Newsflash: I love vampires.
Yes! I know! I’m sure it’s a shock to hear this, but it’s true. I’ve liked them for years, long before a little book series named Twilight came out, long before I read ‘Interview with a Vampire’, and in fact, I’m fairly certain my love of the undead most likely originated from this book right here:
Yep. Vampire bunnies who drain vegetables until they’re white and have fur that looks like a cape–but just because he’s different doesn’t mean he’s bad! This was one of my favorite books of all time as a very impressionable youth of around 7-8, and obviously, it made quite an impression.
I may have just purchased this book as a Christmas gift for one of my young cousins. I feel the legacy should be passed along to someone, since I’m well on the road to spinsterhood.
But, like I said, I love vampires, and I feel the need to talk about this certain obsession with The Vampire Diaries. For those not in the know, this is a series on the CW that just started its 4th season, featuring vampire brothers who don’t like each other (+1 for bickering brothers), a love triangle between the vampires and a girl who loves them both (and who blames her? They’re both very attractive), and tons of lore, werewolves, hybrid vampire/werewolves, Original vampires, and just plain old good bloody times.
I love, love, love this show. In fact, it’s the only show currently airing that makes me stop what I am doing, plop down on the couch and be a proper couch potato for an hour. Oh, and the books by L.J. Smith that the show is based on are total rubbish–the show is one of the rare times when the screen version trumps the books. Don’t mess with the books; they’re completely different and pretty much just share a title and character names, and a few basic plot points.
This show is cheesy and fun, but what I love most about it are 2 things: 1) The character developments and origin mythologies are flipping awesome. You see the changes in these characters, see the roads and journeys they are taking, and are witness to their personal evolution. It’s kickass writing from a set of writers who obviously get the importance of character growth and change (it reminds me of Buffy in that regards–no one stays stagnant for 10 seasons, and the people they are in season 1 are totally different than in season 10).
And in terms of the mythologies, it makes my little heart grow a size or two when we get into the questions of ‘Where did vampires originate and why?’ ‘What can impact that origination story?’ Very few books have gone into these histories, and damn, I love this show for going there. Some of us are a little on the OCD side and love to know where things begin at square 1, otherwise it makes us twitchy.
2) This show is unafraid of going balls-out awesome. Case in point (and spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the latest episode), but one of the characters (total bad guy who is on his way to showing some good guy qualities–hey look, there’s that character growth again) totally takes out a group of enemies set to ‘O Holy Night.’ Yep…nothing like a little enemy slaughter set to Christmas favorites. This scene is the epitome of why I love this show:
I don’t think I’ll ever hear that song in the same manner again, LOL.
So yeah. I love this show. It does what a good show is supposed to, and makes me care about the characters, to feel for them, root for them, throw stuff at the television when they piss me off, and most of all, just offers up a good time.
Anyway, that’s my Pop Culture contribution of the week. 
Later, taters.
