
Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Romance, Drama, Mystery| Directed by: Chris Grismer, John Behring, John Dahl, J. Miller Tobin| No. of Episodes: 171| Netflix & Amazon Prime
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Plot: On her first day at high school, Elena meets Stefan and immediately feels a connection with him. However, what she does not know is that Stefan and his brother, Damon, are in fact vampires.
Main Characters: Elena, Caroline, Stephan, Damon, Bonnie.
TW: Violence, Murder, Abuse.

To be very honest, this was my first ever TV show experience. Before watching this I did not know TV shows existed. I watched this back in 2013. I was very intrigued on the first episode itself. The story revolves around Elena, Stephan and Damon. This trio saves each other and the people they love constantly for the 8 seasons, tackling all odds that come in their ways.
Plot: (This is based on a Book Series by L.J. Smith)
The show begins with Elena’s parent’s death and she is now an orphan staying with her aunt and brother. On her first day back at school she meets Bonnie and she shares a news with Elena stating that she is a witch. After reaching school she meets Stephan who is the new guy who took admission recently. She is attracted towards him and tries to be his friend. They both then embark on a difficult journey of balancing the beam between Humans, witches and the predator species of Vampires, werewolves, sirens and travellers.

There is a new concept of Doppelgangers which was introduced in this which brought out a different angle.
Absolutely loved the plot till a point where the things were not unnecessarily stretched. Even though the show was stretched the ending seemed rushed. The climax of each season was okayish and not much of a cliff-hanger. What made me hooked to the series was: with every new season bought in not only new characters but new suspense and thrill.
Characters:
I loved all the side characters in this series. Even though Elena is the do-gooder and all compassionate but she did not work for me. I loved Caroline and Bonnie they were quite strong minded and could kick-ass whenever needed. I have a thing for witches and I loved all the witches in this show good or bad no matter what. The representation of all the diverse character in this show is too good. Stephen was over-caring and I felt he somehow got his way with everyone. He felt way too good to be true kind.
This show is filled with morally grey characters. The villains are more adorable and drool worthy than the heroes. I loved the moment Damon came on-screen I mean the way he says “Hello Brother” is something.
There were a Original Family Introduced in Season 2 where the The Mikaelsons were centralised as the main villains until they were given their own spin-off show. I loved the way they took the main stage and the story revolved around them. It was very m

Romance:
It is a YA show but still has some real hot steamy scenes. Some tropes in this series are my favourite like the Enemies to lover trope for the main protagonist, Forbidden love trope between a witch and a vampire (not mentioning the names to save you from the spoiler).
There were some couples in the series whose portrayal could have been done in a better way and they could have made them existent for a longer period of time. There were a lot of breakups and it was dis-heartening and painful.

Suspense / thrill:
The author and the directors maintained the thrill by introducing new characters. There was a lot of drama and suspense. The villains were very well written and the show even though stretched was a bit of entertainment and quite addicting.
What did not work for me?
I really hated when the main villain from the series was unceremoniously killed. I mean what the hell was that (sorry for the emotional breakout, I needed a break.). I wanted more action and she did not deserve that end for sure. There were some people I really wanted to be made into couple and deserved each other in all the ways and would have made the show spicier which did not happen and that was a major buzzkill.

- “Because When People See Good They Expect Good.”
- “When It’s Real, You Can’t Walk Away.”
- “He’s Your First Love. I Intend To Be Your Last, However Long It Takes.”
- “You Want A Love That Consumes You. You Want Passion And Adventure And Even A Little Danger.”
- “The first rule of truly living – do the thing you are most afraid of.”
- “The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them.”
- “What difference does it make? Because in the end, when you lose somebody, every candle, every prayer is not going to make up for the fact that the only thing you have left is a hole in your life where that somebody that you cared about used to be.”
- “No matter how much I missed you or how much pain I was in, I never would have erased everything we ever had. Even if I was drowning in grief, I’d rather hang on to every moment that I ever held you, or every laugh I ever heard, every shred of happiness that we ever had. I would rather spend every moment in agony then erase the memory of you.”
- “There is no such thing as bad ideas. Just poorly executed awesome ideas.”
- “When anybody tells me I can’t do something, I prove them wrong.”
- “You are not even worth the calories I burn talking to you.”
Recommend: Overall, I liked the show till Season 5 I recommend it to everyone to watch till that, without a doubt. After that it gets a little boring and that ending is heart breaking so you might want to skip that and watch Originals Instead or Legacies which are the Spin off from this series.
