More Vampire Love Comes to Primetime
The Vampire Diaries (S.1.Ep.1.) - The Pilot
It's hard to ignore the media frenzy occurring over the much illustrated, fantasized, conjectured, and written about figure, the vampire. So, of course, it was only a matter of time before a cable network jumped at the chance to fill a primetime slot with a vampire tale. Unfortunately, the CW was the network to scoop up L.J. Smith's young adult fiction series, The Vampire Diaries. This is bad news not only because the series is little more than generic high school genre and it adds nothing to the CW roster, a roster already far too steeped in forgettable fluff.
The Teenage History of the CW
Since the latter half of the 1990s, the CW (including it's former WB roster of shows), has anchored itself within the teenage stratosphere through its programming geared at teens and oftentimes their transitions into their twenties. The premiere of 7th Heaven in 1996 marks the beginning of the network's appeal as the show was not only a family drama, but dealt with the coming of age older siblings. However, the CW culture was truly established with Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997 and Dawson's Creek and Felicity following in 1998.
This group reinforced the networks appeal to the travails of high school (college in the case of Felicity), but in refreshing ways at the time. Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced elements of science fiction, horror, and suspense into the normal drama/comedy set of primetime television, allowing high school to be more complex than grades, classes, and sex. Yet, Dawson's Creek is ultimately responsible for the future tone of the network and expanding the high school experience outside of New York City and Los Angeles. And this show's success would eventually lead to others such as Charmed (1999), Angel (1999), Roswell (1999), Popular (1999), Gilmore Girls (2000, Smallville (2001), Everwood (2002), One Tree Hill (2003) and the newest hit Gossip Girl (2007).
Does T.V. Need Another Teen Series?
The CW culture pinpoints it as the most appropriate network to develop The Vampire Diaries, but the network is suffering creatively from lack of new angles. Although their audiences consistently tune into Gossip Girl, the show is specifically linked to a place and certain economic background that allows for its content. Yet the setting for this new hodge-podge sci-fi romance is the non-descript Mystic Falls, which offers little or no pallet to the characters in the story.
The Vampire Diaries, eliciting the tagline, "Love Sucks," follows Elena (Nina Dobrey) as her and her brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), start school again after the death of their parents. However, this isn't all that plagues them as they both have their love quarrels and sexual tensions to get through. And so the reference and rehash begins as the show incorporates almost every used CW trick. There is the diary writing and voice over (Roswell), the new mysterious guy, Paul Wesley's Stefan, at school (Dawson's Creek and others) and the list continues as the orphan storyline and small town reinforce the pastiche of this show. A show that clearly emphasizes the drama of high school life over the vampire context.
But, despite the show's CW created world, a world where high school students have that one night hangout and every moment is reinforced through the soundtrack, the show offers little new content in vampire lure. Anne Rice's novels, endless other novels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood (HBO) and, of course, Twilight, have all, mostly recently, pushed and/or questioned vampire lure. And within this craze for thwarted vampire love, The Vampire Diaries first episode already feels stale, predictable, and merely, strategic. It gives teenage audiences exactly what they are believed to want therefore reinforcing the very stereotype of adolescence. Just like life, teenagers will also be left wanting more from most of the programming geared towards their age group.
But stay tuned (and keep reading), there is more to pick apart and a whole season of "new" vampire love to witness.
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