#and maybe its because when you're reading a massive tome you're not hit in the face by the

[captain-noir]

watched adow over the holidays and it does a passable job at filling the empty hole in my heart that yearns for fresh vampire content but man is it bogged down by two central characters i do not care for at all. the actress is just there, no onscreen presence at all. matthew goode is doing all the heavy lifting and even then, im rolling my eyes, at matthew goode!!!  back in the day, i read the first two books as they came out but for the life of me, i have not retained a sinle plot point except for the fact that kit marlowe was there and was a gay daemon in love with matthew and working for the crown. i can admit that my dislike of the central love story is colouring my experience but i find almost every other character and every other plot point far more interesting than whatever diana and matthew got going on. the lore of the creatures? the mystery surrounding the oxford killer? the congregation politicking? the dynastic psychodrama? the science of it all? juliette mf durand? domenico? inquisitive and brilliant phoebe? miriam? i enjoy all of it. even matthew as the stern catholic patriarch, suffering from blood rage and culling his own son’s children is gripping but so much of the story is decidedly not about that.....which made s2 a bit of a chore to get through.