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Monday, January 13, 2014 -7A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, January13, 2014 -7A

Falling out of love with
'The Vampire Diaries'

And you thought you had a special connection with Siri. WARNER BROS.
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softly, a
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tor creates fresh immediatelysmitten. They slowly
open up to each other, exploring
e on traditional their fears and desires, theirlone-
liness, their very being.
love story Phoenix, demonstrating an
impressive and heartfelt range of
rJAMIEBIRCOLL emotion and pain, gives possibly
DailyFilmEditor the second-best performance of
the year as Theodore. He is only
he surface, "Her" is the outdone by Scarlett Johansson
a man and a woman who ("Don Jon") as Samantha. Despite
)ve. But the film expands never appearing onscreen,
some- Johansson has a commanding
r more A+ presence, her voice earnest and
l: a charming.
ion Her Writer-director Spike Jonze
stence Rave(and ("Where the Wild Things Are")
e, and does masterful work behind the
capac- Quality16 camera and infuses his script
ndure Warner Bros with indelible wit and nuance
is and that allows him to ask questions
f the that go beyond this unusual love
relationship. It is at once story. Perhaps most immedi-
and transcendent, sweet ately, he asks: Can Theodore and
ilosophical, melancholic Samantha's relationship be con-
iring. sidered real? To blur the answer,
tin Phoenix ("The Mas- he often moves the camera off his
ays Theodore Twombly, actors so we can hear them but
battling depression who not see them; by doing so, Theo-
quite realize it. Having dore becomes as real or as unreal
parated from his wife for as Samantha.
year, he pours himself The film is intercut with flash-
leo games, the internet backs to Theodore's relation-
work, where he writes ship with his ex-wife (played by
al,eloquentccards foroth- Rooney Mara, "Side Effects").
eautifulHandwrittenLet- The vignettes reveal the man
. It's at his work that the Theodore once was, the love he
ns; we see Theodore go once cherished and has since
the motions of surviving, left him in a deep sadness. As he
ng himself vicariously becomes closer with Samantha,
his letters, attempting to he comes out of that sadness and
himself from the empti- begins to see the world anew.
'ated by his broken mar- Samantha, too, is able to grow
and understand herself and the
dore installs a new oper- world around her saying, "I want
ystem on his computer, to learn everything about every-
of its kind in that it is thing." She challenges Theodore
Ily intelligent, crafted with her unique personality and
uely meet the needs of desires, and that challenge allows
The computer speaks Theodore to feel again despite
ffectionately; her name believing he has felt "everything
antha, and Theodore is I'm ever goingto feel."

Ultimately, their relationship
becomes more and more compli-
cated as we come to understand
that Theodore cannot simply turn
offhis relationship withcthe touch
of a button. Samantha exists
beyond Theodore's computer: she
composes music, she sings, she
draws. As an AI, she can grow to
the world around her, and she can
do so without Theodore. Slowly,
the line that defines their rela-
tionship becomes distorted.
The premise could have been
nothing more than a gimmick for
a comedy. Instead, Jonze takes
the ridiculous and morphs it into
the profound. While at first the
film seems to be concerned with
whether a love with a computer
can be real, its focus becomes
much simpler: does it matter?
WhetherornotSamanthaisrealis
irrelevant; she shapes Theodore's
life just as much as his ex-wife, as
his friends and his colleagues. As
Salman Rushdie wrote, "I am the
sum total of everything that went
before me, of all I have been seen
done, of everything done-to-me.
I am everyone everything whose
being-in-the-world affected was
affected by mine."
Arcade Fire's song "Supersym-
metry" is featured in a brief mon-
tage where we see Theodore and
Samantha first connect and fall
in love. The song adds a layer of
wonder to the scene, but it's name
rings more important. The prin-
ciple of supersymmetry proposes
that the particles of matter and
force, once thought to be separate
entities, are actually intercon-
nected by partner particles, or
superpartners. This is the heart
of "Her," to unite what is thought
to be dissonant, to imagine what
is thought to be unimaginable,
and to rediscover purpose and
hope where they had been aban-
doned.

