The Vampire Diaries Season One Thoughts

The Vampire Diaries Season One

This show really surprised me. No, really. I will get the number one problem I have with this show out of the way. Everyone is too good looking in this “town”. That’s the main problem I see with the show, one that can be easily overlooked (not really). But now to the good things about this show. I know that this show is based off of books, but after watching the bonus features on the season one DVD, I will never read the books because of the liberties the creative team has taken. Which is not to say taking creative liberties is a bad thing, on the contrary it can be a very good thing, or fail flat.

A quick example of taking creative liberties that fails. Season three of True Blood was bad. Bad for the story telling and bad for trying to stay with the plot of the books. The show had previously told the plot of the books while expanding the universe, and changed some plot points from the books, but for the most part told the same story. Season three was a mess of stories; nothing really came out of the season. There was even a special message at the end of the season telling viewers ‘sorry for the crap and next season will be better’.

Back to Vampire Diaries. Telling a story that embodies the ones told in the books while keeping itself fresh and new is a major plus for fans, but for people like me (who have never read the books), it also provides a good story and characters. The Vampire Diaries takes risks in their character development. Things aren’t always black and white in this universe, so many of the characters fall in the gray category. Even those who don’t live long enough to see a conclusion to their actions. And that is another big plus to the show; they are willing to kill off any character at any time. The body count is huge on this show. This surprise of anyone can die at any time (well except for the main three characters) brings a level of excitement and mystery to who will die when. This also keeps the rotation of characters that are interesting and new and killing out those who have become stale and boring.

This may go without saying, but this show is dark. Both thematically as well as the lighting. Dark shadows might as well be the fourth main lead in this show, and they work well. Back to my main problem with the show, the level of attractiveness of everyone in the show, leads nicely into the levels of sex that are seen in this show. Lots of people are getting it on (eye humping excluded, but lots of that as well).

Finally, the numerous plot twists that go on within a season of this show are staggering; especially for a show that sells itself more on their looks rather than their story. The twists come at nice intervals, giving the viewer’s time to take the twists in before another wave hit too soon. These are just a few things that are surprisingly good about this show, and if you can look past the extremely good looking cast, the show has something for everyone.