Vamp Diaries Finale

[shadowkat]

Finally got around to watching last three episodes of The Vampire Diaries. It was a bit over the top and very sentimental. Although I liked the ending and found it comforting in its way. Have to admit at the end of the series, I was watching more for the friendships than the romantic relationships. My favorite ships in the series were purely platonic:

Stefan/Damon

Damon/Alaric

Bonnie/Damon

Caroline/Alaric

The only romantic relationships that worked for me were Caroline/Tyler and Damon/Elena....Bonnie/Enzo felt a bit too sappy in places. Preferred Bonnie/Jeremy to be honest.

It was a fun series, but lacked the depth and metaphorical chewiness of Buffy. It didn't quite have the same edge somehow. Also too much emphasis on the male vampires, and less on the women in the series. Nina Dobrev's Elena sort of drops out at certain point, and focus centers on the Bro-Romance between Stefan and Damon. Bonnie and Caroline do benefit from Elena's absence, their characters get a bit more development and take center stage. At the end of the series, I decided the heroine was Bonnie.

It's not a series I can see myself re-watching or writing about like Buffy. I don't think it attracted quite the variety and range of viewers that Buffy did. But...it had it's moments. I rather liked the third-fifth seasons.

Comments

[dlgood]

I dropped watching Vampire Diaries awhile ago for various reasons that are mostly a matter of style and taste, and more that it became less a show for me...

While the show had characters, at it's best it was less a character show than a plot show - with breathtakingly fast moving storylines and neck-snapping (sometimes literally) twists. That made it exciting to follow in real time, but I think, probably limited the value of rewatch.

It also burned me out. The downside of too much plot, is that, after a certain point the "Damon/Stefan/Elena (pick 1) has turned off their humanity switch and is going on a killing spree (for reasons?) and everyone else must team up to save them from themselves" beats got kind of repetitive for me.

[shadowkat]

The downside of too much plot, is that, after a certain point the "Damon/Stefan/Elena (pick 1) has turned off their humanity switch and is going on a killing spree (for reasons?) and everyone else must team up to save them from themselves" beats got kind of repetitive for me.

Agreed, they re-used that plot device a bit too much. And I found it lacked a certain level of believability after one of the originals told Damon that you can't really turn it off that easily. Once you have your humanity back on...no matter what you do, it sort sticks in the background and you feel, whether you want to or not. ( I think that was said in the third season? But the writers apparently forgot it...)

That was part of my problem with Vamp Diaries...after a certain point they lacked continuity. Buffy had the same issues, as well, do about 90% of television serials with multiple writers. They forget what they wrote. The viewers end up knowing the story better than they do. But since, I watch a lot of serials, far worse than Vamp Diaries in that respect, I sort of hand-waved that a bit. Also as far as supernatural soap operas are concerned, it was tighter plotted than most.

The other problem, I had, was what you stated above -- the writers used the humanity switch as a bit of a crutch. Oh, we'll turn Stefan, Caroline, Damon, Enzo or Elena evil for six months, then flip them back. And what they did? Not their fault, because that wasn't really them. (Seriously? It's sort of like giving them a get-out-of-jail free card. Whedon did the same thing with "soul" vs. "soulless" and "possessed by evil" -- which is a comic book, soap opera device, and it gets old after a bit. I see it as lazy writing. The writer doesn't know how to do a redemption arc or explore why people do horrific things...so goes the easy way.)

Caroline turns off her humanity and goes on a killing spree because her Mom dies??? Or Elena does it because her family's dead?? Or Damon because he loses Elena to his brother?? Or Stefan...because of some deal he makes?? But they aren't responsible for any of the people they killed?? And oh, we must save them? LOL!

I couldn't take the show seriously. I found it fun for the most part. Drug a bit in the later seasons, and the plotting got a bit messy in the latter seasons...the writer's didn't seem to know what to do with the witches. If it weren't for a few of the characters, I'd probably have stopped watching somewhere after the fourth season.