[suggestion] The Vampire Diaries Universe

[gaymer77]

OK so I'm late to the whole The Vampire Diaries Universe. I got hooked with what is the third offering of TVDU Legacies. What Legacies did right was allowed the viewer to enjoy the show without needing to have seen either of the other two shows to understand it. Yes, a viewer who had seen one/both of TVDU shows would understand in more detail some elements from the past but the way the writers gave it to us who had never seen the others was to give us what we needed to know to get the plot development.

All that being said, now I want to watch both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. The only thing is, I don't know what order I should be watching them. I know The Vampire Diaries aired 2009-2017 and The Originals aired 2013-2018 and lead directly to when Legacies first aired. I also know there are cross-overs galore between all three The Vampire Diaries Universe shows. Do I start with watching all of The Vampire Diaries then move onto The Originals or start with The Vampire Diaries then add in The Originals and go back & forth? Basically I'm wanting to know what is the "best" way to view The Vampire Diaries & The Originals.

[VMSmith]

My wife was a fan of all three series and got me watching for the last season or two of The Originals and we got through two or three seasons of Legacies before losing interest.

Do I start with watching all of The Vampire Diaries then move onto The Originals or start with The Vampire Diaries then add in The Originals and go back & forth?

I'd probably recommend the back & forth with the first two shows, watching them in airing order so the crossovers make sense. Legacies started after The Originals had ended so that doesn't even factor in.

[Gumble]

Oh lord, you started with the worst out of the three. Hope is the only redeeming part of that show since they remove all the charisma from Rick.

TVD was ok, too high school oriented which made it feel too Twilighty and the later seasons wore on a bit, but it was an ok show.

Originals..... man.... just great. Someone finally said "hey what would vampires actually act like if they were adults and written for adults?" Its like a cross between Anne Rice and Game of Thrones. I wish they could have done that show on HBO or something where they could have really pushed the envelope, but as it was, it was amazing for a CW product. Finally a vampire show that isn't centered around someone's love for a high school girl. Queue Vin Disiel to say "Its about family!" Easily the best of the bunch and the actress they settle on for Hope is the only reason I watched Legacies

Legacies..... Hope, that's all that's worth it. Everything else is so childish that after Originals it feels like they took such a giant step backwards that even TVD looks good by comparison now. Legacies leaned into camp and childish stories instead of building from the amazing "legacy" that Originals left for it.

Unless a guest from Originals or TVD was there, most of the episodes were embarrassingly bad.

[eschatological]

TVD was ok, too high school oriented which made it feel too Twilighty and the later seasons wore on a bit, but it was an ok show.

Couldn't get past a season of this show because of the above, even though I was a fan of Ian Somerholder from LOST. Didn't even realize there's a whole set of shows in the same universe. Should I pick them up? Vampire mythos should be, in theory, interesting.

FWIW, I watched all of True Blood, in re: modern vampire stories. The last few seasons were ridiculous, but I still watched them.

[VMSmith]

FWIW, I watched all of True Blood, in re: modern vampire stories. The last few seasons were ridiculous, but I still watched them.

The ridiculousness was part of the joy!

But I'd say TVD takes its subject matter more seriously than True Blood, which as you point out was often somewhat camp. Russell Edgington draining a newscaster on live TV was just so silly it was awesome.

Others have mentioned, but TVD will give you a bit more of the teen drama but not so much that it's off-putting. All the shows are drama, but that's the genre they (and True Blood) belong to so that's no big deal. You'll get some overacting, just roll with it

[Gumble]

Couldn't get past a season of this show because of the above, even though I was a fan of Ian Somerholder from LOST. Didn't even realize there's a whole set of shows in the same universe. Should I pick them up? Vampire mythos should be, in theory, interesting.

FWIW, I watched all of True Blood, in re: modern vampire stories. The last few seasons were ridiculous, but I still watched them.

TVD is basically between Twilight and True Blood.... its got the violence (albeit muted due to CW) of True Blood with the teen drama of Twilight. The teen drama stuff starts to subside a bit as the seasons go on (and as the cast has to get older), but its still there to a degree. Its a decent mix of the two, as long as you are interested in both.

Originals is the best, and worth watching TVD to better understand. Originals is the best vampire thing I've watched, period.

Watch this to see if you'd like the Originals, as the story is basically centered around Hope's father. If this doesn't make you want to watch it, then you just love the teen drama stuff too much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZdzhUfX6Ro

[eschatological]

That seems super spoilery, so I stopped watching it. Seems interesting though.

[Gumble]

That seems super spoilery, so I stopped watching it. Seems interesting though.

That's fair. I don't think you'd get TOO spoiled from it, though it will clue you into some of the things they face over the show. I watched it for the first time when Legacies came out and Hope took her boyfriend (hate that guy) to the library and he saw "Klaus Michaelson: The Great Evil" book. It summed up the show so well that I have always liked that video.