Vampire Diaries

The following e-mail comes from long-time reader and frequent contributor Javier (slight spoilers within):

Hi Matt! I just finished watching season 1 of The Vampire Diaries and what a finale it was! I was wondering what were your thoughts on the season as a whole and especially the finale? Seeing as maybe you're going to add this show to your TV reviews at the blog, I thought it would be interesting to see a column or even a Top Ten Cases about the best of what this season had to offer. I wasn't digging it at first, took me about 3 or 4 episodes to get me hooked, but once I did, I never went back. Out of all the characters I believe Damon showed the most growth, from being an egotistical jerky villian, to a somewhat less egotistical, less jerky, pseudo-hero. He is so in love with Elena and I can't wait to see his reaction when he figures out the it wasn't Elena the one who kissed him at the porch. Anyway, it was a great freshman season and I will be looking forward to your thoughts on it.

I completely agree with Javier here. I think the show got off to a bit of a slow start, but once it found its footing it really exploded into an exciting and well written series. I actually had to convince a co-worker into sticking with the show (she considered dropping it from her line up when it wasn’t an immediate “hit”), but by midway it had catapulted to becoming one of her favorite shows.

For me, the show had a lot going for it before it even premiered. I have always been a big fan of vampire lure (not Twilight), I’ve had a crush on Nina Dobrev since her Degrassi days, and one of the show’s stars is a Lost alum. I mean, they had to do a lot wrong before I stopped tuning in.

And while Damon was phenomenal this season, I might go one step further and say the true highlight of the freshman year was the relationship between Damon and Stefan. They started out completely adversarial, and it seemed that Damon was only sticking around to aggravate or torture his younger brother. Through time, however, it became obvious that these two truly cared for one another. How many times have these two risked their lives to save the other? Damon saving Stefan when he was being held captive by Pearl’s men. Stefan going after Damon when he went to find Katherine in the cave. And leading up to (and including) the finale, they came to each other’s aid countless times (particularly in the fiery climax). And yet, they weren’t just a happy family. When it became obvious that Damon has feelings for Elena, Damon taunted Stefan. And while he did show signs of heroism, he did many, many awful things this season.

And for what it’s worth, I never, ever imagined that Ian Somerhalder had such charisma. Vampire Diaries has afforded me the insight to recognize how underutilized he was on Lost.

It might be tough for me to do a Top Ten Cases at this juncture, just because I honestly don’t believe I can come up with a substantial list without “stretching” it so that I have ten. But I do think I might pick up the show to review next season.