Premiere Watch '09: Community

Community:
"Pilot"

I loved, loved, loved Community's pilot episode. It was fantastic and hilarious. It's a sign that a comedy is awesome when I'm trying to write down the funny lines and I end up writing down basically the entire script, and I totally did that for this episode.

I adored Jeff's "Shark Week" motivational speech. That speech was definitely the best persuasive oratory I've seen on TV in a long time that wasn't delivered by Don Draper.

I was already a Joel McHale fan because of The Soup, and he was great in Community (plus the Seacrest joke was a nice shout out to The Soup). I loved Troy, Abed and Duncan as well.

If this show continues to be this funny on a weekly basis, you can definitely count me in! It might even inspire me to consider enrolling in a community college just for kicks. Well, probably not.

Highlights and observations:

• The guy standing up close to the stage listening to the dean looks cute from the back.
• I liked how they used the dean's speech as snappy way to give quick introductions to the characters.
• Dean: "That's what you've heard, however...I wish you luck!!!"
• Abed: "My dad is Palestinian. He's an American citizen. He's not a threat to national security or anything. Most people want to know that after meeting him because he gives off an angry energy. Not angry at America; angry at my mom for leaving him."
• Jeff: "Abed, nice to know you and then meet you in that order."
• Jeff's got an interesting look: Adidas athletic pants, collared dress shirt, sweater and suit jacket.
• They've got a rather nice looking cafeteria.
• Jeff: "Oh, sorry, I was raised on TV and I was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 is a cosmic mentor."
• Abed: "Oh, a text message! Let's give this bad boy a read! I've never gotten one of these before..."
• I loved Abed reading "Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you" to everyone on the room multiple times.
• Abed: "'Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you.'"
  Jeff: "Do you have to pee?"
  Abed: "No!"
  Jeff: "Well, then I'm stumped."
• The professor's text message: "Con-4-s-8-tion on football field now!!!"
• Jeff: "I discovered at a very early age that if I talk long enough, I can make anything right or wrong. So either I'm God or truth is relative. In either case, booyah!"
• Duncan: "Interesting, it's just that the average person has a much harder time saying 'booyah' to moral relativism."
• Duncan: "I'm a professor! You can't talk to me like that way!"
  Jeff: "A 6-year-old girl could talk to you that way!"
  Duncan: "Yes, because that would be adorable!"
  
• Troy: "That means you do my homework, right Seacrest?"
  
• Jeff: "I'm going to go to the bathroom and bring my jacket, wallet and keys with me...in case there's a fire."
  
• Pierce calling Annie "Princess Elizabeth"
  
• Aww, it's Trudy Campbell from Mad Men! Maybe she should stand up and do the Charleston like she did on MM with Pete.
  
• Jeff: "Pierce! Let's discuss this creepiness."
  
• Pierce: "Sexual harassment! That makes no sense. Why would I harass somebody who turns me on?"
  
• Troy: "Keg flip! They're very hard to pull off!"
  
• Lol, Abed's quoting Breakfast Club. And finishing it up with "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."
  
• Jeff: "Bluffs this weak are how your people lost the colonies."
  
• Duncan: "Take this car--it's good for the environment."
  Jeff: "Yeah, so is wiping your butt with a leaf, but it's not how a man gets around!"
  
  
• Jeff: "You know what makes humans different from other animals?"

  Troy: "Feet!"

  Pierce: "No, bears have feet."
  
  
• Jeff: "We're the only species that observes Shark Week. Sharks don't even observe Shark Week. ...It's the same reason I can pick up this pencil, name it Steve and do this and a little bit of you dies. We can connect with anything. We can sympathize with a pencil, we can forgive a shark and we can give Ben Affleck an Academy Award for screenwriting. People can find the good in just about anything but themselves."
  
  
• Jeff: "And don't test her on that because that thing about the jukebox was way too specific to be improvised."
  
  
• Jeff: "You are all better than you think you are, you're just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself."
  
  
• That speech was actually pretty fantastic.
  
