The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries runs on a familiar teen-soap engine, with romance, secrets, and supernatural danger all pressed together. By our assessment, that mix is exactly why it worked for so many viewers: the show moves quickly, keeps emotional stakes high, and gives its cast plenty to do. Its weak spot is the same one many long supernatural series hit, which is repetition once the mythology keeps expanding. In practice it is glossy, fast, and built around constant relationship turns, so it rarely sits still for long. It belongs with the CW vampire cycle rather than with horror that tries to be genuinely frightening. The Vampire Diaries is the one to pick for melodrama with fangs, not for austere monster stories.