The Show
The Vampire Diaries The Complete First Season brings the popular series of L.J. Smith books to the small screen, but it arrives via the mind of Kevin Williamson so yes, we need to dig in for a lot of high school drama/romance in the mold of his notorious Dawson's Creek. In the small New England town of Mystic Falls, a gaggle of impossibly attractive "teenagers" find themselves suddenly joined by two oh-so-angry, oh-so-pretty brothers. One is trying to be good, the other loves being bad, and they both happen to be vampires who hail from The Falls, a really, really long time ago.
A local girl, recently orphaned, reminds them of a woman from their past, and a love triangle of sorts develops, providing ample fodder for their journals (see title). Dark truths and mysterious relationships are hinted at in the pilot, eventually revealed throughout the season, as two secret sects prepare for a long-overdue confrontation.
The Picture
The show is shot on digital video, and while the scenes can be foggy at times, the 1.78:1 image is solid and clean. Shadows can be noisy however, and harsh brights and streaking issues of video (as opposed to film-based content) are on display. The VC-1 bitrate can vary more wildly than I am used to seeing; passing 40 megabits-per-second, other times single digits, but often settling under 20; and so the overall quality varies here as well. Even static close-ups can be hindered a lack of detail, I noted bizarre ghosting in some shots, and blacks are as dead as a... well, you know.
The Sound
A crow cawing early on lets us know that this track is capable of discrete surrounds, and the quality is fine overall, but limited. The audio is presented in old-school Dolby Digital 5.1 only, not one of the high-res formats. Of course, there is a lot of pop music and that's mixed well into the show, either over or as part of the scene, as in the local hangout. There are mildly creative instances of super-human vampire-hearing, but ultimately the audio here is entirely unspectacular, timid: a sonically boring car crash, boring fireworks fer cryin' out loud!
The Extras
Executive producers/writers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec are joined by director Marcos Siega for the audio commentary on the pilot episode, thankfully marked with a spoiler alert as they discuss plot points that are have yet to be revealed at this early stage. "Into Mystic Falls" goes in-depth on the challenges of bringing the books to life (25 minutes), and "When Vampires Don't Suck!" (19 minutes) explains the importance of the fans in the process. "A New Breed of Vampires" (13 minutes) covers the casting of the series, the auditioning process and even shares selected screen tests.
"Vampires 101" clues us in on the specific vampire rules in this world (seven minutes), while the four webisodes of The Vampire Diaries: A Darker Truth tell a parallel serial tale. All of these video extras are in high definition. There's also a four-minute gag reel as well as unaired scenes for nine of the 22 episodes, these in a low-bitrate VC-1 more akin to standard definition. Episode-specific extras are conveniently organized with handy icons.
Disc Four also carries an unabridged audiobook of the very first L.J. Smith Vampire Diaries bestseller, The Awakening, read by Rebecca Mozo (six-and-a-half hours). We can listen to it on any Blu-ray player, but the only way to transfer the MP3 version is via a PC or Mac equipped with a Blu-ray disc drive, which is likely to exclude a great many potential fans. All four discs also support BD-Live.
Final Thoughts
In a Twilight-obsessed culture, a weekly series about vampires plus teenagers with issues seems a no-brainer. The Vampire Diaries delivers all of the melodrama a young adult could hope for, although the audio and video in this set is a drop anemic.
Product Details
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