Since (hai, Amanda!) these novels keeps coming up as a nostalgic point of reference, curiosity got the better of me. My new guilty pleasure is streaming these episodes.

Of course I'm ticked that Elena (Nina Dobrey) is a brunette. So much is made, from what I recall, of Elena meaning "light", as in the light that will save Stefan (and possibly Damon?) from their dark existence. Her personality isn't even that ilght. She's got that truck stop waitress smoker's voice, wtf, and she's more chronically depressed, fragile and alienated, instead of normal, deeply thoughtful but strong, as in the novels. Still, I am getting used to it and coming to like her.

Love that Ian Somerholder (aka Boone from Lost and the cute gay guy who makes out with Dawson in Rules of Attraction) is Damon, even if he plays it more goofy than sinister. No complaints about Paul Wesley as Stefan, either. Brooding, handsome...

All in all, the eroticism and dreaminess seems to be missing. These guys both are waking up an innocent cheerleader's desires. Yet a lot of it comes off as Charmed or the Craft corny horror. The rest of the cast and subplots are blah.

I am still watching!

Somewhat sheepishly admitting I've been watching this show (blaming it on my gf who is in a vampire kick right now- she's also reading the twilight books). I think it's pretty good for what it is (a show on the CW). The premise is pretty interesting, although maybe it's trying to do too much.  Do we really need the witches as well as the vampires? (agreeing with your Charmed comment- either go full campy or don't). The episodes can be  up and down in quality (example of down- when the blonde vampire came to town). While the Damon character is kind of inconsistent, he's also one of the most interesting characters in the show.  Also kind of like the blonde ditzy friend (forget her name) who was involved with Damon. Don't like Elena's little brother, although it's mainly how he's been written. The witch friend reminds me of Hayden Panatierre (except not quite as good an actor).

edit- I should not be allowed to use parentheses- will try to type in English next time.

edit2- for some reason the secret society of townies reminds me of the TP Bookhouse Boys. I keep waiting for one of them to say "sorry, I can't look for vampires tonight, Harry's got a mean drunk on and I've got to go listen to him yell incoherently"

The druggy girl who gets changed looks like she's 35.

I've done quite a good job of separating series from source material in my mind with this one. If I couldn't, I'd be clawing my own face off at how much they've totally changed the books into a typical CW teen series.

That being said, the show is a guilty pleasure of mine. To the extreme.

Here's my positives and negatives so far:

Positives

1. I like Damon. He may be slightly inconsistent right now, what with all the "Oh I'm angry! Oh I'm bad! Oh I'm a lover!" bait-and-switch they keep doing, but I think they're going to bring him to where he was meant to be after the events in this most recent ep. I think Ian Somerhalder is a great casting choice, and I'm glad they didn't just go with two hot brooding Italian-looking guys to play the parts of Damon and Stefan.

2. I like Stefan (Paul Wesley rawrrrrr), although one negative to him is that Stefan spent the better part of the books fighting off his dark vampire nature and being very ashamed of what he is, all while being hopelessly in love with Elena. It's what made his character such an interesting juxtaposition to Damon and also what made the relationship between him and Elena so sweetly heartbreaking. They've kind of removed a lot of that from him in the series, and while it makes him far more accessible for the teen audience...he's now very "Oh my past sucks and I'm a vampire now and that's bad but I'm OK with it, and let's date, shall we?"...it just makes things feel a little less...interesting.

3. I like the concept of bringing Catherine into colonial America rather than being set in Italy like the books. I think it helps to create more of a sense of belonging, as to why all of these damn vampires would be here to begin with. That's one thing in the books that kind of always rubbed at me...LJ Smith never did a great job of explaining "WHY Fell's Church?" (aka Mystic Falls in the TV series). There was talk about how Stefan and Damon were drawn there by power in the area, but how the fuck did the power get there? The whole "Elena looks like Catherine" thing was fine but it never flew as a real reason for any of these vamps being there. The closest they got was in the fourth book where they talked about how there were a lot of soldiers wounded in the area in a major battle during the Civil War and that that much bloodshed creates enormous power that could have drawn anyone to it. But that was about it. And that was the fourth book. Thx, LJ.

