I'm going to start this off by warning everyone that I'm strictly going to talk about the relationships on this show and any subsequent plot lines that come up. Yes the plot is unbelievably good in each episode, but I just want to focus on the relationships and my take on it. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I live vicariously through the relationships. With actors like Paul Wesley and Ian Somerholder, who wouldn't?



So, jumping right in, I'm going to start with the season finale. Sooo...ELENA'S NOW A VAMPIRE????? WHAT THE FLYING LIZARDS? Okay, I knew they had to go somewhere new with the show. It's the fourth season and honestly, with Elena having so many near death experiences, it was bound to happen. Damon had been lobbying for it since season two when he finally decided to open up and be more than just the bad guy.

Also, in the finale, I wanted to really yell at the screen. So let me get this straight. While Elena was still with Matt she was feeling a little smothered because he was "safe" and highly "undangerous" and "predictable". But because they're also good friends, she didn't want to just break his heart out of the blue and I can't remember exactly, but I think she did end up breaking up with him at their little high school party. And while she's calling for her parents, here comes Damon strolling out of the woods attracted to her because he thought she was Kathrine.

Okay, they had me so far. Elena's a normal teen unhappy in her relationship and she's just partying with her friends. Damon, at this time, was still all over Kathrine, believing that she was in the tomb ready to be saved and love him for all eternity like he's been loving her. Okay, I'm still with them at this point. But then they totally did a 180 on me.

In the present, Elena is sitting in her window seat (very clever how they matched it to season one where she practically lived on that window seat) and she's talking to Matt about why she picked Stefan. (I'm going to go into mega detail later about that) So in the present, she's describing how with Stefan that the love is real and everything she hoped and wished for. Then she went on to describe being in love with Damon how it was all consuming and passionate and literally on fire.

Then, in the past, Damon realizes that Elena is not Kathrine and so he guesses correctly that she just broke up with Matt because he didn't have that "IT" factor that all women look for, whether they want to admit to it or not. He then tells her that she's looking for a love that's all consuming, passionate, and literally on fire. By that time, my eyes bulged out of their sockets. This trick just regurgitated what he said to her! But then Damon did the dumbest thing ever. He erased her freakin' memory! I get that he didn't want her to know that he was in town, but come on! He totally had dibs on her first! So by the rules, he should have gotten her, not Stefan. Yeah he was hung up on Kathrine, but whatever!

Back in the present, Elena is going on and on about how she loves Stefan and that he came first and now I'm chomping at the bit because now that she's a vampire, she's going to remember EVERYTHING! She's going to remember every time Damon said he loved her, she's going to remember that Damon came first, and it's going to be epic. Of course, if Elena continues in her same dimwitted manner, she's going to mope around confused, complaining to her friends, and then she's going to choose Stefan all over again.

Honestly, Damon cannot catch a break. I really want to march into the writers' room and slap each of them silly and finish it off with a good right hook. Every girl he's went after ended up dead or breaking his heart. He was all over Caroline, even for malicious reasons, but then she turned into a vampire and hated him. Then he went after the little newscaster who Stefan killed. And let's not forget Kathrine who he made it his life's mission to get her out of the tomb, and turned out the bitch was never in the tomb! She'd been free this entire time and when she showed up again, she wanted Stefan too.

Now how messed up do the writers have to be to let something like that happen? So not only did Kathrine play them both back in the 1800s and  chose Stefan over Damon then, she came back and chose Stefan again. And if that wasn't bad enough, the sick minds in the writer's room made Elena Kathrine's doppleganger who chose Stefan over him. That's like getting dumped twice by the same girl for his younger brother. He literally takes beating after beating in this show and then the other characters want to stop and scratch their heads when he does something bad like go on a feeding spree or keep a sex slave. Honestly? Yall didn't see that coming?



So as promised, on to Stefan. I'll admit, I was riding the Stefan train hard in all of the seasons. I genuinely believed that he was perfect for Elena. They just totally fit like two pieces to the same puzzle. Paul Wesley gave his all to his performances as he showed his love and devotion to Elena and how he would protect her with everything in him. I completely believed him.

