Why Everyone is Talking About Vampire Shows

Vampires are everywhere in today's pop culture; movies, television shows, and books. Girls become obsessed with the beauty of the male vampires portrayed in the media, while guys are interested in the action. It seems those who are interested in one type of media, usually likes the others. So what differentiates them if they all are about vampires?

True Blood

Who hasn't heard of HBO's hit show, "True Blood" starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Alexander Skarsgård? It has become as big as Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. "True Blood" is based on Charlaine Harris' "Sookie Stackhouse" novel series ("Southern Vampire" series), yet the show differs from the books so viewers actually are interested in the show instead of being able to predict what happens next.

The show is based on a waitress by the name of Sookie, who lives in the town of Bon Temp, Louisiana, and falls in love with a vampire, Bill Compton. Vampires in America are viewed as citizens and drink synthetic blood called True Blood made by the Japanese (now an actual soda released in mid-September this year); however, there are some that feed on humans without draining them.

The vampires and humans view each other differently and there are attacks against the vampires made by the humans that hate them. Each episode goes on to show the problems the controversial couple and their friends go through, as well as the war between vampires and humans, soon to also include werewolves in the upcoming third season.

Twilight

Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" Saga has epically swept across the world and captured the hearts of millions of teenage girls. It is the love story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, both seventeen year olds. The difference is Edward has been seventeen for over a century. He battles his thirst for her blood to love the young girl who provides his "only reason to live." Even those who have never read the books, or seen the movies, with the latest being the second installment in the series, "New Moon", many know the basis of the story and the characters.

The new upcoming movie, "Eclipse," due to be released June 30^th of 2010, has fans anticipating the cast, new characters and exciting plot, as Bella must choose between best friend, Jacob, a werewolf, or her vampire boyfriend, Edward. The saga has influenced clothing, other movies and television shows, posters, bags, jewelry, and more. The faces of the unforgettable characters are on thousands of items across the world and are recognizable by almost anyone.

Vampire Diaries

The new CW television show, "Vampire Diaries," premiered this fall and immediately became a hit with many of the followers being "True Blood" and "Twilight" fans. The show is based off the original trilogy written in 1991. The new upcoming additional trilogy is "Vampire Diaries: The Return" is due in 2010-11. The show takes place in Fell's Church, Virginia and revolves around the life of Elena Gilbert, a young high school teen, who falls for a new guy in town, Stefan Salvatore. As they start dating, Elena discovers the Stefan's secret; he is a centuries old vampire who doesn't feed on humans unlike his evil brother, Damon.

As the story progresses, viewers watch Elena go through difficult situations such as finding out that the brothers' original love, Katherine, in Civil War time, was a vampire who transformed both men. Elena is a "dead ringer" for Katherine and it explains why both brothers have fallen for her and will do anything to keep the other from her. The show differs from the books, just as "True Blood" does. The next season should provide to be interesting, as new characters and creatures will appear.

Blue Bloods

A new rising series, "Blue Bloods," is starting to gain popularity. The series written by Melissa De La Cruz, takes on a different approach to vampires than any of the other novels. Blue bloods are an ancient group of vampires. In New York City, there is a secret society that consists of the elite and powerful families of the city, whose ancestors were the original four-hundred who sailed on the Mayflower. The society is all vampires who in fact are the actual people who sailed those hundreds of years ago.

The vampires were originally angels but were cast out of heaven during the war between Lucifer and God. The seven archangels take the powerful leading positions in the covenant. The story is about a young fifteen year old girl, Schuyler Van Allen, who discovers visible blue veins all over her arms and starts to crave raw meat. She is a blue blood, but a special kind. She was never one of the original Mayflower colonials; but a daughter of Gabriel and a human. She possesses both human and vampire traits. She captures the heart of Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, who is also one of the most powerful blue bloods of all time with his twin sister, Mimi.

Blue bloods go through cycles and will live new lives by placing their blood in new bodies at the end of their cycles but will have all of their old memories. The books go through the war of Blue Bloods versus the Silver Bloods, vampires that feed on Blue Bloods and are followers of Lucifer, and the love struggle of Schuyler and Jack. She isn't allowed to fall in love with Jack, because he is supposed to bond with Mimi, as they have done for hundreds of years, but he has never wanted to be with Mimi. Schuyler also has feelings for her human conduit, Oliver, whose job is to protect and advise her through her cycle. The storyline is difficult to explain to another who hasn't read the actual books. Many fans hope that Hollywood is thinking of picking up this series as either movies or a television series, as novels before have had.

Popularity

The popularity and desire for media with vampires have grown incredibly over the last year with the release of these shows and movies based off of novels. Items bearing the faces, quotes, and pictures of these shows, books, and movies are available all over the world and have influenced thousands of fan websites devoted to the popularity of vampires. The similarity? They all obviously are of vampires, but they all revolve around a human and a vampire struggling to have a relationship and the war between vampires and their enemies.

The difference? They all have different explanations for how vampires came to be and the personalities and lives of the vampires differ. No matter, media has exploded in the vampire industry and people around the world continue to read, watch, and fantasize over the dark and mysterious characters.