  
• Jeff: "I was a lawyer!"

  Group: "Ohhh. That explains everything."
  
  
• Troy (laughing): "Asperger's."
  
  
• Duncan: "Before you say anything, you might want to think about the gift you've been given."
  
  
• Jeff: "An excuse to punch a hippie?"
  
  
• At least Jeff got his car back.
  
  
• Troy: "Wow, you just wrinkled my brain, man."
  
  
• Troy: "You seem pretty smart; you've got a sports coat."
  
  
• Abed: "What's going on? Can you guys hear me? Am I deaf? Can you hear me talking right now?"
  
  
• Abed: "I'm sorry I called you Michael Douglas, and I see your value now."
  
  
• I adore the cover of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" that they played at the very end.
  
  

Premiere Rating: 9.0/10

(Photo: NBC)

Premiere Watch '09: The Office

The Office: "Gossip"

Can you believe that The Office is now in its sixth season?! This show has proven to have some impressive staying-power, especially considering most of the action takes place in the same florescent light-lit office suite. It just goes to show you how much mileage a show can get out of a lot of really well-crafted, entertaining characters.

The Office started off Season 6 with a solidly funny premiere episode--it was not the funniest episode ever, but it definitely packed in a lot of laughs.

Highlights:

• Jim: "So, technically, they are doing Parkour, as long as Point A is delusion and Point B is the hospital."
• Andy: "Back flip, gainer into the trash."
• Oscar, Meredith, and Kelly debating whether the interns are dating during their lunch break.
• Dwight: "Stanley is way past the middle of his life, especially considering his height-to-weight ratio."
• Oh nooooooooooooooooo! Stanley IS having an affair!
• Michael: "Do people often say they're going on sales calls and then go some place else? Because that's not cool."
• According to Michael, Angela's fake, rich, older boyfriend owns a Quiznos on the Turnpike.
• Andy: "Who told you that? ...Did you run into someone from my high school?"
• Oscar: "If you resisted Brad Pitt a little bit, he would still need to get to you?!"
• Oscar: "What exactly is my responsibility here? To comfort insecure, heterosexual men? That cannot fall to me."
• Dwight: "...and one of you will make a great mother."
• Pam: "Why would that come into your brain?"
• Creed: "If I can't scuba, then what has this all been about?!"
• No matter what you may have heard, Oscar is not the voice of the Taco Bell dog.
• Dwight: "You told people that I use store bought manure when I've showed you where I get my manure."
• Lol, they thought that Jim was a J. Crew model. He actually does look like one.
• Michael: "Hey, what up, Cynthia?"

All in all, The Office's season is off to a good start. I liked that the episode allowed most all of the characters to have some good lines and to be their zany selves (Creed talking about scuba was my favorite). I would have liked to see some more of Ryan, however.

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

Glee: Jolly Good Acafellas

Glee: "Acafellas"

Glee offers up another great episode. Highlights and my observations:

• WHAT?!?! WILL'S DAD IS VICTOR GARBER!!!!! OMG. Does this mean that Will is Sydney Bristow's half-brother?
• And Victor's wearing a bow-tie--how adorable.
• Aww, Victor/Will's dad says he has no guts. (That is very unlike Jack Bristow.)
• The Cheerio spies in glee club have set a plan into action to get a ridiculous choreographer to bring about the downfall of glee club.
• Emma: "They say it takes more certainty than talent to become a star. Look at John Stamos."
• The cake Terri got for the shop teacher whose thumbs got cut off has two hands giving the thumps-up guesture. Oy vey.
• Ken: "I live in a YMCA, and I only have one pair of long pants..."
• Sandy writes Desperate Housewives fan fiction. Ahahaha!
• Will: "Apparently I don't know how to dance."
  Henri: "I have no thumbs!"
  
• Will: "Sandy, we voted: when you're in the group, it's creepy."
  
• Terri: "Will! If I don't get some sleep, I could miscarry." (She is horrendous!!)
  
