'Legacies' Season 2: After Season 1 how does the supernatural show stack up to 'The Vampire Diaries' and 'The Originals'
The spin-off of a spin-off, 'Legacies' premiered in October, last year, with some excited and many wondering whether the show would live up to its predecessors, 'The Vampire Diaries' (TVD) and 'The Originals'.
Julie Plec's 'The Vampire Diaries' was the show that started it all when it premiered on The CW 10 years ago, leading to the "original" vampire-centric, 'The Originals'. 'Legacies' follows Hope Mikaelson, the original big-bad Klaus's daughter.
With references to both its predecessors and cameos from 'The Vampire Diaries' characters, the first season of 'Legacies' is well on its way to being right up there with the other shows.
When 'The Vampire Diaries' began, except those who were familiar with L.J. Smith's novels upon which the show was based, all the characters were new to the audience. Viewers were introduced to Elena, Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Caroline, and Alaric in the first season and grew to love them.
While 'Legacies' followed a monster-of-the-week format, the buildup on TVD was gradual, with the big baddie of season one being Katherine (Elena's doppelganger). 'The Originals' was somewhere between 'Legacies' and TVD, in that there were more villains in its first season than on TVD.
The TVD franchise is, of course, most popular for its love triangles, Plec can't seem to get enough of them. On TVD, the main triangle involved brothers Stefan and Damon pining for Elena, on 'The Originals', there was the romantic love triangle of Hayley-Elijah-Jackson, but what was more interesting was the sort of non-romantic triangle that included Hayley, Klaus, and Elijah.
While Hayley and Klaus co-parented Hope and were never romantically involved in 'The Originals', the two grew to love and respect each other by the end of the series, with Hayley's death affecting Klaus significantly.
'Legacies' did not explore any love-triangle significantly in its first season, but Plec has set the stage for multiple triangles that could involve Hope, Landon, Rafael, Josie, Lizzie -- basically, nearly all of the teenagers in the school -- and also, Alaric with his two teachers.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it is 'Legacies' that leads the Tomatometer ratings, with a score of 80%, with TVD following on 70% and 'The Originals' with 57%. However, with respect to audience scores, it is 'The Originals' that lies ahead with 89%. TVD and 'Legacies' are tied for second place with 86%. While TVD oscillated between ratings over its next 7 seasons (season 4 being the worst with 69%), 'The Originals' had three consecutive seasons from season 2 with a perfect 100% and ended its run with 67% for its last season.
'Legacies' has certainly started out strong and Plec has reportedly said it is the show she wanted TVD to be. So far, the show has invoked both TVD -- by being set around teenagers -- and 'The Originals' -- with more mythological storylines. Whether the show will continue to follow the middle part or trace a path all on its own could possibly be determined when the show returns for its second season next week.