Review: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is GOSSIP GIRL With Vampires

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Review: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is GOSSIP GIRL With Vampires

Posted on 09 September 2009 by Brent Hartinger, Editor

Four Torches (Out of Five)

A teenage girl falls in love with a vampire. Hmmm, where have I heard this story before?

Okay, okay, way too much has already been written about how The Vampire Diaries only exists because of the insane popularity of the Twilight books and movie — despite the fact that the new CW series, debuting this Thursday at 8 PM, is based on a series of books that pre-dated by the Twilight ones by more than a decade.

Here’s the set-up: four months after her parents were killed in a car accident, 17 year-old Elena is barely keeping it together in the small Virginia town of Mystic Falls. Then a mysterious new student comes to town, Stefan, and even distraught Elena can’t help but be drawn to him. Alas, Stefan has three big flaws: (1) he’s a vampire (albeit a “good” one), (2) he’s in love with Elena because of her resemblance to his true love, who died ages ago, and (3) his brother, with whom he has an ancient feud, is a “bad” vampire, and he’s suddenly shown up to do everything he can to get between Stefan and Elena.

The Vampire Diaries is created by Kevin Williamson, the influential screenwriter of the Scream movies and the creator of Dawson’s Creek, along with his long-time collaborator, Julie Plec.

It shows. The pace is fast, the angst is thick, and the dialogue is snappy (and, thankfully, much more realistic than the ridiculous Dawson’s Creek).

Meanwhile, the cast is pretty, if a little vapid (although Ian Somerhalder is quite effective in the scene-chewing role of the “evil” vampire brother).

But let’s get something very clear: despite the fact that the CW is pairing this show with Supernatural on Thursday nights, The Vampire Diaries is simply not in the same league as that show, either in terms of Supernatural’s gritty realism or its transcendent themes.

Then again, The Vampire Diaries isn’t trying to be. Even the show’s creators admitted in my recent interview with them: it’s simply a serialized teen soap opera set in a supernatural world.

And for what it’s worth, in that respect, it’s much better than Gossip Girl (although the fangs are arguably much sharper there!).

Anyway, keep in mind that this is what my four-torch review is based on: The Vampire Diaries is simply a teen soap opera riding the current very popular vampire wave.

Given that’s what it set out to be, it pretty much succeeds.

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