Posted by Vee | June 29, 2009, 16:05 (EST) | 6 Comments
Category: TV Series
Jon Lachonis of TVOverMind.com gives us the most detailed review we’ve seen yet, so if you’re avoiding too much in-depth info about the pilot, definitely steer clear.
Overall, it’s an interesting – if not positive – read. You get the sense the reviewer is holding Kevin Williamson (in particular) to a standard and the pilot doesn’t meet his expectations. He’s pretty merciless but (begrudgingly) admits there’s something here he finds intriguing.
Overall, it is the familiarity of The Vampire Diaries plot that sometimes works against it. Seasoned vamp aficionados may find much of the story boringly familiar.
 |
Posted by Vee | June 27, 2009, 5:47 (EST) | 11 Comments
Category: TV Series
The New to TV blog (“the best and worst of new TV shows”) has posted their take on The Vampire Diaries pilot.
All in all, the review is extremely positive and emphasizes the “great” supporting characters. The entire thing is pretty spoilerific for those who’d rather not know too many details (and the reviewer seems confused about certain characters and how they’re related to each other, so don’t go having a heart attack – unless we’re in for some massive twist).
|
Posted by Red | June 26, 2009, 14:25 (EST) | 3 Comments
Category: TV Series
Sabrina Rojas Weiss over at MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog has reviewed the pilot for the Vampire Diaries TV series. As far as we’re aware, none of the previous pilot reviewers have much – if any – knowledge of the books. That makes this an especially interesting review, as Sabrina is someone who has previously read the books and can comment on it from a book fan’s perspective.
Her article seems to be a positive one, and Sabrina does note that while there are changes that are jarring for book readers, they do work and make sense in the context of the story for the show. We also appreciate the shout-out to Mrs. Flowers, who (along with her ancient washing machine) is sadly missing from the TV series. A shame, because we think that Betty White would be excellent in the role. ;)
You can read the entire review on the Hollywood Crush blog (be warned, there are spoilers), and be sure to check out and comment on Sabrina’s earlier review of the Vampire Diaries books.
|
Posted by Vee | June 24, 2009, 15:41 (EST) | 9 Comments
Category: Books
Sabrina Rojas-Weiss has a new installment of her Book Report: The Vampire Diaries up on MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog. While I think Red will take great exception to what she has to say about Matt (that flag flies high around these parts!), she does list off five reasons why the series will appeal to “Twilighters and Twi-Haters.” She touches on why Elena Gilbert kicks ass and why her friends are awesome, the appeal of Stefan and Damon, and why Fell’s Church is a very interesting place to live.
We also appreciate that she’s unafraid to touch on the series’ faults, too. Read the entire post over on the Hollywood Crush blog.
|
Posted by Red | June 10, 2009, 22:51 (EST) | 22 Comments
Category: TV Series
Futon Critic‘s Brian Ford Sullivan has weighed in with his thoughts on the Vampire Diaries pilot.
I’m sure this show will have its audience, but boy am I not among them. The final product proves to be just as predictable and cliche-filled as we expected…
All in all, “Diaries” at best plays like a 44-minute music video for a much more interesting show and at worst a lifeless clone of things we’ve seen done before, and done much better.
Read the entire review on Futon Critic.
It’s not exactly a glowing review, and there doesn’t seem to be much different that hadn’t already been said in his earlier review of the script. The reader is left with the impression that this particular TV series just isn’t the reviewer’s cup of tea.
Conversely, GayWired‘s Jason Bristow is giving it a rave review, despite originally going in with low expectations.
Twilight disappointed me and since this latest book series adaptation looked like a blatant ripoff of that Hollywood blockbuster, I expected it to disappoint me as well. Boy, was I wrong!
This show was fantastic. Literally, I cannot think of enough superlatives to describe the pilot. Immediately, I was sucked in by Kevin Williamson’s script and direction.
Read the entire review on gaywired.com.
We were already expecting the slash fanfiction fans to be all over this show, now we’re wondering if it’s set to get a sizable gay following, too?
|
Posted by Vee | May 21, 2009, 11:58 (EST) | No Comments
Category: TV Series
After the explosion of news, photos, and video these past two days, you’re probably wondering what sort of excitement the CW brought to the upfront party, Vampire Diaries-wise. And the answer would be…yeah, not much. (It’s a bit like the day after Christmas for the fans right now. Or not.)
