Guilty Pleasures

This was a topic that I never quite got around to blogging about during my 365 Day Challenge (which is funny because I often panicked over having something to write about!) Well, now I have the opportunity to write about some of my guilty pleasures.

Ah, guilty pleasures: those things you secretly enjoy in private but are ashamed to admit in public; and they aren’t bad or illegal things, mind you, just things that you wouldn’t necessarily volunteer to share with anyone. These are the things you wouldn’t want to include on your resume or your profile on Facebook. These are things that may be completely contrary to your personality, age or even gender.

Well, I have many guilty pleasures and today I am going to go out on a limb and share one of them. And I am begging/pleading that you, dear reader, do not judge me as you read this or decide to “de-friend” me on Facebook or disown me. Here we go:

The Vampire Diaries. I am totally hooked on this TV show now, and I blame my brother Jordan and his wife Erin for getting me into this show. They have watched this show and bought the first season on Blu Ray, which they lent it me, recommending that I watch this show. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this show in the beginning; initially I just shrugged it off as another wannabe Twilight (oh, yeah, that’s another guilty pleasure of mine). But then I remembered that Jordan and Erin have made other recommendations to me in the past and all have been excellent: Chick-fil-A; Cold Stone Ice Cream (Sweet Cream flavor); Ugly Betty, just to name a few. So, I started watching the first season last week…I was hooked after the first episode! I guess you could say that I was “sucked in” to it!! Get it? Vampires? Sucked in?

So why is this a guilty pleasure? Well, this show is based on a young adult series of books (probably geared more towards a teenage girl than an almost middle-aged guy) and is full of beautiful, young 20-somethings portraying teenagers (except for the 2 male leads, who are both over 150 years old!). There’s the usual angst about high school, dating, being accepted, blah blah blah. And there is the whole “vampire” business. It seems very reminiscent to the Twilight series, but there are some specific differences that makes this show unique and ultimately very entertaining.

Damon Salvatore, Elena Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore

The main character is the beautiful Elena Gilbert (Bella Swan?), who lives in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia (Forks, Washington?). She is in love with a vampire named Stefan Salvatore, who does not feed on the blood of humans (Edward Cullen?). Stefan has an older brother named Damon, who is initially an evil, dangerous, yet charismatic vampire who has no qualms about feeding on humans. Stefan and Damon were both in love with same woman back in 1864 (the year when the city of Mystic Falls was founded) named Katherine, who looks exactly like Elena. Katherine was beautiful but also a deadly vampire who turned Stefan and Damon. She was thought to have been killed with other vampires by the townspeople of Mystic Falls, but it is then revealed that the vampires were kept alive in a tomb.

There are so many other plot twists and turns on this show, not just with how Bella…I mean, Elena and Edward…I mean, Stefan deal with their complicated relationship. There are storylines that revolve around the history of the town, family secrets, witches, and battles between humans and vampires. But what also appeals to me about this show is the cast. A very talented, engaging group of actors - all of them give memorable, believable performances!

So, here I am, suddenly fascinated with this show and anxious to watch the next season (which will hopefully come out on Blu Ray soon!) The Vampire Diaries is one of my guilty pleasures...more of my guilty pleasures to come later!