• Finn: "See anyone else in here with a plate of 'I'm sorry' cookies? I don't. Just you."
  
• Mercedes: "Have you ever kissed anybody?"
  Kurt: "Yes, if by someone you mean the tender crook of my elbow."
  
  
• Why do all of Will's performances (first "Gold Digger" now "Poison") involve him rapping? LOL.
  
  
• Acafella's dance moves aren't bad.
  
  
• I can't believe the Acafellas were written up in the newspaper.
  
  
• Sandy: "'Who is Josh Groban?!' Kill yourself!"
  
  
• Kurt: "My dad got it for my sweet 16 when I swore I'd stop wearing form-fitting sweaters that stop at the knee. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
  
  
• First this rival glee club (Vocal Adrenaline) did "Rehab," now it's Duffy's "Mercy." And the dance moves these people do are unreal. I bet half the members of the group don't sing and are just there to do back flips and fancy dance moves. (Obviously in real life their are probably two different sets of performers: the singers we hear and the dancers we see.)
  
  
• I see Lauren from SYTYCD!!!
  
  
• Finn: "I tried to talk some sense into Rachel, but she's gone all chick-batty."
  
  
• Puckerman wants to be in the a cappella group? So he can hit on moms?! Eeeew! I don't doubt that he's tired of dating high school girls, though, since he clearly looks at least 35.
  
  
• Puck: "Dude, my bowels have better moves than you."
  
  
• Rachel: "We need to have a gay-vention. That's a gay intervention."
  
  
• Rachel: "He wore a corset to second period!"
  
  
• Kurt wasn't being "sweet" to Mercedes last week when he was telling her that she looked like a Technicolor zebra.
  
  
• Mercedes' hair looks super cute at the car wash.
  
  
• The Cheerios do make good backup dancers.
  
  
• Mercedes is a fantastic singer.
  
  
• So they guy playing Dakota, the crazy choreographer, played Walter "Duckface" on Full House. Wow.
  
  
• Dakota: "Artie, you're cut. You're not trying hard enough."

  Artie: "At what?"

  Dakota: "At walking."
  
  
• I kinda loved how Finn stood up for Rachel when Dakota said she needed a noise job.
  
  
• Dakota: "What's wrong with me is that you're freakishly tall! I feel like a woodland creature!"
  
  
• Rachel: "Our point is that you're fired. And I'm taller than you."
  
  
• The Acafellas are awfully dressed up for the PTO meeting.
  
  
• Wow, they've got some fancy lighting for this performance. This song ("I'm Going To Sex You Up") is ridiculously inappropriate for the PTO! Ha. All the better to distract the parents from the prison food scandal, I guess.
  
  
• Josh Groban is hitting on Will's mom!
  
  
• Victor's going to law school! Yea!!! (I still wish he'd gotten the chance to sing something though.)
  
  
• Why did the costume department insist on dressing Victor Garber like Tiny Tim thoughout this entire episode?
  
  
• Kurt: "My dad took my baby away after he found my tiara collection in my hope chest."
  
  
• Sue: "I'm revoking your tanning privileges for the rest of the semester."

  Cheerleader (bursts into tears): "No!"
  
  

Episode music list: "This is How We Do It" (Acafellas), "Poison" (Acafellas), "Mercy" (Vocal Adrenaline), "La Camisa Negra," "Bust Your Windows" (Mercedes), "I Wanna Sex You Up" (Acafellas)

SYTYCD: Phoenix Rising

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #2"

SYTYCD Season 6 auditions in Phoenix.

