The New Season: Vampire Rocks, Beauty Doesn't
As exciting game-changers go, the only shows currently surpassing The CW's The Vampire Diaries in their new seasons are Showtime's Sunday blockbusters, the Emmy-winning Homeland (which just won't stop with the jaw-dropping twists) and the back-on-its-game Dexter (finally breaking new ground with Deb's realization of her brother's true identity). After several seasons of treading bloody water with increasingly convoluted plotting that didn't really move the show's core characters forward, Diaries has at last taken the leap in its fourth season (Thursday at 8/7c), turning its leading lady (Nina Dobrev as the tormented Elena) into the most reluctant of vampires, sending shock waves of guilt, anger and worry through the entire Mystic Falls supernatural brain trust.
