By Lisa Fary
The Vampire Diaries predates Twilight by almost 15 years. So, the CW show is not stealing from Twilight. It is, however, borrowing liberally from Dark Shadows.
- 200 year old vampire returning to the small town he founded? Check.
- Weird interfamily ties? Check.
- Meaningful looks? Check.
- A girl who is the spitting image of the love of said vampire’s costume drama past? Check.
- Is the girl an orphan? Check.
Elena’s parents died to give her depth. We know she has depth because she writes in a journal. Sometimes, Elena writes in her journal in a graveyard (henceforth, the EmoYard) while she looks meaningfully at her parents’ headstone (get used to meaningful looks, because if the kids aren’t talking inanely, they’re looking at each other meaningfully – at one point, there was a love pentagram of meaningful looks flying around a history class for several minutes straight).
Feel Elena’s pain. If you need help feeling her pain, let the show soundtrack guide you; it’s always running, so there’s always an opportunity to grab on and get carried away by the whiney strains of pop and vampires.
Stefan is our compassionate vampire; it’s insinuated that he doesn’t feed off humans, only animals. And he’s got a thing for Elena. Sure, he’s 200 and she’s 17 which, technically, is creepy. I can get past that. Problem is, he doesn’t really have a compelling reason to be so drawn to her. She’s not a telepath, like Sookie. He’s never read the poetry that she no doubt has written in her journal. She hasn’t demonstrated her smarts in class.
Stefan digs Elena simply because she looks like a girl named Katherine from 1864 (which we have seen before in Fright Night and Dark Shadows). His vamp emotions cause him to do the things that all vampires do when their teen love objects are present: stare intently at the object in class, loom outside the object’s house, lurk around the EmoYard while the object is journaling.
Like all objects, Elena is going to fall for this because, well, I guess all that spells true love.
Oh, and Stefan has a brother: Boone from Lost, who is wearing his hair as if the show would rather he was Zac Efron. He likes to get dramatic with crows and fog and lurking menacingly before striking. But, he’s so dreamy that Elena will inevitably feel conflicted by her feelings for both of them and will, in a future episode, stand between them looking meaningfully from one to the other until everyone’s heads explode from the whiny strains of the pop soundtrack.
The show’s crime isn’t catering to teenagers; Dark Shadows was huge with teenagers in its day. The show’s crime isn’t even being bad. It has nothing to set it apart from other vampire dramas, no stand out cast members, no interesting characters. The crime of The Vampire Diaries is mediocrity.
Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s almost 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
I made a funny.
Major Buffy-stealage with the ring there eh. He wears a gaudy ring so he can go out in the sun, Spike was hunting for that ring, the Ring of Amara, in Buffy, found it and wore it. Though part of me wonders if its more of a homage to Buffy rather than simply theft. Elena's mother's maiden name is Sommers, which is almost like Summers.
Well… technically Joss stole the idea… since the books were from 1991. I like the series, although it has that feel of "being there done that"… Buffy and Angel were the first time that I really obsessed with vampires and a tv shows, so… everything goes from them on. Besides, almost nobody…. Supernatural is a lot more original in that and Kripke gave a really good voice to his characters… can have such a wonderful development for her character. Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Oz, Spike, Drusila, Darla, Gunn, Fred, Illyria, Wes… every character in these amazing shows had a unique voice, manners… Oh, I miss them so much! Grrrrrrrrrrr…. aarrrrrrgh!