Vampire Diaries

The scene starts with a dark road in the wilderness, fog, mysterious voice speaking and a vampire attacking. The only thoughts that come to mind is who decided to watch Twilight and when do the werewolves come in? Unfortunately, it’s not a mistake and it’s not Twilight.  This pilot belongs to the Vampire Diaries and it’s just the start to a failed attempt at the next big vampire related release.

Starting off with a nearly typical horror scene, the low soft voice speaking just doesn’t seem to fit. A guy and girl end up hitting someone, whom we interpret as the vampire that attacks them. The attacks show up on the news as animal attacks, yet another coincidence with Twilight. In the small, quiet town of Mystic Falls everyone get to know about everyone. Stefan, the owner of the mysterious intro voice, tells us that he needs to know Elena. Elena is the girl everyone just has to ask if she’s alright now at the start of the new school year since she lost her parents prior to the summer. She writes in her diary everyday and keeps up with what she hopes to accomplish as far as trying to move on. Living with her young aunt now and junkie brother, she relies on her best friend. Elena’s best friend is Bonnie, a psychic. When Stefan comes to enroll at the school Bonnie predicts him to be from Seattle, yet another thing they just had to tie up to Twilight.

As more typical junk goes, the predictable complicated love story is introduced and the vampire stereotypes are on point, except this time, they don’t sparkle. Stefan can’t enter Elena’s house without being invited in, he can’t be in the sun without his ring, and he nearly loses control when she gets hurt, starts to bleed and he smells it. A bit boring but his eyes do change to the ones like the vampires from 30 Days of Night. That means minus one point for the girly aspect of it all.

That’s where most of the typical stuff ends though. The writers attempted to get more creative by adding plot twists such as a conflict between Stefan and his brother and multiple other love triangles. At a party a girl gets attacked by another vampire and ends up in the hospital. Meanwhile, Elena spawns the start to the next episode by inviting Stefan into her house.

This series seems to be right on track for all those on Team Edward. The lack of substance besides twisted love triangles makes it an easy show to nap to. The casting was done decently; Elena at least has more facial expressions than Kristen ever did in Twilight. Although one could argue, you’d be better off wasting 2 hours rather than watching this for 2 seasons.