Doux Top Twenty! Number 11: The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is number 11 in the Doux top twenty hitting shows.

When TVD began, I really didn’t like it. Thankfully, Josie Kafka hung in until it got good, and that encouraged me to give it a second try. I'm glad I did.

And here’s Josie to tell us about it.

Five TV Shows I Stopped Watching

More often than not, a show we enjoy or love to death will lose its way and test the extent of our faithfulness to it. We can either watch it until the bitter end or let it go once we realize the magic that hooked us is gone. I have done both. How I Met Your Mother was a TV series I stuck with for pure loyalty. The struggle was real, though, and I fast forward through several of the final season episodes. The thing is, it's much easier – and healthier, even – to just let it go. With that in mind, I compiled a list of shows to which I said goodbye before they were over, why I did it and if I would consider going back and finishing them.

Spoilers below!

Vampire Diaries/Originals Crossover Guide

The Vampire Diaries ran from 2009 to 2017. During its second season members of the original family of vampires, The Mikaelsons, started trickling in. Eventually The Originals got its own spin-off set in New Orleans, LA and over the next few years characters made their ways back and forth.

Vampire Diaries: I Was Feeling Epic

“You’re nothing if not utterly predictable.”

Eight seasons—and 171 episodes—ago, Billie and I, like many of you, were underwhelmed by the latest Buffy copycat. Since that lackluster premiere, the show has shifted from great to decent to dull, but this final episode brought it to a satisfying close.

Vampire Diaries: We're Planning a June Wedding

“Live your life, Bonnie Bennett. All of it.”

Do you remember the Community episode “Social Psychology”? It’s the one with the Duncan Principle. Professor Duncan, played by a still-shaggy John Oliver, runs an experiment on unwitting students to prove his hypothesis: that waiting endlessly for a payoff that never comes will drive you crazy.

Vampire Diaries: It’s Been a Hell of a Ride

“But first, I need your help.”

Tonally dissonant, with lots of CW-level special effects and more Spin Doctors than you ever wanted to hear in this millennium, The Vampire Diaries’s antepenultimate episode had more twists than a loaf of challah and more surprises than an Easter basket.

Vampire Diaries: The Lies Are Going to Catch Up with You

“Invisique!”

With only three episodes left, The Vampire Diaries has three goals: keep us interested, raise the stakes, and still give us some pleasant nostalgia. They aced the third item this week with the reintroduction of a fun new villain and a few long-missed pairings.

Vampire Diaries: What Are You?

“Miss me?”

Last week I rewatched the premiere of The Vampire Diaries. That episode was so underwhelming that Billie called it “Muppet Babies with fangs” (you know a line is good when I remember it unprompted eight years later), but it did have the seeds of TVD greatness that kept us all watching this show for so many years.

Vampire Diaries: You Made a Choice to Be Good

“Thanks for the insight.”

Well, I think we have to start with the end, don’t we?

Vampire Diaries: Nostalgia’s a Bitch

“Follow the clues.”

This episode was really good!

Vampire Diaries: The Simple Intimacy of the Near Touch

“Don’t forget to smile. Not because society tells you you have to, but because you’re excited to be at such an illustrious town event.”

Watching The Vampire Diaries is like running into a former flame gone to seed. There are glimpses of what you used to love, but most of your attention is taken up by noticing how far they’ve fallen and how maybe the signs were there all along.

Vampire Diaries: We Have History Together

“That’s why it’s called history. It won’t repeat.”

The Vampire Diaries has always occupied a moral gray zone. To watch it the “right” way means assuming that our heroes’ survival matters more than anyone else’s. To watch it the “wrong” way is to see this as eight seasons of selfish pretty people ruining the lives of everyone around them in order to continue their petty, needlessly complicated lives.

Vampire Diaries: The Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You

“Ho, ho, ho!”

Let’s take a minute to talk about suspense. Remember when people died on this show? And how now, they don’t? (Tyler doesn’t count.) If Elena’s Sleeping Beauty spell is basically a metaphor for this show’s pacing, this episode’s opening shocker is a metaphor for suspense. The episode started with Stefan’s voiceover about how it may be his last day on earth, reminding us of everything at stake.

Vampire Diaries: Detoured on Some Backwoods Path to Hell

“Get the kids out of the car seats. Let’s go summon the devil.”

The two magical twins are adorable little McGuffins this week, as everyone—including the police—scrambles to find them before the Sirens can feed them to Cade in exchange for freedom.

Vampire Diaries: Coming Home Was a Mistake

“All this trauma.”

Midway through this episode, Sybil tells Damon that he still has shred of humanity left. He doesn’t know why Sybil wants him to sever ties with his friends. He doesn’t know why she wants him all to herself. All he knows is that he did something bad, and he feels bad.

Vampire Diaries: An Eternity of Misery

“Major project? Sounds sketchy. Got a girl tied up in the basement?”

…in which the writers try to trick us—but we’re too smart for that!

Vampire Diaries: You Decided that I Was Worth Saving

“Whenever I form the words to tell you what’s going on, it comes out applesauce penguin.”

Will you judge me if I admit that this episode left very little impression on me? I watched it and almost immediately forgot it, even though things happened and events developed. Is TVD spinning its wheels or burning through plot? Do we even know the difference anymore?

Vampire Diaries: Today Will Be Different

“So it was all for nothing?”

For seven seasons, Bonnie has been our Mikey. You remember Mikey, right? He’s the kid from the Life cereal commercials. He’ll try anything if his friends ask him to, just like Bonnie—until now.

Vampire Diaries: Hello, Brother

“To be honest, I’m just glad the whole vampire craze is over.”

We’re here, dear readers. After eight seasons, we’re finally in the home stretch: just 16 episodes left. The end is, in fact, nigh. And that means we’re all wondering if TVD will go out strong or whimper its way to an end.

Vampire Diaries: Gods & Monsters

“Best case scenario: we destroy it and everything goes back to normal.”

After a string of episodes that consisted mostly of people driving around the South while talking on their cell phones, it was nice to get (almost) the whole gang together at the Armory, even though—of course—things didn’t quite turn out as planned.