Day 1:

• Brandon ("Shorty") and Demetrio ("Biggie") almost ran into an elk on the drive to Phoenix from Oklahoma!
• Mary just cannot contain herself while Biggie and Shorty are performing. She's just cackling like a...(what kind of animal cackles?). Good for Nigel and Mia for sending them through to choreography! Shorty at least certainly seemed like he should get the chance to give it a try.
• Sasha Mallory auditioned for Season 4 and is back with her family. Her audition number is adorable--she's working with her music and not just showing us every trick she knows, but when she did do the fancy moves, they looked fantastic.
• Katie Muth is wearing plaid and Nigel says she has both performance and technique.
• Ellie Soto is going to Vegas as well.
• Allison Becker was diagnosed with Spinal Meningitis as a child and is deaf as a result. And she's really quite a good dancer and displays more musicality than a lot of the dancers who can hear the music. I liked her jumps and her lines.
• Now Mary's crying about her cousin who died as a young woman. I hope Tyce doesn't find out about that--he'll create a dance about it just to make Mary cry again.
• Here are the good same-sex ballroom dancers Willem and Jacob who recently won a gold medal at the same-sex ballroom championships (I missed the official name). Now the judges all love same-sex ballroom--at least Mary and Mia do. And Nigel does now too. In any event, Willem is super-cute.
• Jonathan Naroba is dancing with two sticks. He's not the world's best dancer, but his audition is pretty much cracking me up. I liked the "I Am a Disco Dancer" music. They should bring him along to do a Bollywood number though, because I think he could handle it.
• It's Pasha!!!!!!!! (And Anya!)
• Brandon isn't through to Vegas (he did a decent job though).
• Allison, Jacob, Willem and 12 others are going to Vegas.

Day 2:

• Jarvis is the most excited person ever. Literally. This kid hyped up. Mia's got an expression like 'it's too early early for this much enthusiasm.' I truly believe that Jarvis could dance like that for hours on end. Mia's right, Jarvis is sunshine. It's nice that he realizes that he's "on another planet." I don't know if I could handle Jarvis displaying this much energy for the course of an entire season, but he looks like a fun guy to hang out with for a half hour or so.
• Brandon Gordon and Nicole Peterson: not really sure how to describe this routine. She was wearing a tutu and striped socks.
• Basically, the theme of the second day was that there were a lot of really strange dancers.
• Kelsey White is not strange, however. She seems to be pretty much the typical blond girl contemporary dancer and looks pretty good but not spectacular. She admits to being abducted by aliens once and Nigel walks out. The judges send her through to choreo.
• Jonathan "Legacy" Perez is a b-boy, and he's pretty darn fantastic. He can whirl himself around on his shoulders/head like you wouldn't believe. He assisted Lauren to choreograph last season. Mia says he's "real stupid" (which is a good thing).
• Oh no! Jarvis collapsed! I guess one person cannot sustain so much excitement for so long.
• Kelsey isn't through to Vegas, but she's close and the judges want her to come back. Five unnamed other dancers are going to Vegas however, and they're excited about it (not as excited as Jarvis would have been, but close).

Next week: Boston. With Tyce (Yea. And by "yea" I mean "boo.")

Premiere Watch '09: Glee

Glee:

"Show-

mance"

