I have always loved vampire stories. As a child I was deliciously scared watching Bela Lugosi’s hypnotic eyes as he compelled his victims to open their bedroom doors. As a teen, I thought Frank Langella was so sexy; shivers ran up my body as I imagined the feel of his lips on my neck. Francis Ford Coppola focused on the love story in Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992, with Gary Oldman as a very sensual Dracula! The scene showing the leather gloved hands of Dracula and Mena stroking the fur of the wolf was sexier than many kissing scenes meant to heat the blood of moviegoers. The sexy vampire genre made the leap to the small screen in 1966 with a soap opera called Dark Shadows starring a reluctant vampire Barnabus Collins. Each weekday afternoon, my Grandmother Nancy and I would be glued to the television watching Barnabus struggle with his desire for blood and his desire for Victoria Winters. Dark Shadows was an unsuccessful prime time series in 1991 with Ben Cross in the role of Barnabus a mere 12 episodes. Joss Whedon was the hero of vampire genre fans the world over when he brought Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to the WB in the late 1990s.
Vampires are powerful, dangerous, seductive, immature and vulnerable,much like adolescents. Perhaps that is why the vampire genre is so popular with teens and tweens. Today the vampire has seduced another generation of teens and tweens via the Twilight Saga books and motion pictures. Of course one need not be a teen or tween to succumb to the allure of Edward Cullen with his brooding ways and those sexy eyes. To quote a character from the film Twilight as he tells Bella of his displeasure that she and Edward are a couple, “…he looks at you like you are something to eat….” Bella has no problem being consumed by Edward and neither would millions of females, including myself, all over the globe. No bones about it—vampires are sexy. Fortunately, for vampire fans the gap in television programming left by the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and the short-lived Moonlight is over.
Enter The Vampire Diaries. Dawson’s Creek creator, Kevin Williamson brings The Vampire Diaries to television each Thursday at 8:00pm on the CW. Based on the The Vampire Diaries series of books written by LJ Smith, the series focuses on a high school girl, Elena, and her involvement with vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon. Set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, the town has a history of vampirism dating back to the 19th century and the towns founding families.
The series starts off with a bang with brothers Stephan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) at odds as they have been for the past 100 years with the innocent lovelies of Mystic Falls caught in the middle. The innocent lovely in the center of the turmoil is Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) who happens to be the doppelgänger of Katherine, the vampire who won the heart of both Salvatore brothers when the boys were mere humans circa 1860s. The characters are somewhat Twilightesque at first, but the series departs strongly from anything Twilight and develops several interesting plot twists and a tangle of back story.
The CW is rerunning season 1 of the Vampire Diaries Thursdays at 8pm followed by reruns of Moonlight. If you have not yet sunk your teeth into The Vampire Diaries be sure to feast this summer on the CW.
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