The CW
The Vampire Diaries is the CW's valiant attempt to capitalize on Twilight mania: a teen girl from a troubled home and a mysterious, pale stranger are drawn to each other; danger and shared stares ensue. Based on a YA series from the ’90s, The Vampire Diaries follows Elena, a recently orphaned high-schooler who dumped her sweet boyfriend and now finds herself infatuated with Stefan, a transfer student/vampire with a dark and lengthy past. The pilot has some high points: Elena’s noncompetitive friendship with her BFF; a sweet if heavy-handed brother-sister relationship (Elena scolds her stoner brother, “Just know that I will be there to ruin your buzz every time, got it?”); effective teen angst (“When someone asks you how you’re doing, they don’t really want to know the answer,” Elena writes in her journal as she sits by her parents’ grave). I can’t say yet whether the good is outweighed by the bad, but there are already some serious strikes against The Vampire Diaries: The special effects are unbearably cheesy, the vamp attacks are on the vicious side, and a girl who ventures into the woods to make out with her boyfriend is later savaged by a vampire in what seems like a punishment for hooking up. She survives … though, of course, whether that’s a blessing remains to be determined. Five books from the series have been released, with another two planned, so if the show is a hit, there will be vampire attacks and high-school strife for many episodes to come.
—Tori Bosch
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