The CW adds 'The Vampire Diaries' to its supernatural lineup

The Vampire Diaries cast

I am a sucker for all things supernatural. Even if I have a good feeling that the particular book, movie, or TV series will suck beyond belief. I’ll give it a chance.

Starting this Thursday, The CW will be opening its night of horrors. The series premiere of The Vampire Diaries airs at 8/7 central, followed by the the fifth season premier of Supernatural. Supernatural has certainly earned its stripes and is one of the better supernatural series airing right now. Whether The Vampire Diaries will deliver is still up in the air.

Bestselling author L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries first hit the bookshelves in 1991. While her series of books never garnered the popularity of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, they have always had a solid following. This following will likely grow in the coming months as fans rush to catch up on the original stories so they can compare the books and the episodes.

Many ill-informed have been calling this series a copycat of Twilight, not realizing that Smith’s books were released nearly 15 years prior to Meyer’s offering to the genre. But, the revival of this series and its adaptation into a TV show owe some credit to the recent popularity of both Twilight and the HBO series True Blood.

People have a fascination with vampires, and this fascination has flared up again in the last couple of years.

Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec are the writers and executive producers of the show. Williamson, creator of Dawson’s Creek, is no stranger to love triangles. One can only hope that he can avoid the pitfalls of the later seasons of that show and keep up the halfway decent offerings of its earlier seasons.

Though I’ve never read The Vampire Diaries, I am a bit intrigued. I’ll give it a couple of episodes.

Really. I’m not going to lie. It’s about vampires — I’ll probably watch the entire season, no matter how bad it gets.

Here’s a trailer for you to decide if it’s worth spending an hour of your life on this Thursday:

If you’re really interested in this series, you can check out a few webisodes that serve as a prequel to the show.

• A Darker Truth: Webisode 1