Falling out of love sucks. At
first, you don't really know
what's going on. You look at
the other person and don't
necessarily see a stranger,
but there's
something
different,
something
off. They
chew too 4
loudly or
their hands
are too
rough or KAYLA
their laugh UPADHYAYA
grates on
your ears.
Is it in your
head? Were these imperfec-
tions there all along and you
just found them endearing,
even sexy, before? Small
fights become big fights,
and the apologies are fewer
and farther between. You
wish things could go back to
the way they were. But they
don't. Things worsen. You've
fallen out of love, and falling
out of love sucks.
Recently, I fell out of love
with "The Vampire Diaries."
And even though we're talk-
ing about a TV show and not
a fellow human being, I can
assure you that in this case,
falling out of love still sucks.
I first fell in love with "The
Vampire Diaries" during my
freshman year. Despite my
love for Kevin Williamson
and most things supernatu-
ral, I avoided the show for
a long time. Vampires? Who
write in diaries? Please. At
the time, I was the person
I would soon came to hate,
the TV snob who was better
than the CW, the person who
insisted that network televi-
sion can't possibly hold a can-
dle to its cable superiors.
"Just get past the first four
or five episodes," my friend
and TVspiration LaToya
insisted. "It's terrible for
the first several episodes,
but then it transforms into
an amazing show. You'll be
obsessing by the end of the
week."
I was officially consider-
ing it.
"Oh, and they ditch the
diaries," she added.
OK, let's do this. I fell fast
and hard for "The Vampire
Diaries." Pretty soon, we
spent all our meals and eve-
nings together. I introduced
her to as many friends as I
could, talked about her (per-
haps a tad too often) in the
dining hall, at parties, in my
dorm room. I started calling
her by her nickname, "TVD,"
and dedicating 90 percent of
my tweets to her (almost all
of them including a generous
helping of OMGs and WTFs).
And I didn't just fall in love
with the show; I fell for its
brilliant cast, its well-written
characters, its wicked smart
creative team led by Wil-
liamson and Julie Plec. I fell
for Candice Accola in every
way. I fell for the deftness
with which Nina Dobrev so
expertly played two differ-
ent characters, to the extent
that you forget both were
her (which led me to write a
lengthy blog post about the
differences between Elena

and Katherine's physicalities
... Dobrev's mouth moves dif-
ferently depending on which
she is playing! I'm not mak-
ing this up! Look for it!). I
even fell for the emotional
tumult of it all, the fact that
no character is ever safe, that
death is as much a part of the

series's narrative fabric as
young love is.
I watched most of the first
season with LaToya (forever
thankful I finally listened
to her) and our friend Ilona.
Even though we all lived in
different states, we scheduled
group gehats, pressed play
simultaneously, and spent the
next 43-ish minutes going
through a whole range of
emotions together, because
that's what this damn show
about too-pretty teenagers
and their vampire cohorts
does to you.
It wasn't long before I
caught up and the binge-
watching had to come to an
end. But I still found ways
to spend time with "TVD"
between its Thursday night
airings. I read Price Peter-
son's flawless photo recaps
and continued, almost always
unsuccessfully, to convince
my friends to start watching.
When I read reviews dispar-
aging my favorite character,
I posted a manifesto on my
tumblr that declared my
love for Caroline Forbes, in
both her human and vampire
forms.
But something started hap-
pening during season four.
At first, I didn't really know
what was going on. I watched
"The Vampire Diaries," and
it was more or less the same
show, but there was some-
thing different, something
off. The dumb Elena-Stefan-
Damon love triangle was
suddenly taking up too much
of the narrative. Caroline
had been pushed to the back
burner. Nothing Bonnie did
made any sense anymore.
Careful character develop-
ment that had been steadily
building since season one was
balled up and thrown in the
trash. Had these imperfec-
tions been there all along and
I had just found them endear-
ing, even sexy, before? Small
qualms become big qualms,
and the redeeming quali-
ties were fewer and farther
between. I wished things
could go back to the way they
were. But they didn't. Things
worsened. I had fallen out of
love, and falling out of love
sucks ... even when it's with a
TV show.
At least in this case, I
wasn't going through it alone.
Ilona stopped watching
entirely. LaToya returned to
the early seasons so she could
remember how things used
to be. Reviews became more
and more critical. Ratings
for season five have dropped,
on average, by one to two
million from what they were
per episode in the first two
seasons.
I could forgive some of the
baseless character changes
and story missteps. Most
shows slump at some point.
And season four, despite its
troublesome sire bond plot
and overemphasis on the love
triangle, also includes epi-
sodes that embody everything
"TVD" does well: "Memorial"
jerks tears from even the
most heartless of monsters
while also serving up a blind-
ing dose of suspense.
But now, we're in the midst

of season five, and "The Vam-
pire Diaries" doesn't just look
unfamiliar; it has morphed
into something absurd, toxic,
even nauseating. Love has
taken center stage, and the
show that once burst with
themes of family and friend-
ship now sags with some seri-