For the first time in my history, I can see how someone could love two people at once. While I adored Paul Wesley, I was absolutely crazy about Damon. I mean, come on, nothing is more sexier than a bad boy with a heart. Nothing! So imagine my little surprise in season four when Klaus came a knockin' and turned Stefan into the famous Ripper that everyone kept hinting around. I mean, Stefan as the bad guy? How freakin' hot was that?

He lost all of his humanity and got into that "fuck it" state of mind. It was unabashedly hot and it was nice to see Paul Wesley stretch his acting muscles and get out of playing the good guy for a while. What I didn't like was how he handled his new personality post-Klaus' hold on him. He turned into a real jackass towards Damon who was actually trying to help and to Elena who still loved him no matter how much he pushed her away.

I get it, he lost his humanity and he felt like he didn't deserve her after biting her and making her all sad and hopeless because he wasn't there to catch her when she fell. I get all of that but if you have someone willing to stick by you even after EVERYTHING you've done, why wouldn't you see the blessing in disguise? Obviously, Elena didn't care that he lost his humanity. She was  willing to work with him in bringing it back and getting him back to the same person (or close to it) that he used to be. And then he did the most horrible thing. He bargained with Klaus over her life by kidnapping her and driving extra fast towards the bridge that her parents died on. That was hitting below the belt and highly uncalled for. Something like that, I don't know if I could forgive him if I were in her place. Secretly, I think he did that on purpose. He wanted her to believe that he was mean and heartless so that she would finally move on.

Of course, that backfired right? She's stuck on him like white on rice with a glass of milk on a paper plate in the middle of a snowstorm. She loves him and she's sticking with him no matter what he does. That's where my patience runs thin. Because honestly, girls can't be that stupid. She knows that he's no good for her but she sticks by him just because her heart wants him. Well guess what, the heart is a muscle. It doesn't have feelings. Elena could very well force herself away from Stefan if she really tried. Yes, it's going to hurt. It's going to be painful. Getting over someone is never easy but if it was her happiness over her heart, she should choose happiness. And she'll never be happy if she keeps forgiving Stefan his transgressions all in the name of love.



And how cute is Klaus when he's around Caroline? At first I was like hold up, Klaus and Caroline?? Seriously?? I always thought her and Tyler didn't quite fit right together and now that there's that possible match up, it just completely made sense. He drew her the sweetest picture and danced with her at his family's coming out party. And as much as she doesn't want to admit it, she knows she'd get at that if he wasn't so bent on killing them all and creating hybrids. He keeps tempting her like the serpent in the garden and she knows she wants to give in but Tyler keeps getting in the way. I don't know, it's like he's too aggressive for her or something. I don't know.

But Klaus and Caroline? Forever together throughout the centuries, him drawing her pictures and her keeping him in line. Now that is a match made in heaven if I ever seen one. Man, to have him look at me the way he looks at her, I would literally die. Back to the finale, who saw that coming? Honestly? When Bonnie was there looking over his frozen body, I thought for sure that she was going to do some weird magic stuff so that his body couldn't be pierced or something like that. But he became trapped in Tyler's body. Like how screwed up and awesome is that? I bet he's not going to tell Caroline and he's going to be all over that for as long as he can milk it. Because let's face it, he's not going to want to be in Tyler's body forever, even if he gets to be around Caroline.



And Rick? I can't believe they got rid of him. When TV wants to get rid of a character, they really do it in style. I will be sad to see Rick gone. I liked seeing the dark side of him too. And I can't believe he got made into an uber hunter sent to kill Klaus. It was just awful. And Damon came to the rescue and tried to fend him off, getting beat up in the process. And still Elena chose Stefan?? Seriously?? She must be smoking that crack.

