Alas, the last season forever splintered fans of the show into ardent "Classic" or "Third Season" fans...and so I feel like discussing the most controversial third season element of all: Diana.

Before we watched the episode in which Diana made her first appearance, my sister and I had planned to hate her. I had heard her rumored to be the "beauty" of the third season, and the death of Catherine fresh in our minds, we were determined to despise her.

It just couldn't happen. She was not at all what we had expected, no make-up clad bimbo out to steal poor distraught Vincent's broken heart. Diana, plain-faced and weary, taking it a case at a time. Diana examining Catherine's apartment, unwrapping her doll from her baby blanket (this was the point when we even said to each other that we were liking Diana). The other thing that I like about Diana is that she can take care of herself for the most part. Catherine could, at times, but the rest of the time, she'd turn Lois Lane, getting herself into tricky situations and calling for Superman to rescue her. (Depended on the writer of the episode.)

I'm a Classic fan, no doubt about it. The episodes are better. The third season may have a catchy plot arc, but I simply cannot watch it over and over again like I can the first two. It doesn't have the same tone, the certain something that makes me come back. It has to resort to action scenes to be more interesting. There aren't many stand-alone episodes that I can think of.

The one realization that strikes me now, after time has given me perspective is this: I like Diana more than Catherine. That doesn't mean I don't like Catherine--she changed and grew a lot from the beginning, and although there are things about her that irk me, I'm still fond of her character. I can't easily see anyone taking her place in Vincent's heart, and I don't think that I would have liked to see what the writers were obviously planning between him and Diana. But I'm not disappointed that she was introduced.

There, that wasn't too painful, was it?

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