'The Vampire Diaries' takes a bite out of my expectations

I think you know my television pet peeve is when I'm able to play predict-a-plot.

You know when ten minutes into a crime drama, you say "that's the killer" and you turn out to be right. Or to pick a very current example, you think you already knew what was up with the new neighbors on "Desperate Housewives" by the second episode.

That's one of the reasons I was so absolutely delighted with last week's episode of "The Vampire Diaries" (Thursday, CW, 8 p.m.). The show continues to defy my expectations and ruin my game of predict-a-plot. First they had Elena find out that Stefan and Damon were vampires. That's something that could have dragged on for seasons and would have become increasingly annoying. It's hard to root for the heroine when you think she's too dumb to even know that her boyfriend is one of the undead when the clues are all around her. But the series quickly let Elena in on the big secret.

Then the show turned Vicki into a vampire. Instead of continually threatening that one of the characters could become a vampire, they allowed it to happen. And THEN the show did the unthinkable, they killed Vicki off. I watched the whole episode assuming that somehow Stefan would prevail and that Vicki would remain a volatile threat. I never thought Stefan would kill her. I was shocked. SHOCKED. And, let me tell you, that doesn't happen that often. When you're in the opening credits and still not safe, that's a good show because viewers are never going to know what to expect. It's the same technique employed by "Lost" and "24." (And, by the way, I still think Vicki could come back. The show has me thinking that absolutely anything could happen.)

"Vampire Diaries" is managing to advance its plot without feeling like its racing through story lines. It's turning out to be a better show than I originally thought it was going to be. My only caution is that the series can only use the mind erase thingy so many times. It made sense to use it on Jeremy but I wouldn't make it a habit. This week, Stefan's old girlfriend Lexi (Arielle Kebble) visits while Elena deals with all that has happened.

What do you think of "The Vampire Diaries?" Talk about it below.

Two Reasons Why This is Going to Be a Good Week

TNT picked up "Southland:" Beginning January 12 at 10 p.m., the network will air the first seven episodes of the first season and the six episodes that were filmed for this season but never aired because NBC cancelled the show before it premiered.

Gregory Itzin is returning to "24:" Charles Logan, one of the best villains "24" ever created, will be back for the eighth longest day of Jack Bauer's life. You'll recall that we haven't seen him since his wife Martha (Jean Smart) stabbed him and he was rushed off via ambulance. Apparently he survived and President Taylor (Cherry Jones) needs his help. Now we just have to get the show to bring back Jean Smart. I need to know that the former First Lady and Aaron are happy somewhere. Also, if the show could be a love and somehow bring back Dina Araz, my most favorite "24" character ever, I'd really appreciate it.

Highlights of the Week Ahead

All times listed are Eastern Standard Time for November 2-8

Barney and Robin have their first big fight on "How I Met Your Mother" (Monday, CBS, 8 p.m.) I have to admit that as much as I thought it was a good idea creatively for the show to run with the Robin and Barney romance, it hasn't quite worked out the way I had hoped. Mostly because everybody has behaved differently since the duo got together. Marshall and Lily are awkward and act like they haven't been friends with Barney and Robin for years, Ted often seems to forget he also dated Robin and Barney has lost much of what made him Barney. November sweeps usually means couples are getting together or coming apart. And I'm actually rooting for Robin and Barney to break up - perhaps that will get the series back on track.

Between mid-season finales, season finales, winter finales, summer finales and all the other terms networks have made up for when they don't have any more new episodes to offer us, it gets a little confusing. What I can tell you is that after tonight, "Greek" (Monday, ABC Family, 9 p.m.) won't be back with new episodes until next year. I was actually surprised to hear from so many of you who don't want Cappie and Casey together. Maybe it's because Cappie is one of my favorite TV characters or maybe it's because I'm a sucker for a TV bad boy who just wants to do right by the woman he loves, but I thought the final scene of last week's episode was fantastic. (Granted Cappie is more of a goofball than a bad boy, but in the "Greek" world, I think he qualifies as a bad boy). In tonight's "finale," ZBZ wants to win the Songfest competition. Thankfully Oleysa Rulin of "High School Musical" is suddenly a ZBZ pledge who can help. Also look for trouble in Cappie and Evan's newly renewed friendship.

