At the first look at the title, you must be thinking to yourself, how does that work? The simple answer is - Vampires - the now ubiquitous creatures of the night. I am a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, True Blood, and liked Moonlight, so I get the appeal of vampires.
The Vampire Diaries is the CW's attempt to ride the Twilight bandwagon of teens. While Buffy and Angel were both on the CW's predecessor, the WB, the two shows were able to combine witty humor with genuine emotion. Sadly,The Vampire Diaries does neither.
Instead we are given a wannabe Gothic story set in high school. From the rolling fog (literally!) to the laughable diary entries, I was amused the whole time because the show is attempting to be serious. I'll admit the first scene interested me as it played out like a slasher film, but that soon devolved into teens doing drugs and drinking in front of police.
There is the usual scene with the teacher asking for the exact number of deaths at a Civil War battle and of course Stefan knows more about what happened than the teacher. We get it, he's old! And what kind of teacher bemoans his students for not knowing 346 casualties?
So what was there to like? The self-destructive, drug-using, girl-chasing Jeremy, Elena's younger brother? The unfunny, psychic wannabe, generic sidekick Bonnie? The self-absorbed, shallow Jenna?
I bet you're wondering why I said it is likely to become a hit. The ratings are in and it had a 2.3 share in the 18-49 demographic which is unheard for the CW. It crushed Supernatural and is way ahead of any current CW show. I guess all the Twilight fans tuned in. Whether they come back is another story, but knowing them, I think they will
Score: 7.0/10
7 comments:
I would never put Twilight, True Blood and this new one in the same category as Buffy and Angel. I will always be a Joss Whedon diehard... his shows centered around the myth and monsters versus pure drama. It makes me sad to see what the vampire genre has become.
Buffy and Angel are on a whole other level from most vampire based stories... but even True Blood touches on issues far beyond those Twilight and Vampire Diaries will ever hit. Even the Harry Potter series has more depth than that.
I'm not surprised by CW. They have no shame and they need the money.
I don't know. Buffy and Angel were superb shows, no question. But they made the ordinary, non-special vampires really weak and powerless (so that a normal human with some training and a stake had a good chance to take one out). They may be lame, but at least these new vampires are powerful.
Power of vampires has nothing to do with how good a show is.
Of course, that's why I did say that "Buffy and Angel were superb shows" and that the new vampires are "lame". What more do you want? Just because I think the ordinary vampires in Buffy and Angel are too weak doesn't mean that these shows aren't good. I also love Lost and BSG, but I still think Lost's make-up shouldn't be that good and BSG's tech shouldn't be so antique...
It is ment to be a teen drama, and I think in that aspect it will be a hit. Especially with all the hype vamps are getting now. It was the first episode and I'm sure it will evolve, whether it gets better or worse is up to the writers!
Let's not watch it let's be true and loyal to our previous and current favorite shows. Smallville is my favorite show and supernatural. I am sooo regretfully watching the pilot epi of Vampire diaries, never again even for just a second. Let's all be loyal to twilight or Smallville.