The Vampire Diaries
It's all dar_jeeling's fault. ;) She made this short post about all those vampire series out there right now. It inspired me to watch Twilight, just to make sure it's as crappy (and sparkly) as everyone wants me to believe. But then I would have had to restart my computer for that (long story, suffice to say I'm lazy ;)), so I got the Vampire Diaries instead.
Turns out I quite like it. For all the wrong reasons. ;)
The first thing is that the casting people must have seen the young Angel:
:::
Paul Wesley reminded me of David Boreanaz immediately. Which pretty much sealed my fate concerning the Vampire Diaries. Am I easy or what? :D His character is boring and straight-laced, but the guy is just drop dead gorgeous. The whole "OMG I love her but I can't" thing was pretty good while it lasted, too.
I have to admit, I love that pathetic and sappy love story. It's kitschy and totally unrealistic from the get-go, and they have to introduce one external tension after the other to keep it halfway interesting, but Stefan really is gorgeous. The camera work always makes sure he's lurking and stalking beautifully, and he's never allowed to be ugly. He's the poster boy for wholesomeness, which is just ridiculous, considering he's a vampire.
Unfortunately, the love story goes back and forth with "It's wrong but I have to know her" - "I can't be with you Stefan... oh wait, I can be with you after all" - "Too late, now I can't be with you anymore", it just made me laugh. The whole show gives this impression of being decided on the drawing board and never fleshed out. And targeted at ten-year-olds. There is no depth to the characters, hardly any ambiguity, and no grey areas. Especially since so much focuses on grief in the beginning, but now there's nothing left of that at all.
The first few episodes, I thought it was Dawson's Creek with vampires. But then I realized I wasn't doing Dawson's Creek justice. ;) It's actually a lot more like Smallville with vampires - Smallville even had a witch, too. People seem to think that it's a lot like One Tree Hill, but that really really doesn't make me want to check that out, either. //) I'm not surprised that there seems to be quite a number of Smallville crossover fic.
Everyone in fandom loves Stefan's brother Damon (and Bonnie/Damon is a surprisingly popular pairing), but I couldn't care less about him. I'm starting to warm up to him a little now that I've seen half the season and the cardboard dryness of his brother is starting to bore even me.
Unfortunately, Damon's presence on the show is necessary. The problem is that the whole dynamic doesn't work without him. He creates all the tension, so it's impossible to kill him off. But the stories suffer for it - it just makes no sense for Stefan to go along with it and spare his life repeatedly (although I can at least tolerate that, because he's still his brother). But it makes no sense for Elena to save his life. He could have died a few times already but the show would die with him.
Same of course with Elena. The show has a knack for letting vampires sneak up on unsuspecting girls and then Stefan (and sometimes Damon) sweeps in and saves them. They are always just about to die when he saves the day. Its happened to Elena at least three times so far. *yawn*
I was hoping that there was a darker side to Stefan as well, but except for one sentence "I did some things I'm not proud of" early on, there is no hint of that at all. In fact, as soon as we get to see something violent or deceitful in Stefan, they make sure to negate it - e.g. when he tortures and kills Noah, it is made abundantly clear that he had to because "he'd been invited in". And when he tells Damon he'll go along with his plan, he specifically gets a scene with Elena right afterward where he explains to her that he lied. It kind of reminds me of how SGA and Joe Flanigan were so adamant about making Sheppard the good guy. At least here, Paul Wesley doesn't seem to share that opinion all the way, so maybe there is some hope for it after all.
I loved the scenes where Damon and Stefan are imitating each other and changing roles within their dialogue. That was actually funny. I really liked the birthday episode, too. Paul finally got to laugh. I even suspected there was some chemistry between him and the actress who plays Lexi, because he's just smiling and brimming with happiness throughout every single scene with her. My favorite scene is when she asks him if they (Stefan and Elena) have had sex yet, and he answers "nooooo". He has a very funny way of saying that.
The vampire cliches they have are a little different, nothing too bad. In fact, they are pretty much human except with heightened senses and bloodlust. It's a better starting position than the soulless demons of Buffy (if they'd only make something of that). Their vampires are nocturnal, except Damon and Stefan who have a daywalker ring. They appear in mirrors and can eat and drink everything. They have to be invited in. There is one herb that makes them weak. Wooden implements hurt them and they die when staked through the heart. When they morph into game face, the veins under their eyes change first. (Probably way cheaper for the makeup department than Angel's forehead thingy was :)). They have the same stupid tendency to vamp out when they're kissing like on every other show.
The references to other vampire stories came across as really pretentious, because the show really isn't all that good. It doesn't deserve to make fun of the genre. They complain about sparkly vampires, about how they miss Anne Rice, and Damon accuses Stefan of "forehead brooding" (whatever that is ;)) ) several times.
