TV Review: The CW's 'The Secret Circle'
Witchy teen drama makes a solid companion with 'The Vampire Diaries'
The cast of "The Secret Circle"
Credit: The CE
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Robert Browning, who observed "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" would not have lasted very long running a broadcast television network.
Sure, it's easy to point to the huge risks that pay off hugely and change the fate of TV networks. A singing competition in which a British guy nobody has heard of insults the talentless? Airing in the summer? Crazy. A drama about plane crash survivors on an island with weird things in the woods? In the same season as you're airing a comedic soap opera narrated by a dead woman? Crazy.
But in most seasons and on most networks, "dice-rolling" usually takes a backseat to "managed risk." And this is even the case in circumstances where you'd think wild gambling might be the order of the day.
The CW did a little gambling with "Ringer" and the results weren't overwhelmingly successful, unless you think that an audience of 2.7 million viewers against zero scripted competition is likely going to hold up in Week 2, especially given reviews that I'll generously call "mixed."
And I guess The CW is even gambling a tiny bit on "Hart of Dixie," banking on another Old WB-style dramedy after similar offerings like "Privileged" and "Life Unexpected" had only brief runs.
But nobody anywhere is going to classify the Thursday drama "The Secret Circle" as a gamble.
Thursday 9 p.m. is one of TV's most crowded time slots, but on The CW, it's also the time slot after the network's biggest hit, "The Vampire Diaries." After giving "The Vampire Diaries" variably compatible lead-outs in "Supernatural" and then "Nikita" the past two seasons, The CW's approach this fall has been to put fish in a barrel and load up a rifle.
"The Secret Circle" comes from "Vampire Diaries" author LJ Smith and it has been adapted by "Vampire Diaries" producer Kevin Williamson. And although the star-making promotional legwork didn't necessarily pay off for Britt Robertson on "Life Unexpected," The CW is hoping that it at least laid the groundwork for a full-scale breakout with "Secret Circle."
There are many ways to design a show and "The Secret Circle" feels like it was developed with compatibility as a higher priority than creativity. But there are worse things than being compatible with what is The CW's most popular and also best series. "The Secret Circle" may be over-calculated and under-inspired, but that doesn't necessarily mean "The Secret Circle" is bad. There's something to be said for setting reasonable goals and largely succeeding, especially when there are plenty of shows that aspire to a good deal less and still fail.
More on "The Secret Circle" after the break...
One thing I often forget when expressing my unironic appreciation for the twisty, supernaturally diverse high drama of "The Vampire Diaries" is just how dreadful the "Vampire Diaries" pilot was.
Marcos Siega helmed that pilot and he continued with the show from those lean early days into better times, but it's amusing to recall the ever-present black crows and the ubiquitous rolling fog that dominated that first installment, a corniness that compensated for how little fun anybody else seemed to be having. I called the pilot entertaining, but also described it as "a hammy gothic yarn for teens, a Hammer Studios version of 'Dawson's Creek.'"
In this department at the very least, "The Secret Circle" has an early leg-up.
Robertson plays Cassie, a teen whose life is turned upside down when her mother dies in a mighty suspicious fire. Cassie packs up and moves in with her grandma (Ashley Crow) in a picturesque harbor town in Washington. It takes almost no time for Cassie to realize that people in Chance Harbor are very forward. If she's not being aggressively stalked, she's being approached by strangers to talk about the way things were when her parents were growing up.
Perhaps rendered oblivious to creepy behavior by her grief, Cassie isn't disturbed by the dude next door who likes to watch her getting changed for bed or when the proprietor at the local hangout spot tells her that her family and his family are connected in the stars. And even when her car spontaneously goes up in flames she's shaken, but only temporarily. And when a kid she barely knows invites her to go wandering deep into the woods and they end up an abandoned warehouse and a group of intense teens come out of hiding and approach, her immediate instinct is guarded curiosity, rather than rampant Macing.
As you might guess from the title of the show, the kids have a secret to reveal: Cassie's a witch! They're all witches! And what's more, her parents were witches and their parents were witches and with Cassie around, their circle (the secret one) is complete and their powers are amplified.
Of course, there's some debate regarding what should be done with this new power, which is just one of the possible conflicts building in the "Secret Circle" pilot. You've also got the mysterious Charles (Gale Harold) skulking around in the background either killing people or threatening to kill people. And he's not the only magic-wielding citizen over drinking age in Chance Harbor.