Well, I don't really care too much for Bonnie. She can be with whoever she pleases. And  I would like to see a better love interest for Jeremy. All of his girlfriends have a tendency to show up dead! And Matt deserves someone too. I know they tried to make something brew between him and Rebecca but I couldn't see it. He needs someone new also. Fresh blood and faces next season will do the show some justice. So please, please, please, please, please writers, can you PLEASE give Damon some happiness too? It wouldn't be fair for Stelena to be all hearts and giggles and he's back to his getting wasted and not giving a care stage. It's really starting to break my heart!

All done! Here's to hoping and expecting a very good season this fall. I can't wait to see what happens next!


Am I the only one who seems a little...overwhelmed by all the reality shows currently circulating TV Land? Every time I turn on the TV it seems like there's another advertisement either from a reality show already on or a new one they're promoting.

I just saw another promo for Beverly Hills Nanny and my heart literally sunk. Let me just clear the air and make it known that I'm not discrediting reality shows in any way. A lot of hard work and time goes into making those shows and the people who work on them are doing an amazing job. All I'm saying is that reality shows just aren't my thing. To me, reality shows is just an excuse for people to act dumb on TV for money and for TV executives to cut costs.

Making a TV drama or a sitcom costs a tremendous amount of money. There's production costs, script writes and rewrites, cast negotiations, directors, producers, and not to mention all the money spent on marketing and promos. I'm not very good with money and even though my professor broke it down for me, even I know that it's a lot of money. I get it, the executives don't want to waste time on something that might not even make it. But are they getting too complacent? The best things that have happened in history have been because people have taken risks. Who's to say that one project is going to work and another isn't? No one can say for sure but to put so much funding into reality shows just because it's "easier" just seems really sad to me. Is this the business that I'm coming into? Seriously?


Literally, every time this promo came on I wanted to cry. ABC Family has had a history of having really great TV dramas and sitcoms and now all of a sudden they want to hop on the reality train? What?! And seriously? Nannies? I'd rather watch Super Nanny because she's British and the episodes I've seen have been far funnier.

 I don't usually watch reality shows, but when over my dad's house, I'm almost forced to. My little sister watches things like Teen Mom and Super Sweet 16 or Run's House. With all respect to the teen moms who "suffer" through giving birth and raising their kids, I could give a rat's two butts about watching them deal with their lives. They knew what they were getting into when they had sex, which meant they knew what they were getting into when they found out they were pregnant. It didn't just suddenly occur to them that this could actually happen.

Just a few weeks ago, my friend and I were talking about Teen Mom and how teen pregnancy had gone down since the show aired. Which is all fine and dandy but TV isn't the only deciding factor in whether or not kids get pregnant. It's the parents' responsibility to educate their kids on sex and its consequences just like it's up to each kid to take personal responsibilty for their actions. To have a show on it is educational, yes, but also pointless in my opinion. It's an excuse to look at the poor little girls who get pregnant and have to deal with the no good, teenage fathers. It's almost like celebrating it to me.



Then there's dating shows that are really the worst. They're at the top of my list of things that really grinds my gears. Shows like the Bachelor and the Bachelorette, Flavor of Love, and other shows on dating that are really pointless. How is anyone expected to fall in love in the months of production? How is someone supposed to have every day of their lives documented in the pursuit of love broadcast on national television only so that person could be happy? They should do a doc on how many of those couples actually stay together.

My mom stays glued to the Bacherlorette and was literally screaming at the TV in the final moments. How has society come to this? How could people literally celebrate a woman courting 20 men in the hopes of finding Mr. Right yet snub their noses if they see a regular woman doing the exact same thing? It's entirely hypocritcal yet people sit there and tune in every week to see who goes home. And what about the guys who may or may not truly love whoever the host is? They just cut their losses and try to find someone else? How do they move on after getting to know someone they have to share with 19 other guys? The whole idea was entirely one sided.

