‘Vampire Academy,’ From ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Team, Embraces Grand Mythos and Cheesy Tropes Equally: TV Review

variety.com:

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic To (extremely) paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: nothing is certain in storytelling but love, death, and vampires combining the two.

In the last 30 years, give or take a “True Blood,” some of TV’s most popular interpretations of one of the world’s eldest mythic creatures have tended to lean toward the teenaged variety, whether plucky and battle-scarred (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) or moody and yearning (“The Vampire Diaries”).

Now, Peacock’s “Vampire Academy,” from “Vampire Diaries” co-creator Julie Plec and “The Originals” producer Marguerite MacIntyre, combines all the above into one package that ends up intriguing enough, if also unavoidably cheesy in its attempts to stand out amongst the fray.

With the help of a somber, blunt opening explanation, the series immediately throws us into a centuries-old society of three co-existing vampire species: the magic “Moroi” aristocrats, the half-Moroi, half-human “Dhampir” tasked with protecting them, and the feral “Strogoi,” more zombie than vampire, posing a constant threat outside the fortress walls.