Genre fiction always has a choice regarding whether or not to have fun with the allegory that can come from stepping outside of the ordinary world. "The Vampire Diaries" has succeeded surprisingly well without a hint of allegory, while "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" used to lay it on thick. "The Secret Circle" is taking a little bit from each column. There are a couple good laughs that come from paralleling teen magical experimentation with either drug use or sexuality. Like when sensitive Adam (Thomas Dekker) returns from proving to Cassie that that she has powers (and nearly kissing her), his prissy witch girlfriend Diana (Shelley Hennig) gives an outraged, "You did magic with her?!?" as if they'd been off having sex under the bleachers. But other than a couple nods of that sort, magic and witchcraft at taken at face value.
That yields one of my "Secret Circle" concerns, because the witching teens are mighty powerful mighty fast. If, say, they were just playing Ouija Board games and Cassie's presence suddenly let them successfully pull off Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board, I'd think there was ample potential for growth. But we're in the pilot and these teens are already harnessing pretty massive elemental powers. At this rate, they'll be raising the dead by November sweeps and folding the universe like an origami crane by the end of Season 1.
I guess that's for Kevin Williamson and his posse to worry about, just like Williamson and Julie Plec will eventually have to deal with the absurdly accelerate pace of plotting on "Vampire Diaries," which is one of those things that isn't a problem until it is. [I'm looking at you, "The O.C." Season 2.]
I saw a hilarious New York Times review that referred to how Robertson seemed less comfortable with the "melodramatics" of "The Secret Circle" than she was with "the wry comedy" of "Life Unexpected." I'm not gonna call that reviewer out, but that would be somebody would didn't watch "Life Unexpected" after the pilot, since that series progressed down a hyper-emotional and melodramatic arc that made everything else on The CW look like "Sesame Street" last season and Robertson was forced into darker and darker and more vulnerable places. In that context, her limitations were certainly clear, but "The Secret Circle" must feel like riding (and frequently falling) on a motorcycle and then just hunkering down on a Big Wheel. She's got a solid vulnerability and she also plays determined pluck well. On "Vampire Diaries," Williamson has excelled at giving his versatile actors more to do and keeping a tight leash on the ones who may not have the same range and I trust he'll work well with Robertson.
The rest of the coven is a mixed bag, though that may be just a function of a premise pilot that makes it difficult to service a full circle of witches. I can't rule out Hennig, Louis Hunter and Jessica Parker Kennedy becoming interesting actors in later episodes, but they made no real impression here. Also coming out muted, though probably intentionally, is Dekker, who has mostly chosen to emphasize "sensitivity" thus far.
If you've been following my early writing on "The Secret Circle," you've probably caught my early enthusiasm for Phoebe Tonkin, who you'll probably only know if you're a fan of Aussie soaps of if you found yourself inexplicably watching the mediocre "Red Dawn" rip-off "Tomorrow, When the War Begins" on a long airplane flight. She's got one of the showiest roles in the "Secret Circle" pilot, playing bad-girl witch Faye, the leading advocate for taking full advantage of their boosted gifts. It's a juicy part and Tonkin provides the perfect amount of potentially unhinged glee. With the other witches hung up on that hoary Spider-Man power/responsibility binary, Tonkin's the young actor who gets to have the most fun.
Remembering, again, how little fun anybody was having back in the "Vampire Diaries" pilot, there's also ample reason to praise Gale Harold. When last we saw him, he was stuck in a cringe-worthy supporting roll on "Hellcats" (slightly redundant), but he's been set free here and nobody's forcing him to soft-pedal Charles' malevolent nature. Harold's a little mustache-twirl-y (not literally), but if you can't slice off a bit of ham and let loose in a drama about teenage witches, what's the point? I also sensed potential in Natasha Henstridge's principal-with-a-secret, though that has less to do with anything she gets to do in the pilot and more to do with a feeling that on things like "Eli Stone" and "Commander in Chief," the "Species" veteran has proven herself to a kinda underrated actress.
"The Secret Circle" isn't designed to win new viewers to The CW. It breaks no new topical or formal ground and nothing in the pilot is designed to be all that surprising, though director Liz Friedlander keeps the pace snappy and uses the Pacific Northwest setting well. All "The Secret Circle" is designed to do is go down palatably after "The Vampire Diaries," with the challenge being that "The Vampire Diaries" is an establish show hitting on all of its available cylinders, while "The Secret Circle" has some of the tentativeness and broadness that you associate with pilots. I'd also guess that "The Secret Circle" is going to skew younger than "The Vampire Diaries" currently does, since I don't think a "Vampire Diaries" character has set foot in a high school in months. I don't think "The Secret Circle" is a better show than "Nikita" was when it premiered or when it ended its season, but I know that it's a better fit on Thursdays at 9 p.m.
