Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

CW, Thursdays 8 PM EST

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars (After 3 Episodes)

I usually give a show at least four episodes before reviewing it to give it time to find its footing and reveal where it is going. I’m going ahead and reviewing Vampire Diaries after three, though, because I believe I have seen enough of this one to know what it’s about. The basic story involves two vampire brothers (one good and one evil , of course) who come to a small town because a girl there reminds them of someone they both loved dearly almost a century and a half previous. The additional gimmick to this premise is that the vampires are teenagers (or supposedly look that way) and the girl is a teen as well and all of the drama (and oh my gawd, what drama!) occurs in and around the local high school.

Now if you are older than say your mid-twenties and/or you are male, your first reaction is probably that this show is a television adaptation of the Twilight series of novels by Stephenie Meyer. Fooled you, though! This is actually a television adaptation of the other popular series of novels about vampires in high school called (obviously enough) Vampire Diaries and written by L. J. Smith. The difference between the two? Well Twilight takes place in Washington state where it rains a lot and Vampire Diaries takes place in Virginia. And the characters have different names and we haven’t seen a vampire clan yet in Vampire Diaries. But beyond that, I don’t know, is there any difference?

Basically, this series gives us a ton of teen-angst melodrama with a bite. Vampire bite, that is. It also gives us a cast of very attractive actors looking and acting much older than your typical high school teens. Of course, the creative staff has plenty of experience with that as executive producer Kevin Williamson previously created the teen angst drama Dawson’s Creek as well as the teen scare-flick movie series Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. And unfortunately, Vampire Diaries leans more toward Dawson’s Creek than the self-mocking humor of the Scream movies because it could really use and infusion of humor.

The cast does a good enough job with what they are required to do with Nina Dobrev playing the sardonic, wise-beyond-her-years Elena Gilbert who is the focus of attention for the two vampire brothers. Paul Wesley is perfectly dark and brooding as the “good” brother Stefan Salvatore, looking exactly like a teen-girl-dream grunge rocker. And Ian Somerhalder looks and acts like a rejuvenated Rob Lowe as he gives a picture perfect performance as the devilish Damon Salvatore, the “evil” brother. And all the other teen drama archetypes are in the house as well, fashionably dressed and providing just the right amount of eye-candy. Steve McQueen’s grandson, Steven R. McQueen, even has a role as Elena’s brother with drug problems.

So does the series succeed? Actually, I would say that it does well with what it is trying to do, and its target audience should eat it up (pun intended). I just do not believe that it will generate much appeal beyond that core audience nor do I see that it accomplishes anything that has not already been done before, many times, and often better. The series cobbles together much of the standards from vampire stores and teen dramas and just gives us a few new faces to pretty up the same old stories. It even follows the recent trend of bending the rules for vampires and allowing them to do things like come out in the sunlight. I believe they gave some sort of a justification for this, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. Ultimately, the series does little to move me, and just reminds me of how much I wish CBS would have kept Moonlight running. The Twilight crowd should enjoy it though, and it should fill the void for them as the wait for New Moon to hit the theaters in November.

Ratings-wise, the show has been a hit for the CW. It debuted with some of the biggest numbers that network has seen in quite a while, and even though it slacked off a bit following its premiere, it still delivers good numbers for the part-time network. And, as expected, it has scored even higher with the young female audience that the CW caters to. Thus indicating that this show is doing exactly what is intended to do, appeal to the network’s target audience, it’s just that older viewers may not find much to interest them with this entry (of course there’s always True Blood on HBO for the more mature vampire fans).

Go to TV.com for more info on Vampire Diaries including Episode guides and Cast bios