The Vampire Diaries is based on the best-selling book series from Alloy Entertainment. In the first season Elena and Stefan are beginning to get along but the evil ahead is unthinkable.
The Vampire Diaries nonetheless satisfactorily opens up yet another TV world of heightened youth, where blood-sucking is a metaphor for a whole range of fears and desires.
The story is pure cheese, but so, to my mind, that's the level upon which it should be judged. No comparing it to lobster, you know? The fog and the crow? This is a gothic (teen) romance. They have their place here.
There's some attempts to convey real emotion, but despite the amount of meat in the pilot-indicating that there's plenty to explore over the course of a season-The Vampire Diaries displays only faint signs of having any life in it.
It might not be the most groundbreaking show on television right now, but it's a well-crafted, interestingly developed series, which really kicks up a gear after an anodyne opening episode.
A good chunk of the show's target demographic of angst-ridden teenagers will likely fall in love at first sight, and their male counterparts might even derive some entertainment out of it as well.
Williamson has said that the Vampire Diaries books eventually take a unique turn and that the series will do the same, but quicker. Little in the premiere will encourage viewers to return in order to find out if that's true.
