The CW's fall offering "The Vampire Diaries" comes from creator Kevin Williamson
"The Vampire Diaries" is the star-crossed romance of "Roswell" and the high-school drama of "Dawson's Creek" combined with the cheapest scares a "Supernatural." Vampire lore is sprinkled in at random; the titular vamps wear rings that let them walk in the sun, but in the second episode, one of them has a reflection.
"The Vampire Diaries" is the centerpiece of a last-ditch effort by The CW to revive its ratings by returning to its roots. In the late '90s and early '00s, The WB was a seminal teen tastemaker and a breeding ground for innovative creators, including Joss Whedon ("Buffy"), J.J. Abrams ("Felicity") and Williamson (who also wrote "Scream," 1996). But Williamson, now 44, has only gotten older since then.
Of course, "The Vampire Diaries" is The CW's calculated exploitation of the current vampire craze, ignited by the novel "Twilight" and HBO's "True Blood." Williamson has given in to the network's eagerness for a show that could cash in on the massive success of the film adaptation of "Twilight" (2008), which also revolved around a romance between a high school student and an undead teeenager. "The Vampire Diaries" is in fact based on series of novels that was first published in 1993.
The show follows Elena (Nina Dobrev), a tragically beautiful high-school student who has recently suffered her parents' deaths. She is immediately attracted to Stefan (Paul Wesley), a handsome transfer student with a mysterious air. Of course, Stefan is a centuries-old vampire who refuses to feed on humans and has returned to his hometown for Elena, who is the splitting image of his lost love Katherine. His pursuit is complicated, however, by the arrival of his evil brother Damon (Somerhalder), who has been feeding on townspeople and taunting Stefan about his "vegetarian" status.
Over the course of the first two episodes, Elena and Stefan are drawn closer to one another as Damon continues his killing spree. However, Damon botches his attack on Vicki (Kayla Ewell), Elena's ex-boyfriend's younger sister, and it gets harder for Stefan to conceal the fact that vampires exist.
The entire construction of the show smacks of a failed attempt to be hip. Wesley and Somerhalder are straight out of the WB's stable of pretty-boy actors. Dobrev is a veteran of Canada's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and attempted a U.S. breakthrough last summer in MTV's ratings bomb "The American Mall."
The performances of the "teens" are pretty but vapid. In the Robert Pattinson mold, Wesley has confused overwhelming passion with speaking in a low monotone, and Dobrev looks more dazed than enraptured. The actresses playing Elena's gaggle of friends are thus far clumsy with Williamson's signature verbose dialogue.
The production does everything in its power to distract from the show's central blandness. Pop and rock songs play under almost every scene, at turns enhancing and distracting from the action. Somerhalder as Damon does his best Jack Sparrow impression, flashing crazy eyes and overacting every snarky line. Williamson has inorganically appended the topics of sex and drugs to the plot so tween viewers don't notice the lack of charm in the central relationship between Stefan and Elena.
Amazingly, though, this show worked for mainstream America. The premiere episode of "The Vampire Diaries" garnered the largest debut ratings in its young network's history, reinforcing the fact that vampires mean instant success. However, these numbers are almost half of The WB's comparable stats for its biggest premiere, "Smallville," in 2001.
Important to note is that 24 percent of the opening night viewers for "The Vampire Diaries" didn't return for "Night of the Comet," this week's episode. Obviously, the show can't continue to rely on its gimmick, The show's failure to raise the stakes after the pilot seems to indicate a continued decline in viewership, perhaps signaling the end of this vampire business once and for all.