Since I blogged about Glee's pilot last spring, I'm going to do my official "premiere watch" review on its second episode, which was fantastic. I'm just glad this show is finally on the air after seeing the incessant promo ads for it all summer during SYTYCD.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• Cheerleader (to Will and Emma): "Get a room!"
• Sue calling the glee club Will's "island of misfit toys."
• They should really not let kids (or teachers) carry cups full of liquid around this school.
• Kurt: "No, it's the song. It's really gay."
• I am having a really hard time believing that "Freak Out" was a "crowd-pleaser" in 1993. That was the age of Nirvana for goodness sake.
• Kurt: "You need to call me before you dress yourself. You look like a Technicolor zebra."
• Rachel is wearing a turtle neck sweater and a cardigan at the same time. I think Kurt needs to turn his saucy fashion-critiquing tongue on her next.
• I love the show choir version of "Gold Digger."
• Will's got some fairly impressive dance moves.
• The matching of the audio of them singing to the video of them "singing" needs some help.
• Rachel: "The girl who was throwing up before me left that."
• The guidance counselor's brochures include "My Mom's Bipolar and She Won't Stop Yelling" and "So You Like Throwing Up."
• Will: "Hold on a second, Sue!"
  Sue: "I resent being told to hold onto anything, William. I will not be treated like a second-class citizen because of my gender."
• Terri just keeps getting better and better. Like, seriously, how has Will been able to stand her for this long?
• OMG! Finn ran over a mail man.
• Ok, the celibacy club's activities are so beyond wrong. Should there not be a teacher advisor/chaperone at this meeting?
• Personally, I don't see how "Push It" is any less embarrassing than "Freak Out." This production is giving me flashbacks to the dance scene at the end of Little Miss Sunshine. And I really don't think that any high-schoolers would react to this in any other way than vicious laughter.
• The best part of the production number was when Kurt smacked Finn's butt and Finn's reaction.
• Sue: "My first thought was that your students should be put into foster care."
• Principal: "You need new outfits. I got several flashes of panty from your group today and I'm not talking about the girls!"
• Ken: "They can't fire me because I'm a minority so I'll always be able to provide for you..."
• Finn: "Well, when I first joined, I thought you were kind of insane. You talk more than you should and, to be honest with you, I looked under the bed to make sure you weren't hanging out under there."
• Finn: "The cups are like the airplane cups."
• I'm a bit surprised that we got to Finn and Rachel kissing so quickly. I thought that would get strung out for much longer. And I realize that Quinn's a nightmare, but if she is Finn's girlfriend, shouldn't he not be kissing other people? Between this and the Will and Emma flirtation, it's like the message of this show is "nice guys cheat too." How uplifting.
• Shouldn't the doctor/ultrasound technician be a little more sympathetic to a woman having a hysterical pregnancy? Maybe call for a psych consult or something?
• Quinn and her back-ups are good. And they've got much more of a flair for choreography than the current glee clubbers.
• Quinn: "There is something going on between Finn and that thing! You saw how it was undressing him with its eyes!"
• How dumb is Will? They wouldn't know if Terri's baby is a boy or a girl yet.
• At least Terri had the decency to give up on the house.
• Was there really a disco revival in 1993?
• I'm not sold on the musical numbers when they're not well-integrated into the show (like when Rachel "practices"--with back-up singers and spotlights--just so she can sing a song that reflects her inner emotions). I'm totally okay with characters singing songs that reflect their situations in life, as long as the singing itself makes a little more sense in the context of the episode (like when Will sang "Gold Digger" during practice). Rachel's "Take a Bow" and Will's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (in the extended pilot) just felt too heavy-handed for my taste. It is especially pushing it too far to have Rachel belting the song out in the middle of the hallway when no one else can hear her. That's too "conventional musical" for me.

Songs: "Le Freak," "Gold Digger," "Push It," "I Say a Little Prayer," and "Take a Bow"

"Premiere" Rating: 8.0/10

(photo: fox.com/glee)

Premiere Watch '09: Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl:
"Reversals of Fortune"

Tonight I was probably the least excited I've ever been for a new episode of Gossip Girl, which was especially shocking considering this episode was the first new episode of a new season. There were certainly several reasons I felt this way, including the fact that new TV shows are a sign that summer is ending and I don't want that to happen and that I'm a bit drama-ed out from the U.S. Open. The predominate reason, however, was that GG and I didn't part on the best of terms last season (the Season 2 finale didn't impress me much at all and I resorted to quoting Lulu in jest...it wasn't pretty).

Still, when the first vestiges of GG popped up on my television screen (in it's new time slot at 9 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., which annoys me to no end since that's now when Greek and The Big Bang Theory (9:30) air as well), I hoped for the best. I wanted this episode of GG to smack me over the head with its awesomeness and remind me once and for all why I love this show. Unfortunately, what I got was an episode that was iffy at best.

