I realized the other day that a lot of my favorite shows have been WB/UPN/CW programs: Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, etc. This season I added another one to the list: The Vampire Diaries. At first, I was a little skeptical about the show for two reasons: 1) It’s based on a truly terrible series of books by L.J. Smith, and 2) with all the Twilight mania going on (which I cannot abide), I was concerned that the show might be another teen vampire saga. Plus, I tend to get my fill of vampire TV from True Blood.

Nevertheless, since the show films outside of Atlanta, I opted to give it a try, and it’s surprisingly great. It’s tense, dark and dramatic, and each episode ends with a cliffhanger, but in a suspenseful (and not annoying) way. Kevin Williamson of Scream fame works on the show, and he brings his understanding of teen horror: it’s intense and spooky, but not gruesome.

The program focuses on high school student Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev). We meet her on the first day of school, four months after her parents died in a car accident. Determined to try and be normal, she starts dating the handsome new guy at school, Stefan Salvatore (former model Paul Wesley). But Stefan has several secrets: he’s a vampire; he has an evil vampire brother, Damon (Lost’s Ian Somerhalder); and Elena looks exactly like Katherine, the brothers’ long-lost vampire lover/sire. Stefan has returned to his hometown of Mystic Falls, VA to find out more about Elena, drawn by her uncanny resemblance to his presumed-dead ex-girlfriend. His seemingly evil brother Damon also returns, for reasons unknown, and begins wreaking havoc on the town via murder, bloodshed and mind control. But appearances can be deceiving, and as Elena gets to know the Salvatore brothers, she discovers that Stefan isn’t as good as he seems, nor is Damon entirely the monster she thought him to be.

Despite the seemingly trite love triangle concept, the relationship among the three characters is surprisingly real, and the show is rounded out by a strong supporting cast (including Blue Crush’s Matt Davis, who stars as a vampire-hunting history teacher). In the first 14 episodes, there are several murders, a turning, a character who finds out she is a witch, a possession, an attempted vampire resurrection, an unsolved disappearance, a mysterious adoption story and more. This is an action-packed show, and a fun way to spend an hour on Thursday nights. Check it out.