I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person and rarely am I truly befuddled by television shows or movies. Save for those art films which are purposefully inscrutable or underwritten movies where we aren't given enough details to truly know what is happening, following the story is rarely an issue, as I try to pay attention and get involved in what is going on. So, how do you think I felt when a TV show, mind you a TV show on the CW, mind you a TV show on the CW aimed at teenagers had me scratching my head? This is what happened with the second season of The Vampire Diaries.

Season Two opens with Elena being bombarded by bad things. In an attempt to become a vampire, Jeremy overdoses. Elena's Uncle John (David Anders), who suddenly showed up to play guardian, is attacked. Caroline (Candice Accola) is in a car accident. Jeremy is saved, but Caroline is turned into a vampire. Meanwhile, the damage done to the populace of Mystic Falls has left Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) with the knowledge that he is from a long line of werewolves, who are deadly to vampires. This become complicated when Tyler and Caroline realize that they are attracted to one another. The love triangle between Elena, Stefan, and Damon continues, as Damon goes in and out of periods where he's more in touch with his lost human emotions. Meanwhile Katherine continues to look for ways to destroy the happy lives of nearly everyone in town.

However, the show also got a bit too wacky. I won't try to explain all of it here, mostly because I can't, but Elena is Katherine's doppelganger. This has to do with a curse which placed on both vampires and werewolves. It also involves a "moonstone". A faction of werewolves come to town looking for the moonstone, as do ancient vampires Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Klaus (Joseph Morgan). The show explains all of this very slowly, and I only imagine the kinds of drinking games which were invented which centered on the word "doppelganger". Seeing the flashbacks to the characters in the past is interesting, but the curse and its solution never make any sense. The show also presents too many subplots and often gets too far away from the things which made it surprisingly enjoyable in the first place.

This shouldn't imply that the show has jumped the shark. Like many shows of this type, it simply tried too hard to prove that it had substance in Season Two. The result is a show which still has some good features, such as Somerhalder as the always amusing Damon, but it became too easy to tune out the over-complicated storyline at times. The season did end with a good cliffhanger, so here's to hoping that things are more focused in Season Three.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Second Season can't find a decent pair of shoes for Caroline on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The four-disc set contains all 22 episodes of the show's second season. The show is letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 17 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no distracting grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look quite good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is handled nicely, as is the depth. This easily rivals HD broadcast quality. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.1 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects aren't abundant, but there are some nice ones during crowd and action scenes. The many fight scenes provide ample surround sound effects, and a handful of subwoofer appearances. This is better than the broadcast sound I've encountered.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Disc contains a good number of extras. Disc 1 features DELETED SCENES for the episodes "The Return" (3), "Brave New World" (1), "Bad Moon Rising" (2), and "Memory Lane" (2). Disc 2 features an AUDIO COMMENTARY for the episode "Masquerade" from Executive Producers Kevin Williamson & Julie Plec. This Disc also has DELETED SCENES from "Masquerade" (1), "Rose" (1), "Katerina" (1), and "By the Light of the Moon" (3). The lone extra on Disc 3 is DELETED SCENES from "Daddy Issues" (1). The remainder of the extras are found on Disc 4. "Her Own Worst Enemy...Elena, Katherine, and Nina!" (9 minutes) explores how Nina Dobrev has to be both Elena and Katherine (AKA Katerina), examining the challenge to the actress, as well as how the two characters intertwine in the stories. (And they do sort of mention that it's the hair that allows you to tell the two characters apart.) "The Perfect Love Triangle: Vampires, Werewolves, Witches" (9 minutes) has the actors and creative team attempting to track the various relationships on the show...and even they can't follow it. Didn't that tell them that they needed to outline things a little better? "Pages of the Wolf" is broken into three parts. "The Myth and the Mystery" (6 minutes) examines the conflict between vampires and werewolves. "Building the Beasts" (6 minutes) shows how real wolves and a bit of CG are used to create the werewolf effects. "Howling at the Moon" (7 minutes) lets us see the planning behind the transformation scenes on the show. "Second Bite" is a 3-minute gag reel.