Advance Review: The CW’s Secret Circle Pilot (Airs September 15!)

Aside from series inherited from The WB and UPN, The CW’s greatest success in recent years was probably a surprise even to the network. While they were busy heavily promoting their Melrose Place relaunch, it was a show called The Vampire Diaries that got the hearts of many that year.

The Vampire Diaries worked partly because of the likeable cast and the many layers behind the mythology. What could have easily been Twilight: The TV Series became something much more, and now it’s one of the most popular and most talked about shows on The CW.

A lot of TVD’s success could be pointed to the source material – novels from the author LJ Smith that pre-dated Twilight by several years – but one could also credit executive producer and writer extraordinaire Kevin Williamson of Dawson’s Creek and Scream fame, who, with Julie Plec, really made the show come together every week.

Now, The CW wisely goes back to the LJ Smith well for another one of her supernatural concepts – The Secret Circle – and they brought Kevin Williamson in to join Andrew Miller in developing the series for television.

Did they succeed?

Well…

Like with The Vampire Diaries, it’s populated with a fantastic cast full of people you probably loved in other shows. Life Unexpected’s Britt Robertson plays the lead, Cassie Blake, a young girl who moves to the town of Chance Harbor after something horrible happens to her mother. Britt is one of those actresses that I’ll watch in anything, because she’s just that good. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Thomas Dekker plays Adam, a young man who Cassie has immediate chemistry with… although with it being The CW, there are complications involved. If you’re a fan of Australian mermaid shows, H2O: Just Add Water’s Phoebe Tonkin is the delightfully witchy Faye. Smallville’s Plastique, Jessica Parker Kennedy, plays Melissa, a character we don’t know all that well yet. And even the “grown-ups” are a treat: Beyond Species’ Natasha Henstridge, you’ve got Ashley Crow – herself one of the best parts of Heroes as Claire’s mom, Sandra Bennet (sadly, Mr. Muggles is nowhere to be seen), and you can also see Gale Harold, who is so intense and creepy as Charles Meade.

Those aren’t the only actors present in this pilot, mind you.. many of the others were not that familiar to me before but I’m sure they’ll all become fan favorites… they all did admirable jobs. And that’s one of the things that I think works about The Secret Circle that a lot of new shows are often missing: There’s a character for everyone to grasp on to. Why did Smallville last for ten years? It’s partly because, even if Clark wasn’t your favorite, you had Lex to look to. Or Chloe. Or Lana. Or Lois Lane. Every good show needs a “hook” and it’s very easy to find one in the world of The Secret Circle. I should also credit the casting directors here because they did a great job — although I have not read the books and for all I know, they could look nothing like their print counterparts, the actors chosen are great… although I do hope in future episodes they do something different with either Faye’s hair or Diana’s so they don’t look so much alike. And although I’m really curious about Louis Hunter’s Nick character… his hairstyle looks like something out of the first season of Dawson’s Creek, and I hope they do something about it.

Yes, there is the “teenybopper romance” that you might expect from a show like this. But, also like The Vampire Diaries, it isn’t over the top and if anything, it adds to the show’s appeal, because you want to see how this interacts with Cassie’s new situation.

And what is Cassie’s situation? In short, she’s a witch, and the people she interacts with also happen to be part of a “circle” where, if they’re all together, their power grows. They aren’t the first generation of witches in Chance Harbor, either; although you could see who else might have been involved in the past by searching online, that’s a surprise better left for watching the show. Most of the characters seem to have control of elements – whether it’s fire or water – though we’ll see with time what that entails. This is not the same witch mythology seen from Bonnie in The Vampire Diaries, so don’t hold your breath waiting for a crossover.

The Vancouver locations seen in The Secret Circle are fantastic and really take you to another place. I’m also happy to see that some of the folks who worked on the Smallville crew are involved here – both up north and down here in Burbank.

There is a criticism that the pilot works too hard at trying to set up the mythology, but really, which pilot doesn’t? It got me wanting to see what happens next, and that, to me, is the sign of a fantastic pilot episode.

All in all, I have no doubt this is going to be a show that will go on for several years. All of the elements are there, and it may be my favorite Fall 2011 pilot that actually got picked up. The show premieres September 15 after The Vampire Diaries, and we’ve already set up a sub-forum on the KSiteTV Forum if you’d like to talk about it with other fans. If you’re looking for a new show to obsess over if your favorite recently ended, this could be a contender to keep your TV-geeking active.

You can read more Secret Circle coverage, including interviews with the cast, trailers, and images from the show, here.