My Take On: The Vampire Diaries

With all the hype surrounding vampires and just about anything to do with the mythical creatures, I thought it was about time I give my take on one of the most popular television series to date -- The Vampire Diaries. Developed by Kevin Williamson, writer of  the horror movie Scream, the show centers around a girl Elena (Nina Dobrev) who falls in love with a relatively old Vampire named Stefan (Paul Wesley). Things become rather complicated when Stefan's brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) comes back to their hometown of Mystic Falls and immediately begins to stir things up.

Now this show can easily be compared to the overly popular and massively profitable motion picture Twilight. Both spawning from previously written books. L.J. Smith, writer of The Vampire Diaries series of novels first published her trilogy of books back in 1991. Stephenie Meyer, writer of the Twilight Saga first published her series of novels back in 2005. L.J. Smith recently signed a contract to write another Vampire Diaries trilogy with the first book being released this summer.

What makes The Vampire Diaries different than any of the Twilight movies is the constant suspense the show provides with every episode. The show has a way of pulling you in even if you aren't a fan of vampires in general. Whether that's due to format of a television apposed to the straight forward approach of a motion picture I'm not sure. What I do know is that as you follow along Elena's path she instantly has a connection with Stefan. You can see that Stefan has an instant connection with her as well but for different reasons. As the series moves along you find out more about both Stefan and his brother Damon and that they both dated a girl who looks strikingly similar to Elena. Katherine (also played by Nina Dobrev) is the vampire that turned both Stefan and Damon back in 1864 and looks exactly like Elena.

So the reason for Stefan's infatuation with Elena boils down to an old flame who gave him eternal life all those years ago. In Elena's eyes though, her attraction is chalked up to fate and fate alone. Although this show centers around Elena, Damon and his brother Damon, The Vampire Diaries have a list of characters who are interesting in their own right.

Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), Elena's brother who is constantly searching for a purpose in life so he often puts himself in dangerous situations including wanting to be turned into a vampire. There's Elena's best friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham), who happens to be a witch. Caroline (Candice Accola), also one of Elena's friends (who in the book doesn't have that big of a role in Elena's life as she does in the television series) turns into a vampire by way of Elena's doppelganger Katherine. Tyler (Michael Trevino), who has the werewolf gene but doesn't turn into one until he accidentally kills someone. Then there's Matt (Zach Roerig), Elena's ex-boyfriend who at this point is the only mortal one of the bunch.

The Vampire Diaries, while focusing on the core three of Elena, Stefan and Damon often delve into their pasts explaining how we've reached this point in present day. Aside from dealing with the everyday trials and tribulations vampires go through like killing for food, being hunted by other vampires all while trying to keep a low profile, I think the theme of the show actually deals with being as trying to be a normal as humanly possible. Each character vampire and human alike has something that each person watching can relate to. That's what most people look for in a show and a show like this has a lot to offer everybody. The success of this show which airs on The CW can be attributed to the sudden hype over all things vampire but also to the fact the show is actually really good.

This show will remain successful and will continue to grow in popularity and given the steady ratings of the show (around 3.5 millions viewers a week which is good for a CW produced TV series), expect to see The Vampire Diaries around for a very long time.