All my life I’ve thought that when we talk about movies or TV shows which are based on the books, the book series are better. And I mean always. For instance if you have read even one book from the series ”Percy Jackson” and after that watched the movie, you understand what I mean. (Oh god that film was horrible.)
But this TV show is a whole different story. ”The Vampire diaries” is an American television show based on the book series of the same name written by L.J.Smith. The first episode premiered on September 2009, and now there is altogether six seasons and 126 episodes of this enjoyable show. I have watched this almost seven years, and by now it has just gone better and better. Since the first episode I’ve been completely hooked, in spite of the fact that the seasons 1-2 were maybe a little bit too cheesy and soap opera-like.
”The Vampire diaries” takes place in Mystic Falls, a fictional small town full of supernatural beings- vampires, werewolves, witches, phantoms…everything you can imagine. The protagonist of the series is Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) , a high school girl who falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). But their love isn’t a bed of roses: Stefan’s vicious and malignant brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) returns with a plan to seek his revenge against Stefan. When the series progresses, Elena finds herself drawn to Damon and they all end up in a love triangle. As the narrative develops in the course of the series, the main point shifts on the mysterious past of the town involving Salvatore brothers ex-love: a 500-year-old vampire Katerina Petrova, who happens to be Elena’s catty doppelganger. And she seems to be one hell of a pain in the ass throughout whole series. Katerina’s return, along with the family of Original Vampires, costs a lot of trouble for Elena and Mystic Falls.
In my opinion ”The Vampire diaries” is all that you could ask for an entertaining show: horror, romance, surprising plot-twists and good-looking actors. The series never gets boring. So well, after I had watched about 4 seasons, I thought: ”Why shouldn’t I try these books? They must be even better!” But I was so wrong. And I was kind of really surprised, because like I said in the beginning of this text, I’ve always thought that books are better than the movies/series that are made of them. But I didn’t like ”The Vampire diaries” books at all, mainly because in my view the narrative was bad and confusing, and the atmosphere through the stories were much more grim and depressing than in the TV series. There were also really big differences between the novels and show, which most shocking of them I’m going to present you now:
Firstly, the main character. In the books Elena is a blond haired and blue eyed beauty, but in the show she’s quite opposite with her dark hair and brown eyes. Her personality has changed too: in the books Elena is more self-centered and almost bitchy character, when Katherina is actually not so bad. But in the show, the opposite clearly applies.
Secondly, the minor characters. Almost every person is changed even a little bit. In novels Elena has a four-year-old sister named Margaret, but in the show she has a brother Jeremy who is almost at her age. HUGE difference here. There are also a lot of friend changes in the show as well. For example Elena’s best friend in the books, Meredith, isn’t in the show at all.
Thirdly, characters names. Matt, Elena’s ex, last name changes from Honeycutt in the book to Donovan. Tyler’s (werewolf) last name changes also, and so does Bonnie’s and Elena’s aunt’s.
Even the town’s name is changed from Fell’s Church to Mystic Falls. And for no reason?
Despite of all those changes that seems unnecessary, I think that the TV show is better. ”The Vampire diaries” television series is one good reason to skip your good-night-sleeps. But on the other hand, the books goes deeper with the details of the story and maybe I should give it a change and try reading them again later. Just maybe. And very much later. Like, a hundred years or something.