BUT we did get the synopsis attached to the CW schedule. And running commentary on Twitter from the likes of the LA Times and Michael Ausiello, who at the start of the trailer (not sure if it was the same footage that appeared last night) described it as “90210 with teeth” and then “I take it back. It’s Supernatural with teeth.” Then “Guess I’m investing 2 hours in the CW on Thursdays this fall! Very cool.” (Which then disappeared from his feed, but SupportSPN retweeted it.) And then a final: “Vampire trailer ends. Tim Stack gives me the ‘not bad’ nod. Agreed.”
And it wasn’t just him – seemed like a lot of critics tweeting the upfront started out mocking it and, by the end, were impressed. TVGuide said: “I love me some ‘Lost Boys,’ so CW’s ‘Vampire Diaries’ gave me goosebumps. Gonna be a nice match with Supernatural!”
Who from The Vampire Diaries was there: That we know for sure? Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore – how good is it to type that in context of the TV show?), Nina Dobrev (Elena Gilbert), Paul Wesley (Stefan Salvatore), Kevin Williamson (Executive Producer), and Julie Plec (Executive Producer). You can see a photo of the main trio here.
And apparently the talent walked out onstage at the end of the whole shebang? Feel like we missed something in there, but – yes. There it is. We’ll update with details throughout the day.
|
Posted by Red | April 27, 2009, 9:29 (EST) | 6 Comments
Category: TV Series
Travis Yanan weighs in with another review of the Vampire Diaries pilot script, and seems reasonably confident that it will make it on the Fall schedule.
Vampire Diaries, to borrow a term from thefutoncritic’s review is pretty boilerplate teen drama / vampire drama stuff. It starts out with a couple pages of “Ooh, isn’t this creepy? Oh, noes! Vampire attack!” but doesn’t subvert that cliché the way, say, Buffy did by having the blonde school girl turn out to be the vampire…
…One thing this series does have that excites me is Ian Somerhalder as Stefan’s evil vampire older brother, Damon. Boone Carlyle, we miss you on our TV screens.
Again, this all comes down to execution. I have few doubts this will be on CW’s fall schedule… after all, vampires are so in.
It’s becoming clear from reading these reviews and from comments on the subject that Ian Somerhalder may well be one of the deciding factors in people tuning in to this series, not least amongst established book fans who want to see exactly how well he portrays Damon.
It also appears that book fans are going to have to batten down the hatches in preparation for round two of the ‘VD’ jokes. And we thought it was out of everyone’s systems 15 years ago… ;)
Read the entire review on Travis Yanan’s blog.
|
Posted by Vee | April 23, 2009, 13:32 (EST) | 3 Comments
Category: TV Series
Sci Fi Wire is handicapping the sci-fi and genre TV pilots in contention for the fall season (based almost entirely on concept and cast) and, of course, they touch on The Vampire Diaries:
Will Vampire Diaries stake out a spot on The CW’s schedule? It’s got a chance. While Twilight may have made the whole teenage-girl-meets-and-falls-in-love-with-a-vampire-hottie angst thing popular, The Vampire Diaries novel series actually was published first. Nobody cares about that. Except The CW, which cares a lot about all the teenage girls who might tune in.
But … The CW already has announced pickups for Supernatural and Smallville, along with several other series. There’s not a lot of room on the schedule, and the competition is fierce among the network’s six pilots.
Read the entire article: Part One (ABC, CBS, NBC) | Part Two (Fox, CW)
|
Posted by Red | March 17, 2009, 3:38 (EST) | No Comments
Category: TV Series
And at the opposite end of the spectrum to Vampire Nerd, the Futon Critic gives their view in an article that gives us a few more glimpses at the differences between the TV series and the books, along with a bit more of the storyline…
“It’s all…still pretty boilerplate teen (or vampire) stuff. From the opening teaser (two people get killed after stopping to help a man they hit on an old country road) to the emo star-crossed lovers (gorgeous outsider picks the nice girl despite the beauties throwing themselves at him) to the good guy who wants to protect the girl he loves from his bad guy past, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before (and done better).
Read the rest of the article on Futon Critic…
|
Posted by Red | March 17, 2009, 3:35 (EST) | No Comments
Category: TV Series
CW plans to cash in on vampire craze with new show “Vampire Diaries”
When my contact in Los Angeles first informed me that the CW has a new vampire-themed show in the works titled “Vampire Diaries”, my first thought was “stake me now; another vampire show? How many copy-cat creations based on the themes of Twilight and True Blood can they possibly invent?”
Then I read the script.
My prediction: This show is going to be sick. Not like cough cough bad sick, like crazy cool insanely awesome kind of sick…
Read the rest of the article on Vampire Nerd…
|
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
Loading ...