If you're like me, Thomas Galvin (@thomascgalvin on Twitter) probably came into your lives via his always hysterically funny and brilliantly snarky Vampire Diaries recaps. I give him full credit for my love affair with recappers that bag on my favorite show. Thomas also blogs on a number of other topics with the same biting humor and collects goodies from around the web. His blog (Thomas-Galvin.com) has become a real internet highlight for me so be sure to check it out. In the mean time, while we are all painfully waiting for his next TVD recap, he answered some of my burning questions about the show he seems to love to hate!
How did you first find The Vampire Diaries? Are you a fan of the genre or was it completely by accident?
T: Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the genre, so Vampire Diaries was kind of a given for me. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite shows of all time, and while TVD is certainly different from Whedon's show, it kind of fills the same void in my life. The dark, empty void.
What about TVD made you want to recap it in your very distinct re-scripting manner?
T: Well, to start with, I'm neither the first nor the only person doing script-style recaps. Cleolinda Jones is probably the best known; she does a great series called Movies in Fifteen Minutes. Then, there's The Editing Room, and Frankie Diane Mallis, over at First Novels Club, who's actually recapping TVD. Anyway, the script style is just how I think... it's actually how I write a lot of my first drafts, too. I think dialog is the hardest part to get right, and doing a script-style treatment makes you work on it longer and harder (that's what she said). And it kind of forces you to do the whole "show, don't tell" thing. As for the blog... well, I'm basically a huge attention whore, and my sense of self-worth is directly proportional to the number of hits I get in a month.
If you were to regularly recap any other show on TV what would it be?
T: The second season of Firefly, because that show was taken too soon. Or maybe another season of Veronica Mars. But really, I think I've got as many shows on my plate as I can handle. In addition to TVD, I recap True Blood and, for some reason, Teen Wolf. That's a lot of hours in front of the television. A lot of people ask me to recap Supernatural. I love that show, but it would honestly be a nightmare to recap, because so much of it is already funny. I'd pretty much just be copying down their script every week.
You appear to have a real love affair (or not) with Bonnie Bennett. How did that start?
T: The show just doesn't know what to do with her. She's a witch for Odin's sake... she should be the most powerful character on the show. Instead, they have her floating feathers and lighting tiny fires with her tiny brain and almost-but-not-quite actually being useful in the fight with the Big Bad Werepire. And that stunt she pulls, where she seals people inside of a house while their lover dies at the hands of an ancient monster? That would send her straight to the top of my hit list. But one of the most frustrating things is that she could be a great character. When her Grams died, and she was so... broken and confused at her inability to bring her back? That was fantastic television, and for that one moment, I was Team Bonnie. But they didn't do anything with it... they just let all that character development fall right on the floor. And she was showing shades of Buffy's Evil Willow, and I'd love to see Bonnie go all Dark Side for a while. But it doesn't look like we'll be getting that, either. Instead, we get to watch an entire town die to keep her safe.
Is there a character in your personal TV watching history that you have loathed as much as Bonnie?
T: Half the cast of True Blood. Tara, Sam's Redneck Family, Voodoo Jesus... sweet lemony Moses that show needs to cut it with the side plots. I really hated Detective Tritter on House, too... but I was supposed to. Hating a character isn't necessarily a bad thing, when the show puts that hate to good use. But we know that Bonnie is that I know she isn't going to die, and we don't expect her character to go anywhere. She's not the antagonist, she's just an anchor.
We all know you're a big fan of Damon. Do you remember the first moment you joined the Damon team?
T: When he was reading Twilight, and talking about how whipped Edward was, I knew I'd found my soul mate. Although it really wasn't until he started becoming more of an anti-hero, as opposed to a straight-up villain, that he really started to click with me. There's something about the mix of "trying to do the right thing" and "completely unpredictable" that's fascinating. And, well, his penchant for walking around shirtless doesn't hurt...
If you could kill anyone off the show OTHER than Bonnie, who would it be and how would they die?
T: Well, there's no one that I really want to die, but I think it would be hilarious if Caroline ate Matt. Not out of rage or bloodlust or anything, just kind of... accidentally. Like when you come home and the cats have spilled kitten food all over the kitchen, except when Sheriff Forbes comes home, Matt's arterial spray is all over the... everything.
Favorite TVD show moment:
T: Allow me to quote:
Super Damon ripping his goddamn heart out while hes still in the goddamn air and tossing it on the goddamn ground like it aint no goddamn thing because I am that. Goddamn. Awesome. Powers activate!
And then Jonas Martin walking out of the woods, head bowed and hands spread, throwing brain pain around like it ain't no thing. That whole scene was very well done. Also: Stefan teaching Caroline how to vampire? Adorable.
Favorite TVD episode:
T: I don't know that I have a favorite episode, per se, but my favorite development happened in Klaus (S02E19); when Elijah told Elena that the whole Sun and Moon curse what just a giant troll, I literally got off the couch and clapped. That whole thing was just so unrelentingly stupid, and when the writers/producers showed that they knew that it was stupid, and that they could fix it... respect.
What happens in your dream Season 3 episode of TVD?
T: Bonnie goes over to the dark side. Well, all the way over, since she's already guilty of a lot of morally questionable antics. She's always been a little touchy about the Salvatore brothers, but now that Stefan is in full-on ripper mode, I want to see her declare war on them. Given the way this show burns through plot twists, I expect Klaus to be dealt with by episode 12 at the latest, and I want Bonnie to be the one who takes him down... and replaces him as the Big Bad in Mystic Falls. That would give us a situation where the Salvatores wanted to kill her, Elena wanted to save her, and it makes sense.
Message for the TVD Fans:
T: Loooooooook into my eyes...
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