The Vampire Diaries [US] **SPOILERS**

Richard Dower

This Twilight type show launches in the US on The CW Thursday, The Vampire Diaries actually predated the Twilight books so it'll be intereting to see what they do, but tbh i suspect it'll be a rip of Twlight, teen angst/forbidden vampire love etc.

Not seen any promos or know anything much else, i tend to avoid ALL info on shows, spoilers tend to spoil...so i'll just watch it afresh.

Nice to see the Autumn schedule kicking in, hopefully it'll be a good season

Richard Dower

Heads up!...tis on tonight in the US, should drop in the AM Friday ova here :-)

JP Liz

So this is the tv version of Twillight?

Basq

One can only hope! :eek:

J-blk

Vampires walking around in the daylight is just so wrong...

Saw a promo for this on iTunes, TBH, it looks way too lame and chick flick styled to care about it... I'll probably watch the pilot but once fall TV is back in full swing, I don't have high hopes for this...

Richard Dower

I'm off to watch it soon, in general i tend to watch CW shows...but not sure about this one.

Richard Dower

So i watched it, twas just OK....nothing groundbreaking. Pretty generic vampire love tosh. But i have to note the show does have some good producers and writers on the show. Noteable is Julie Plec (Kyle XY) and Kevin Williamson (Dawsons Creek), they both co-wrote the Teleplay.

It does remind ALOT of Twlight, but i'm not convinced by the chemistry of the lead actors, the girl is hot...an Avril Levine lookalike, it's too early to tell if it will get interesting, i'll give it a few eps. and see then.

I am not a fan at all of vampire or supernatural type stuff, Buffy bored me.....

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Well to give the other perspective, I love Vampire stuff and I quite enjoyed the pilot. It seems to have a lot of potential. And those who were worried by the promos and seeing the vampires in daylight, don't worry that issue is addressed in this episode, and the whole mythology we're used to does seem more or less in tact. As for the whole CW girly drama aspect, it is actually quite tolerable in this - while it plays a major role in the show, the show does seem to be closer to the Supernatural/Smallville end of things than the 90210/Gossip Girl stuff.
It was only the first episode, so difficult to judge, but I can already see an interesting story developing and think that anyone who likes the usual vampire stuff (Buffy/Angel/True Blood etc.) should give the first episode a look.
To be honest I'd probably describe it as a cross between True Blood and Dawson's Creek.

Basq

CaptainNegative wrote: »

To be honest I'd probably describe it as a cross between True Blood and Dawson's Creek.

So.. it's essentially 'Twilight'?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

basquille wrote: »

So.. it's essentially 'Twilight'?

I haven't seen Twilight so I don't know.

Richard Dower

basquille wrote: »

So.. it's essentially 'Twilight'?

Hehe!...pwned!

Richard Dower

CaptainNegative wrote: »

I haven't seen Twilight so I don't know.

It's Twilight.

L31mr0d

CaptainNegative wrote: »

I haven't seen Twilight

I wish I had your eyes.

Maximilian

So let me get this straight. She's what 18? And he's like 200 years old.

I'll just leave this here....

Basq

Ha.. and..



OK.. enough 'Twilight' bashing for one thread!

iguana

basquille wrote: »

So.. it's essentially 'Twilight'?

On Dawson's Creek they had sex, on True Blood they have a lot of sex. Isn't Twilight all about celibacy? Do these guys have sex? If they have do it's obviously not Twilighty.

Richard Dower

Wow...it did well!: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/11/tv-ratings-thursday-nfl-kickoff-all-vampire-diaries-takes-a-good-first-bite-supernatural-is-less-super/26822

CW will be pleased with those numbers "Vampire Diaries stormed out of the gate, scoring 4.84 million viewers, The CW’s largest audience ever for a series premiere, topping last year’s 90210 debut."

It's the Twilight effect!....teeny girls seem to love thiis stuff :-)

Also Starring LeVar Burton

iguana wrote: »

On Dawson's Creek they had sex, on True Blood they have a lot of sex. Isn't Twilight all about celibacy? Do these guys have sex? If they have do it's obviously not Twilighty.

It has only been referenced to so far, but it looks like sex will play a major role.

Richard Dower

iguana wrote: »

On Dawson's Creek they had sex, on True Blood they have a lot of sex. Isn't Twilight all about celibacy? Do these guys have sex? If they have do it's obviously not Twilighty.

Um, it's The CW!!....there HAS to be teenage sex, unless these vampires are celibate. But with their good looks and blood lust i guess they'll bang half the town by end of year

:P

tvnutz

basquille wrote: »

OK.. enough 'Twilight' bashing for one thread!

Actually sorry,I can't do that. Because Twilight was utter tosh and so was this. It was basically the tv version of Twilight. It says spoilers in the title so I will not be using spoiler tags,just to let you know in case you have not seen it yet.

