The Vampire Diaries, or Why Buffy is the Best

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Yaaay! I am finally caught up on The Vampire Diaries, which means I now know what the hell y'all have been talking about. And I liked it (no one is more surprised than me, lol) but I am sort of trying to write my reaction post(s) - I suspect this will need more than one - in order, so this one deals with the opening arc and is kind of negative.

Most of the time, I don't take notes while I'm watching a show. I've been doing it with Lost - because I have so many thoughts OMG -but usually with these kinds of catch-ups, I watch the whole season through and then sit down to write an essay, and I might go back and read recaps or reviews to refresh my memory. But this is one time where I really wish I had taken notes as I'd gone along, because my thoughts have gone through many stages as the season went on, lol.

I'm going to try very hard not to keep making Buffy comparisons, but it's hard and so I'm just gonna do this one to get it out of the way. I think it's pretty universally acknowledged that the beginning of TVD sucked (no pun intended), since every single person who's talked about this show says, "Oh, you have to get past the first handful of episodes and then it gets good, I promise!" And I totally agree. Honestly, I think the show should've started with Damon turning Vicki, because that's where I really started to pay attention.

But I don't think it's just the body count that got me excited (though I do apparently have a soft spot for hot guys who kill people, let's explore that in therapy). What else happened around that time? Elena found out about vampires and that Stefan and Damon are... you know.

One of the things that drives me batty about vampire shows (full disclosure on the subject of vampires: other than Buffy/Angel, I've only ever watched a handful of Moonlight episodes, a single painful episode of Blood Ties, and read various cleolinda recaps of the Twilight series, so that's pretty much what I'm basing my thoughts on) is that they need to make a big deal out of the whole "vampires are real" thing, because obviously they are not, and anyone in their right mind is going to need serious, multiple episodes worth of building suspicion and weird occurrences before they'll be receptive to the idea. And for some reason, shows always need to play this as a big, mounting mystery that will be discovered by the main character(s) in a crucial turning-point episode.

Except, here's the thing. We all know it's a show about vampires. The show is called The VAMPIRE Diaries, for Christ's sake. For most people, that's probably why they're watching. Thus, it is really, really boring to see the humans in the show verrrrry slowly piecing together what we already know. It makes them seem stupid for not seeing what is painfully obvious. Occasionally, there is some dramatic irony to be mined from it, but mostly it just comes off as cheesy (like the blatant lingering focus on the threshold every time someone unknowingly invites a vampire into their house, OMG lol).

Buffy didn't do that. In fact, Buffy and Giles already know about vampires before the series starts. It takes about ten seconds to get over that hurdle and now we're into the much more interesting and important subject of stopping them. There are a few bits of exposition scattered through "Welcome to the Hellmouth"/"The Harvest" to establish the rules of this mythology (since they're different with every iteration), but there's none of the slow, tedious discovery process, which for some reason always involves the fruitless effort of googling "vampires" for answers. (This generation's dependence on the internet has gone TOO FAR.)

Likewise, with the exception of Joyce, whose freak-out is used as a point of emotional conflict between her and Buffy, every character who subsequently learns the truth about vampires (Willow and Xander in "The Harvest," Cordelia, Oz, and Tara later on) accepts it with little fuss and we don't waste any time on the big DUN DUN DUN reveal of something the audience already knows.

The other thing about these vampire shows is that the heroine is always unknowingly in love with a vampire (I'd ask why the vampire is always a guy and the human always a girl, but I think Jeff covered that one in last week's Community, lol), and in fact it's the realization that there's something hinky about her boyfriend that usually leads to the general discovery of the truth about vampires.

Except, again, we already know the dude's a vampire. We've seen him being all vampirey behind your back for the last five episodes now. The show was not particularly subtle about it. We've actually been making fun of you for not noticing the obvious. Sorry about that, by the way, but you just make it so easy.

I think it may have to do with the unique premise of the show - because the existence of vampires isn't news to Buffy - but for some reason, Buffy is (again) the only show that doesn't show us that the love interest is a vampire before the heroine finds out. And it's SO MUCH BETTER. Sure, there are clues, if you go back and look for them. Angel's kind of a sketchy dude. But we are given nothing that clearly indicates he's a vampire until he vamps out in Buffy's bedroom. Buffy is shocked, and so are we. That's how you play an audience.

This does not, however, avoid all the angsting over "Oh, I love him, but we can't be together, but I can't live without him." Y'all know what I'm talking about. (I know, Cordy and Wes were funnier at it.) Anyway, one thing I will say for TVD is that they managed to get Elena's "OMG, he's a vampire" angsting out of the way within a few episodes, so that we could move on to actual things happening, instead of dragging it out for three years and making it the centerpiece of the relationship. Just saying.

