50 best television shows set across the United States
By Sundi Rose
Virginia: The Vampire Diaries
The premise: This show is another addition to our American fascination with vampires and monsters. The Vampire Diaries is about a young woman, Elena, resident damsel-in-distress, who falls in love with not one, but two sexy vampires, who just happen to be brothers.
Their little Virginia town has more supernatural creatures, per capita, than any other fictional town, to date. They just keep coming and coming, and it’s up to Elena and her lovers to keep everyone safe, with a little help from some of their friends.
The setting: The Virginia town in which every terrible, immortal being comes to vacation, is called Mystic Falls and it has its own special history and mythology. There are all kinds of stories about founders and magic twins, and you can’t throw a rock in that town without hitting someone who wants to murder you in a really gruesome way.
The most Virginia thing about it: This show isn’t afraid to dip into its town’s antebellum past. There are countless flashbacks to the Old South, with problematic representations of people of color and giant hoop skirts. The buildings all look like they should be historic landmarks, and the town commemorates something at least once a month.