I've watched every vampire TV series of note (and many that were forgettable) in the last 40 years, and VD is not the best, but it is also definitely not the worst. Coming after shows like BTVS and Angel, Vampire Diaries (and True Blood) have a lot to live up to in terms of great writing and strong characters (especially female characters), and they often fall short. (This is just my opinion; do keep in mind, I'm not a tween, teen, or twenties kid who hasn't seen anything else besides Twilight, True Blood or VD; I have much higher expectations than the average viewer, I guess.)
It's funny, I started out watching the premiere episode of season 1 and the first few season 1 VD eps relating to Elena as a kind of shell-shocked survivor of family tragedy... but then VD became so unrealistically melodramatic, I couldn't relate. But since Season 2 began, although there were some episodes that kind of stumbled, most have been really interesting, and these last few have been really good. This one -- The Last Day -- is probably up there in the top five.
Maybe it's because I'm older now, I don't go for the vampire-trying-to-be-good/human types as much as I did when I was younger... I find the vampire characters who just accept their vampire nature and run with it more intriguing. I guess because I've already been through so much crap in life, I realize now that things are not black and white, that there are many paths to the same destination, and that many shades of gray and levels of moral ambiguity are involved in doing both good and evil. And I also realize that sometimes you just have to seize the moment while you can. Perhaps that's why I find Damon a much more interesting character than Stefan, and, frankly, he is a major reason I tuned in week after week this second season.
The show really became interesting to me when Damon's unrequited love for Elena began to surface, and when Katarina returned to wreak havoc in the brothers' lives. It was hard to get into the first season: Damon, revelling in being bad, was much more the reason I tuned in than Stefan &/or Elena.
But this season, Caroline's turning and then her strange love triangle(ish) situation and her relationship with Tyler kept me tuning in, as did Bonnie's development of her powers... again, these story arcs kept my attention this season much more than the Stefan/Elena story arc (heresy, I know!). And of course Katarina's meddling and messing with everyone/everything, and her manipulation, only to have her come-uppance as Klaus compelled her, have been *rich* to watch.
But now that Elena's life is closer and closer to the threat of death, Damon's unrequited love is affecting his judgment and his behavior in increasingly wild, desperate, and unpredictable ways. The poignancy of his hopeless feelings for her, and the fact that it "will always be Stefan" for her, and the fact that that hasn't stopped him, has been fairly gripping over the last couple of episodes, and The Last Day was no exception.
And, finally, it is fairly tear-jerking when you realize how little time Stefan and Elena have had together, and how much Elena has already lost in her life -- in terms of deaths of loved ones, of family -- as she gets closer and closer to Klaus' ritual.
I guess I can once again relate to Elena, as she seems about to (once again) lose so much, including her own life, as well as the lives of those around her. I guess having been through the deaths of several loved ones over the last few years, I relate far less to her happy kissy-face times with Stefan and relate far more to her doomy gloomy times like now... Which is my own crap, of which I'm totally aware and fully admit.
But then, as Matt Groening (creator of Life In Hell long before he created The Simpsons and Futurama) once said, Happiness is boring... to which I'd add, happiness is also not very dramatically challenging; it doesn't drive plot or character development the way tragedy and danger do, that's for sure.
And before everyone jumps down my throat, yeah, yeah, I get that Stefan and Elena are supposed to be the main focus of the show -- but then again, they're not; it's an ensemble cast; and I'm glad that the other characters and actors really got to develop and shine this season. Plus having to play Katarina/Katherine in addition to the sometimes almost annoyingly-nice Elena has shown more than anything that Nina Dobrev really can act; watching her go from playing innocent, trusting, let's-make-a-deal Elena to playing the scheming, selfish, manipulative Katherine has been a rather delightful surprise throughout this season. And just when the polar opposite behavior of those two characters was getting predictable, they had Katherine pretend to be Elena, so Nina Dobrev had to play Kathareine playing Elena -- and the disdain Katherine had for Elena's nature (right after convincingly pretending to *be* her) was both hilarious and also quite compelling. It was quite fascinating to watch Nina navigate those parts so well.
Yet, still, my heart goes out most to Damon, because it will never be him for Elena... but he's willing to risk her undying hatred in order to save her "by any means necessary." That's pretty big love, in my book; a pretty damn big sacrifice -- far more, imo, than Stefan has made or will make. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for the bad guy with the good heart.
