Comments on: Vampire Diaries: The Best Genre Television You’re Not Watching

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:02:04 +0000

I think Vampire Diaries,Twilight and True Blood are all in capitalizing on there niche. Vampire Dairies has more of a following with the whole family. True Blood the whole family cannot watch due to nudity. Twilight will keep putting the movies out as long as people keep going to the box office. I expect the new Twilight movie to be huge.

By: Bean

Bean — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:23:04 +0000

Not a single mention of the author, L. J. Smith who wrote the series of books long before Twilight was around? Anyone concerned about ‘copying’ (what are we? first graders? it’s called derivation people!) should do their homework and realize that Twilight is derivative of all these older forms of Teen Vampire Romance – and a poor one at that.

As for Elena, she’s flawed and a bit weak at times, but isn’t that realistic? How many of us would have been equal to someone ten times our age when we were teens? How many of us had bad relationships as teens? At least Elena has room to grow. (Bella on the other hand only stagnates).

By: greeney28

greeney28 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:57:33 +0000

I am getting caught up about half way through, and I’m pretty into it–but I love teen shows and most things vampire. My concern, as always, is with the female lead. I think you give her more credit than she deserves–the power inequity in human-supernatural relationships always proves troubling. That is why Buffy and Angel remain so important to many fans–they loved on an equal playing field. She needs to take charge of her life and figure out for herself why she resembles Katherine. She needs to offer Stefan something to love besides her face–and then maybe audiences will love her, too.

I’m surprised that you don’t mention much the thing all critics have noted–Damon (Somerhalder) is the reason many people watch this show. We may find a real Joey-Pacey thing here–with fans deciding Damon brings out the fun in Elena in ways mopey Dawson…er, Stefan, cannot.

By: Bärbel Göbel

Bärbel Göbel — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:57:34 +0000

Afraid I gave up on it after my set three minimum episodes, but I see your point and it is well taken. Thank you for making me see reason in my students’ choices. (c:

On the ‘copying twilight’ thing though… Twilight copied too. 😉 Originality is a whole different can of worms with so much that is out there.

By: jade

jade — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:13:33 +0000

i think vampire diaries is so awesome. although they did kind of copy twilight. the human is in love with a vampire. so totally like twilight. but, i do like it. i think stefan is hot but i am starting to fall for damen even know he is a mean jerk he can be nice when he wants to be. so i don’t think it is cheesy.

By: Erin Copple Smith

Erin Copple Smith — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:09:49 +0000

Thanks for a great post, Annie. This highlights so many of the things we love about Vampire Diaries at my house. (Yes, my husband is just as big a fan as I am.)

One of the things that really works for this show is that the melodrama actually seems like a reasonable response to the narrative events. Yes, there was a rather tiresome “will-they-won’t-they” going on between Elena and (good vampire brother) Stefan. In every episode, they would be together, then split, then get back together. But as much as that’s a staple of both melodrama in general and teen melodrama in particular, in this particular instance…it makes sense. Think about it–if you found out the object of your desire was a vampire, you too would have doubts about whether or not you should stay together. And, if you were a good vampire, you would worry about your ability to keep the (non-vampire) object of your desire safe, right?

And perhaps that’s why vampires and melodrama and teens go hand-in-hand: all of their conventions align so neatly!

By: Anne Helen Petersen

Anne Helen Petersen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:37:02 +0000

I mean. it’s totally cheesy. But it does cheese so well, and so straight-faced, with such high production values. Maybe I should modify this comment — if we think of cheesy as something that’s super earnest but poorly done, enough to make it laughable, then no, it’s not cheesy. It’s just earnest, and doing exactly what melodrama should do.

By: Giada

Giada — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:52:07 +0000

If you speak Italian, look for an essay on “The Vampire Diaries” on Ol3Media, the online journal of Cinema, Television and Media Studies of the “Master Cine&TV” of the University of Rome3: http://host.uniroma3.it/riviste/Ol3Media/Ol3Media/DAROS.html

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:18:33 +0000

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By: Rachael

Rachael — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:26:00 +0000

Really. It looks so cheesy?

Oh well, I hope it’s as good as you’re making it out to be.