In yesterday's marathon installment, "Friday Night Bites" and "Family Ties," we saw some improvement over the first two episodes but not quite enough to call the show actually good yet. Still, as I suspected, episode three and dear Stefan are at the heart of making the show work as anything other than a juicebomb.

The Good:

• "Friday Night Bites" kicks off with some good-natured ribbing between Stefan and Elena. He cracks wise about her cemetery journaling habit when she calls him "mysterious loner guy." Cute!
• Later, when Elena quits the cheerleading squad directly after Stefan earns a spot on the football team, Stefan dismisses their divergent trajectories, calling them "a work in progress." Could it be that someone on the CW said something sweet and not corny? Way to go, episode writers Bryan M. Holdman and Barbie Kligman!
• Also, for no real reason, there is an extended shot of Stefan sitting on the bleachers, glowing in the gloaming (glowing ≠ sparkling, as Damon would doubtless mention). I mean, it's important to establish Stefan at the field. But the loving sunset treatment really only went the way it did to establish that Paul Wesley is attractive. It worked!
• All that said about winning us over to Stefan, "Family Ties" flips to the switch the show us that Stefan will use a human, even Elena's friend, as bait in his quest to bring Damon down and may not be all that concerned if she lives or dies. Not the nicest thing, but it deepens the character.
• Damon declines to reply to any and all taunting about Katherine by Stefan. Foreshadowing?
• Bonnie's witch plot is also coming along nicely.
• The first fight between Stefan and Elena at the party was well drawn: they both had a good points but were talking completely at cross purposes, which only served to reinforce the points they were both making.

The Bad: 

• SVO. We might only have to suffer through one voiceover, and it's occasionally for the sake of exposition, but it's still one too many.
• I'm not sure I understand Stefan's moral compunction to not feed from humans when he could a) have a taste and compel them to forget all about it or b) find a volunteer. 
• The second fight didn't work as well for me: "trust is earned"? Sure, I guess, but he's not given you a reason not to trust him. Elena's invited Stefan into her home repeatedly and into her bed by this point. But she doesn't trust him? Hmm.

 The Ugly:

• The return of the ruched sleeve leather jacket. Why, why, why?    
• Is Elena wearing a BumpIt at the Founder's Party? Is Bonnie? Also, there is something weird about Bonnie's weave.
• I'm not sure I like Damon's hair either, actually. It's a little too too.