The Originals- Review

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The Originals
The Originals

When Klaus came to mystic falls, Thanks to Katherine, he redefined evil and gruesomeness leaving the regular fans of The Vampire Diaries awestruck.  Niklaus Mikaelson aka Klaus is an Original and a Hybrid – vampire plus werewolf; Not only is he immortal like the other originals he is also the most powerful supernatural having been living for a 1000 years now. Now TVD’s relatively younger vampires certainly held no chance of winning the game against the all powerful originals let alone the mighty Klaus. Also the makers realized they have brought into the story such strong characters that a couple of seasons on TVD that too not on the lead just wouldn’t do justice to them. Hence emerged The Originals!

The Originals (7)
The Originals (7)

The Originals is a spin-off from The Vampire Diaries featuring well the originals- Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah at the moment. The originals are the first vampires of the world and Klaus is an exception having werewolf genes in his system. The series is set in New Orleans where Klaus had to return to win his lost empire back from his old friend cum new arch-enemy Marcel. Happens that the city which once was under the reign of the originals, has come into the custody of Marcel. Marcel now owns an army of loyal vampires and somehow has the witches terrorized too. These don’t fare out well with Klaus who has an acute hunger for dominance and power, certainly not after he was the one to have turned Marcel into a Vampire and made him so strong. Now Klaus wants his empire back.

But what made his siblings follow him to New Orleans? Much to everyone’s surprise and Klaroline fans’ heartbreak Klaus’ one night stand with Hayley (Season 4 of TVD, remember?) got Hayley pregnant- Yes you read it right. Klaus is having a baby!! and Hayley is the friggin mother of Klaus’ child. Klaus is as shocked as we are. Now Elijah, a family man, sees this unborn the perfect key to making them a family again and most importantly the key to Klaus’ redemption.

The Originals (2)
The Originals (2)

Now that’s just the base of the plot around which the actual drama revolves. There is a lot of action, hell lot more than TVD- plotting and strategizing, compulsions and neck snaps, and Klaus’ plan B- WAR. This show promised to be edgier and darker than TVD .and the first four episodes have proved quite that. The story-line is definitely interesting as you might have sensed by now and is certainly no teenage love drama. They had three pilot episodes (the firsts one was on TVD season 4) which did seem like a drag and happened to have quite some exposition about the back-story but then those are needed for the newbie watchers.

Now the performance and characterization: Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is good when he is good but he is the best when he is bad. Nothing beats his ruthlessness and complexity.  Every dialogue out of his mouth is a treat “Don’t be fooled Love, I’m the Devil in disguise”. Also the baby situation adds a different dimension to his character and how deals with it make for some of the most memorable scenes in recent TV history for me. Elijah (Daniel Gillies) is yet to be fully featured, sad while Rebekah (Claire Holt) is finally behaving like an original kicking butts and acting responsibly; needless to say they are perfect for their respective roles. Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) so far didn’t have much to do nonetheless is likeable.

Now the new additions- Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) is a hot hunk. He portrays the treacherous (to Klaus) and short-tempered ‘king’ of New Orleans perfectly. Camille a.k.a Cami (Leah Pipes) the bartender is the only human and non-supernatural in this chaos; suffice to say she would be of high interest to both Marcel and Klaus. There are more characters but revealing them would give out serious spoilers.

The Originals (8)
The Originals (8)

So far The Originals have impressed both on story-line and performances. The exposition part fans kept complaining about seems to be over and the real game is on. Although with just four episodes down the show yet has quite some way to go before becoming a must watch.

I have been big fan of TVD but a bigger fan of Klaus. The gravity of his character is unparalleled- he makes vicious look good. But being a Klaroline fan too the idea of him leaving mystic falls was heart-breaking. So I can only hope for a cross-over between the two shows sometime in the future and also that The Originals gets renewed for further seasons since it certainly shows promise. I would give this show three starts since it’s no easy to impress being a spin-off.

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