When The Vampire Diaries was wheeled out on The CW back in 2009, most people simply thought of it as a Twilight clone. Who was to blame them, as the shows, on the surface at least, are nearly identical.
Small town girl gets romanced by handsome vampire, only for another supernatural critter to turn up and make it a love triangle.
Under the skin though, the two properties couldn't be more different. One is mewling, stuttering and highly misguided love story. The other is one of the most entertaining shows on the air. While Twilight sparkles along putting people to sleep, The Vampire Diaries is vicious, dark, gory and actually has these sexy vampires, you know, having sex!
Not only that, but The Vampire Diaries gets it right by not only is the main character not just a submissive blank slate, but she’s actually interesting and fun. Huzzah!
While the Twilight films and books offer basically no threat at all to any of the main characters (no-one significant is ever maimed or killed), the Vampire Diaries actually carries a threat and doesn’t completely neuter its supernatural characters. People die, the course of love doesn’t run smooth and things get messy on a quite frequent basis.
Also, thankfully, the Vampire Diaries hasn’t simply decided to mooch around for hours on end doing nothing. Throughout its three years, the show’s not been afraid to change its dynamics or completely go off the grid and go completely nutter-butters. The show has ventured into the lands of witchcraft, body swapping and even blinking doppelgangers have been thrown into the mix.
The finale to last season alone raised the bar in terms of bonkers, completely insane nuttiness so high that even Twilight couldn’t reach it. Except while Twilight has taken four films to tell about 45 minutes of story, The Vampire Diaries rattles along at a fantastic pace and knows just the right times to kick the action into a higher gear.
We could go on for while about just how The Vampire Diaries (this writer refuses to call it 'TVD') is the superior product, but we might as well end it on a personal note. I'm tired of vampires. I detest the use of werewolves and vampire together. Love triangles drive me bananas. Yet, still, I genuinely enjoy The Vampire Diaries.
The Vampire Diaries starts again on The CW in America tonight.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith