New show review: "The Secret Circle"

My god, Thomas Dekker's eyelashes are long! He looks like a teenaged Casey Affleck...

Ok, I'm back.

I really, really, REALLY want to like this show. Like The Vampire Diaries (which came back last night - woo hoo! Show, I missed you!), The Secret Circle is based on an L.J. Smith book series, but even moreso than TVD, The Secret Circle was near and dear to my heart growing up. I read those books over and over again until the pages fell apart, and then I went to the bookstore and bought them again.

The books and show have basically the same premise: Cassie Blake moves to a new town where she's befriended by a group of teens who reveal that they are all witches, descended from a long line of witches. They have all lost at least one parent because years ago, when the parents were practicing witchcraft, something went wrong and people died. Cassie's mom fled town and never revealed any of this to her daughter. There's also a strong emphasis on destiny, fate, and soulmates.

I like Britt Robertson as an actress, although I feel like the CW is pushing just a little too hard to make her into the next CW star, and I have loved Gale Harold since his Queer as Folk days, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him on my screen, even though he's apparently evil. There was potential for a good story in the pilot, but I couldn't help but feel that the story made sense to me because I already know the books forward and backwards - they rushed into certain storylines and glossed over other parts and were just sort of confusingly cryptic about other things that, I think did I not already know what was going, I wouldn't have a single clue what was going on.

But a lot of pilots are clunky. Is there potential? Definitely. Did the pilot have me squealing with surprised delight like The Vampire Diaries pilot did? Not even close. Will I watch again? Of course. Unless they completely butcher my beloved story, I will be along for the ride.

The Secret Circle airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on the CW.