The Secret Circle, pretty perfect for what it is

This post is rife with spoilers.

The Secret Circle’s pilot did everything that Ringer's tried and failed to do, which was deliver a fast-paced, twisty pilot with pretty people and intrigue that would grab audience attention quickly. The Secret Circle didn’t have Ringer’s silliness or holes. Obviously, it reminded us of The Vampire Diaries, because a lot of the same people are involved in making it. We are pretty sure it will never be as good as TVD, because how is that possible? But it had a good start last night.

Britt Robertson returns to the CW screen, and it’s nice to see her being a nice girl again. She plays the brat thing a little too believably, so people hate her in those roles. She’s good as the lead in this show, even if her eyebrows don’t match her hair. That’s a little pet peeve of ours. Cassie is a cute dresser. Did you see that lacey get-up she wore on her second day in town? Straight out of a catalogue.

We chuckled when another character called Cassie “delicate.” One of the great things about this young actress is that she usually comes across as strong and too smart for her britches, even when she’s being quiet. That’s good if you are going to have blonde hair. It bucks the stereotype. The character isn’t delicate; in fact, she has the witch juice that the others are lacking, as shown by her act of stopping the storm.

We want to mention the opening. That’s exactly how you open a show like this. With a supernatural murder. Not a flashforward to your most dramatic moment and then a flashback. Come on. That’s cheap.

Guy comparison: Too bad Cassie is going to end up with Adam (as was obvious the first time we met his dad). Nick is cuter. Nick’s swagger and attitude makes him seem like he’s gonna be the Damon of this operation. Adam looks like a runty My Chemical Romance reject. From some angles he also looks a little pudgy. Adam's looks grew on us though.

Adam is boyfriend to the only nice teenage girl in town, Diana, the leader of the group. Too bad there is going to be a rift between Diana and Cassie when Cassie steals her BF. Cassie has a great comeback: “Your dad killed my mom! Even.” The kids are secretly practicing witchcraft in their circle, thus, the name of the show. Uh oh. They must have gotten a hold of those daggum Harry Potter books. The fundies were right!!! The show dropped hints about an interesting back-story for the town that actually sounds a lot more personal and fun than The Vampire Diaries’ back-story with Katherine.

When Cassie was being told by Adam to chant and try to make a drop of water float, she did it a little too quickly, we thought. We would have thought we were being filmed looking stupid in an elaborate prank. They almost kissed, but they are good people and stopped.

We are kind of obsessed with Faye and her directness. We also like the fate element. What if Cassie falls in love with someone else? And although it is common, we loved when Cassie found out that her father was a “bad man.” Ten bucks says he’s still alive. We hope he’s a grey-area character, like Snape in the aforementioned Harry Potter books. That would be more interesting than if he were involved in the evil plot with Diana’s dad and Faye’s mom. We’re gonna need him to bring more of a pay-off than Elena’s mom on TVD.

We liked the set-up and exposition. It felt natural, not clunky, and they didn’t show everything in the trailer. We’ve got the supernatural, high-schoolers, and a small town that we wish we could live in. How pretty was that town? It was on the water with the cutest little pier and buildings. Ugh, even with witches living in Chance Harbor, we would move there. We also want Cassie’s bedroom. We think we’ll settle for putting stars on our ceiling. Shut up, we’re not too old for that.

Episode grade: A-