The Vampire Diaries. Diarios de vampiros

When I tuned in to "The Vampire Diaries" for the pilot episode, I expected to watch perhaps six episodes, grow bored, and then drop the show entirely. After all, I was only watching in the first place because it aired before my favorite show of all time, "Supernatural." I'd seen (and read) the "Twilight" series and found the teen vampire romance story lackluster and redundant. It's been done before about a thousand times, right? But I remember reading the original "The Vampire Diaries" books by L.J. Smith and decided it couldn't hurt to give this supernatural soap a try.

The most important thing to know about this show is the first four episodes are seemingly pointless; focused on cheap thrills, romance, and teen drama. Then something magical happens, creeping up silently and latching on without the viewer's notice: interest. By the end of the fourth episode the many story lines pick up and take off, and suddenly a silly or meaningless event becomes important. Things move fast in "The Vampire Diaries." This is a show that takes risks: people die without warning, stories that you thought could go on forever take only a few episodes, characters do and experience things you wouldn't have thought possible. Even better, there is no character who is wholly unlikeable. Everyone in the large ensemble cast has a story and a 3-dimensional structure, and even if the viewer decidedly doesn't like a character, the swing from one storyline to the next never lingers in one place for too long.

Some people have called this show their guilty pleasure. I refer to it as smart writing, good acting, excellent storytelling, and wonderful viewing. As of right now the second season is in the first few episodes of airing and the magic has not gone out. Far from it; this show only gets better. The lesser episodes are still fantastic, and the truly great ones are rich with everything an episode of television could possibly desire. I have yet to finish watching an episode without cursing the screen to give me more - my addiction to such a fresh show sometimes keeps me up at night.

For anyone (yes, even non 18-49 women demographic - we welcome the men!) interested in watching vampires, witches, and more, take the time to view beyond the first four episodes. I can almost safely guarantee anyone who likes vampires and horror (and a lot of dry wit) will not be disappointed.

I read the books 15 years ago, and I was a bit excited and apprehensive about it being made into a TV series with all the liberties that are taken these days. Last night, I watched the pilot. I have a few beefs (missing character and particular character interactions), but mostly I think I was alright with it. It has been update to fit with the times a bit more.

It appears that they are loosely following the story, and that is fine if they are making it into a series. To follow the books, they would have just needed to make a mini-series and been done with it. For a full-on TV series they needed to make many adjustments. I'm a little sad that they are aiming so very hard for the Twilight crowd by throwing the romance factor in right away, but it has the potential to be pretty good.

The acting isn't the greatest, but I have definitely seen much worse. This felt to me like actors that had not yet fit themselves into their characters. It will smooth out with time and become more comfortable for them and it will show through in the series. They have managed to obtain a bit of balance between the almost care-free world of high school and the dark gritty nature of what they can't see and don't know about. That was actually what I was most worried about.

So, from a MAJOR fan of the books (I rejoiced when I realized they were with me instead of another state and started reading them for the umpteenth thousandth time) to the CW....So far, so good. Let's see where they take this and hope they keep true to the feel.

I really like the episodes, it is somehow fluent and has a taste of Twilight. Maybe it is weird but its shooting is better than Twilight because in watching Twilight you can feel the coldness, silence and a sort of pause which drift the interest of the spectacular away. But in Vampire Diaries, you can feel the hot impression of the characters, hot color of each frame of the movie. These series make you feel more connection to the reality than Twilight. The characters are involved in excellent combination with the setting and the plot. Stephen perfectly reflects his good mood through his face. Elena is another good chosen actress for the character. Because you easily see her bright intelligence and innocence on her face.Damon is just like his name demonic,attracting and tempting person. This good adaptation of the characters to the story makes the film more powerful and better than Hollywood production Twilight thought it is a TV series. I wish Twilight was shot by Vampire Diaries technical production team.

It could've got 9 from me but the series was perfect till season 6 after that it is so boring.

In this day and age it's the time of the Vampires. You have Twilight and True blood and Vampire Diaries but don't let them keep you from watching. While many tend to compare it with the two, it's actually very different. Vampire Diaries, based off a series written 15 years before Twilight,is about a girl Elena who just lost her parents when a new guy, Stefan Salvatore, comes to town but with Stefan also comes trouble, his brother Damon Salvatore. This show is definitely the middle of Twi and True Blood. It has a romance like Twilight and the intensity of True Blood. What this show has is a lot of twists and turns that you don't expect.

The only flaw may be the characters. While there is a lot of character development, it really only applies to the main ones. The supporting characters like Caroline and Matt seem flat. Even though Matt seems to have some roundness, Caroline just doesn't seem to change, she is always that annoying whiny girl;there are even times when Elena can be naive.

All in all, despite it's flaws, every episode has a mystery to it; it's hard to guess what's going to happen. Believe me at the end of every episode, maybe even in between commercials, you begin to speculate what the end possibilities could be.