Sunday, October 17, 2010

5 reasons why vampire dramas work

1. We love an impossible love story. A vampire-human relationship is about as impossible as they come. A vampire drama has enough UST to keep us watching for 7 seasons.

2. Longing for ... what? We all know this angst. Vampire dramas capture it so well.

3. We love superhero stories but feel silly watching them as adults. Good vampires are superheroes without the fancy dress.

4. We love a fight scene. Gun fights are over so fast and there's too much blood. Vampires and demons fight with their fists and cool wooden stakes. Afterwards, there's no messy corpse to deal with - just dust on the floor.

5. Once vampires are accepted as reasonable, the door is open for demon characters, witches, mind readers etc. So many possibilities.

2 comments:

  1. 'Once vampires are accepted as reasonable, the door is open for demon characters, witches, mind readers etc. So many possibilities.'

    I like very much that you see this as a positive outcome.

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  2. All true. I'd also add, that vampire stories are so clearly escapist that a writer who is so inclined can then say some things about the nature of life and how it should be lived and it still doesn't feel as though you're watching a show that's taking itself too seriously.

    And that's one of Josh Whedon's motivators, something along the lines of, 'We escape into a fantasy realm in order to use it to shed light on how life works in the real world. Because that's all that matters.'

    It's why I like most of his work so much (haven't tied Dollhouse yet, and have heard reports that it might go beyond my moral tolerances) even though I fundamentally disagree with him. I can switch off, and yet still have some insight about life to chew over at the end.

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