Back in the day (‘the day’ being the time when I was in the middle of my teens and really into romance novels), The Vampire Diaries was the teen show of all teen shows.
It was like the Twilight of television but with a slightly better plot, better actors and a darker more ~mature~ storyline. It had all of the trimmings: angsty high school romance, family betrayal, sexy vampires, badass witches, werewolves and all of the sexual energy a teenager could dream of.
Also, the two main male leads looked like this:
The Vampire Diaries aired ten years ago (!!!) and, looking back, I realise it was the last good show to come out of the crappy teenage genre. It had a cast of characters each with depth and their own personal storylines which unfolded along with the main plot.
It had the ability to introduce new creatures (see the witches and werewolves mentioned above) in a believable way and, most importantly, it didn’t have any cheap arse musical episodes.
The Vampire Diaries was the peak of crappy teen shows. In its later seasons, however, it was also the beginning of rock bottom for the genre.
It suffered at the hands of the same thing all good, long running television shows suffer from: too many seasons. It ran for a total of 8 seasons and 7 years which is basically forever in TV time.
It’s believable character arc became a mockery – I stopped watching after Damon was brought back from the dead for the third time.
It also got a spinoff which basically screams “quick do something the original show is losing relevance”.
Despite its crappy later seasons and a spinoff that we don’t talk about, The Vampire Diaries is still better than the teen shows to come out of the last few years.
One watch of Riverdale, and you’ll know what I mean – high school drugs and local gangs have nothing on Elena, Stefan and Damon’s love triangle.
The same goes for shows like Gossip Girl, The OC, and Gilmore Girls – these are the kinds of shows that struck the perfect balance between trashy, believable and bingeable. In the age of Netflix, it’s rare to find teen shows that have more than a single strong season. Riverdale fizzled after two, 13 Reasons Why after one.
It’s ironic and a damned shame.
Suddenly, all of the teen shows aren’t good crappy, they’re just plain old bad.