Don't Judge a Show by the Cover

Back to school 2010 after the Term 2 holidays (if you’re in New Zealand) I remember I was keen, I was ready… wait no I wasn’t. I could still fit in a couple of yawns on my way to science class with one of the most horrible teachers ever who thought it was cool to wear lipstick on her cheeks instead of blush and strip a layer because someone had to point out she had a hole in her shirt. Fortunately she didn’t have a hole in her singlet. You’d think she was a happy little queen of the leprechauns but deep down under she had 50 detention slips up her sleeve. Not pointing out anyone in particular but how many times have you heard the name Mrs. White? I've known about four, coincidently all old, not to mention Mrs. White in Cluedo which makes five and she’s old too so it makes it harder to avoid cringing every time I hear the name. Anyway I get up the stairs, open the door, sit down at a desk, look at my friends and remember why I’m here…gossip sesh. This was about the same time the first few episodes of The Vampire Diaries had aired and also a period of me being quite over the idea of vampires. However my days during science class were to be forever filled with unintelligible nonsense called… how am I supposed to remember what work we were supposed to be doing that year? So there was nothing better to do than allow my friends to bombard me with talk of this new show called The Vampire Diaries. It took me several weeks of listening to them recapping the episodes to cave in to this vampire fever but I have these two friends who are just so very persuasive. By the end of the year, if someone had asked me what I’d learned during science, I would have been able to give them a full rundown of the vampire diaries even without having watched the episodes. It’s actually that good to rave about.

Prior to this I had no intention of even looking at a vampire 
book or movie, turned off by lame supernatural clichés and cheesy catchphrases like-
Bella, I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me. The thought of you, still, white, cold… to never see you blush scarlet again, to never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretences… it would be unendurable. You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever. 
Sounds to me like lame poetry that on average would take at least ten minutes to come up with, maybe half an hour to think of “through my pretences” or “flash of intuition.” Compared to The Vampire Diaries- 
“Do you wanna know.. what I would write? I met a girl.. we talked.. it was epic.. and the sun came up and reality set in. All this is reality. Right here.” 

They even told me “it’s nothing like Twilight or any other vampire show you’ve heard of,” and I said “no it sounds lame,” just because of the name and the idea but after explaining it a bit because there truly is a lot to say about its forever cliff-hanging plots and newly arising conflicts. When I had a taste of the first episode I knew by the natural lighting, casual music, realistic dialogue and varied scenery that I was going to like it. The first countertype which had me thinking twice about the many clichés I expected, was a scene of Elena sitting in a graveyard with a happy expression rather than an intense, sad, dull or emotional one, and not because she likes to sit in graveyards writing in her diary either but because she was reminiscing of the days when her parents were alive while the sun beams down on her between the trees rather than a spooky forest. I’d recommend it to anyone deciding to watch something new who still had ideas that put them off vampire fiction due to the many stereotypes associated with the genre. Easier said than done but this is one show to not judge by its cover.