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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Random Recommendation: Vampire Diaries (CW, 2009+)

[not kdrama related...
...but totally worth dishing]


Vamp crack addiction...on network tv
Woooohooo, hells yeah, episode two of season two airs tonight, people! Where will you be?

You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one.
—so says Katherine Pierce, a centuries old, lovelorn evil-vamp, as she lays down the laws of love in season 2,  episode 1 of Vampire Diaries

Damn right, it is! Or, I sure hope she’s right, anyway. Especially with so many people/supernatural creatures having so loudly declared the Hate for one another in last week’s splashy season two opener.

Let me back up a bit…and rewind to earlier this year. Now, a little about my background with these new breed of trendy vampires. I’ve not read the Twilight books, nor have I seen any of the films. I do not watch True Blood, nor do I have any inclination. So, basically, I wasn’t drinking from the Kool-Aid yet. But you see, purely by chance, I caught Vampire Diaries on the tele midway through their first season…and became hooked against my will.

You might ask, was it because of a morbid fascination with the human compulsion to both deny yet romanticize death, our eternal struggle for immortality which will forever remain in direct conflict with our humanness—a struggle inherent in vampire lore?

No.

Because of the gripping supernatural love story that explores the most inappropriate romantic longing between really old ghouls and teenagers? 

No.

Mayhap it’s because Fringe hasn’t kicked off its new season yet?

No. No. No. Well, maybe a little of the last one, but mostly no.

I will admit, however, for a cream puffy show like Diaries, it does translate really well from young adult literature to the small screen. Credit to the cleverly quick writing. It also helps that the entire cast is gorgeous and none of them actually look prepubescent, but nevermind. It is truly a wealth of riches, my friends, the number of beautiful people on this show. This is the town to visit, if getting a potentially fatal creature bite doesn’t scare your tourism buzz.

Everything else aside, the reason why this cult show has become my Thursday night must-watch guilty pleasure, and might I add, the only U.S. offering that bumps kdramas for me right now, is because of one thing and one thing only—a super eeevil awesome [tortured] vamp sneerer named Damon Salvatore who is played with irrepressible glee by the brilliant Ian Somerhalder. Or as I like to call him, Ian Smouldering-Hottie. I don’t know what or who he’s channeling when he dons this vamp alter-ego, but he is clearly enjoying his character a lot and that kind of pure delight always manifests well in the acting delivery. He is as deliciously funny as he is delectably pallid as the snarky, my-babyblues-could-put-Sinatra’s-to-shame, vengeful, century old fang playboy.

Also, as a fangirl perk, this entire show is a twisted love story between two hot vampire brothers—


—and the manipulative biatch of a vampress they have both loved for over a hundred years…that’s a seriously long time to pine for someone. Clearly, these guys have some issues to deal with about letting go. Well, now, for better or worse (better for us, worse for them), they have both decided to move on with their undead lives and pursue the same human girl. The catch? She looks exactly like the manipulative biatch of a vamp they’ve loved for over a hundred years (so much so, she’s played by the same actress). There are love triangles all over the place up in here, in fact, there are so many triangles, it’s the entire tinkling line of a symphony. But the situation gets messier (or better, depending on your point of view) because both the girlies prefer the younger, more respectable humanblood-abstaining vamp bro Stefan, who has decided he only has hearts for nice human girl Elena. As for our evilicious Damon caught in the middle, for now, all he knows for sure is that he loves being evil.

If you haven’t gotten on this obsession yet, I don’t even know what you’re waiting for! It’s easily the most ridiculously enjoyable hour on tv right now. Can you tell I’m excited?

One more, just cuz:

3 comments:

  1. lol... didnt kno u watched this too. btw, twilight is a total vampire diaries rip off and the equivalent of kdramas-so-much-crap-it's-fascinatingly-horrible... can't name one right now but old school kdrama should fit the bill. mainly a bunch of nonsense put together. i know im saying this as the one who read (skimmed) through the whole saga so im not really credible but TRUST me, if u havent read it, then dont. instead, u can read recaps by dang_bergstein on sparklife, which are the most brilliantly hilarious recaps ever written.
    ok, back to vampire diaires. two words. HOT BROTHERS. LOVE TRIANGLE. squee. i certainly don't think that the series is perfect and i can probably name some "better" US series but it has plenty of its own merits. i wasnt into it when it started but by the end, it became another GUILTY pleasure for me. so yeah, tuning in for season 2!
    hope it doesnt disappoint like so many other awesome US series gone bad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh, and in case u think i can't count... well, quite apparently i really can't but for my defense. i really meant two words at first. aka hot brothers. but i realized what made the series truly hot was the hot brothers pining for the same girl. so i added two other words... -_-"

    ReplyDelete

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