyle. (He also is in an episode of Glee as Quinn Fabray’s dad.)

Liza Weil also was in two episodes of The Adventures of Pete & Pete. That show is incredible.

Jared Padalecki (Dean) has found further success in another long-running CW hit, Supernatural.

Chris Eigeman (who plays Jason Stiles, Richard’s business partner and Lorelai’s boyfriend) starred in several early Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy, Highball) and Whit Stillman films (Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco).

Edward Hermann—Grandpa Richard Gilmore—was Max in The Lost Boys. How had I not made this connection before?!?

Music Alert

The pilot episode opens with “There She Goes” by the La’s. (The same version plays in the criminally underrated So I Married an Axe Murderer.)

Lane tells Rory that Dean is swell because “he likes Nick Drake, Liz Phair, and the Sugarplastics.”

Jimmy Mariano comes to Luke’s Diner after closing to tell Jess he’s his father. They sit without saying anything while “Suffragette City” plays on Jess’ stereo. When Bowie sings “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am,” they mouth the line together, nodding their heads in sync. Jimmy then abruptly leaves.

Remember when Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, and their daughter Coco played in the Season 6 finale? That was awesome, though now it’s a sad reminder that Gordon and Moore are no longer together.

The Shins perform “So Says I” live at a club Paris and Rory go to on spring break in Season 4. Paris then kisses Rory in an effort “to do spring break” while The New Pornographers’ “The Laws Have Changed” plays in the background.

M. Ward’s cover of Daniel Johnston’s “To Go Home” plays in the background during the bar scene in “It’s Just Like Riding a Bike.”

Lorelai is a serious fan of The Bangles. She takes Rory, Paris, Madeline and Louise to their concert in Season 1’s “Concert Interruptus.”

Lorelai names her dog Paul Anka.

Sebastian Bach of heavy metal band Skid Row awesomely plays the guitarist in Lane’s band Hep Alien (which is in an anagram for the name Helen Pai, the Gilmore Girls’ producer).

For the theme song, Carole King re-recorded her song “Where You Lead” as a duet with her daughter Louise Goffin.

Posted by Julia