ously fucked up philosophies
on romance. The once strong
and clear-sighted Caroline
has melted into a helpless,
lovesick vamp who clings to
her fading relationship with
Tyler. Elena constantly asks
herself: Stefan? Or Damon?
When really, she should be
asking: Can't I just be single
for once and stop letting these
men dictate my every move?
The writers room also
seems to have become
obsessed with the concept of
post-traumatic stress disor-
der. The writing feels sloppy,
as if someone opened up their
kid's psych textbook, found
a basic definition of PTSD
and said "yeah, let's do that,"
without trying to connect it
to the characters' emotions
or the story's trajectory. So
now, Stefan suffers from
PTSD. Which, yeah, makes
sense. I mean, the dude was
trapped in a sealed vault and
tossed into a river, where he
drowned, died, and came back
to life about a thousand times
over the course of several
months. That's going to take
a psychological toll on a fella.
Caroline attempts to cure him
by trapping him in the very
vault which causes his trauma
(a solution she pulls from her
own psych textbook), but it's
Katherine who finally gets
through to Stefan. In the
process, Katherine reveals
that Stefan's PTSD results
not from the whole drowning
repeatedly for months thing
but rather because of ... wait
for it ... Elena dumping him.
Huh?
I get it. We all do stupid
things for love. We've all had
tiny panic attacks when some-
one doesn't reply to a text
message in less than three
seconds. We've all wondered
about exes and read too much
into tweets, putting subtext
where there is none. And
I'm not suggesting "TVD"
eliminate love from its the-
matic spinnings entirely; it
would lose an essential part
of itself. It hasn't always got-
ten romance wrong. Early on,
Caroline and Tyler's relation-
ship was wonderfully com-
plex, and Rebekah and Matt's
unlikely pairing glistened
with honesty. For a while, the
show's characters were so
intertwined in each others'
lives that it seemed anyone
could hook up with anyone
and it would make sense on a
deeper, more emotional level
beyond just "they're both
pretty."
But the current season of
"The Vampire Diaries" has a
lot to say about love, and none
of it is healthy: Do anything
for love, even if that means
placing yourself or others in
danger; love is all that mat-
ters; love love love. The show's
current conception of love
resembles that of a pre-teen
who still doesn't know or
understand anything about
this nebulous concept beyond
the borders of their diary.
Well, I'm sorry, "TVD," but
I don't love you anymore. I
can't love you anymore. But
if you want to win my love
back, you can start by letting
these characters remember

who they are, what they care
about, what drives and scares
and worries them. Because
right now, they look like
strangers.
Upadhyaya is eating lots
of garlic. To join her, e-mail
kaylau@umich.edu.

TV R EVIEW
Stae jkeson (djidnght

ByJOE REINHARD
DailyArts Writer
Sometimes, a good idea on
paper doesn't turn out as well
when brought to life. Comedy
Central's "@
Midnight" B-
might not
always be a @Midnight
show with
this prob- Season Two
lem, but the Premiere
season two MondaytoThursday
premiere
certainly at12a.m.
indicates Comedy Central
that this
might be the
case. At the very least, the show
doesn't have a good enough
handle yet to make its strong
mix of ideas into an excellent
program.
The show is led by a panel of
guest comedians who do improv
comedy under a mock game
show format that largely draws
from absurd material on the
web. The show, hosted by Chris
Hardwick, pulls from a variety
of places - including "Jeopar-
dy!" and Hardwick's own "Web
Soup" - which creates an inter-
esting premise. Over the course
of its 30-minute runtime, how-
ever, it becomes pretty clear
that the show's premise might
not be enough. In fact, as it
stands now, the premise is what
holds the show back from pro-
ducing consistently great com-
edy.

Consistency is the key word
here. "@Midnight" does have
some laughs, particularly in
its stronger second half where
more jokes hit than miss. Of
course, the improvisational
nature of the show entails that
at least some jokes will fall flat,
but the number of things that
simply don't work is too obvious
to ignore.
This is where the show's
game show format becomes
problematic. Too often, the
panel of comedians struggle
to produce something funny
because the questions and
tasks are too restricting. In
one round, the comedians had
to say what pinboard a Pinter-
est photo should be posted to,
and each response was under-
whelming. An eerie black and
white photo of a man holding
a deer skull over his face isn't
the worst choice for such an
activity, but it failed to generate
funny responses that we know
each of the individual panelists
are capable of. To the show's
credit, having three guests
increases the chances of at least
one joke being funny, but when
all three fail to deliver, it's hard
to watch. The problem lies in
how the format prevents them
from moving on when a weird
Tweet, video, or Instagram
photo clearly isn't working out.
It isn't that the comedi-
ans involved aren't funny.
The particular guests for this
episode - Kumail Nanjiani

("Franklin & Bash), Paul Scheer
("NTSF:SD:SUV"), and Andrea
Savage ("Step Brothers") - all
have impressive comedy resu-
mes, and each manages to bring
about some genuinely hilarious
moments. Chris Hardwick, love
him or hate him, has plenty of
experience hosting, including
experience hosting a show with
internet based content, and
does a decent job. Each person
helps stop the show from sink-
ing to mediocrity. It just doesn't
rise to greatness, either.
Don't stay up
for this one.
In theory, the mock game
show format should provide a
fun and unique backdrop for
the comedians to work with.
Unfortunately, "@Midnight"
ends up creating something
that isn't as fun or as engag-
ing as it could be. If the show
placed more emphasis on the
game show elements (which
it doesn't, seeing how points
are awarded according to what
Hardwick finds funny and not
under a balanced, objective sys-
tem), that would be one thing,
but when the show's clearly out
for laughs first and foremost,
the inconsistency is hard to for-
give.


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