This is a spoiler free chat.
The much heralded premiere of the fantasy TV series The Vampire Diaries on the CW finally aired. I came into this premiere incredibly hesitant, expecting to be disappointed to some degree. In short, I wasn’t overly enthused by it, but I probably won’t turn it off if it came on my TV while I was doing something else.
The premiere opened with a couple driving down a tree-lined road and as the car enters a thick fog, they hit a guy who was standing in the middle of the road. The driver gets out to check on the guy, and well, it’s a vampire show- you do the math. The female passenger gets out and starts screaming and running for her life towards the camera and then she gets snatched and disappears up into the air. That was cool. Classic, but cool.
The Vampire Diaries demonstrated some classic vampire lore, added one new facet to the lore that hasn’t been too overused and spent the first 1/2 of the episode defining characters. Usually, I would rather learn about characters over time, but this worked out OK.
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I don’t know why a vampire, who has lived a long time, goes back to high school, but there you have it. Then we had some classic situations: Beer parties in the woods, Attacks being attributed to animals, Creeping fog, A mysterious crow flirting about in various scenes and Brothers in angst with each other.
Everyone keeps a dairy. Hence, I presume, the title, The Vampire Diaries. OK, not everyone, but our main characters Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrey) and Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) both keep diaries which seems to be one of the connectors between them. That, and Elena looks a lot like someone the brothers knew from their past.
When Stefan’s brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), finally shows up, my test audience indicated some serious approval and they didn’t mind the show overall.
Regardless of what the naysayers think, the CW did indeed hit pay dirt with this premiere. With 4.8 million viewers, they outdid 90210 and Melrose Place, put together (I know you’re shocked at that one!). The CW says this was their most watched premiere to date.
I don’t think it’s terrible… I’ll give it that. But there is a lot of rote vampire lore that they’re just regurgitating in the story. It will be up to the cast to generate the attention the show needs to retain all the viewers this premiere drew in. I have to wonder if a lot of those numbers were Twilight fans going through withdrawals waiting for the next chapter of their favored screen vamps?
What did you guys think of it?
Ratings source: E Online
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24 Comments
I dislike that the show, which was obviously advertised to a teen audience featured pill-popping, drugs, and underage drinking so prominently. I think that if you are marketing towards the teen crowd, the show should not be a TV-14 and should show responsible behavior.
I thought it was very good, especially for the first episode. They set a good dark atmosphere and mood for the show. The good a bad vamps were well cast I think. I think the answer to your question about going back to school is pretty obvious actually. If I lived for ever I’d probably get bored and jump back and forth from time to time between living the lone creature of the nite life and re-inserting myself into main stream life, which in his case is as a youngster. And “rote vampire lore they’re regurgitating up”?!? I don’t understand that statement. Vampire lore is pretty set in history of story telling. I mean, vary just slightly on some characters (Wolverine, Deadpool, etc.) and “they’re ruining ths story….they should stick to the source material or it’s bad!” Yet here they stick to source material and they get criticized for “regurgitating”. I like this site and it’s timely information on new upcoming movies, but boy you guys really look for the bad in everything sometimes.
I dislike that the show, which was obviously advertised to a teen audience featured pill-popping, drugs, and underage drinking so prominently. I think that if you are marketing towards the teen crowd, the show should not be a TV-14 and should show responsible behavior.
With all due respect, you must not know the teen population that well, all those things you said that should not be in the show go on every day in most teenagers lives. Hell it happens most weekends at my house, even though I do not participate.
From the rolling fog to the laughable diary entries, I was amused the whole time because the show is attempting to be serious.
Of late, vampire franchises have been tossing up new and interesting takes on vampires. I was wondering, or hoping they’d mix it up a bit. It almost felt like Dracula: The teen years… it was just disappointing…
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I believe they are setting us up for a teen intervention down the road… a nice dramatic episode if that does happen.
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Oh, and remember, this is TV News without the sugar coating.
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Thanks for coming by and commenting gang. -Bruce
very annoyed that direct tv doesn’t carry the channel! How can us Direct TV subscribers watch the show when it seems to have an exclusive with cable systems? Internet TV?
I know the CW plays some of their shows online on their website… check there!
I have to say it was entertaining however i gotta give it to Stephenie Meyer on this one. Sorry L.J. but her vampires are a lot less like Dracula and it makes you feel like they could exist,with these 2 brothers is very fictional and too much fantasy with spell rings etc. All hail twilight for frightning the bejesus out of me with the thoughts of invincible vampires that can walk among us…Sorry guys just my 2 cents but i will be watching the show to see if it evolves for the better
I’m not surprised that there was such a big showing for the premiere. There are lots of Twilight fans out there looking for more in a similar genre. The question is, will the show deliver. I was not impressed with the pilot, but not disgusted either. I’ll watch again with a wait and see attitude. “wickamo” mentioned that they’re sticking to source material, but there wasn’t too much of that. The rings, yes; but they changed soooo much! Again, wait and see. The books were good, not great, Vampire Academy series was better, but there is potential here. I hope it pans out and that the network doesn’t dump the show without giving it a chance.
i watched it and had no trouble switching over to the steelers game.
it just felt awkward. i mean “all i see is back” “yeah, a hot back” Really? No
So it had many similarities to Twilight. But don’t put that on Vampire Diaries… it was written 13 years before Twilight. Read both series and you’ll see where Stephenie Meyer got a bunch of her Twilight ideas! It is shocking how much overlap there is between the books. And I thought the show was alright.