4. Stefan's family supplies the vampire hunters with vervain. LOVE THIS. Srsly, I laughed so hard when they revealed this in the TV show. :) I think it's great. While I'm not crazy about there being a brood of vampire hunters in the town (Really? Because this was necessary?), I like how it creates this wonderful teen series irony of the Salvatore family being a part of the vampire erradication movement while themselves harboring vampires in their own family tree. Ooh, delicious avenues of pure drama ahead!

5. To echo what Angel already said, the sexing up of the series has been a good thing and I'm glad to see it creeping in more and more. It may be a teen series, but it's also a vampire series and what goes better with vampires than sex? :) And I love that they're really going to make Damon more...er...amoral...than he was in the books. In the books he was amoral to a slight degree, but he did show his soft bits every now and then. The series doesn't really have any true amorality to it (teen drugs and drinking is so blasé), so having Damon take up the bulk of that slack is going to be AWESOME.

Negatives

1. Some of the casting choices leave me cold. Most notably Elena. As Angel noted above, they make a big deal in the books about Elena meaning "light" and how she is this blonde, energetic, shining beacon of life for Stefan to help draw him out of his "OMG I'M DEAD AND EVIL" funk. While she may not be the most scrupulous character on the block, she is at least bold and interesting and makes her own way. Elena in the series...she's so fucking emo. But, like, really self-aware and intelligently introspective emo. There's nothing "light" about her, and it just creates this dischord with the Stefan-Elena-Damon triangle. Elena in the series is far more likely to completely blow off Damon's advances (If they ever truly come about) and be moody right alongside Stefan. It's just plain weird. Not to mention that Nina Dobrev came from Degrassi: The Next Generation and while she was fine there (one of the few "new" characters I can even tolerate on the show these days), she's definitely not someone I'd place at the helm of a TV series. Even if it IS on the CW.

2. Character changes: I don't like Caroline not being a bitch. Every good girl needs her bad girl nemesis. Caroline was Elena's in the books, a relationship made even more tense by the fact that they used to be close friends before the start of the book series. Now that Caroline is just some blonde slut cheerleader with too much money and mommy issues...ugh. Don't get me wrong...the character is cute and all...but knowing what the original character was like and her role in the whole storyline just makes the TV version so wrong.

I also don't like Bonnie being so blatantly a witch. In the books, she's limited to doing stuff like seances, rituals, involuntarily acting as a medium for Honoria Fell. That's where the character of Bonnie is so good and fitting. She's a great sidekick with just a touch of magic. The TV show...oh my god, WTF is this shit? Bonnie is making feathers float and setting things on fire with her mind? OH COME ON. Having Bonnie be a full-on witch really puts things over the top. Having her tie back to Catherine's handmaid is bad enough. Making her superduper Willow witchy is just fucking tardy.

Not crazy about Vicky being Matt's sister, though at least it gives Matt more of a purpose of being there, since Elena's not manipulating him into joining in on all their Scooby clan activities. Sounds like they don't plan on having Vicky be the mental case mouthpiece for the coming of Bad Stuff later on...if they even use any of the Bad Stuff from the books. Vicky looks like a 35yr old stripper. Elena having a little brother instead of little sister (and one so close to her age now) is OK I guess. I just kind of ignore him most of the time because he's whiny and irrelevant. Changing older Aunt Judith with younger Aunt Jenna is kind of weird...and I can see how they wanted to try and "young up" the Gilbert family a bit...but I'd like to point out Grams from Dawson's Creek as an older character who worked REALLY well in a teen series. Aunt Judith had that kind of potential. What a waste.

And BOO for no Meredith. I realize that Caroline makes up the third female in that trio (oooh, Hecate!) but Meredith was a better dynamic because she was the cool, collected one. Now they've made Aunt Jenna a sort of Meredith/Bonnie hybrid personality-wise, and it looks like she'll be the one dating Alaric Saltzmann. Hrm. OK. Whatevs.

3. Tyler is already too far in the background. We need to be reminded of him as often as possible if he's going to remain an important part of the plot. He was the dumb male version of Caroline (in the books) and it worked.

4. Vampire hunters? REALLY?

5. The off-again-on-again-off-again-on-again crap with Stefan and Elena has already grown SO OLD. One of the intense parts of the books is that Elena and Stefan are just absolutely mad for one another. It's to the point that Stefan pains over telling Elena what he is, and when Elena finds out, she's surprisingly OK with it because she loves him and can't bear to think about not being with him. Sure, at the beginning of the first book there's that little game of chase between them where Elena is working to hook Stefan and Stefan is attracted to her but keeps his distance because of his little secret and Elena's eerie resemblance to Catherine. But once they got together, they were infuckingseparable. An important part of the entire series is that forces are constantly at work to try and tear Stefan and Elena apart, and it's their inexplicable bond that is the fulcrum from which all else hinges. It's the one constant through everything. Yet...how many times have they split in the series already? GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.