Is it just me or has "Gossip Girl" (Monday, CW, 8 p.m.) become exceedingly tedious? Didn't we already have the story line where Jenny became a queen bee bitch? How many times can the show repeat the same Little J story line? Don't Blair and Serena end their friendship every other week? And why does Serena whine everything she says? The series is turning into a daytime soap opera. You can skip months at a time, tune in and the characters are pretty much where you left them. The show is losing me and fast. This week Olivia (Hilary duff) says something she regrets during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon's show.

Just a reminder to not miss the season premiere of "V" on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC. If you missed my review in Friday's column, click here. Also let's try not to panic that ABC is only going to air four episodes before yanking the show off the schedule because of the Winter Olympics. Sure it doesn't seem like the best scheduling decision ever to come down the ski slope, but let's not blame the show for its network's foibles.

I don't think I made a fearless prediction about this but I totally would have bet on "Trauma""Mercy" being cancelled. They both aren't great shows (I remain thisclose to breaking up with NBC) but I did think "Trauma" was the (slightly) better show. But it's "Trauma" that won't be back after its initial 13 episode run and "Mercy" that's been picked up for the full season. So I may tune into "Mercy" (Wednesday, NBC, 8 p.m.) this week if only for the guest stars. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (Ben Stiller's parents) guest star as does Elisabeth Moss, Peggy on "Mad Men." Hey, at least this gets Peggy away from Duck. being picked up for the full season and

Alex Kingston returns to "FlashForward" as a MI6 agent Fiona Banks. She'll help Mark, Demetri and Gough research the Blue Hand club that we learned about last week. Very excited to have Dominic Monaghan on the cast even if it is taking me awhile to adjust to the idea of Charlie as a bad guy. My friend and are trying to come up with theories about why Olivia and Lloyd are together in their flashforward beside the obvious explanation that they are, in fact, having an affair. My friend thinks that maybe Olivia is just trying to get information out of Lloyd since he's obviously connected to what happened and that she's using the fact that Lloyd thinks they have an affair to her advantage. I'm not sure I'm totally on board with that theory but I'm hoping that it's more than just a plain old affair. How about you?

Megan Mullally guest stars as Ron's ex-wife on "Parks & Recreation" (Thursday, NBC, 8:30 p.m.). And from my "how did I not know this" file, did you know that Mullally is married to Nick Offerman, who plays Ron on the series? I had no idea. Unlike "Community," I think "Parks & Recreation" gets better and better each week. Louis C.K. is the perfect straight man to Leslie's antics, the friendship between Leslie and Anne is believable and Andy has really blossomed into a great part of the show (no surprise, we all know how good Chris Pratt was on "Everwood").

Jane ends up in prison on "The Mentalist" (Thursday, CBS, 10 p.m.) But that's not the really big news, the big news is that the show put Rigsby and Van Pelt together (another thing I didn't expect to happen so soon). I liked that the show didn't drag out their romance for too long and that Rigsby told her exactly how he felt. I think shows are really starting to veer away from the endless "will they or won't they" teasing of viewers and that's a good thing.

So here's my problem with "Project Runway" (Thursday, Bravo, 10 p.m.). I really do think Irina has the best designs but she's just so nasty about her talent. I mean she's not Kenley but she's still not that pleasant to watch. Therefore I think I'm going to have to go ahead and root for Althea, whose designs I also like and appears to be much nicer. And I don't think she stole Irina's ideas, do you?

That's all for today. I'm back on Friday to talk about the season finale of "Mad Men" (love the dovetail between the defining event of 1963 and the possible end of Don's marriage), quotes of the week, familiar faces and more. Have a question, seen a familiar face, want to nominate a quote of the week or a topic for discussion? Write me at mailto:amytvgal@zap2it.com or follow me on Twitter. Have a great week. Talk to you on Friday.