40 binge-worthy TV shows: Watch them all right now because who needs sleep
By Sundi Rose
Photo: The CW
The Vampire Diaries – Netflix
The Vampire Diaries is soapy escape at its finest. Eking in on the tail end of the pop culture fascination with vampires, it hit us in all our teen soap sweet spots. It’s got young, beautiful people with abs and cheekbones to spare. It’s got highly implausible supernatural storylines, and, best of all, it’s got Ian Somerhalder giving us smoldering eyes every single episode.
The first episode of TVD picks up with Elena Gilbert writing in her diary in a cemetery, naturally. Elena is grappling with the death of her parents and using her close group of girlfriends as a support system. Enter a mysterious and brooding hunk who has enough soulful looks to separate every single high school girl from their knickers. (It’s not even Ian Somerhalder. It’s Paul Wesley, meaning that there are two mysterious and brooding hunks.)
Elena & Co. live their lives sorting out the regular teenage stuff, but more importantly they are constantly having to save themselves (and the world) from imminent doom. There’s love triangles galore, spells to do the impossible, and more tear-jerking moments than any well-adjusted person can handle on a good day.
Starring: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Sara Canning and Kat Graham