‘The Secret Circle’ is the new CW series is playing into the whole teenage fantasy genre, similar to The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. It seems network must be trying to milk that cow for all it’s worth. It may not be the most lucrative cow at first glance, but it very well could be by May.
Britt Robertson, who starred on The CW’s now-canceled Life Unexpected, is Cassie Blake, whose mother, Amelia Blake (Emily Holmes), is killed in what Cassie thinks is an ordinary house fire. Gale Harold’s Charles Meade makes no apologies for or covers up that he is evil through his charming smile when he burns the house down.
Fast forward a month, and Cassie has traveled 1,000 miles across the country to her mother’s home town of Chance Harbor, Wash., to move in with her grandmother, Jane Blake (Ashley Crow), when strange events begin to occur.
Her bedroom curtains suddenly open just after she shut them, her locker is suddenly able to open at her new school after it was jammed and her car catches on fire then mysteriously dies out, leading Cassie to believe the town is very odd, yet not magical.
The pilot is like any other pilot, with character introductions of the bitch, the brooding bad boy and the straight-laced girl, among others.
Viewers meet all the secret circle members in the pilot. The HBIC—Head-Bitch-in-Charge—is Faye Chamberlain (Phoebe Tonkin), or at least she thinks she is, probably because her mother Dawn is the school principle. Her sidekick is Melissa Glaser (Jessica Parker Kennedy), who needs much more character development. The preppy know-it-all is Diana Meade (Shelley Hennig), also known as the really evil guy’s daughter, and her boyfriend is Adam Conant (Thomas Dekker). His Dad, Ethan (Adam Harrington), from the beginning pushes Cassie to get together with Adam, and he’s allegedly a drunk. Nick Armstrong (Louis Hunter) is Cassie’s neighbor, the tall, dark and handsome guy and the last member of the circle who wants Cassie to complete their circle. Hunter also has about two lines and coveys more with his looks than with his words.
Cassie finds out about the circle halfway through the pilot, but denies her powers as a “100 percent, full-blooded witch†to the last scene. If the five other characters get Cassie to join and perform some ritual, their powers will be unstoppable. A bit more of explaining of the ritual would have been nice.
The pilot sets up a long-term plot but gives no indication of how the series might progress along that line. Still, the last few scenes are really what pique the viewer’s interest. Never having read the book trilogy on which this series is based, speculation concludes that the parents are using the children for their own gain, and Cassie is the most powerful witch within the circle.
With a bit of high school clichéd vernacular and the ubiquitous caution note from Cassie’s mom at the end, the series looks like it’s going to take a few episodes before it hits its stride.
Short analysis: it’s either going to become a quick addiction or a quick failure.
This article originally appeared on AllMediaNY.com
I’m really glad that Britt Robertson is getting another chance at a lead role – I loved her in Life Unexpected and was so bummed when that show was cancelled. Also loved that they used MNDR’s “I Go Away” in the first scene of the show – really got me excited (watch at http://vimeo.com/29586736)
While I was kind of apprehensive when i read the show description, thinking it might be a little too cookie-cutter, the pilot was very solid. The show has good tone – it’s the right mix of dark without being depressive, and it had excellent pacing, which is often overlooked. I’m excited to see if Britt can take this role and run with it!