Vampires in daylight-NO! I don't care if you do have some stupid ring that protects you from the sun,still no. There was an episode of Angel where he managed to get his hands on a similar type ring and he ends up destroying it for whatever reason,can't really remember but it was a decent reason in the show but more importantly in terms of plotlines and the show itself,it made perfect sense. I don't want to see vampires going to high school ffs!

The main vampire was boring as hell,even Bill Compton in True Blood is far more interesting. Oh and he keeps diaries as does our lead woman...fantastic,they are meant for each other :rolleyes: Oh and our main lead is somehow identical to some chick main vampire he knew in the 1800's.

The "bad" vampire,i.e Boone from Lost just looks like some annoying emo who did not seem scary at all despite killing a few people. In fact he just seemed like a rather silly emo who had a bloke with a smoke machine follow him around and a crow...The vampires in True Blood were actually scary without all this nonsense.

The token black best friend randomly brings up some story about her grandma or some relative saying her ancestors were psychic and she must be too. Low and behold she later has a vision.Sookie Stackhouse she aint!

"Mystic Falls"- enough said.

I am finding hard to think of other things because mainly I was bored for the entire episode.That is never good. You may notice I don't think I posted any character's names because I was too bored to remember any of them. On a side note,the acting was pants-every single one of them.

So I was bored and annoyed,like I was when I watched Twilight. But not more annoyed than I was when I saw the ratings today,in its Twilight type early 8pm slot it brought in the Twilight crowd with great ratings whereas only 67% stayed and watched Supernatural afterwards which is what a show about the supernatural should be like,dark, gritty, well written and acted.Yet Supernatural gets less ratings.The fact that the majority of viewers for Vampire Diaries were young women probably explains it though.

I will watch the 2nd episode though,mainly because if I stopped watching every show after a bad pilot there would be several great shows I would have missed out on,True Blood for example. But I have a feeling this one won't be a keeper for me in the long run!

tvnutz

iguana wrote: »

On Dawson's Creek they had sex, on True Blood they have a lot of sex. Isn't Twilight all about celibacy? Do these guys have sex? If they have do it's obviously not Twilighty.

I don't think so,never read the books and never will but I read up about the storylines of the later books and

I do believe sex is involved

Richard Dower

You can't blame The CW for jumping on the Twilight bandwagon, with New Moon out in December i'm sure it'll bolster the show further. I personally **hated** Twilight, boring those that had crap effects and dodgy wirework....i'll NEVER understand where the $39 million went????

BUT, comparing this show to Twilight.....it was more engaging, the characters seem more human. Kirsten Stewart looked like a drugged up skank in need of a happy meal....at least the chick in Vampire looks real hot and not gaunt and withdrawn.

I couldn't handle looking at the Twilight cast, with Vampire i can at least get through 43 mins.

tvnutz

Richard Dower wrote: »

You can't blame The CW for jumping on the Twilight bandwagon, with New Moon out in December i'm sure it'll bolster the show further. I personally **hated** Twilight, boring those that had crap effects and dodgy wirework....i'll NEVER understand where the $39 million went????

BUT, comparing this show to Twilight.....it was more engaging, the characters seem more human. Kirsten Stewart looked like a drugged up skank in need of a happy meal....at least the chick in Vampire looks real hot and not gaunt and withdrawn.

I couldn't handle looking at the Twilight cast, with Vampire i can at least get through 43 mins.

I never blamed the CW for anything,young women are actually their target demo,hence shows like 90210 and Melrose Place.They badly need viewers as well so in business terms it was a good idea.I never said anything about the network. I just said this show was pants and it really was.

Also can't for minute agree with you about the characters,they were bland,boring and stereotypical,and not in a funny way like Glee. The Twilight characters were also crap,I agree with you that Kristin Stewart looked terrible and acted badly,in fact that movie could have been ever so slightly better had it cast someone else in the leading role. But in Vampire Diaries (which I have to type the full name for as VD doesn't come across well!) the characters were just as bad. vampire Boone was an emo and not "bad" or scary like he was meant to be. That is just as worse.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Because it's on the CW I completely seeing it being One Tree Hill with Vampires (ie. not worth my time), but on the other hand the CW have produced some gems such as Supernatural and Reaper over the past few years, so it could turn out to be alright. Although, unless something spectacular happens in the second episode, I won't be continuing with the series, since the new season will be in full swing after next week and there's enough good stuff out there. I can see this series dropping in ratings once the other networks start their season, anyway.

