Get Back to Binging! Here's What to Watch

Hey everyone!

This is the first installment of our What to Watch series, where we recommend you movies, shows, and streamers, etc. To kick off the new series, we're recommending a string of shows teeming with drama, action, and bloodsuckers! If you love vampires, witches, and werewolves, then check out The Vampire Diaries and both of its sequel series The Originals and Legacies. Coming from The CW, you know its marvelously melodramatic and nostalgically campy. You can find all these shows on Netflix. With season four of Legacies currently airing on TV, now is the perfect time to dive into this vampiric world and binge all the seasons before it comes to Netflix. Not convinced? Wanna skip around and just check out one show but not sure which one? Here's a little more about each show to help you decide.

(BEWARE! SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!)

The Vampire Diaries

From 2009-2017, The Vampire Diaries took viewers on a juicy journey filled with rich monologuing, supernatural drama, and more relationship drama than Ted Mosby's love life. (If you don't get that reference, please - for the love of Keanu Reeves - go watch How I Met Your Mother. If you do, welcome Captain.)

Based on L. J. Smith's book series, The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural teen drama tv show created by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec (the woman who gleefully drinks the tears of her viewers).

It stars Nina Dobrev as the journaling teen Elena Gilbert, Kat Graham as the boss witch Bonnie Bennett, Candice King as the kind but shallow airhead friend Caroline Forbes, Paul Wesley as the brooding "vegetarian" vampire boy Stefan Salvatore and Ian Somerhalder as the dark comedy king Damon Salvatore - the "bad boy" vampire.

Set in the fictional small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, the show follows the dramatic lives of these supernatural teens from high school through college and beyond. If you love morally dark grey characters and insane (roller coaster like) character development, then this is the show for you. This show truly is a wild ride with various supernatural mythology popping up and crazy plot lines & twists.

For example, watch YouTuber Dylanisintrouble's "First and Last Episode of The Vampire Diaries" reaction video where he watches the pilot episode, then makes lots of predictions for the whole show and where the finale would pick up, and then proceeds to bewilderingly watch the very last episode of the show as all his predictions are proved very wrong. The Vampire Diaries finale is definitely one people didn't see coming (especially not from the pilot episode) but it's filled with great, emotional callbacks.

The Originals

Speaking of callbacks, The Original vampires are introduced in season two/three of The Vampire Diaries. The (main) Originals include Joseph Morgan's Klaus Mikaelson - the first vampire/werewolf hybrid, Daniel Gillies as the Noble vampire Elijah Mikaelson, and Claire Holt as the feisty romantic vampire Rebekah Mikaelson.

This vampiric family trio has spent a thousand years spawning the vampires of the world and tons of bloodsucking chaos. Turns out, they also built New Orleans which is where this show takes place. Honestly, this is the show you want to watch if you vibe to black hearted characters with phenomenal monologues, comically complicated relationships, and redeeming character development that makes you love these brutal vampires despite the vast amount of hearts they literally rip out.

Legacies

Who loves drama!? I can honestly say, of all these melodramatic roller coaster shows in the shared universe of The Vampire Diaries, Legacies is the craziest ride. Returning to Mystic Falls, Virginia, this show follows Danielle Rose Russell as Hope Mikaelson - the first ever tribrid (witch, werewolf, & vampire hybrid) - as she and other legacies of beloved characters navigate their supernatural lives at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. They get into a lot of crazy messes and fight to save the world, time and again, from new creatures never before seen in this shared universe. Boasting great representation for mental illness, POCs, and the LGBTQ community, this series helps brings a new generation and a creative breath of life into this wonderful, nostalgic world. Check out Legacies if you eat up teenage drama and supernatural action.

So there you have it! Three juicy vampire shows to binge watch now. If you'd like to watch all of them but don't have the time for all those seasons (about 17 all together, so far), then stay tuned for Kiddo's review series on these shows where you can read her first thoughts and predictions, and get the highlights of whatever season you want to skip through. Look out for the next recommendation on What To Watch, and come back next week for Chica's spoiler free review of Arcane: League of Legends!

P.S., If you're into the bloodsuckers, what's your favorite vampire show, movie, or book? Please comment below and suggest what you'd like to see next.