The Vampire Diaries, Season 1

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, SEASON 1 (DVD)
Warner Home Video

Release date: August 23rd 2010
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 15 hours approx.

Creators: Kevin Williamson & Julie Plec

Cast: Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Katerina Graham, Candice Accola, Michael Trevino, Matthew Davis

The Vampire Diaries, Season 2 Review

You know the age-old story; vampire boy meets human girl. They fail in love; cue lots of drama. Recent on-screen vampire/human pairings have all shown the path to true love is filled with, well, lots of blood. So what does The Vampire Diaries have to offer that’s different?

Developed by Kevin Williamson who previously brought us Dawson’s Creek, along with the Scream movies, The Vampire Diaries is based on the books of the same name by L. J. Smith. Its set in the town of Mystic Falls in Virginia where supernatural beings have always existed.

High school student Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) happens to meet one of them, Stefan Salvatore, a vampire who is 150 years old and was turned by the evil Katherine Pierce (Dobrev again in a dual role) in 1864. Stefan is a vampire with a heart and at first cannot understand why or how Elena could look so much like Katherine yet be so different from her.

Adding a dose of antagonism to the show is Ian Somerhalder as Damon’s mischievous brother Damon. He is complete opposite of his brother; selfish, hedonistic and ultimately sees humans as walking meals. He also has a history with Katherine and this causes much conflict between Damon and Elena as the episodes progress.

As supporting characters, there’s Bonnie (Katerina Graham), Elena’s best friend whose family have a long history of witchcraft. Caroline (Candice Accola), another one of Elena’s friends, she is somewhat superficial and says what she thinks but Damon soon puts a (brief) stop to that when he begins to use mind control on her. Later on we meet Pearl (Kelly Hu), a 400 year old vampire who tries to gain control of Mystic Falls and put it back the way it used to be. We also meet Alaric (Matthew Davis), a high school teacher/vampire hunter.

I was highly sceptical at first but after first couple of episodes I found myself really drawn into the stories. Midway through I can definitely say I was hooked, especially as the cast widened to include older characters such as Pearl and Alaric. There are similarities with Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that both shows shares the same archetypes and in many respects fans who miss the Slayer might enjoy Vampire Diaries as much as True Blood.

The DVD set contains quite a lot of extras such as deleted scenes and some featurettes which delve into the background and making of the series.

Overall, The Vampire Diaries proves that even well after a hundred years, the vampire legends can still thrill and fascinate as much as it did with Bram Stoker’s original 1897 novel.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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