THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
Network: The CW
Premiere Date: Thursday, September 10 at 8:00 p.m. E.T.
Cast: Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Steven R. McQueen, Sara Canning, Candice Accola and Katerina Graham.
Synopsis (from The CW):
Four months after the tragic car accident that killed their parents, 17-year-old Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev, “DeGrassi: The Next Generation“) and her 15-year-old brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen, “Everwood“), are still adjusting to their new reality. Elena has always been the star student; beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends, but now she finds herself struggling to hide her grief from the world. Elena and Jeremy are now living with their cool-but-overwhelmed Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning, “Smallville“), who is doing her best to be a surrogate parent.
Elena manages to find some comfort with her familiar social circle — best friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham, “17 Again“), frenemy Caroline (Candice Accola, “Juno“), and former boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig, “Friday Night Lights“), but Jeremy is on a more dangerous path, hanging out with the stoners and using drugs to hide his pain. Jeremy is also trying to figure out why Matt’s sister, Vicki (Kayla Ewell, “The Bold and The Beautiful“), is suddenly rejecting him and hanging out with Jeremy’s rival, Tyler (Michael Trevino, “Cane“).
As the school year begins at Mystic Falls High, Elena and her friends are fascinated by a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley, “Fallen“). Stefan and Elena are immediately drawn to one another, although Elena is puzzled by Stefan’s increasingly bizarre behavior when he appears suddenly at the cemetery where her parents are buried. What she doesn’t realize is that Stefan is hiding a dark, deadly secret of his own — the fact that he’s a vampire. At a bonfire party the next night, Elena and Stefan are just getting to know each other when chaos erupts after Vicki is attacked and left bleeding from a savage bite to the neck.
Fearing that he knows who is responsible for the attack, Stefan returns home and finds his older brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder, “Lost“), whom he hasn’t seen for 15 years. Damon is also a vampire, and the two brothers have a long and bitter history. Damon ridicules Stefan for rejecting their legacy of violence and brutality, but he understands his brother’s obsession with Elena, since she looks exactly like a woman Stefan loved more than a century ago; a woman that Damon tried to make his own. Now these two vampire brothers — one good, one evil — are at war for Elena’s soul and for the souls of her friends, family and all the residents of Mystic Falls, Virginia.
Based on the series of books by L. J. Smith, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is from Alloy Entertainment and Bonanza Productions Inc in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson (“Scream,” “Dawson’s Creek“), Julie Plec (“Kyle XY,” “Wasteland“), Leslie Morgenstein (“Gossip Girl,” “Private“) and Bob Levy (“Gossip Girl,” “Privileged“). Marcos Siega (“Dexter“) directed the pilot.
What We Say: If I had to compare The Vampire Diaries to other recent vampire-focused dramas I would say that it’s definitely better than Twilight (sorry, Twi-hards), but not as awesome as the gory and graphic True Blood. The pilot is fairly formulaic – the pretty, somewhat tortured, young girl falls in love with the mysterious, handsome and brooding stranger. The story will appeal to teenage girls who can’t get enough of vampire love stories.
Ian Somerhalder plays a pretty good villain on the show. He’s very cute and has that typical evil-guy smirk. Paul Wesley plays the regretful Stefan to a T. He’s not a surly-looking as Robert Pattinson in Twilight, but he’s got remorse stamped all over his face. Nina Dobrev, who plays the main character Elena, is really the weakest link in the cast but I have hopes that she might grow more of a backbone and start playing a stronger female lead. The look of the show works best when it’s shot at night.
Basically, if you’re a young girl you’re probably going to like this show. If you’re not into vampire-human romance then you likely won’t bother to watch. But The CW’s primary target is young women, so they may have a hit on their hands after all. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can read a full review of the pilot episode here. Keep in mind, though, that was written by a guy.
This show is NOTHING like the actual novels, I have all of them. 1st the state in which the book is based is FELLS CHURCH, VIRGINA, 2nd Elena is a BLONDE in the book and DID NOT have a brother, she has a little sister, Margret and her aunts name is JUDITH. Matt is NOT related to VIKKI in the book, she is a just a student. And what about her best friends? Sure you have Bonnie correct, but she had another friend, Meredith, Caroline USED to be her friend than she went two-faced. So who ever is making this show or whatever NEEDS TO READ THE BOOKS AND GET THE STORY LINE RIGHT…AT LEAST TWILIGHT WAS CLOSER TO THE REAL BOOK AND DIDN'T CHANGE ANYONE OR ANYTHING.
This show is NOTHING like the actual novels, I have all of them. 1st the state in which the book is based is FELLS CHURCH, VIRGINA, 2nd Elena is a BLONDE in the book and DID NOT have a brother, she has a little sister, Margret and her aunts name is JUDITH. Matt is NOT related to VIKKI in the book, she is a just a student. And what about her best friends? Sure you have Bonnie correct, but she had another friend, Meredith, Caroline USED to be her friend than she went two-faced. So who ever is making this show or whatever NEEDS TO READ THE BOOKS AND GET THE STORY LINE RIGHT…AT LEAST TWILIGHT WAS CLOSER TO THE REAL BOOK AND DIDN’T CHANGE ANYONE OR ANYTHING.
This show is NOTHING like the actual novels, I have all of them. 1st the state in which the book is based is FELLS CHURCH, VIRGINA, 2nd Elena is a BLONDE in the book and DID NOT have a brother, she has a little sister, Margret and her aunts name is JUDITH. Matt is NOT related to VIKKI in the book, she is a just a student. And what about her best friends? Sure you have Bonnie correct, but she had another friend, Meredith, Caroline USED to be her friend than she went two-faced. So who ever is making this show or whatever NEEDS TO READ THE BOOKS AND GET THE STORY LINE RIGHT…AT LEAST TWILIGHT WAS CLOSER TO THE REAL BOOK AND DIDN’T CHANGE ANYONE OR ANYTHING.
Cindi, I've read the books too (and seen the pilot). Yes, there are many details that are changed, but the showrunners have said that the actual storylines of the show will follow the books. As opposed to, say, True Blood, where they kept the many details of the actual characters but are changing many aspects of the storylines.
It's not always a bad thing when they change details from the books. For example, the Bourne movies are NOTHING like the books (like literally the only thing they took from the books was Jason Bourne's name). At first I didn't like the movies because of that, but it's really nothing to be upset about. I'm sure the people on the show have read the Vampire Diaries books and they're trying to take the best aspects of the books to fit the show.
Cindi, I’ve read the books too (and seen the pilot). Yes, there are many details that are changed, but the showrunners have said that the actual storylines of the show will follow the books. As opposed to, say, True Blood, where they kept the many details of the actual characters but are changing many aspects of the storylines.
It’s not always a bad thing when they change details from the books. For example, the Bourne movies are NOTHING like the books (like literally the only thing they took from the books was Jason Bourne’s name). At first I didn’t like the movies because of that, but it’s really nothing to be upset about. I’m sure the people on the show have read the Vampire Diaries books and they’re trying to take the best aspects of the books to fit the show.
Cindi, I’ve read the books too (and seen the pilot). Yes, there are many details that are changed, but the showrunners have said that the actual storylines of the show will follow the books. As opposed to, say, True Blood, where they kept the many details of the actual characters but are changing many aspects of the storylines.
It’s not always a bad thing when they change details from the books. For example, the Bourne movies are NOTHING like the books (like literally the only thing they took from the books was Jason Bourne’s name). At first I didn’t like the movies because of that, but it’s really nothing to be upset about. I’m sure the people on the show have read the Vampire Diaries books and they’re trying to take the best aspects of the books to fit the show.