By Anika Hiremath
The Originals created by Julie Plec, a spin-off of the popular CW network show The Vampire Diaries, revolves around the lives of the Mikaelson siblings - the world's original vampires: Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies), Rebekah (Claire Holt), Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic), Freya (Riley Voelkel), and Finn (Yusuf Gatewood). The Original vampires struggle to find a home in the city they helped build from ground up, New Orleans. After being forced out of New Orleans by their tyrannical father Mikael, Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah return nearly a century later only to find Marcel, Klaus's protégé and Rebekah's former lover, has taken over as the new ‘King’ of the city. With the constant threat of war breaking out between the supernatural factions(of witches, vampires and werewolves) and Klaus's consistent refusal to compromise with anyone, the show explores whether they will be able to make New Orleans their home again and before the arrival of Klaus's miracle child, Hope Mikaelson.
Without further ado, let us get into the review. There is a reason I chose to review this show — I absolutely enjoy watching it! So here is why… The Originals most definitely hinges on its characters and for good reason. These characters play an integral role in making the show interesting. How many shows have you come across a bloodthirsty yet caring vampire-werewolf hybrid protagonist, a loyal and overprotective but ruthless older brother, a badass and independent vampire sister, an extremely powerful lesbian witch? Also, compared to many other CW Network TV shows, the Originals allows for character development over the course of the five seasons, which is definitely appealing because the audience is able to engage better with characters that grow rather than flat characters whose sole purpose seems to be hooking up with every vampire she sees (no shade Elena ;p).
Next, the show often leaves the viewers with cliffhangers, leaving the audience at the edge of their seats, biting their nails anticipating the characters’ next move. In addition to that, the Originals is more mature and less “teen-y”: unlike the The Vampire Diaries (upon which the Originals is based) which revolves around high-school and college life and how these centuries-old vampires can fit into that scene of high school drama.
The Originals also gives answers: the Originals kicked off its freshman season by weaving a sometimes confusing tale of witches vs. vampires in New Orleans. But within five episodes, the truth about why Klaus was lured to the Big Easy was quickly revealed: The witches never completed the Harvest ritual that would give them incredible power — enough to stand up to the vampires — so they blackmailed Klaus into tracking down young and super powerful Davina (Danielle Campbell) so they can kill her lest they will lose their powers altogether. As for the Vampire Diaries, the new college mystery is dragging on with seemingly no answers in sight, decreasing the interest levels for the audience.
But of course the Originals is not all rainbows and unicorns -- it sadly does have its own share of downfalls. First off, if you’re reading this article and wondering what in the world is the “The Harvest” that is probably how you will feel when you watch the Originals without watching at least the first 4-5 seasons of the Vampire Diaries; hence, the show does not really lend itself well to viewers who are new to the Vampire Diaries universe. Next, the idea of vampires and werewolves is one that has been in countless movies and shows before and hence this may make the show unattractive to certain viewers. Lastly, the last two seasons of the show suddenly become extremely slow-paced and very stretched out which is not very appealing at all and definitely a letdown.
In conclusion, the Originals is a spin of the CW network’s The Vampire Diaries which is well-received due to the interesting and intriguing characters, more mature and action-packed plot, cliffhangers, but it definitely has a few letdowns such as the difficulty for people who are new to the vampires diaries universe to understand the plot, characters, and character relationships, unnecessary stretching of the last few seasons and the sort of predictability and overuse of vampires, werewolves and other such supernatural creatures.
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