Vampire Diaries TV: First thoughts from a book fan
I finally went ahead and watched the first two episodes of The Vampire Diaries TV show.
With that said I have to say that I am hugely biased so it was a big step for me to even tune in with all the new changes to the characters and the story - hence why I tuned in so late in the game. I remember hearing about this while living in Oz and being horrified by all the changes in the story, enough so that I couldn't watch the show at all until now.
I admit that I've been a big fan of L.J. Smith since I was a little elementary school student living in Santa Barbara and picking up my very first L.J. Smith books from a lovely little used bookstore, which happened to be The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and Night of the Solstice. It was the beginning of a love affair of her stories - and her boys. Damon become - and remains today - one of my favorite L.J. Smith characters right behind Julian from The Forbidden Games and Ash from Night World: Daughters of Darkness. Yeah, I like the bad boys but don't we all? I collect (and still own) all of the original first edition books that L.J. Smith put out - even the hard to get Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor and I still (even now) go back and re-read some of those stories for nostalgia's sake.
With that little aside out of the way I have to say that if I take the same approach as I did to the Anne Rice movies - treat it as an alternate Tenchi Muyo-esque universe that is far removed from the original - then it isn't horrible. I love the guy playing Damon with his pale eyes and crooked smile. I'm not particularly fond of Stefan - he looks far too much like whats-his-name Angel from Buffy for my liking - but I suspect that he'll grow on me a little. I'm surprisingly ok with Bonnie and Matt though the weird character mash-up and Vickie suddenly being his sister and Elena having a younger brother than her sweet little sister Margaret is kinda odd along with the uber-young aunt who is not named Judith (and is far younger than the books) along with Stefan living with some young relative (instead of the slightly batty boardinghouse lady, Ms. Flowers), but ok, I'll roll with the punches.
I can't say that I love this series yet but I'm willing to give it a couple more episodes for it to grow on me - and perhaps hope that it does. It's hard to like vampires right now though with all that absolutely ridiculous furor over that Twilight rubbish which is getting thrown into the mix and the pure fan in me hates having to compare Twilight, which I find absolutely horrid, with a childhood favorite which is full of nostalgia for me. But ok, this is one of the "in" things for the year so I'll go with it - and I'll go with the VD show for another couple episodes to see if I can stand it enough to watch it all the way through, even though I know what happens (unless that gets changed too, but nah, they've already changed so much that I suspect that I'll be able to know where the show goes as time moves on...).
We'll just have to see, won't we?
With that said I have to say that I am hugely biased so it was a big step for me to even tune in with all the new changes to the characters and the story - hence why I tuned in so late in the game. I remember hearing about this while living in Oz and being horrified by all the changes in the story, enough so that I couldn't watch the show at all until now.
I admit that I've been a big fan of L.J. Smith since I was a little elementary school student living in Santa Barbara and picking up my very first L.J. Smith books from a lovely little used bookstore, which happened to be The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and Night of the Solstice. It was the beginning of a love affair of her stories - and her boys. Damon become - and remains today - one of my favorite L.J. Smith characters right behind Julian from The Forbidden Games and Ash from Night World: Daughters of Darkness. Yeah, I like the bad boys but don't we all? I collect (and still own) all of the original first edition books that L.J. Smith put out - even the hard to get Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor and I still (even now) go back and re-read some of those stories for nostalgia's sake.
With that little aside out of the way I have to say that if I take the same approach as I did to the Anne Rice movies - treat it as an alternate Tenchi Muyo-esque universe that is far removed from the original - then it isn't horrible. I love the guy playing Damon with his pale eyes and crooked smile. I'm not particularly fond of Stefan - he looks far too much like whats-his-name Angel from Buffy for my liking - but I suspect that he'll grow on me a little. I'm surprisingly ok with Bonnie and Matt though the weird character mash-up and Vickie suddenly being his sister and Elena having a younger brother than her sweet little sister Margaret is kinda odd along with the uber-young aunt who is not named Judith (and is far younger than the books) along with Stefan living with some young relative (instead of the slightly batty boardinghouse lady, Ms. Flowers), but ok, I'll roll with the punches.
I can't say that I love this series yet but I'm willing to give it a couple more episodes for it to grow on me - and perhaps hope that it does. It's hard to like vampires right now though with all that absolutely ridiculous furor over that Twilight rubbish which is getting thrown into the mix and the pure fan in me hates having to compare Twilight, which I find absolutely horrid, with a childhood favorite which is full of nostalgia for me. But ok, this is one of the "in" things for the year so I'll go with it - and I'll go with the VD show for another couple episodes to see if I can stand it enough to watch it all the way through, even though I know what happens (unless that gets changed too, but nah, they've already changed so much that I suspect that I'll be able to know where the show goes as time moves on...).
We'll just have to see, won't we?