Not all reality dating shows were bad. Anyone remember Blind Date? That was a show I could watch because it was funny. It had thought bubbles above their heads with funny lines about how the date was going and the dates were either really horrible or incredibly funny. It wasn't just about two people dating on national TV, it was TV drama blended with reality which made for an entertaining watch. Now it's just drama, drama, and "ooh I broke a nail" or "don't touch my man" or "I'm sick of you disrespecting me, I'm going to kick your butt in front of Betty so she'll pick me not you."

Then you get into shows like Real Housewives of Wherever. Seriously, how many do they have now? Six? And it's all the same thing. Catty women with barely one thing in common, spending their husbands' money, and gossiping about the women they don't like. I'm half convinced most of the time that none of it is real. Are they really feuding with each other or did the producers of the show say you don't like her, she doesn't like the other one, go ahead and fight. Reality shows aren't reality and that's my biggest problem with them. Everyone knows that putting seven highly opinionated and mouthy women in one room is bound to cause some problems. Women naturally cannot be friends with each other and putting it on TV is just stupid.

Words cannot describe how good The Newsroom is by Aaron Sorkin which aired on June 24th. It's fresh, it's new, and the writing is amazing. The characters are rife with tension and natural conflict plays out during the course of the episodes. It's the type of show you keep coming back to not knowing the reason why but just knowing that you have to just to see what happens next.

Hearing the premise of the show, I was a little iffy about watching it. A show about what goes on in the back room of news studio doesn't seem like such a big draw card amongst shows like Once Upon a Time, Pretty Little Liars, Law and Order, and etc. But then since marketing stratagy practically screamed AARON SORKIN at you every chance they got, I had to see what they were talking about. He did after all write The Social Network screenplay. Say what you will about the movie but you almost can't argue that the screenplay wasn't awesome. "I'm 6'5, 220, and there's two of me!" Armie Hammer said in one of the scenes. How could lines like that not make you quake?

Anywho, hearing all of that, I got intrigued. From the very first episode, I knew that the show would work. It has tension, conflict, and tackles big questions while also dealing with other messy questions like love and working with former lovers. In the very beginning, Will McAvoy played by the amazing Jeff Daniels is at a conference answering questions about the state of America.



In an article from EW magazine about the episode, the writer made a long critique on how Aaron Sorkin likes his long speeches that while it says a lot, it's still long. I agree but when you think about the context of the show, it's almost necessary for such long speeches about the state of America. And you have to give credit to the actors who remember all of those lines at once. Sure they must have spliced all of it together, but in essence, they had to memorize those lines whether they said it altogether or chopped.

I don't remember what he said verbatim, but the gist of it was that America wasn't the best in the world because we're behind in so many things like math and science and things like that. And while college students like to think that they know what's going on in the world, they actually don't but then want to throw around big worded questions to make themselves seem smarter. The fallout of this Q and A caused his boss to bring in a new executive producer to create a new template because his old one was leaving for a new time slot.

The new EP, Mackenzie MacHale, played by the talented Emily Mortimer, used to date Will and cheated on him which led to their breakup. It tore out Will's heart making him less than lovable around the office. Despite his less than sunny disposition, I can understand Will's attitude. His old EP left him and took more than half his staff, his boss brought in his old girlfriend who cheated on him, and the women he's trying to date are all crazy, and not to mention the people upstairs on the 44th floor are threatening to fire him if he doesn't dial down the politics on his show.



Will's character, is on a mission to civilize the world which is hard to do in a world where half the population doesn't care about politics or are more interested in the Housewives of Wherever and whether or not she's having an  affair with her yoga instructor. He's a modern man born in the wrong time period. He's looking towards the future and that news should report the news not stupid puff pieces and it frustrates him that more people don't realize it. He cares about the politics, he completely believes that people should be more educated on the election of the tea party rather than the new iPad coming out. He's literally a fish out of water when only he cares and he's on a crusade mission to get the world on board with him.

I get a little lost in the show sometimes because the characters talk at a fast pace. They talk over each other, have two different ideas of what each is talking about, or are rattling off statistics at such a rapid pace it's a blink and you'll miss it kind of show. They throw out a lot of stats and figures and facts, I kind of struggle to keep up but once you settle into that rhythm, you're able to keep up whether or not you know what they're talking about or not.

The show isn't all politics all the time though. There's an assortment of characters that give the show a fresh look at people and how they interact with each other. There's a love triangle and a super funny character played by Dev Patel who is so adorable, his character just works. There are other characters in the show, a pretty anchor with a PhD in economics which no one will believe and Mac's new boyfriend which irritates Will but he'll never cop to it.

Dev Patel plays Neal Sampat, a total geek who emphatically believes in Big Foot. He runs the blog there and he's there for the comic relief when a moment is so full of tension. He goes on long tirades about the possibilities of Big Foot and undocumented species deep within the rain forest and it's adorable so it's excusable. But he's not all comedy all the time. In the first episode he was the one who convinced Will to report on the oil spill while everyone else was reporting on other things. And he helped make Will's show the leader in breaking news. In the recent episode, everyone reported that the secretary was dead but it turned out that she was still alive. Will made the choice to report that she's not dead, further proving that Will's show tells other shows what to report. And Dev Patel becomes friends with Jim, the right hand man to Mac.

The result being that she pushes her roommate to go out with him and then grills him on if he's going to see her roommate again.

Here's the part that really got my gears grinding. Don knew that they had feelings for each other. And with a smug smile, told Maggie that Jim lied to her and that her roommate was going to see Jim again. He purposely showed her a bit of news that would peak her interest making her call Jim and forcing him to lie to her. Knowing all of this, Don calls her roommates' number which rang in the other room and on Maggie's phone making her know that Jim is in the other room with her roommate. With another smug smile, Don closes his phone and almost dares her to say something about it. But all she can do is feel stupid and ask what she ever did to Don. It really makes you wonder what the hell she's holding onto in Don. Is she really that afraid to date Jim? Even though he's the rational choice? Don is obviously a negative influence. Jim cared so much that he helped her through a panic attack when Don wrote it off as just something she does.

Now for the psychology behind love triangles! YAY!



Not long ago, I asked myself why it seemed like every TV show, movie, or book currently in circulation are so stuck on love triangles. It's there in two of my favorite James Patterson novels, in my favorite TV shows like Vampire Diaries, Dallas, Trueblood, and movies like the Hunger Games and Twilight. Yes I'm a Twihard but I'm not a psycho like most of the world is. But all of these examples had me thinking why triangles and even sqaures resonate so much in pop culture today. The logical question to bear in mind is that, if you fell in love with the second guy, then you obviously don't really love the first. I'm a firm believer that you can't love two people at once. It just can't be done. But love isn't exactly logical, is it?

So then I really thought of it. I think it has something to do with humans' natural urge to compete. Back in the caveman days, guys clonked their women over the head and kept it pushing. But then women started getting smarter. If they hold out on the first guy they see, it now became the norm for guys to compete for the ladies' affections. (Notice how it's never two women and one guy because society has painted women as too catty and angry to hold themselves in check when confronted with "the other woman" yet it's perfectly okay for two guys to go at it over a woman. Double standards suck!)

Not to mention that fathers got factored into the equation. If guys didn't ask their permission or prove that they were the better choice, the father would never agree to the arrangement. Kind of makes you glad that these ain't the 1800s anymore huh? So it stands to reason that competetion is completely natural to human instincts and men are even more competitive. So when some Joe Average comes to claim his woman, the first guy will fight. Not to mention, people love picking sides. We've all heard the Team Edward - Team Jacob, Team Stefan - Team Damon, Team Bill - Team Eric - Team Alcide debacles right? It allows girls to pick sides and defend it with everything in them. Not to mention, it's part of almost every woman's fantasy to have two or more men fighting over her. Makes her feel desired and wanted as the most prized posession.

