The live action adaptation of L.J. Smith’s novel, The Vampire Diaries premiered last Friday to mixed reviews. The Vampire Diaries takes place in a small town called Fall’s Church (in Virginia) and the story follows a girl named Elena Gilbert (played by Jennifer Rose Locke), who is recovering emotionally from a car accident that took the lives of her parents. While she is trying to gain some normalcy in her life, she befriends a new student named Stefan Salvatore (played by Paul Wesley). What Elena doesn’t know is that Stefan is actually a vampire. Sounds familiar?
Many people have criticized The Vampire Diaries as a blatant rip off of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. What people didn’t know is that The Vampire Diaries was originally published 14 years before Twilight. While the concept of a human girl falling in love with a vampire is not new, the story follows two very different paths.
I caught the series premiere of The Vampire Dairies to find that in the beginning, it did feel like I was watching a small screen version of Twilight, however, there is a different appeal that I got from The Vampire Diaries that keeps me interested in catching the second episode. What moves the story is Stefan Salvatore and his brother Damon (played by Ian Sommerhalder).
Stefan: Wherever you go, people die.
Damon: That’s a given.
Stefan is similar to Edward Cullen as he is not willing to feed on human blood and feeds on the blood of animals, yet his brother, Damon is the complete opposite for he is willingly attacking and feeding on humans in town. Damon embraces his killer nature while Stefan tries to suppress it. With Damon’s arrival in town, it brings danger to Elena as she is now in Damon’s crosshairs. Little to nothing is explained regarding why Stefan or Damon moved to Fall’s Church, but it is hinted that this is not their first time passing through. Mostly likely questions will be answered as the story prolongs throughout the episodes.
The Vampire Dairies is a nice change for once on CW, as majority of the new shows are about ditzy socialites that I couldn’t give a shit about (Gossip Girls, 90210, Melrose Place), but maybe The Vampire Dairies will develop into an interesting story that will compliment well to those of CW’s other sci-fi/horror series I love to watch such as Supernatural. As of this moment, I will continue checking out the series.