Right now, nothing at all is happening and every episode you're just guessing which of the newly appearing characters is a vampire. You're not left guessing for long, because they usually die by the end of it. ;)
Why does a show like that get so much attention and Moonlight had to give up after half a season of awesomeness? I'm stumped.
Turns out I quite like it. For all the wrong reasons. ;)
The first thing is that the casting people must have seen the young Angel:
:::
Paul Wesley reminded me of David Boreanaz immediately. Which pretty much sealed my fate concerning the Vampire Diaries. Am I easy or what? :D His character is boring and straight-laced, but the guy is just drop dead gorgeous. The whole "OMG I love her but I can't" thing was pretty good while it lasted, too.
I have to admit, I love that pathetic and sappy love story. It's kitschy and totally unrealistic from the get-go, and they have to introduce one external tension after the other to keep it halfway interesting, but Stefan really is gorgeous. The camera work always makes sure he's lurking and stalking beautifully, and he's never allowed to be ugly. He's the poster boy for wholesomeness, which is just ridiculous, considering he's a vampire.
Unfortunately, the love story goes back and forth with "It's wrong but I have to know her" - "I can't be with you Stefan... oh wait, I can be with you after all" - "Too late, now I can't be with you anymore", it just made me laugh. The whole show gives this impression of being decided on the drawing board and never fleshed out. And targeted at ten-year-olds. There is no depth to the characters, hardly any ambiguity, and no grey areas. Especially since so much focuses on grief in the beginning, but now there's nothing left of that at all.
The first few episodes, I thought it was Dawson's Creek with vampires. But then I realized I wasn't doing Dawson's Creek justice. ;) It's actually a lot more like Smallville with vampires - Smallville even had a witch, too. People seem to think that it's a lot like One Tree Hill, but that really really doesn't make me want to check that out, either. //) I'm not surprised that there seems to be quite a number of Smallville crossover fic.
Everyone in fandom loves Stefan's brother Damon (and Bonnie/Damon is a surprisingly popular pairing), but I couldn't care less about him. I'm starting to warm up to him a little now that I've seen half the season and the cardboard dryness of his brother is starting to bore even me.
Unfortunately, Damon's presence on the show is necessary. The problem is that the whole dynamic doesn't work without him. He creates all the tension, so it's impossible to kill him off. But the stories suffer for it - it just makes no sense for Stefan to go along with it and spare his life repeatedly (although I can at least tolerate that, because he's still his brother). But it makes no sense for Elena to save his life. He could have died a few times already but the show would die with him.
Same of course with Elena. The show has a knack for letting vampires sneak up on unsuspecting girls and then Stefan (and sometimes Damon) sweeps in and saves them. They are always just about to die when he saves the day. Its happened to Elena at least three times so far. *yawn*
I was hoping that there was a darker side to Stefan as well, but except for one sentence "I did some things I'm not proud of" early on, there is no hint of that at all. In fact, as soon as we get to see something violent or deceitful in Stefan, they make sure to negate it - e.g. when he tortures and kills Noah, it is made abundantly clear that he had to because "he'd been invited in". And when he tells Damon he'll go along with his plan, he specifically gets a scene with Elena right afterward where he explains to her that he lied. It kind of reminds me of how SGA and Joe Flanigan were so adamant about making Sheppard the good guy. At least here, Paul Wesley doesn't seem to share that opinion all the way, so maybe there is some hope for it after all.
I loved the scenes where Damon and Stefan are imitating each other and changing roles within their dialogue. That was actually funny. I really liked the birthday episode, too. Paul finally got to laugh. I even suspected there was some chemistry between him and the actress who plays Lexi, because he's just smiling and brimming with happiness throughout every single scene with her. My favorite scene is when she asks him if they (Stefan and Elena) have had sex yet, and he answers "nooooo". He has a very funny way of saying that.
The vampire cliches they have are a little different, nothing too bad. In fact, they are pretty much human except with heightened senses and bloodlust. It's a better starting position than the soulless demons of Buffy (if they'd only make something of that). Their vampires are nocturnal, except Damon and Stefan who have a daywalker ring. They appear in mirrors and can eat and drink everything. They have to be invited in. There is one herb that makes them weak. Wooden implements hurt them and they die when staked through the heart. When they morph into game face, the veins under their eyes change first. (Probably way cheaper for the makeup department than Angel's forehead thingy was :)). They have the same stupid tendency to vamp out when they're kissing like on every other show.
The references to other vampire stories came across as really pretentious, because the show really isn't all that good. It doesn't deserve to make fun of the genre. They complain about sparkly vampires, about how they miss Anne Rice, and Damon accuses Stefan of "forehead brooding" (whatever that is ;)) ) several times.
Right now, nothing at all is happening and every episode you're just guessing which of the newly appearing characters is a vampire. You're not left guessing for long, because they usually die by the end of it. ;)
Why does a show like that get so much attention and Moonlight had to give up after half a season of awesomeness? I'm stumped.