The popularity of vampire-centric TV shows ebbs and flows like the tides. In the wake of 2008’s Twilight, there was a rush to capitalize on pop culture’s obsession with the undead, leading to beloved shows like The Vampire Diaries. While that infatuation eventually subsided for many (likely overtaken by an interest in zombies thanks to 2010’s The Walking Dead), here at Paste, our fascination with vampires never really went away—it just lie dormant, waiting for the right time to rise again. And that time is now.
The latest vampire-centric TV shows have been less about elements of supernatural fantasy and more about the roots of more traditional fantasy (and sadly, not one of them is about Dracula trying to bring electricity to Victorian England). But in honor of bloodsuckers’ return to the pop culture pyramid, we’ve rounded up the best vampire-related TV shows to date. Enjoy!
What We Do in the Shadows
Created by: Jemaine Clement
Stars: Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch
Original Network: FX
Based on the vampire mockumentary from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows brings the sadsack bloodsuckers Stateside. The Staten Island roommates— vampires Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), as well as Nandor’s servant, Guillermo (Harvey Guillen)—are all ridiculous and slightly pathetic. The handheld camerawork is the deadpan punchline, with every shaky zoom in on a character during a confessional implying, “Can you believe this weirdo?”
More of the humor comes from the macabre wordplay and deadpan goofiness—often thanks to Berry’s stark, blustery delivery, straight from his BAFTA-winning Toast of London, and the exasperated looks it draws from Demetriou and Guillen—which are then punctuated by violent slapstick, featuring gallons of blood. In bringing the vampire-out-of-water conceit’s mix of comic elements down to the granular level, What We Do in the Shadows harkens back to the strongest parts of the film, which thrived on its charming re-imagining of dopey mythical creatures failing through the world in a way very particular to Kiwi… or, now, Staten Island. And with its documentary style taken just as seriously as its campy effects and extravagant costumes, the cretinous cosplay is beautifully straight-faced and completely winning—especially when the show goes to oxymoronic extremes of mundanity, like a city council meeting about zoning ordinances. —Jacob Oller
Interview With the Vampire
Created by: Rolin Jones
Stars: Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Eric Bogosian, Bailey Bass
Original Network: AMC
While some fans may have initially felt apprehensive about the thought of AMC adapting Anne Rice’s classic novel, it seems fair (and important) to say what a relief it is that the network has knocked this one out of the park. Because Interview with the Vampire is incredibly good. Better-than-my-wildest-expectations good. The kind of good that makes me downright giddy that my initial assumptions about what kind of show this would be were so wildly off. This series is the absolute best kind of adaptation, one that hangs on to the original’s truest elements even as it uses its source material to say something new about this story, these characters, and even the world we live in now.
True, there are significant changes from the novel. From reimagining Louis de Pont du Lac as a Black, gay brothel owner in early 20th century New Orleans to fully embracing the queer subtext that’s always been simmering under the surface of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, this is a thoroughly modern adaptation that nevertheless leans into what’s kept us coming back to this series for decades: its thorny moral center and the compelling, if toxic love story between Louis and his maker Lestat de Lioncourt. The blazing chemistry between stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid would be reason enough to watch on its own, but this dark world is more than worth the repeated visit. —Lacy Baugher-Milas
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Created by: Joss Whedon
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head
Original Networks: The WB, UPN
The most obvious/obligatory entry in this list is also the most influential, and not just for TV’s vampire agenda. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had it all: Romance, drama, tragedy, suspense. The show took the teen-soap formula and elevated it to an art. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a high school student destined to fight the forces of darkness, the series was a unique combination of tragic romance, apocalyptic fantasy, and the clincher: emotional realism. It also featured the most serious and realistic depiction of human loss ever witnessed on the small screen (in “The Body”, dealing with the death of Buffy’s mom by natural causes). This was underscored by the show’s sense of humor, as the writers understood the campy sheen that must accompany any show named Buffy. They also knew how to use snappy dialogue and uncomfortable situations to full effect.
Meanwhile, when it comes to complex characters, you’d be hard pressed to find another program that had the same range and consistency of character development. Everyone matured (or devolved) at his or her own realistic rate. And as some feminist writers have argued, TV had never before seen the complexity of relationships among women that you saw with the likes of Buffy, Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Joyce (Kristine Sutherland), and Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). But this wouldn’t have been possible without plot and narrative choices that would go on to shape much of what was to come after. The series’ writers employed elaborate multi-episode, multi-season story arcs, while people and events of the past always had a way of popping back up, the way they do in real life. Series creator Joss Whedon was all about the meta, the ideas and story behind the story. He succeeded, creating a WB/UPN show that bears closer resemblance to the works of Dostoevsky and Kafka than 90210 or Dawson’s Creek. —Tim Regan-Porter and Kaitlin Thomas
Angel
Created by: Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt
Stars: David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Glenn Quinn, Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Amy Acker
Original Networks: The WB
Few spinoffs ever outshine their parent shows, but there is a case to be made that Angel, the darker, more adult spinoff of the coming-of-age Buffy the Vampire Slayer, might actually be the better, more satisfying show overall. Sure, it might not have been as groundbreaking as Buffy, but Angel, which follows David Boreanaz’s eponymous vampire with a soul, benefits from the lessons already learned during the creation of Buffy. The series, which ran for five seasons, follows Angel after he departs Sunnydale for Los Angeles and becomes a private eye in order to “help the helpless.” It maintains its unique sense of humor, much of it stemming from Charisma Carpenter’s Cordelia Chase and James Marsters’ Spike (the latter of whom joined the show in Season 5 after the end of Buffy), even as it tackles dark themes on the road to saving the world. If Buffy was the influential teacher, Angel was the star pupil. —Kaitlin Thomas
The Vampire Diaries
Created by: Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson
Stars: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Candice King, Matt Davis, Joseph Morgan
Network: The CW
What began as an angst-filled teenage supernatural drama that pitted a hunky vampire (Paul Wesley) against his equally hunky vampire brother (Ian Somerhalder) for the love of a special teenage girl (Nina Dobrev), The Vampire Diaries developed into a compelling and frequently gruesome foray into the world of vampires (and werewolves and witches and hybrids and siphons and …) alongside the men and women who love them. While CW shows have often been painted as skewing towards melodramatic teen/YA fare, that’s an increasingly unfair assertion and one that The Vampire Diaries did a great job of dispelling, particularly once it grew out of its early “Dawson’s Creek with vampires,” phase. Season 1, while intermittently strong, was more or less one of those shows people refer to as a guilty pleasure—it was fun, but not really good. Once creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson (creator of Dawson’s Creek, not a coincidence) really got a feel for where they wanted to take the show, however, it took off, and over the course of eight seasons proved to be a reliably well-acted, creepy, and ethically complicated hour of drama. —Mark Rabinowitz and Kaitlin Thomas
