CinnamonCat

I never said their actions were similar in their badness. What I meant is that RT knows how to make his audience love someone they previously hated, that's all.

Two words: Logan. Echolls. Now, I'm not necessarily saying it will happen, or that those two are even in the same ballpark when it comes to villainy. All I'm saying is, if the pretty, pretty Blaine were to turn over a new leaf, complete with a nicely written redemption arc and a swoon-worthy speech or two... I might just suspend my disbelief enough to buy it. What can I say? I'm a weak woman.

Some spoilers for season 2: From TV Line: From Sepinwall:

Wow. Just... Wow. I loved how complex the episode was. How it didn't dumb down anything. No big speeches, no hammering in of anything. Just these characters we've come to know, facing the consequences of their decisions. And now I must wax poetic because this show has messed with my brains, people. Pun intended. Lt. Suzuki: What a Snape thing to do, (trying to) reveal the secrets that haunted you as you die, in an attempt to appear heroic. Which you, just as Snape, weren't. Blaine: You conniving, sociopathic dipshit. You never really cared about them at all. And yet we'll see you next season, probably asking for Liv's help while an angry zombie mob is breathing down your neck. Ravi: You beautiful, curious, caring soul. Actual heart of this show. The way he tried to reassure Liv, begged her to wait... What a wonderful human. But, also? When Major and Peyton find out you knew all along, dude, you're fucked. Major: No one knew you had it in you. Probably not even you. Still, well done. Liv: Oh, Liv. Beautiful, confused, selfish Liv. Now here's someone who really wasn't cut out for this whole saving-the-world thing. All the way, you had no idea what to do, did you? Not a clue. At the beginning of the season, you realised you could help people, and that helping people would help you. Now, you've learnt that you should help people even when it doesn't help you. That sometimes, helping means not helping. You've come so far, and you've got such a long way to go. And finally, Rob Thomas: I missed you, you devious bastard. Well done, cast&crew, this was a damn fine season.

Both peppy Liv and stoner Liv were great, as were Ravi and Clive's reactions to her. "Be aggressive! B-E aggressive!" "Don't go so Method." No way a shitty high school band has a website that fancy. Ravi and Major continue to be a delight. "What the hell kind of questions do people usually ask you?" "Yes, please, let's be politically correct when speaking of zombies!" The sketch artist returns! This is a Rob Thomas show! That fight in the kitchen was great. I loved how realistic it was, no fancy choreography, just stabby stuff. Good job by the show to make the viewers both feel for Liv and understand Peyton. God damn it, Major. What are you thinking? Are you even thinking? Shit, what happened to the goth girl? Oh, poor Ravi. You do look pretty damn good in that suit.

Well, I'm not talking about actual results here, but about their intentions. They basically wanted another Buffy or Veronica Mars... But, like, with ratings!

From what I've read, the CW basically came to Rob Thomas and asked him to make them female-led show, because they wanted, among other things, better results in the female demo. That's where my comment was coming from.

Newsflash: the majority of TV characters are attractive, simply because they're played by attractive people. The viewers are invited by shows to appreciate that. That does not mean that viewers, regardless of their gender, sex, sexuality, political affiliation or any other aspect of their personality, suddenly become incapable of judging the characters' other qualities. Not all users here have their gender specified. Furthermore, the majority of the posters here are, IMO, female -- this is, after all, a show targeted at women -- so I'd say that, proportionally, there are fewer women here acknowledging Bradley James's attractiveness than there are male posters acknowledging, say, Emilia Clarke's attractiveness on a Game of Thrones forum. Lastly, are we going to pretend there were no comments on Rose McIver's appearance, both on show and off? Oh, right. Females are to be ogled and accept it as a compliment. Right.

Oooh, me tender womanly loins tingle and itch after them wickedly charming, yet secretly not nice (gasp!) men! Whatever will poor, shallow, confused me do?!

Wow, the scene where Liv realised she'd never told Major about zombies hurt. My hat's off to Rose McIver. I did wonder why in the hell would Johnny Frost be following Liv around like that, but didn't call that he was a hallucination. Yep, the moment she found an already half-eaten passenger on the beach and feasted on their occipital lobe -- she told Ravi about it in a previous episode. Damn, I was hoping for the police chief to join teams with Liv against Blaine, but no such luck. Still, gotta love Blaine. "John Deaux." Hee.

I actually did know that, and only aimed to share an anecdote, but thank you nevertheless. :)

Not that this has much to do with the topic, but I used to volunteer in an HIV/AIDS support centre, and our boss once told us that while it's possible to get HIV through oral sex, it almost never happens, because "Who the fuck gives head with an open wound in their mouth?!" So, yeah. Life lesson acquired. I think that no one is sure how the zombie virus is transferred in-show either. Blaine knew that scratching worked because that's how he turned Liv. But besides that, no one knows for sure, and it's way too dangerous to experiment.

Spoilers for season two from here: Sounds interesting!

Thanks, Latverian Diplomat!

Liv: "I'm the freakin' murder victim whisperer!"