Vamps

Everyone should know by now how much I love vampires and vampire lore. There are many reasons for that, some aren't obvious. ;P

I tend to like most of the 'original' lore, and severely judge any vampire movies'/shows'/stories' mythos against it, and my personal perceptions of what vampires 'should be like'.
I enjoy gothic, pretty vampires stuff (like Underworld), but I'm fascinated with the idea of intelligent yet monster-like vampires, like the ones in the movie & comic book series 30 Days of Night. Beasty.
Vampires that sparkle is a HELL NO!
Vampires in daylight without deadly effects is also a NO.
But I won't go listing everything out. Instead, some pop vampire reviews...


Buffy the Vampire Slayer was cheesy. Fun, but cheesy. I enjoyed it as much as I loathed it. Hehe, ironic ay? It was goofy at times, and often Joss Whedon's personal platform for expressing modern, fad ideas. But it was long running and well... Spike was awesome (at least, when he wasn't being wimpy in-love emo, blegh!).
Unfortunately, I've lost even MORE respect for Joss Whedon's "original" ideas after recently reading the comic book series Preacher by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon. It's so blatantly obvious that Whedon got the idea for Spike's character from Preacher's own Irish-vampire-badboy-loner "Cassidy", which predates Buffy by a few years. Cassidy even goes emo-wimpy for a little while over the main chick in the books, much like Whedon would have Spike do many years later in Buffy.
[As much as I worship Firefly for being awesome, once you see Cowboy Bebop you'll lose respect for Whedon's "original" ideas too.]


I just watched the first episode of the new series The Vampire Diaries, which airs on The CW Network (ugh!). The first 10 min were so bad I almost turned it off and gave up. I'm kinda glad I didn't. It forces the high school scene on the viewer, undoubtedly to capture the attention of the young audience (and obviously anyone who enjoyed the movie Twilight). The acting is mediocre.
There are certain character traits and acting that reek of Buffy, and that's probably not good. The main chick acts and sounds a lot like Faith from Buffy (currently the main character of Dollhouse, FYI, who can only act one part regardless of her dress), and the main vampire guy looks and acts exactly like Nicholas Brendon (who played Xander -- imagine Xander as a vampire & less of a dork).

It was killing me to see the vampire in the daylight... no pain, no flame, no flinching... until near the end of the episode while talking to his vampire brother (who's a little sinister, yay!) it's revealed that they have rings that protect them from the deadly effects of sunlight. Yes!! You've explained why they can be in the daylight safely, and used an oft-referenced mythological trinket (a ring, a talisman, etc). This is good.
The brother, being more accepting of his state of being, feeds on humans, has a black crow follow him around, and conjures up fog. Classic vampire traits, good job!
They also showed the lead vampire unable to enter the lead chick's home until she invited him in; as well as being able to influence a person (a la Jedi Mind Trick hypnosis) -- both classic vampire characteristics.
The lead vampire has been repressing his urges to feed on human blood & such, and is sensitive to blood and seemingly other things... which start to revert him into "monster" mode. [The show is doing what Buffy did, vampire's faces go wrinkly/evil when they get the bloodlust.]
I think if I can suffer through the typical high school kiddie drama scenes I'll be able to watch & enjoy The Vampire Diaries. If it gets too heavy on the kiddie drama or goes too emo... it'll bomb for me. I'm perceiving it as Buffy-lite, without the cheese. ;P


After writing the above review, I watched the first episode of True Blood. This is based on a series of books, and airs on HBO, so it's more adult in the content (as typical of HBO shows, there was a sex scene in the 1st episode to remind you "We can do stuff normal cable shows can't." Heh.). Acting was very good overall. The accents & characters are perfectly convincing for a Louisiana setting. The plot develops slowly (it's an over-arching mystery series), which I'm fine with -- no need to throw every possible detail at the viewer in episode one.
Anna Paquin to me was not a good Rogue in X-Men. However as a blonde girl-next-door with mind-reading abilities in this, I can fathom.
Here, vampires can't be in daylight (this was referred to), drink only blood, are very strong (get stronger over time so elder vampires are strongest), and can't seem to enter a home without permission. Good, good.
Silver is debilitating to vampires in this mythos and burns them; normally that's a trait of werewolves. However, this was mentioned & explained as a weakness in the episode (even joked the comparison with werewolves, not that they exist here).

Two things bug me in True Blood:
1.) Publicly aware vampire organization... as if they are "mutants" a la X-Men. They're retaining the mystery of what they are & can do, but I'm not crazy about the idea of them being a "group" in society, asking for equal rights. That takes away the essence of their mystery of existence.
2.) The portrayed fangs are the wrong teeth. Fangs are the 3rd pair of teeth from the middle: the 'eyeteeth' aka 'canines' and not the 2nd incisors, as seen in this show. Yikes!

Synthetic blood developed in Japan is available at your local quickie-mart & served at your favorite bar, ensuring no vampires have to feed on humans. Ok, plausible idea if vampires are publicly known.
Vampire draining and selling the blood as a sense-enhancing drug is an idea I've seen before in Serenity Rose, a comic book, and also plausible. [In that comic book vampires are monsters/beasts and taking too much of a hit will turn you into a monster shortly thereafter.]

I'm definitely going to keep watching True Blood. It's not a riveting, attention-capturing show with cliff-hangers and major vampire actions abounding so that I havta see the next episode... but it is a curiosity for me, a glimpse into this little 'verse. Something interesting.