LilyCullen

God, it was terrible. I love True Blood and Twilight but this...this is so disgracefully bad, and so unnecessarily emo..The placebo 'running up that hill' cover. It's all so americanised. It's dawsons creek but the jock character is secretly a violent emo. It has also 'borrowed' extremely heavily if not plagerised the entire concept of both true blood/twilight. the mind reading..the edward style dress..the obsessive stalkerness

DingDong

I had the misfortune of watching Twilight although I did fast forward most of it. I won't be making the same mistake with this show

iguana

LilyCullen wrote: »

It has also 'borrowed' extremely heavily if not plagerised the entire concept of both true blood/twilight. the mind reading..the edward style dress..the obsessive stalkerness

It has absolutely not done that. The first Vampire Diary was released 18 years ago in 1991. Dead Until Dark came out 10 years later and Twilight 14 years later. Diaries even predates the original stupid Buffy movie.

(I just need to clarify that I have never read or seen Twilight or VD, I came on the thread to see what the verdict on this show was to see if I'd bother watching. But I don't think it's fair to suggest an 18 year old series is copying newer material.)

LilyCullen

I suggest you watch them all and note the similarities in how they are portayed on screen.

tvnutz

iguana wrote: »

It has absolutely not done that. The first Vampire Diary was released 18 years ago in 1991. Dead Until Dark came out 10 years later and Twilight 15 years later. Diaries even predates the original stupid Buffy movie.

(I just need to clarify that I have never read or seen Twilight or VD, I came on the thread to see what the verdict on this show was to see if I'd bother watching. But I don't think it's fair to suggest an 18 year old series is copying newer material.)

Didn't know it was based on books,but I don't think any of these shows/movies "steal" from each other. all of these things like vampires,psychics,werewolfs etc are part of one lore that everyone borrows from.

tvnutz

LilyCullen wrote: »

I suggest you watch them all and note the similarities in how they are portayed on screen.

Ye but he is saying The Vampire Diaries books were written before The Twilight Books and the books that True Blood is based on,so you can't say VD stole anything.

iguana

tvnutz wrote: »

Ye but she is saying The Vampire Diaries books were written before The Twilight Books and the books that True Blood is based on,so you can't say VD stole anything.

FYP

J-blk

CaptainNegative wrote: »

the CW have produced some gems such as Supernatural and Reaper

Well, no, not really. Supernatural and Smallville carried over from the WB, before it merged with UPN and became the CW. The CW produced shows have very clearly gone for the teen girl demographic and don't care much about anyone else these days.

Reaper was brilliant but barely survived cancellation the first year and promptly got the axe by season 2.

Back to the Vampire Diaries and yes, it was terrible... Ian Somerhalder's make up makes him look like the ultimate creepo (and he looks much older than the rest of the cast) - when he was smiling at the blonde chick in the end, it dialed up the creepiness to 10...

The ring explanation for walking around in the daylight is pretty lame too - and of course both brothers have one. Is there like a vampire essentials shop that sells them or something?

I've never had the misfortune of watching Twilight but given everything I've heard about it, I don't think I ever will, but I'm judging this show on its' own. I definitely was bored throughout and kept watching the clock - definitely not a good sign.

Still, I'll give it three episodes like I do with most shows. But unless the next couple of episodes are seriously better, I just can't see myself watching this at all.

tvnutz

iguana wrote: »

FYP

My bad!

JP Liz

Vampire Diairies drew an impressive 4.91 million viewers in its debut last night, making it The CW’s most-watched premiere ever

iguana

Alright, I'm about to watch the pilot. If it is crap I will never be able to see Richard Dower as anything other than the most enthusiastic tv viewer on boards. I know he professes to be cynical and hard to please, but he seems very pleased with everything I've read that he has watched.

iguana

Egads! This is terrible, it's like an extended music video.:mad:

Basq

I was about to watch the pilot tonight... but decided to count how many grains of rice were in a bag of rice!

Probably more enthralling than the show..

Maybe tomorrow.. maybe not.. more than likely not..!

Richard Dower

iguana wrote: »

Alright, I'm about to watch the pilot. If it is crap I will never be able to see Richard Dower as anything other than the most enthusiastic tv viewer on boards. I know he professes to be cynical and hard to please, but he seems very pleased with everything I've read that he has watched.

You gotta be kidding?...i've slated shows, but like everyone we all have different tastes, I'm a self admitted teeny bopper who openly admits to liking shows on The CW and ABC Family most people would dare never watch.

Whereas i'd generally avoid Showtime or HBO shows which would be praised here. I said VD was `OK`, i did not praise it ti high heavens at all.

Read again, i said it was OK but very generic and that i would give it a few eps.
I'll sight an example, Make It Or Break It....i wasn't impressed at all by the pilot, but i stuck it out and really like the show.

Dollhouse, i was very sceptical about it, the first 5 eps. were crap....but then BOOM!, ep. 6 and i was hooked. All series have dodgy episodes, i'm a fan of CSI but conceed series 9 was weak, thank god for Hodges!

