Not as campy as True Blood, and a lot darker....

What I noticed:
- The blond girl at the beginning was tripping because she was now a vampire.
- Then the black girl came around being all sinister and provoking.
- The brunette girl trapped in a flaming crop circle while the black girl slit her wrist to get the blond girl to drink more blood.
- Then that other woman got jumped by the evil male vampire who ripped her heart out.
- The guys trying to save the blond girl; the blond guy trying to offer himself as her replacement.
- The blond girl gets staked to death by the evil vampire, who then bites the brunette girls neck.
- The evil vampire's seemingly good brother has the chance to kill him, but backs out at the last minute.
- The dark haired girl is saved.
- The episode ends with them going to the blonds funeral, and Ian Somerhalder showing where he'd been I guess fatally bit by a werewolf.

One more thing I noticed was that these vampires can exist in the sun. It's gonna take me a while to get into this, because the storyline is very convoluted and intricate. And I would start watching the second to last episode of the season.

Yeah you would have to get to know the characters, the main ones are Ian Somerholder (Damian) and they guy Stefan (the blonde guy) that plays his Brother and the dark haired girl Elena and her brother Jeremy (Steve McQueen's grandson) The Blonde that got staked was Elena's Aunt Jenna, she was their legal guardian because Elena's adoptive parents were killed in a car accident. The other black girl Bonnie is a Witch and the girfriend of Jeremy and Elana's best friend. I was stunned that they killed off Jenna, I liked her.

Even though it was my first episode, I found her death was a bit unnerving. Especially when seconds before it happened, the girl told her to turn off her human emotions....as almost a way of conceding to the reality that certain death was GOING to happen. Something about the climax of the episode reminded me of the movie Carrie.

If you knew her for 2 seasons like I have the death would be even more unnerving you should watch some episodes online and try to become familiar with the characters, its quite an addictive show. Yep there was enough blood shed to almost be like Carrie.

Tony Marino wrote:

If you knew her for 2 seasons like I have the death would be even more unnerving you should watch some episodes online and try to become familiar with the characters, its quite an addictive show. Yep there was enough blood shed to almost be like Carrie.

Yeah if she was a regular character for 2 seasons, I imagine that death would have bothered long time viewers. I was just thinking about checking out the summer reruns but the show is so convoluted that I see I might have to start with from beginning (pilot).

That is a good idea. In season 1 its explained by going back in time how Damon and Stefan became Vampires and the story of Catherine and why she looks exactly like Elena. It was a good season, you would enjoy it.

Now that I think about it, I remember watching the pilot episode. It came on the heels of True Blood and I called myself getting into another vampire show....but I don't know why I did keep on watching. I think I was expecting it to be as cartoony and OTT as TB and was put off when it wasn't. Before the weekend is out I'm gonna try and find a site that has the full pilot and watch it again.

Did you ever see the pilot over the weekend?

I couldn't find it. The CW website is only streaming select episodes. Do you know of a site where they have all the VD episodes available for viewing?

I found the pilot episode, it has spanish subtitles but at least its spoken english

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=watch+vampire+diaries+season+1+online