The Secret Circle TV Series: My Guesses

Based on my experience of The Vampire Diaries, once I heard that Kevin Williamson was creating another TV show based on a L. J. Smith series, I knew I could read The Secret Circle and be sure of 2 things: That the books would be really quick and easy reads and, that the resulting TV series would probably take so little from the source material, reading it would not spoil anything for me. So I did read the original trilogy and my review is here.

I'm going to make guesses about what the television show will use from the books. I think they'll keep (other than the central idea of a coven of teen witches, obviously): The love triangle between Cassie, Adam and Diana; Cassie and Adam's supernatural connection; Faye and Diana's rivalry and the backstory of the parents and Black John. I think if the series makes real use of the parents and gives them fully developed characters, they can mine good drama out of their history.

I think they'll drop: lots of other characters. In the books, the coven has 12 members and I doubt the TV show is going to pay for 12 regulars. I think Diana's friends, Laurel and Melanie should probably go. I like them, but they don't contribute much other than exposition on plants and crystals. I hope Faye's cronies, Deborah and Suzan make the cut and that Deborah's allowed to come out as a lesbian (which Smith was clearly getting at, without actually saying it, in the books). I imagine the show will spend more time giving depth and layers to fewer characters and I think Deborah and Suzan are more interesting, as you don't know whether they'll be wicked witches like Faye, or good, like Diana.

I don't know if the show will be a success like The Vampire Diaries. There's a good story there, but it is just about witches, whereas The Vampire Diaries has witches, vampires and werewolves, so it has a greater number of potential plots. One thing both series have going for them is several villains to choose from: The Vampire Diaries started with Damon as the antagonist, then Katherine, then Klaus. Likewise, The Secret Circle has the witch-hunters, Faye and finally, Black John.

This is really only guess-work on my part; I haven't seen anything about the television series other than the trailer. It's fun to speculate, though and come Thursday night, we'll see for sure.