It’s often difficult to explain The Vampire Diaries to someone who’s never seen it. The best way to describe it would be as the modern lovechild between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the early years of Dawson’s Creek. Kevin Williamson, who wrote Creek and Scream among others, developed the show for The CW along with executive producer Julie Plec. The show is very loosely based on the multiple L.J. Smith novels of the same name. As he told the London paper The Independent, Williamson was not initially interested in developing the series, but soon became attracted to the idea of a small town with a dark secret. It turns out that many of the residents within the fictitious community of Mystic Falls know that vampires are real. Vampires have been in Mystic Falls before. They’ve also taken many steps to deal with them should they happen to return…

Our heroine is Elena. A few months ago, her parents got into a tragic car accident and died. She was with them in the car but managed to somehow survive. At the start of the series, she’s still pretty upset. Her brother Jeremy is acting out and doing a lot of drugs to cope. She’s doing her best to keep him in check but isn’t doing a very good job of keeping him on the straight and narrow. That’s when she meets Stefan. He’s totally cute and totally into her… which completely blindsides Elena. A relationship is the last thing on her mind, which is mostly why she broke up with her ex-boyfriend Matt. Elena also finds an early competitor for Stefan’s attention when her conceited, bubbly friend Caroline locks eyes on him. Caroline is soon distracted, however, when she’s drawn into the orbit of Stefan’s charmingly dangerous older brother Damon. 

The Vampire Diaries has become a phenomenon. Nina Dobrev, a television veteran of Degrassi: The Next Generation, has become easily recognizable as the show’s star. Last year it was hard to escape the image of her laying in the grass upside down during the show’s early publicity campaign; she was on multiple MTA buses and subways all over the city. Her depiction of the strong, vulnerable, and passionate Elena Gilbert is sharply contrasted with the show flashbacking to her deceptive and seductive vampire doppelganger Katherine. Now in it’s second season on The CW, The Vampire Diaries is an addictive thrill ride of a show. That’s why you should reserve the first season from your local library location right now! Go ahead... sink your teeth in.