'The Vampire Diaries' reads like 'tween melodrama

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By Emley Kerry

The smell of fresh blood must be in the air, because vampires are emerging from their coffins for the first time since Buffy and Interview with the Vampire. Popping up in TV, books, and movies,  the fanged undead are gorging themselves on the newfound fame bestowed unto them courtesy of Stephanie Meyer's book series turned blockbuster about a human-vampire love story.

No longer clunky unintentional parodies with capes, these new vampires are hip, popular, and hotter than most humans. Goodbye Dracula, hello Robert Pattinson.

True Blood's Bill Compton is serious and protective; Twilight's Edward Cullen is vulnerable and angsty, and the cast of vampire characters around them run the gamut from reformed vampire-tempted by human blood but strictly a blood "vegetarian"-to unabashedly villainous-chowing down on locals without caution or care.

Not breaking with vampire conventions, the pale protagonists of The Vampire Diaries occupy the two extremes, but offer little of the "in between" that would give the group a healthy dose of moral ambiguity.  Grouped into simplistic "good vampire" and "evil vampire" categories, the "good" vampires never stray and accidentally take a bite out of a passing human, and the "evil" vampires always have ulterior motives behind any seemingly good deed. 

Imagine a show with the vapid dialogue of Dawson's Creek mixed with the cheap thrills of Scream and you have The Vampire Diaries, the latest vampire show aimed at the Gossip Girl-watching age bracket.  Writer-producer Kevin Williamson overlaps elements of his two most successful projects, the aforementioned Dawson's Creek and Scream, to create the dark-yet-teeny-bopper high-school drama. 

Based on the best-selling book series of the same name by L.J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries debuted on the CW on September 10, hoping to jump on the vampire popularity bandwagon and ride it for a few seasons without having to provide much additional momentum. 

Nina Dobrev from Degrassi: The Next Generation stars as Elena Gilbert, a recently orphaned high school student with a drug-abusing brother and a wicked crush on the new guy in town, Stefan Salvatore.  Stefan, played by Paul Wesley of Army Wives, is sexy, brooding, secretive, and also, you guessed it, a vampire.  His equally good looking brother Damon Salvatore, darkly portrayed by the piercing-eyed Ian Somerhalder, is a vampire with no moral compass and is always up to no good; feeding on humans indiscreetly and indiscriminately or killing Stefan's best friend (and vampire) Lexie by stabbing her in the heart with a wooden steak.

  The series, set in Mystic Falls, Virginia, is awash with séances, Civil War history, Jedi mind-influencing powers, super senses, magic amulets, occult rituals, and lapis lazuli rings that allow the vampires to withstand sunlight. Diaries is little more than a series of supernatural horror clichés rolled up into a neatly bound and sure-to-sell package.

Despite its clichés-or perhaps because of them-Diaries is sure to garner a small but loyal following.  Catch episodes of The Vampire Diaries Thursday nights on the CW at 7:00 p.m.

Originally Published: Issue 825 - December 2, 2009

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