The Vampire Diaries – Recap & Review – Pilot

photo: cw

The Vampire Diaries
Pilot

Original Air Date: 10 Sept 2009

Zeba – TwoCents Reviewer
zeba@thetwocentscorp.com

In the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries a teenage girl must navigate the halls of high school after the death of her parents, whilst a centuries old vampire contests with someone from his mysterious past. Along the way there is blood, fog, leather, and a song by The Fray. Teenage angst ensues.

After an eerie opening in which we witness A Couple You Just Know Are Gonna Die driving down a dark and gloomy road somewhere in Mystic Falls (that’s honestly the name of the town) get attacked by a shadowy figure, we meet seventeen year-old Elena Gilbert on her first day of school.

Elena is pretty, popular, but troubled. Now living with her twenty-something aunt and younger brother, she’s still coming to grips with the death of her parents in a freak car accident four months ago.

Elena forces a brave smile at school, where she must stay upbeat for her best friend Bonnie (sassy; jokingly claims she’s a psychic descended from Salem), her jock ex-boyfriend Matt who still has feelings for her, and the resident hot blond Caroline who has deemed her a rival in popularity. Elena also has to cope with her brother Jeremy who, broken up about their parents’ death has resorted to using and selling drugs.

That day, a new student arrives at Mystic Falls High. In a scene reminiscent of Twilight (which, to be fair, was actually published nine years after the novels this show is based on were), we find said new student essentially glamoring a school administrator into registering him into the school without proper documentation.

Conveniently, Elena and the new student bump into each other in the hallway. He coolly introduces himself as “Stefan Salvatore,” which is the most overtly vampiric sounding name ever. They share a few moments of her being flustered by how hot he is, and him throwing smoldering looks at her like tennis balls. Speaking of that. There are a lot of smoldering looks on this show. I counted at least twenty. They range from “silent-longing” to “unbridled passion,” and they are all completely hilarious.

After school, we find Elena at the cemetery, where she likes to chill out by her parents’ graves while writing pseudo-introspective and angsty insights in her diary. Suddenly thick, ice-machine fog materializes as does a black crow that, unbeknown to Elena, has been following her all day. She freaks out when she sees a shadowy figure peering at her from behind a tomb stone and high tails it out of the cemetery, managing to trip on nothing in particular.

And there is Stefan, staring down at her with silent longing. More awkward dialogue from Elena like, “Sorry, it’s the fog. It makes me foggy.” And then she realizes she has a huge gash on her leg from essentially tripping over air. Being a vampire and all, Stefan disappears before Elena tries and succeeds to not-have-chemistry with him again.

But that’s OK, because later Stefan shows up at her house all stalker-like to apologize for his rude behavior. Elena forgives him and invites him to a cool bonfire party out in the woods, where they go on a romantic stroll and bond. At one point Elena explains how her relationship with Matt didn’t work out because it wasn’t “passionate.” The sounds of the word turns Stefan’s eyes pitch black with lust, causing Elena to ask what’s wrong. I half expected him to blame the “fluorescents” but instead he disappears off somewhere, yet again (this guy has an awful habit of appearing and disappearing at the most random moments).

Meanwhile, in another non-descript patch of the woods Vicki, a hottie who Elena’s brother is smitten with after a drug-hazed summer tryst, is making out with her drunk boyfriend when he gets a little too aggressive. Jeremy shows up and saves her, but rather than being grateful she storms off in a huff and goes from being Vicki to Girl You Just Know Is Gonna Die. And indeed, the minute she is well and truly alone the pea-soup fog comes rolling in and next thing you know that shadowy figure is at her throat.

Stefan appears back at the party moments later, and then there is a shriek from Jeremy who discovers Vicki lying on the ground, throat ripped open but still very much alive.

Boy, Stefan is out of that party faster than you can say “cool leather jacket.” When he gets home, Damon, a brother who he hasn’t seen in fifteen years is waiting. Now, we learn a little earlier in the episode that Stefan owns a picture dated 1864 of a woman named Katherine who happens to look exactly like Elena and when he asks Damon why he has returned to Mystic Falls, the reason is her.

Damon, with a swaggering tone that’s refreshingly badass for this new genre of vampire romance goes on to wax philosophic about the joys of feeding from humans as opposed to squirrels (he admits to killing the couple and attacking Vicki), and wonders how good Elena’s blood must taste. This causes Stefan to go ape and rugby tackle his brother out of a window. That is closed. Damon finds the whole situation hilarious and, overpowering Stefan quite easily, warns him that a storm is coming (which must be true, as Bonnie the Psychic earlier warns Elena that something bad is about to begin).

The episode ends with three potent images.

First, Vicki, still alive but lying in a hospital bed opens her eyes and tells Matt (don’t ask me why he, out of everyone, was there) “It was a vampire.”

Second, Caroline, feeling incredibly vulnerable after pouring her heart out to Bonnie about how horrible she feels after being rejected by Stefan and her jealousy of Elena, locking eyes with and smiling at a dubious Damon sitting at a table across the room.

And third, Stefan showing up at Elena’s house yet again to “see if she’s alright” at which point she says the six words he’s obviously been waiting to hear the entire episode, “Would you like to come in?”

Now, as snarky as I can’t help but be when it comes to a show like this it does have its positives. Sure, the characters seem a little one-dimensional and the borrowed Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack, overwrought dialogue and average acting (except for Ian Somerhalder, who was the best part of the episode) may take a little getting used to but if anything, the vampires on this program seem a lot more legitimate than those of the sparkling variety, and the story is genuinely intriguing to say the least. And while we’re on the subject of Twilight (because let’s face it, there are too many similarities here to ignore) do you think The Vampire Diaries will be a better or worse attempt at the whole vampire-human love story trend?