From what I could tell, there wasn't an engaging plotline to be had in this episode. I mean, what we were supposed to like here? Dippy Nate picks up Joanna Garcia's equally dippy character? (She's realized her mistake when her cousin got stood up at the alter? That's it?) Barely-tolerable Vanessa gets picked up by the most boring secret half-brother known to man? Blair has Chuck pick up other girls to keep their relationship "interesting"? (Seriously? Being Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf on a daily basis isn't interesting enough?) Longer-haired Dan does nothing but get chastised by Vanessa while trying--again--to solve Serena's secret problems for her? Rufus "struggles to hold it together" while living Lily's charmed life without her? Eric and Jenny hang out and chat while somehow miraculously ignoring how awful Jenny's hair is? The part that came the closest to being interesting to me was when scummy Carter suddenly turned sweet, asking Serena who her dad was to not want her. But then she left him partially-clothed in the woods. Yeah...okay.

Even when GG's plotlines go astray, the show can usually be counted on for some entertaining dialogue and snappy one liners, but there wasn't even much of that in this episode. Even Gossip Girl sounded bored and subdued. Let's hope that the beginning of college will give this show the shot in the arm that it needs, because I don't know how many more episodes like this I can take.

Observations and "highlights":

• The blonde Chuck picked up looks like Serena, but shorter.
• The Hamptons isn't treating Jenny's hair well.
• Dan: "I just highly doubt she can keep her mouth shut for a whole month."
• From Vanessa to Joanna Garcia: definitely an upgrade for Nate.
• They've met before and they don't recognize each other? They don't know what other people in powerful political families look like? I mean, I know Nate's clueless, but I expected more from Joanna.
• Blair: "Now take your American Girl hair and your poreless skin and get out!"
• I'm on the fence about whether I love or hate Dan's longer hair.
• Eew, Jenny's hair looks even worse down.
• How is Chuck not dying from heat exhaustion in that suit in NYC in late summer?
• Chuck: "Sleeping with the enemy is hot. Why do you think I had the whole Ivanka thing?"
• Nate's hair, however, is definitely looking hot.
• How tall are Blair's shoes? She's taller than Serena.
• Nate and V went traveling in Europe and they just hooked up "one night" in Prague? That does not sound like the Nate that I know.
• Of course V got suckered in by the secret half-brother. She falls for all the liars.
• Jenny: "Everyone's topless on Valentino's yacht, Dad."
• Rufus: "What about the one where Prince Harry's doing shots off her--"
• Carter's looking cuter too.
• I wouldn't say the word "Dior" to Vanessa either when she's wearing that crappy outfit. It's like telling a starving person about the four-star meal you just ate.
• When was the "last time" Serena went off the deep-end? There have been so many times that I can't keep them straight anymore.
• What?! Why is Serena making it Dan's job to keep Carter away from her? Just leave poor Dan alone!
• Dan/Blair is not really an "unlikely alliance"--they band together for some reason or other at least once every couple of months.
• Apparently the correct outfit to wear to a polo match is a maxi dress.
• Nate's grandfather doesn't know who Bree Buckley is either?
• I guess Blair didn't get the maxi dress memo. But Vanessa did.
• Did Serena marry Carter in Europe too? LOL.
• Ha ha, is Serena seriously riding a horse away from the polo match? This is ridiculous.
• Aww, all of a sudden, Carter's kind of sweet: "Who is he not to want you?"
• Ugh, Vanessa, just take your lectures and go far, far away. Somebody lend Vanessa a horse so she can get out of here faster.
• Chuck: "We could never be boring."
• Um, this Vanessa/secret half-brother scene is painful. It's so bad, it's veering into Mischa/pool boy territory.
• Ok, Chuck and Blair are role playing about waiters now? Has it come to this?
• Why did Rufus buy the pics of Serena riding the horse? Borrowing a horse at a polo match is not exactly the most scandalous thing ever.

Premiere Rating: 6.0/10

(photo: cwtv.com)

Premiere Watch '09: Vampire Diaries

Vampire Diaries:
"Pilot"

The similarities of Vampire Diaries to Twilight are so ubiquitous that I'm largely going to ignore them and try to judge Vampire Diaries on its own merits. After this pilot episode, it's merits are kind of eh. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't all that engaging either. I've heard that VD (that's kind of an embarrassing acronym to have, right?) will expand its focus beyond the tortured love story between the good vampire and the nice girl and tell a larger story about the town. That idea sounds more intriguing to me, since a lot of us have done the tortured-love-story-between-the-good-vampire-and-the-nice-girl thing to death with Twilight at this point.