As a guy who watches a lot of TV, my preference is always for shows with the highest aspirations, even if the reach does, indeed, exceed the grasp. But I'm OK with shows that deliver basically on what they promise. For an assortment of reasons, I've watched the "Secret Circle" pilot three times and it's delivered the same current of amusing, low-reaching entertainment each time. That's certainly enough to keep me watching for a few weeks to see if Williamson and company have any desire to go for more.
"The Secret Circle" premieres at 9 p.m. on Thursday (September 15) night on The CW.
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupKaryn
September 15, 2011 at 5:04PM EST Reply to CommentWitches are my favorite supernatural topic so I will be watching this show from the start rather than coming in 2 seasons late like the Vampire Diaries. With all of the tie-ins to that show it has, I'm more than willing to give it a few episode to see if it falls on its face or not.
M
September 15, 2011 at 5:27PM EST Reply to CommentI watched the pilot and was immediately struck by how awful Phoebe Tonkin's American accent is. It was bad enough that I checked her IMDB page to see where she was actually from because there was just no way in hell she was from the US or even Canada. Girl needs a dialect coach stat.
Pypsqweek
September 15, 2011 at 10:08PM EST Reply to CommentI saw the pilot. I didn't like it much but that doesn't mean much. I always thought that as a series, they would have slowed things down. I love delker but I see him better as nick, not Adam. Adam is mire mysterious. There are aspects that I liked in the book that would have been cool in the series, such as Cassie meeting Adam later and her finding out her powers later. Also, the group being more cliquess. I think the series should have built up the strangeness of the town and treated her more as an outsider. Basically stretched it out a little. There are a lot of lovers if the books and this series could have kept some foundations of the book, which would have worked we with the series. I did like the parent interation. That was a good part of the series.
Vanessa
September 16, 2011 at 2:18AM EST Reply to CommentI gave it a chance because I love The Vampire Diaries, but I really didn't like it!!! I do however liked Phoebe Tonkin as Faye....she was the reason I watched the pilot....but I am not a fan of Brit Robinson, although I liked Life Unexpected!!!
Siythe
September 16, 2011 at 7:17AM EST Reply to CommentSpeaking of CW shows more people should give a chance is there any likelihood of Nikita getting reviewed when it comes back?
It’s after all a show that grew into both having and reaching aspirations than weren’t present at the start of its run.
Sareeta
September 16, 2011 at 7:29AM EST Reply to CommentA new show about witches? That was enough to get me to check this out. Also, I'll watch just about anything with Thomas Dekker (boo to all you Sarah Connor Chronicle haters--that show was great!) and I thought Britt Robertson was a good casting choice for Cassie. As for the other witches, they seem like "types" - preppy witch (Diane), bitchy witch (Faye), indecisve witch (other girl), and normal witch...es (Cassie/Adam). I'm not sure what type the other male witch is just yet. I'm hoping there's some character development for these other characters as the series progresses.
The pilot was good, but not great. I thought the special effects looked good and there was enough mystery to keep me wanting to see more. I've recently started watching Supernatural (I'm on season 4) and since they're on the same network I'm hoping The Secret Circle will not shy away from going into dark territory.
Jessie
September 16, 2011 at 8:13AM EST Reply to CommentI'm going to watch it just for Phoebe Tonkin since Im a huge fan! Why get rid of the accent though? Accents rock.!!!!!!!!!
Kayvan
September 18, 2011 at 2:10PM EST Reply to CommentYou think Vampire Diaries is better than Supernatural?
September 18, 2011 at 2:12PM EST-Daniel
Jessica H.
September 19, 2011 at 5:28PM EST Reply to CommentI watched the secret circle. I liked it but too much went on too soon. I know they wanted to make sure that it was interesting but way too much at one time.
Jessica H.
September 19, 2011 at 5:31PM EST Reply to CommentI liked the show but I think too much went on too soon. It was like overkill. I know that they wanted to make sure that it was interesting but wow. I think that she should have found out that she was a witch a little later and played up the drama of not knowing a little more.
Jessica H.
September 19, 2011 at 5:33PM EST Reply to CommentI liked the show but I think too much went on too soon. It was almost overkill. The story is good but I think that she should have found out about the whole witch thing a little later. I will watch some more but things really need to slow down a little.
Jessica H.
September 19, 2011 at 5:35PM EST Reply to CommentLOL sorry I am new to posting. :P