As a fan of the book I was pretty disappointed with the changes in the show. But over all the show was decent. I’ll have to see the rest but for the first episode it was okay. I’m hoping as the show goes on they’ll stick to the book a bit more than they did starting it off.
I went in with low expectations and was still disappointed. To be blunt, it was *boring. Maddeningly, brain-shatterinly *boring. I sat through one episode & at the end turned it of swearing never again. I’d rather watch Buffy reruns.
(Note: before the fans of the original book jump down my throat, let me just say that I don’t believe that the show is any real reflection of the book(s). Books don’t usually translate well to tv or movies.)
wow wow wow wow… i dont care how Stephanie Meyer got her ideas, i dont care if this book came first. They could have atleast came up with an original look. I have never really been a fan of the True Blood or Buffy type shows.. actually i down right think and thought they sucked… so i guess its no surprise i think the same about this piece of crap, i guess i watched cuz i did read the twilight books and i did like them alot, guess i hoped id like this show… I think the whole Vampire highschool thing is getting a played out tho, i think this show would do much better if it didnt launch a mist all of the Twilight pandemonium, or since that was their plan change it to be a little different from Twilight, even tho yes, this book came first, i think if it wasnt as Twilightish it could possibly hold a larger fan base.
I haven’t read the books so I am not familiar with what they changed to the show, but I too found the show ok. I wasn’t thrilled with the episode but I’m not going to swear the show off based on one episode. If I did that I wouldn’t be watching most of my show. I think it takes time to get into a good flow for the show. I just feel like there could be less brooding diary moments and more story. Also in response to Anne and her comment
“I dislike that the show, which was obviously advertised to a teen audience featured pill-popping, drugs, and underage drinking so prominently. I think that if you are marketing towards the teen crowd, the show should not be a TV-14 and should show responsible behavior.”
I would first point out that all of the CW shows this fall except America’s next top model and Everybody hates Chris- are all marketed to Ages 14 and up and all involve sex, booze, or pill popping or a mixture of the three. The network is marketed toward high school age teens and young adults not the younger teen market. And if you really think that kids today whether they are 15 or 13 aren’t drinking and partying you need to wake up and open your eyes because they are.
I read the book when they first came out, and was looking forward to watching the series. I was not impressed. There were too many changes that just ended up irritating me. Elena’s brother? Stefan’s nephew? WTF?? And all the superficial changes – NO ONE looks the way Lisa described them in the books – not even close! And apparently they had to change the name of the town to the sufficiently creepy “Mystic Falls” because they couldn’t get legal clearance to use the name Fell’s Church.
Too much was different. I couldn’t get into because I kept thinking, “But Bonnie was a little redhead!” or “Stefan isn’t a town native!” I don’t think I’ll watch again. And I love vampire shows. True Blood, Buffy, Angel, Dark Shadows, all of them. Except this one.
It was okay, everyone was very pretty which is always a bonus. I didn’t realise they’d actually be reading from diaries, that was odd.
I was very much looking to see the show’s premiere; however, I was disappointed by what I saw.
It was like Gossip Girl meets The Lost Boys.
I do love The Lost Boys, but cannot stand Gossip Girl.
I will tune in for a couple of more episodes; however, if it doesn’t change & become better, I will be tuning out.
Honestly, It was just ok. Luckilly, I wasnt going in with high expectations. I had already read the info on it and plot and it was too overplayed.
“Hot vampire meets cute 17 year old girl in small town and they fall in love.” can you say twilight anyone.
It was really boring, too rushed and waaaay to much happened in the first episode.
It couldve been a lot better, I was not impressed. It was basically a not as good, tv verion of twilight.
However, I did like some of the new vampire changes- how their eyes get red when they smell blood, how the ring can protect them from the sunlight-pretty original.
I will watch it or a couple more episodes to see i it gets better.
I really thought that I wasn’t going to like this show but watched it anyways and was shocked at how much I liked it. I felt like the premier episode was one of the best I have seen in a while, it really draws you in and sets you up for the season I will definatly be watching the next episode!!!
The show was different. They should have atleast put the same character from the book.
Hi, my name is Tweeb and I’m a twilight twitard.
In all honesty I was excited about this show last season (previews before Supernatural). I didn’t discover the Twilight Saga until June. I didn’t even know what Twilight was.
I did, of course, tune in to VD and I liked it. There are a couple of similarities between twilight and VD but very few.
I didn’t tune in to get a twilight fix. I tuned in (so did my non twilight fan hubby) because we like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster & zombies..etc..etc…I have loved that stuff since i was the tender age of 8.
We Tivo’d it. It’s not bad. Certainly better than all the reality/game shows & dance crap on the tube lately. A thousand times better than American Idol so…:P
I’m giving this show a chance but honestly so far, it hasn’t pulled me in. I’m sure the books are good…but the show is missing something for me.
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