The VD pilot itself was on the hokey side. There were a few too many introspective voice overs disguised as journal entries for my taste. I mean, why make people act when they can just tell us exactly what they're supposed to be feeling, right? Also, the show absolutely telegraphed every time something "momentous" happened by bring the action to a screeching halt for a dramatic pause and a close up shot. The lead actors did all right with what they had to work with, but I wasn't blown away by them or any of the supporting characters.

I'll probably be giving this show some more time to better establish itself and then see how I feel about it. At this point, I feel like it could go either way: fun, guilty pleasure or total crap.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• No, lady, don't run away from the car! Get in it! You're not save at all running around in the open.
• Historically, this Paul Wesley guy always rubs me the wrong way. I'm not really sure why but I never like him in anything I see him in. I wonder if it's because he's the whack job from Long Beach who broke Holly's blender and then shot Luke on The O.C. or if it runs deeper than that?
• The aunt looks younger than the two high school kids.
• I'm getting a serious Cassidy Casablancas vibe from the brother (Jeremy).
• The show has been on for 3 minutes and I think they've already had four different soundtrack songs.
• I've seen this Vicki girl before. (She was in The O.C. and much better in Freaks and Geeks.) And her boyfriend is familiar as well. (He played on of Naomi's many boyfriends in the new 90210. The drag racer I think?)
• So on this show, vampires can hypnotize people with their eyes?
• Dreamy vampires seem to have a very specific hair style.
• I guess vampires on this show don't have to walk gracefully. This dude is absolutely lumbering down the hallway.
• Elena is wearing some serious hoop earrings.
• At least this vampire guy doesn't look like he's going to barf when gets close to the girl. That's helpful.
• Whoa, that fog is alarming.
• This Elena girl (Nina Dobrev) kind of reminds me a little bit of Jennifer Love Hewitt.
• This show sure is trying awfully hard to make journaling popular again.
• Elena is wearing quite a skimpy shirt.
• "You keep a journal!?!?!" Oh, gag.
• They're playing MGMT? Weren't they the makers of the "it" pilot songs last year?
• Now they're playing Placebo's "Running Up That Hill"!? That's from the freaking Season 4 premiere of The O.C.! And suddenly I have been taken completely out of Vampire Diaries and am instead thinking about Ryan cage fighting in Mexico after Marissa died. Must re-focus...
• Ok, there was an 1864 version of Elena? That's kind of interesting.
• Is history the only class these people attend?
• Wow, what is up this teacher's ass? It's what, the second day of school? There's no need to be this bitter already.
• Whoa, Bonnie, the friend really is psychic or extra-perceptive or something. That's kind of freaky.
• Gee, this Vicki chick is just a ray of sunshine. I can see why Jeremy is so hung up on her...
• The Jennifer's Body/Gossip Girl cross promotion is kind of awkward. I mean, Blair is nasty, but she doesn't go around killing people.
• Who is this Zach dude in Stefan's house who dishes out lectures?
• Dramatic pause, close up shot, and it's...Boone!
• Damon: "Remember, Stefan, it's important to stay away from fads!"
• I think Boone's cheeks are a little too rosy for a vampire.
• Elena is a dead ringer for Catherine.
• Things did not end well with Catherine.
• Boone has Cole Hamels hair. That's probably not a good thing.
• So Stefan can only survive in the sunlight if he's wearing the ring? I'm so not up on the Vampire Diaries mythology. But, then again, I don't care all that much.
• How come vampires never fall for blondes? (Except, I guess, for Angel and Buffy.)
• Do Vicki and Matt not have parents either?

Premiere Rating: 6.5/10

(photo: cwtv.com)