Vampire Diaries: Episode 2

So I started reading the books and I'm pretty surprised at the differences. It seems that the only details that stayed true to the book are the fact that there is a vampire named Stefan, Stefan's vampire brother is named Damon, and there is this girl named Elena. That's it! Ok and there are a few other similarities but you know...

Let's compare some things from the book to the tv screen.


Book Elena: Blond, bitchy ice queen, kind of obsessed with Stefan, possessive

TV Elena: Brunette, sweet, vulnerable, obsessed with her parents' death, protective

I'm probably going to be whipped by original L.J. Smith fans for saying this but I like TV Elena better! Is that wrong? I don't know...


Other things:

Book Sibling: 4 year old Margaret, cute, 4 yrs old, says things 4 yr olds do

TV Sibling: 15/16 (?) year old Jeremy, cute, drug problem, lost, loves Vicki, says things teenage boys do...


4 yrs old are cute....but for drama, added stakes, more complicated and interwoven plotlines, and characters for me to sympathize with...give me TV Sibling, Jeremy!


Book Stefan: Stays away from Elena, says very little, did not grow up in Fell's Church, boards with Mrs. Flowers, has yet to write a single diary entry (OMG its called the Vampire Diaries!!!)


TV Stefan: Immediately drawn to Elena and connecting with her, says a lot, grew up in Mystic Falls, lives with his "Uncle"---great great great nephew (uncle-nephew-cousin we are entering Bilbo and Frodo territory here) Zach, keeps a lot of diaries (aha Vampire Diaries!)


Again...I like the whole return to Mystic Falls, diary writing Stefan.


And Mystic Falls...cooler name than Fell's Church (oh I'm so going to hell...)


What can I say? I'm a total traitor on this-BUT I am deeply enjoying the books. I'm just thinking of them as a separate form of artwork, entirely different from the tv series (not unlike most Harry Potter movies).


For those of you who have not read the books yet and want to...you can read the first book, The Awakening free if you check out HarperTeen's site.


Also I found these two websites that have all kinds of cool features for the show, but most importantly, they tell you all of the songs! My ipod is just a little more full now.

http://www.vampirediariesonline.com/

http://www.vampire-diaries.net/


Oh yeah and HERE you can watch 4 webisodes, a mini prequel to the tv series.

And now let's roll to our recap, sort of told in a live blogging sort of listy type way...

First of all they used Help I'm Alive by Metric in the opening...love that song! Sweet! Overall, the music in this episode was much more fun and spunky and a lot less emo-ish. And nice job Kev Williamson on using the most classic urban legend horror movie cliche of the blood dripping down on the tent/car that the couple was making out in.

YAY-no shirt Stefan!

Stefan gave Elena an original copy of Wuthering Heights...ok...makes sense...because he was probably alive when you could have gotten your hands on one of those. But then Elena wants to borrow it to read it AGAIN! WTF! I know I'm all for TV show Elena versus book Elena but book Elena would NOT read Wuthering Heights twice, probably not even once. But there is one vampire loving book person I know who for some reason seems very interested in reading this one book over and over again and...well, did we really need to go there?

Omg our dotty airheaded guardian Aunt Jenna who isn't supposed to notice ANYTHING got called out on her crappy parenting skills by Mr. Tanner and actually tried to be a parent in this episode...for like a minute.

Also Stefan looks HOT! But dude get a grip and don't ignore Elena!

"We talked and we met and it was epic" oooooh dialogue rewrite please? Interesting that they had Elena and Stefan pull back from the super intensity of episode one...maybe this is to follow the slow build up toward their relationship like in the book. Also if they get together too fast, we have no show. Remember Kev Williamson kept Dawson and Joey from kissing for an entire season!

Man....Stefan has everything that Edward Cullen doesn't...seriously, Paul where were you when Twilight was casting? I mean I'm glad you skipped that so you could do this instead, but RPattz...take note!

Poor Vicki! It's cute how she is sort of giving into Jeremy, that changed faster than I expected.

Damon is SUPER creepy...well done!

I LOVE Stefan. Just saying.

Oooh wow Aunt Jenna is really trying!! Maybe she will have a breakdown at some point, but she needs to get a lot less involved, we can't have adults taking an interest in the lives of our MCs-making up rules, figuring things out, what is THAT all about?

Oh no the "we met, we talked it was epic" line has returned!!! Seriously? Although it is rather freaking adorable that Stefan is saying it now...ooooh they KISS!!!! Guess they aren't Dawson and Joey...

Caroline and Damon...can they even show that on the CW...omg...aaaaaaaaahh he vampirizes her!


WOW I love this show!!!

Oh man next week looks HOT!!!! I cannot wait for Thursday!!!! And Damon with his "its all soooo go team!" FTW!

K let me know what you thought!