It may not completely solve the phenom behind love triangles but it is something worth looking at since practically everyone and they momma want to have a love triangle or square. Despite everything, I thoroughly enjoy love triangles but in my own writing, I don't think I'd use them. Maybe only slightly to encourage the guys in my main characters' lives to step it up and realize that they have a person worth fighting for. But as a full on love triangle? Nah, that's not me. It's hard enough trying to get one person to like you and love you but two? Come on! If it were that easy, I'd have my future husband by now!

Overall, I'm thoroughly enjoying the show. It's very well written, keeps you informed in a non boring way, and seeing Will's character deal with the love of his life is just priceless to watch. He's an angry man trying to hide it but he can't hide it from her and he knows it but that doesn't stop him from trying. The other characters help balance out the show making for a very entertaining show that I look forward to watching every Sunday. If you haven't been watching, you really, really, really, should!

I've always been on the fence about blogs and what to write, what not to write, what's interesting and what isn't. So far my blog has mostly been about my writing which is ironic because I'm always so secretive about it. Pretty much anything that goes onto the internet stays there for practically ever, so I've always been so careful on what to put on it. I mean, I don't want people to take my ideas right?

Blogs are pretty much an online diary and a "secret" place to vent without nosy brothers snooping through my things looking for a book with my inner most secrets or even my mom, though she wouldn't do something like that. It's also a place where I can say anything I want because it doesn't matter who reads this thing or not. It's like a friend who'll always listen without talking back or adding in its two cents. This isn't to discredit my friends now, it's just that sometimes I'd like someone to listen to everything I have to say, without interrupting me in the middle of it, or not letting me talk at all.. (Trust me, both have happened.)

I love my friends dearly but sometimes even they are unreliable. They're always off doing something else without inviting me, or never let me talk, or when I do, they don't actually hear what I have to say. It's annoying to say the least, but hey, they're my friends so I must like them somehow right?

Mostly, when I read other people's blogs, they're talking about the things most important to them like an important marathon, how they're keeping in shape, their kids, book reviews, or just how they're day is going. Some funny, some not, some informative, some not. But what I like most is that they're so passionate and committed to what they're writing. I haven't written a blog post in so many months and it's sad. It's like why did I start one in the first place? I honestly don't know. Maybe it's just my insatiable appetite for writing and how I seriously can't stop, even if I wanted to.

Last night/this morning, I was watching The Newsroom, an awesome new series by Aaron Sorkin and I couldn't help thinking about my blog and how if I can't even commit to it, then how am I supposed to be committed to my writing of books or eventual short stories? It sort of makes me a hypocrite, no? So then I finally decided what I should write about, something that I'm addicted to like TV shows and movies. I am a complete, unapologetic junkie when it comes to movies and TV shows. I will literally stay up until 8 in the morning, sometimes even 11 just watching them. I know this doesn't exactly set me apart from any other Joe Average who sits up and watches TV all day, but among my friends, I'm considered a real freak.



And the problem with that is that I can never talk to anyone about it because no one watches the shows or movies I watch and I can never fully discuss it. So I'm going to embrace my freak flag and talk to myself, via this blog, practically about anything I want. About TV shows I'm enjoying, no matter how late in the game I've gotten to it, about movies I'm digging no matter how much no one likes it, dissecting trailers and why it works or doesn't, and even songs I'm crazy about like Somebody I Used to Know by Gotye (I won't even tell you how long I've been mispronouncing that name!)

I don't promise correct grammer, up to date TV shows, or that anyone will agree with what I have to say. But I like to write, I like watching TV, why not combine the both of them? So this is Nic's Island 2.0, all TV/songs, all the time. I'll be here all week, writing whenever I want, and I may even write two or three posts in one day. There's just so many shows and songs, I'm not entirely sure I can keep up. But there's a lot of space so why don't I attempt it and see what happens? Yeah? Sounds good? Sounds good to me too. And yes, I am talking to myself. So what?

Enjoy the song! I know I do. The video is a little weird, but that's okay, because the song is just so awesome. I don't know why I like it so much but when I eventually write about it, I'll dissect it then!