The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fifth Season opens with Elena and Caroline (Candice Accola) leaving for college to be roommates, expecting Bonnie to join them when she gets back from her world tour. Jeremy has been covering for Bonnie since she (her ghost) doesn’t want anyone to know she’s dead. Elena and Caroline’s new roommate is killed almost immediately, by a vampire. Of course, there is a cover-up and it’s said to be a suicide. Apparently, the cover-ups happen outside Mystic Falls as well. Dr. Maxwell (Rick Cosnett) is the center of all these new problems that the gang is going to have to deal with. Very soon in the season, we learn much more about Silas’ past and some truths about the doppelgangers. Honestly, I am beyond sick of the doppelgangers. At one point, we have Stefan and Silas, who look just alike, and Katherine, Elena, and Amara, who all three look just alike. It gets confusing keeping up with who’s who. I have to give Nina Dobrev credit. She’s amazing at portraying 3 completely different people! I just hope that there aren’t any doppelgangers left for Season 6.
Caroline and Tyler (Michael Trevino) are over, at least as much as any relationship is "over" in The Vampire Diaries. Of course, you’re not going to make it through the season without Klaus (Joseph Morgan) showing up. I do love Klaus. He’s such a bad guy, but then I love Damon too. I guess I just like the bad boys in this show. They do manage to bring Bonnie back from the dead, but she’s definitely not the same. She’s got a lot of problems now! At least she’s alive and can finally be with Jeremy though.
I really liked the first part of the season, but at a certain point there were a whole bunch of plot holes. The characters should have known what was going on, but they just conveniently forgot certain things. I’m a bit sick of Elena as well. Katherine is pure evil and Elena is the pure good opposite, but that’s just not real life. When the show started, they had all just started high school (other than Stefan and Damon). They acted like normal teenagers with your typical teen angst, but it wasn’t too bad. It seems like they should have matured over the years. Some of them, like Bonnie and Caroline, have. Others, like Elena, seem less mature than when the show started. The continual indecisions and lack of consistent behavior make the show feel too much like a teen drama and it should have grown past that at this point.
The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Season Five box set comes with the Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet copies, which is handy if you have a Blu-ray player in one place, but need to watch it in another. I highly recommend the Blu-ray version if you have the player. The quality is vastly better than the DVD. There are deleted scenes and quite a few extras on them. I love the Comic-Con panel that they added into the extras. It’s fun to get to see the completely different personalities of the actors as opposed to their characters. Given their personalities and the fact that Paul Wesley says that he prefers to be evil, it’s almost like Ian and Wesley are playing the wrong roles, but I definitely wouldn’t want them reversed! I do think Stefan needs to be allowed to have more of his real life personality in the show. He has a beautiful smile and fun personality in the panel. Stefan has seemed very stone-like since Elena broke up with him. The "I Know What You Did In the Last 100 Episodes" featurette is quite amusing. It’s actually a trivia game with the cast to see how much they remember.
So far, this has been my least favorite season of The Vampire Diaries. I really am sick of these vampires that can’t stand the sight of blood or torture. What kind of vampire is that? But I must admit, I love getting to see truly evil Damon again, in his own words "his sadistic, psychotic self." I missed him! He and Enzo make a great team. It was also nice to get to see Tyler in true werewolf form again. Man, those hybrids are really powerful! Caroline continues to grow as a person. I’ve gone from hating her in the first season to really liking her now. Hopefully if The Vampire Diaries ends, we’ll see her head to New Orleans and join Klaus on The Originals. If you’re a fan of the series, you’re going to want to know how this one turns out, but I have to say that if the people they killed off truly stay dead, then I will just have to stop watching. Some shows need certain people and those were quite important. Granted, they do resurrect some old characters that I thought were long gone, but I definitely wouldn’t have chosen these two for death. Of course, no one really stays dead in The Vampire Diaries, right? Pick up The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Season Five today to find out for yourself.
