The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries Season One finale was last night, and wow - what a finale.¹ The whole journey of getting to watch this show develop as the season progressed has been very impressive.

It feels like not that long ago that it was the tail-end of summer and the blogosphere was all abuzz with news about LJ Smith's series from 1991 The Vampire Diaries being adapted into a television show by The CW. And intially -watching that trailer, seeing the pilot episode - I thought that it was decent, but not great. Despite the fact that it originally came much earlier, the portrayls in the pilot were quite similar to all the other vampire craze currently going on - Twilight, True Blood and Moonlight, to name a few.

But it was still an intriguing enough start that I kept watching. And kept watching. And wow! Each subsequent episode, the series just seemed to keep on improving. The music selection was applaudable, the scripting was definitely thumbs-up, and the acting was incredible.

Nina Dobrev portrays leading lady Elena Gilbert (as well as Katherine Pierce). I thought she was pretty awesome in Degrassi: The Next Generation. Yeah - she's even better here. Paul Wesley pulls off a pretty great dark, brooding Stephen Salvatore, although I'm not quite as fond of his character as Damon's.

Which brings me to Ian Somerhalder, who plays Damon Salvatore. The facial expressions - so expressive - the acting, the body language, the emotion - well, colour me impressed. He's great. :) I thought Steven R. McQueen did a great job in Everwood, so it was great to see him in The Vampire Diaries. And I just realised a few days ago that Malese Jow was in Unfabulous with Emma Roberts as well - wow, totally didn't recognize her. TVD also did great with diversity as well in terms of actors, which is always great to see.

The supporting cast are awesome too. All the intertwining subplots really add a lot to the series' depth. Sara Canning (Jenna Sommers), Katerina Graham (Bonnie), Candice Accola (Caroline Forbes), Zach Roerig (Matt Donovan), Michael Trevino (Tyler Lockwood) and all the rest really add to the story.

Doesn't this sound like a happy gush-fest? ;) It's a little sad that we've reached the season finale already, but phew - 22 episodes, a full season - quite an accomplishment. And if the whole improving-with-every-episode thing this season is any indication, next season will be phenomenal! So who's up for discussing this season's finale? Theories about next season? Chime in!

***Spoilers Alert***

That scene when Stephen goes down into the burning basement to save Damon - was it just me, or was there some blur zipping up the stairs?! Who/what?

Tyler and Mayor Lockwood being affected by the weapon - what was up with that? Are they werewolves²? And whoa about Caroline! Tyler and Matt finally begin to make up, and then this happens. Hope she's okay! The way the Sheriff looked at the end though - oh no!

And Katherine's back - and so badass³! Which changes things - does that render that kiss between "Elena" and Damon invalid then? Aww! And Elena going into the kitchen - with Katherine in there - things are going to get messy. Jeremy! Will the overdose be enough? Will he turn?

Basically, it was a stacked season finale. What did you guys think of it? What do you think will happen next?


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¹ I actually didn't watch the finale until just now.
² I was looking at the Wikipedia page for The Vampire Diaries (novel series) and it mentioned something about Tyler being a werewolf. Although much as been changed in the adaptation, perhaps this hasn't.
³ Pardon my [foreign language]. ;)

In My Mailbox [31]

Pretty sweet week this time around. First I got The Vampire Diaries, The Return: Shadow Souls by L.J. Smith, which was a superb surprise (so thanks for that! :) The CW show The Vampire Diaries (based on the books, of course) is pretty amazing so far. I was quite blown away by this week's episode. What did you guys think of it?

And of course, have to love Ian Somerhalder's portrayal of Damon - so much fun to watch. The facial expressions, the humour... brilliant. Nina Dobrev is awesome as Elena, as can be expected considering her great job on Mia (on Degrassi: The Next Generation). I'm pretty sure the first time I noticed Steven R. McQueen (who plays Jeremy) on Everwood (which was also a great show).

Surprisingly, the [Vampire Diaries show] seems to be getting better with each successive episode, and it's definitely exceeded my expectations from before the series premiered. Has it for you?

Moving on, I also got Maureen Johnson's Scarlett Fever from the absolutely awesome Megan Crewe. (An autographed Give up the Ghost bookmark was also included in the package, but I forgot to take a picture of that.) I have interviewed Megan and reviewed Give up the Ghost. Thank you, Megan!

And lastly, I also received a poster of the spores that's for imagine the future from Swagbucks, which is pretty cool. If you haven't signed up already, you definitely should. It's basically a search engine, but you get "swagbucks" for searching, which can then be exchanged for prizes. So what're you waiting for? Go sign up! :)

Now that you've seen the contents of my mailbox, it's your turn - what was in yours this week?

*In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.