Vampire after one ep. is dodgy as hell but i'll give it a few. Gossip Girl is tosh but i switch off and take it for what it is.

I'm highly cynical but when i like something i'm happy to say i'm happy.

Richard Dower

basquille wrote: »

I was about to watch the pilot tonight... but decided to count how many grains of rice were in a bag of rice!

Probably more enthralling than the show..

Maybe tomorrow.. maybe not.. more than likely not..!

This coming from the man who hates The Big Bang Theory :rolleyes:
What was the result of the poll again?...oh yeah, like two thirds loved it with a record poll vote for Boards.

Basq

Jaysus.. is it that time of the month Richard?

Richard Dower wrote: »

This coming from the man who hates The Big Bang Theory :rolleyes:

I never said anywhere I hated 'The Big Bang Theory'..

I don't think it's funny whatsoever, has stereotypical unfunny characters, piss-poor writing and generally not much about it that I enjoyed.

After watching the entire first season in a weekend, I felt absolutely no obligation to watch the second season. That's quite rare for me.. as normally when i invest time in watching a full season of a show, I'll keep watching!

But I've defended outright blasting of it - see here and here.

Richard Dower wrote: »

What was the result of the poll again?...oh yeah, like two thirds loved it with a record poll vote for Boards.

A record poll vote for Boards? Where you pulling that statistic from?

People clearly enjoy it.. I don't. Good for them!

Why are criticising my comment? I was making a joke at the majority of negative opinions towards the pilot. You really need to start some of my posts with a pinch of salt (or grain of rice), and stop over-reacting.

Basq

Well.. the pilot was pretty damn woeful to be honest!

First you have those woeful out-of-place lines ("Hi Bird!" - you're in a cemetary talking to a crow.. no wonder vampires find you attractive.. you're all kind of crazy!), then you have the idiotic characters (who I'm sorry but they might as well have been faceless as they lack both charisma and any discerning talent), and a plot that's about as deep as a paddling pool. And isn't fog terrifying?!

Then you have Ian Somerhalder (who can be an very good - see The Rules of Attraction) but when he popped up in this, all I could think of was someone took a photo of Rob Lowe, and said it's good but can he have a lot more make-up and look a bit more like a sex offender?



Not very good at all unfortunutely.. but teenage girls will lap this sh*t up!

But worst of all, the only thing I enjoyed was some of the music as it resembled my iPod.

MGMT - Kids
Placebo - Running Up That Hill
White Lies - Death

OT: I'm gonna have to disagree with LilyCullen on the Placebo cover of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' as I think they did a great service to that song. Not to everyone's taste but at least it's vastly different to the original which I think all cover songs should be, in the very least.

iguana

basquille wrote: »

Placebo - Running Up That Hill

If I want to watch vampires while listening to Placebo I'll watch the Daybreakers trailer. After tomorrow it will be my most looked forward to vampire story.;)

iguana

Richard Dower wrote: »

You gotta be kidding? ...................................... I'm highly cynical but when i like something i'm happy to say i'm happy.

And this from someone who likes The Big Bang Theory!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Yes, I'm just teasing.

Basq

iguana wrote: »

If I want to watch vampires while listening to Placebo I'll watch the Daybreakers trailer. After tomorrow it will be my most looked forward to vampire story.;)

Oh God yes.. almost forgot the 'True Blood' finale!

And then the long wait for season 3!

pikachucheeks

Saw this online, but haven't watched it yet!
I'm a huge True Blood fan so I'm hoping it might be something similar...

Is it worth watching?

Basq

pikachucheeks wrote: »

I'm a huge True Blood fan so I'm hoping it might be something similar...

It's not and..

pikachucheeks wrote: »

Is it worth watching?

.. not particularly!

I suggest you give the previous two pages a view.. not many good opinions of the pilot bar Richard and CaptainNegative.

Richard Dower

Episode 2 drops tonight....will the high ratings continue?, will VD haters be converted?...will ep. 2 be any better?

We'll find out tonight (in the AM) :-)

J-blk

Richard Dower wrote: »

We'll find out tonight (in the AM) :-)

Do you ever sleep?

This is the show's second chance for me - if things do not really pick up by episode 3, that's it, not watching any more...

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Second episode sucked and I'm done with this show... it's hardly even about vampires.

J-blk

CaptainNegative wrote: »

Second episode sucked and I'm done with this show... it's hardly even about vampires.

Sounds promising :rolleyes:...

Oh well, have to watch Supernatural, The Office, Fringe, Parks and Recreation, Community, Glee and then eventually get around to this ...

lostexpectation

there are vd haters and there are 13yr old girls, which one are you..