OK, so that's my take so far. Again, this TV series is a huge guilty pleasure.  Even if it was downright shit, I'd still watch it because HELLO VAMPIRE DIARIES. I'd be a bad LJ fan if I didn't watch it. It's not bad for what it is. At the very least, it's not 90210 or Gosspi Girl, and for that I'm completely thankful...

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Re-reading the books, the show just transposed Elena's spoiled elitist side onto Catherine, who LJ seemed to base more than a little on LeFanu's Carmilla (gentle, soulful.) The show's Elena gets those qualities, instead. Sad, because the brothers look stupid and shallow for falling for the hot but snobby counterpart first.

Never read Twilight so I can't compare the quality.

For YA Fiction, LJ Smith is the superior storyteller. Plus you don't get that creepy mentally-abusive-love-triangle thing going on because Elena is a far stronger female character than Bella would ever be. That being said, if Twilight and the VD TV series thoroughly appeal to someone, they would probably be less inclined to like the VD books. The tone is that different. If you can find yourself a nice cheap used set (there's 4 books total) then I'd say pick 'em up and let your girlfriend give 'em a shot.

LJ Smith did do a number of other books, and I recommend all of her stuff to anyone who is interested in going back and reading YA Fiction like that. All of her stories center around vampires, werewolves, witches, psychics, or some other magical being. But the storytelling is still pretty good.

And Angel, good catch on the swapping of Catherine and Elena's personalities. I hadn't really thought it out to that extent, but you're absolutely right, and thus it changes our perspective of Damon and Stefan. Hm.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

By the way, the implied sex in the books is so obvious re-reading it. And this last episode culminates in that, too!

I do hope this is the last 'boomerang' breakup. Maybe that's just a cheap way of showing the unbreakable bond? In any case, always a good excuse for makeup sex. She leads him upstairs afte she examines his vampire face, 'aroused' from kissin', and next scene they're cuddling in bed, talking. His shirt is off, her pants are off. Twas a good return to Book 2 (re-reading now) where he realizes he can't leave even if he wanted to.

The story of the show is going well in its own right. Tyler werewolf time has started, too.

Amanda, I can't find where you reviewed this, but I seem to recall it being negative.

Dunno how I felt about the Japanese tentacle monster and fox demons that turned all the pre-teen girls into crazies and nymphos, or Elena being reborn as an angel/spirit. In fact, totally corny until the last chapter where they are trapped in the cabin in the demon's snow globe and she gets drunk and offers herself to Damon. Then I got into it, but just that section. Then it got all hodge podge genre-y & fairytime hokey again. The action scenes were too wordy and epic, and I just wanted it to be over.

I guess the next one is due out in March. Will be borrowing it from work, not buying.

Next episode of the show is Jan 14...

LJ Smith has said that Damon was by far her favorite character to write for, which is why with the new trilogy she's been working on, it centers on Damon as the main male figure with Stefan taking a bit of a back seat. I'm torn right now as to whether I like Damon in the series more than Damon in the books or vice versa. There's something very appealing about him in the series that feels much more dangerous than him in the books, and I really dig that.

Angel - yeah, I can't seem to find where I gave my review of Nightfall. Boo. But yeah, the book was just bleh, though that part you talk about towards the end was definitely good. But...dunno...it's like LJ Smith just went completely off the deep end. I really wanted a Damon-centric trilogy to knock my socks off. So far all it's done is make me wish I'd waited until it came out in paperback.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I miss raw sex bad boy Damon.

Damon from the series... all I can think of when I see him acting goofy now is the bouncing-on-bed-in-manties-to-George Michael scene in Rules of Attraction. LOL. And making out with Dawson.

The return last week was pretty good! Having re-read the books, I am very happy that the show is going an an even more wildly new direction. As they were, the original story would have been dull in live action. And this way, we are kept guessing.

Ian Somerholder gets better and better, while the actor playing Stefan is trying too much to be the Twilight Edward. I keep expecting him to sparkle.