With a great midseason finale this week, “The Secret Circle” (8 p.m. Central Thursdays on The CW) put itself in the company of the best new shows. Entertainment Weekly might not have noticed, since it dropped the show from its weekly recaps awhile back, and it’s probably destined to never be a huge darling of the media or fans. But that kind of makes me like it all the more.
Through eight episodes, I liked the cast, the characters and the Chance Harbor, Wash., setting of “The Secret Circle,” but it suffered from the same thing that plagued last summer’s “The Nine Lives of Chloe King”: The lack of a great villain to give urgency to the proceedings. That’s rectified in a neat way in episode nine, “Balcoin,” when we see that the witch hunters are not entirely evil — they think they are serving the side of good by trying to kill Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson) because her family tree is rife with dark magic.
Additionally, we learn that Cassie is not the only Balcoin in the circle, according to the lead witch hunter. Although the writers probably want fans to have fun speculating about the identity of Cassie’s half-sister, it’s almost certainly Faye (Phoebe Tonkin). Faye taps into a bit of dark magic in the pilot episode (before the circle is bound in episode two, thus limiting individual power), and in “Balcoin,” it is suggested that Faye’s mom (Natasha Henstridge) used to have a thing for Cassie’s dad, John Blackmore, the one with the darkness in his lineage.
Granted, what we know so far does allow for a twist. We’ve never met Melissa’s (Jessica Parker Kennedy) parents. We don’t know anything about Adam’s (Thomas Dekker) late mother, or Diana’s (Shelley Hennig), for that matter. Technically, everyone is a candidate to be the other Balcoin. A problem I have with the early episodes is that the witches’ parents and grandparents are vaguely defined; they don’t hinder the young witches, but they certainly keep some knowledge to themselves. More recently, it seems clear that they are on the side of good, at least.
So “The Secret Circle” potentially has a good villain or two in Cassie and Faye. The return episode in January, which includes a scene where Cassie admits she likes experimenting with dark magic, will go a long way in determining whether the second half of the season is epic (think Faith turning evil in Season 3 of “Buffy”) or not so great (think Willow getting addicted to magic in Season 6).
I’m not saying the writing of “The Secret Circle” — co-executive produced by Andrew Miller and “Dawson’s Creek’s” Kevin Williamson, and based on L.J. Smith’s 1992 young-adult trilogy of books — is on par with a Joss Whedon show. And I don’t cringe when someone labels it a “guilty pleasure,” but I think it’s slightly better than that.
Sure, one could criticize Robertson and Chris Zylka — as Jake Armstrong, the lead witch hunter who falls for Cassie and can’t bring himself to kill her — for being one-note actors. But I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. Consider that Zylka also played a one-note character on “10 Things I Hate About You,” but the dim-witted Joey struck an entirely different note than the broody Jake does.
Can Robertson play dark and scary as well as she plays adorable and vaguely sarcastic? We don’t know yet, because she’s never been asked to. But I’m interested to find out. On the other hand, Tonkin — who occasionally reverts to her Australian accent (that’d be a good element for a “Secret Circle” drinking game, especially since Faye favors the sauce) — looks awesome in the pilot episode when Faye bows her head and summons a rainstorm. “The Secret Circle” needs to give us more Faye.
I think there’s enough going on among the quintet for stories to spin in interesting directions. The love connections alone are mind-boggling: Faye likes Jake, Jake likes Cassie, Cassie likes Adam, Adam likes Diana, and so forth.
Even if Entertainment Weekly and most of the TV viewing public isn’t, I’m looking forward to the show’s return on Jan. 5.
Do you think “The Secret Circle” is actually good, or does it merely have more bewitching elements than most bad shows? Share your thoughts in the comment thread below.
Main image: CW publicity photo