Okay. I feel better now that I've got that off my chest. Check back later this week for a review of the part of the show I actually liked (aka the rest of it). :)

Comments

[goldenusagi]

though I do apparently have a soft spot for hot guys who kill people, let's explore that in therapy

I have this problem, too....

As for the whole vampire reveal, what was it that we were discussing about different kinds of tension in stories? It is hard to have that sort of suspense where the audience has figured it out from page one, but the characters are slowly, slowly waiting for the reveal. Because it's not suspenseful to US.

So are you all the way caught up to what's aired in S2 so far?

(You know, I will say this for True Blood--it's full of camp and craziness, but it has the unique approach of human society at large being aware of vampires, who have come "out". So there's no "OMG, he's a VAMPIRE!" moment.)

[next_to_normal]

Yes! We were talking about that at one point. If done right, there's dramatic irony in the audience knowing something the characters don't. But it's very hard to create tension when you know that not much harm is going to come to Elena in, like, episode 3, so Damon's probably not going to eat her at their dinner party. :) Dramatic irony is all about knowing there's a bomb about to go off when the characters are unaware - but it only works if the audience believes the bomb will actually do some damage.

Yes, I am all the way caught up on S2. Lord knows when I'll get to write about it, lol, but y'all can talk freely without worrying about spoilers. :)

[deird1]

But it's very hard to create tension when you know that not much harm is going to come to Elena in, like, episode 3, so Damon's probably not going to eat her at their dinner party. :) Dramatic irony is all about knowing there's a bomb about to go off when the characters are unaware - but it only works if the audience believes the bomb will actually do some damage.

Okay. Now I really want a tv show where the main character's boyfriend is a vampire, and she doesn't know yet but the audience does... and actually, the boyfriend is toying with her and planning to eat her eventually, and the audience knows that but she doesn't...

OH THE SUSPENSE.

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Hee! But that still requires you to convince the audience that the show will actually kill off its main character.

I mean, at that point in TVD, Damon is supposed to be a serious threat to Elena. But clearly he's not going to kill her, otherwise the show would be startlingly brief. :)

[deird1]

Ah, no, see, what will happen is that the main character will find out that her boyfriend is a vampire shortly before he's planning to attack her, and then she'll get armed to the hilt, and the vampire-human-romance show will turn into a chicks-kick-arse show with her teaming up with a whole bunch of people to do something about the vampire threat she's just found out about...


Man. I really should write this.

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You should!!

[(Anonymous)]

Is this show on the CW? I think that's a channel I might actually get (no cable here limits you to about 3 channels).

Somewhat relatedly, have you read any of the Anita Blake series by Laurell Hamilton? Have I asked you that before? The first 3 or so are really great, then it goes a little downhill, then a few more are good. I'm currently somewhere around the 10th book, but it's been a stuggle getting through it. It seems to have turned into vampire/werewolf/other shapeshifter porn. Not sure I'll get any further, but you should check out Guilty Pleasures if you haven't already. That's the first and best one.

Also, I was in Barnes and Nobel the other day, checking out the teen fiction section (I still love Caroline Cooney books, and she doesn't write any older books to my knowledge), and saw in the "vampire" section that there are Buffy books (based on the TV series). I figured it was just some crap being spewed out with the whole vampire craze, but read a couple pages and it sounds just like the show. I looked it up, and they're re-releasing these books from when the show was still on, they're just a compilation of sorts. But I might give in and get them. Not sure if you had already heard about/seen it.

Megan

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Yep, it's on the CW.

I have not read Anita Blake. I had heard about the books, and that they basically degenerated into porn, and I figured it wouldn't interest me. All evidence to the contrary, I'm actually not much of a vampire fan, lol. I tend to like things, like Buffy, where it's about more than just vampires, you know? Where it's about awesome people doing awesome stuff, and the vampires just happen to be incidental.

I'd also heard about the Buffy books, but I never read any. My understanding is that the quality varies wildly, depending on who the author was and how closely anyone paid attention to what was actually happening on the show, lol.

(Sidebar: My cat is currently stuck with her head between the sofa cushions and her feet in the air, and when I rub her belly, she kicks. :))

[calturner]

I do apparently have a soft spot for hot guys who kill people, let's explore that in therapy

It appears to be a widespread problem. Maybe we should start a support group? :)

Glad you're enjoying TVD. I agree with your thoughts on the earlier part of the season. Looking forward to the next stage of your review!

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Serial killer lovers anonymous, here we come! :)

[unholywrit]

This is one of the reasons that Anita Blake will forever be my favorite Girl Who Runs With Vampires. In her story we get the vampire falling loopy for her and the heroine telling him to fuck off.

Also, I like it when a gal has her own kickass powers; Anita is a necromancer AND vampire slayer.

Okay, okay, I'll stop the fangasm now!

Also, Laurell K. Hamilton's (the author) vampires are extremely scary and beautiful all at once.

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Ah, not really interested in Anita Blake, sorry. I am pretty picky about my supernatural stories.