Like the other guy said, it's hard to tell considering how early on we are in the series. However currently I don't think you need to know what happens on Breaking Bad to understand the series (with the exception of the flash forward in the first episode). It certainly does put things in a different context I would…

Personally I actually liked watching Breaking Bad best with all episodes in a row because it's so heavily serialized.

This was a pretty great episode. Not as good as the previous one in my personal opinion, but still pretty damn great. I laughed my ass off several times especially at the juxtaposition between Chuck's harrowing journey and the old lady staring at the crazy space-blanket-donning lawn warrior.
It also never ceases to…

II definitely more-or-less liked this episode. Little less speechifying (Aaron's speechifying makes sense in context and isn't about brooding to each other) and a little more queit tension over superficial thrill.

It was pretty good, even if there were faults that I personally could find with it. I think the montage with the coffee, etc. was supposed to be repetitive to some extent though. Much like the montage of Walter running his drug empire in Gliding Over All I think it's supposed to be part of putting us in his mindset…

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with this review. The structure the episode took on and the way it dovetailed with the ideas of predestination vs. the effects of free will were nice, but once again it ends up going the same route with hammering on the theme of retaining your "goodness" versus letting the world make you…

While I agree that this season has been much better, there's one particular thing that keeps bugging me about this show. Now it may just be me, but for some reason I feel like half the time when the characters on this show are speaking to each other they're speaking in speeches. I'm not sure why, but I just get that…

I don't really have much left to say, and I don't really want to turn this into a conversation that lasts days (a lot of stress from school). So if you're fine with it, I'm fine with agreeing to disagree.

Well, I get what you're saying but for me the other situation was still more disturbing. Because at least the deputy thing was Caroline rescuing her friends and then eventually Liz accepting that her daughter's a vampire, etc. without necessarily taking action to rectify it or taking action to approve of that action…

Well, it was originally implied and thought by the characters that that was the case, however in 3x20 Esther told Elena that in fact Esther was on the other side with Alaric whenever he'd died and nurturing his dark side. Why Elena's ancestors also went crazy is left unanswered afterwards. Another example of the…

Well, I realise all that but this very specific conflict of interests between Liz's desire to protect her daughter and her friend and her duty to protect and serve ending in her literally kidnapping a person and bringing her back to the people who assaulted her so she it could be compelled from her mind really…

It was related. Esther drove him crazy when he was on the other side for a little while due to dying with the ring on and then used that hatred to basically give him two personalities after which she turned him into an original to kill her children.

Well, he's an original because he was turned with a spell rather than through the blood of another vampire by Esther back in season 3. She used the same spell on Alaric that she used on her children and husband but with a few modifications such as even greater strength and his life bound to Elena rather than the white…

To be fair, it makes perfect sense that Alaric would be able to do this since he's an original and we've known that since season 3. That being said I agree that, especially these days, in TVD it's often used as a magic bullet (same goes for Bonnie's magic). I also agree on the "The Originals" thing, I thought bringing…

Man, the fact that you're no longer going to review this show on a regular basis really, really sucks. As a writer-in-training I've always relied on the A.V. Club to help me get insight into both the genius and failures of many shows, including "The Vampire Diaries." I kind of hope you reconsider to be honest,…

I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I really hope the way you do these reviews doesn't change too much. Whether it's struggling against how the show is built or not, I feel like these kinds of reviews are more interesting and much less easily found on review sites other than A.V. Club, at least for…