25 Best Fantasy TV Series, Ranked Worst to First
By Shawn Lealos
9. Vampire Diaries / The Originals
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed the way television presented the fantasy genre for mainstream audiences, The Vampire Diaries took it one step further and created what might be the most popular fantasy-based nighttime soap in television history. Following the success of Supernatural, which was geared mainly for male audiences, Vampire Diaries brought mystery and danger and added the romantic subplots that sucked in the female demographic.
Debuting in 2009, The Vampire Diaries takes place in a fictional town in Virginia and follows the life of a teenage girl named Elena (Nina Dobrev) whose parents die and soon falls in love with a 162-year-old vampire, Stefan (Paul Wesley). When Stefan’s older brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) returns, things get very complicated when a love triangle forms between the three.
If it sounds like Twilight, it is very close proximity to the story of a young girl falling in love with a mysterious vampire. However, Vampire Diaries is much better plotted and written and turned into a solid and entertaining story through its eight seasons. There were a total of 171 episodes before the series concluded in 2017.
In 2013, a spin-off arrived called The Originals. This series took Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson leaving Vampire Diaries and returning to New Orleans where they faced their own trials and tribulations. The spin-off has lasted four seasons with 79 episodes and will finish with a final fifth season in 2018.