The Vampire Diaries

Diaries promises us a season of sharp-tongued amusement.

There’s an engrossing moodiness to Mr. Williamson’s latest venture, but one he conveys without annulling the pact he long ago made with himself never to let his cheekiness go undetected.

Competent as Vampire may be, there's also something rehashed and filtered about it, to the point where it sometimes feels like the kiddie-ride version of "True Blood," and perhaps appropriately so.

Williamson and Julie Plec--working from L.J. Smith's books, which actually preceded "Twilight"--mix these familiar elements into a crimson cocktail that even gets reasonable mileage out of its cliches, which ought to give this early riser a chance to establish some fan loyalty before the other networks launch their Thursday lineups.

In between bouts of underage drinking, texting, girl-bonding, and the inevitable minor-key whine of a soundtrack, that is. "True Blood Lite" or "Transylvania 90210." And you know what? It is. Almost exactly. But this is not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all. Because Vampire Diaries knows precisely what it is--a Gothic romance--and doesn't try to be anything else.

What women really want was never more simply put than in the CW's compelling Vampire Diaries.

The pop allusions (to Carson Daly, Alfred Hitchcock) and the fog-machine-based production design are flat and unambitious. But “The Vampire Diaries’’ nonetheless satisfactorily opens up yet another TV world of heightened youth, where blood-sucking is a metaphor for a whole range of fears and desires.

By staking turf between "True Blood" and "Twilight," Vampire Diaries hopes it has found the promised land. The danger is it could also be no man's land.

As teen shows go, the pilot is entertaining enough; future episodes will reveal if the show truly has much bite.

Since there's no "Twilight" movie in theaters right now, there's no point in resisting The Vampire Diaries, some prefab filler premiering tonight.

No, it's not Twilight--but it's not bad, either. The Vampire Diaries, The CW's new fang-gang drama, successfully hitches the sanguinary sexuality of the vampire ethos to the in-group/out-group dynamic of the teen soap.

A tolerably flavorsome ball of crimson bubblegum.

Damon ("Lost's" Ian Somerhalder) complains. "Remember, Stefan--it's important to stay away from fads." If only the CW would listen.

I’ve got nothing against Vampire Diaries. Since it lacks broad appeal and hasn’t a clever bone in its body, it will probably be a hit, unlike CW shows I’ve stuck up for (like “Reaper” and “Aliens in America”).

Where is that Buffy chick when you need her?

Williamson also wrote the "Scream" trilogy, but there's neither humor nor horror here, unless you count some of the acting and casting.

It’s not that The Vampire Diaries is a truly terrible show. It’s just so insipid and uninspired.

I expected more sparky wordplay from a Williamson show, but the Vampire Diaries pilot is pretty limp and lifeless in that department. The attractive cast is... attractive. Let's be kind and say that they are not all blessed with the same level of competence in the acting department.

Pretty, sensible teenage vampires who talk like depressed extras on "Hannah Montana"? Why, Diary? Why?

CW's version details the dull, dull doings of the world's clammiest vamps, who may flash fangs and skulk around in dark cemeteries (ever see a bright one?) but who come up fatally flat in terms of mayhem and menace.