(TV SERIES) Vampire Academy Season 1 - A Vampire Series with Rather Unique Story Based on Popular Novels by Richelle Mead

It has been a while since I watched anything on HBO Go as the new and old series were released one episode per week while the new movies mostly I had seen before. I was aware about this intriguing series for quite some time, but as usual I waited till it's completed before started watching. OK I'll get right on it then.

Brief Story Line

Rose Hathaway (Sisi Stringer - Mortal Kombat 2021 etc) was a vampire-human hybrid referred to as Dhampir and training to be guardian for Moroi, the mortal vampires who could do elemental magic. She was best friend with a Moroi lady, Princess Lissa Dragomir (Daniela Nives - Sex APPeal etc) and had vowed to be her guardian once they graduated from the Vampire Academy. After an incident, Lissa was now being guarded by experienced Dhampir named Dimitri (Kieron Moore). 

The Moroi society was led by a monarch and supported by the council of several royals including Lissa's legal guardian Victor Dashkov (J. August Richards - Angel TV series etc). Victor had two daughters, the sharp tounged and adopted Mia Karp (Mia McKenna-Bruce - Persuasion etc) and the reserved Sonya Karp (Jonetta Kaiser). All of the Morois were living in protected wards from their enemies, the Strigoi who were blood thirsty undead vampires that constantly tried to attack the cities. After the recent attacks, a new member of the council Tatiana Vogel (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) had proposed aggressive ideas which were not well received by Victor and resulted to power struggle between them.

Meanwhile Rose and Lissa had problem of their own like the strange powerful connection between them, the stiff competition among the guardians and their love interest. Lissa was heavily attracted to a Moroi outcast named Christian Ozera (André Dae Kim - Degrassi: The Next Generation TV series etc), while Rose was having a forbidden relationship. Things became more complicated as Rose & Lissa's connection became stronger and they had to face larger problems that would endanger their lives.

So what would happen to Rose and Lissa? You could find out in the first season of the series.

End of Brief Story Line

I was quite intrigued by this series as it had the fantasy element of vampire which I kind of like, plus it was the young adult genre which could bring pleasant feeling of fresh and youthfulness. And this series certainly had these traits where the story focused on two best friends in their teenaged years (although they were actually in their 20s but they look young enough), who had to face various issues in their life in the academy. Btw, I also noticed that this series adopted the diversity model with various stereotype of people in term of ethnicity and sexual orientation. So those looking for it would be pleased with the series. For me personally though, representation is not a big factor to like or dislike a movie/series but rather if the characters are engaging enough. And I thought they were generally likable in here. 

The lead cast of Sisi Stringer and Daniela Nives were suitable in their roles and they have strong chemistry as best friends. The others were pretty nice as well, particularly Kieron Moore and André Dae Kim who were convincing as their characters. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also regular cast such as Rhian Blundell and Andrew Liner as Dhampirs in training Meredith and Mason respectively and recurring cast like Pik-Sen Lim (Spearhead TV series etc) as Queen Marina and few others.

Watching this series somehow also reminded me a bit about another vampire series that my wife and I liked a lot, The Vampire Diaries. It was one of the rare series that both of us managed to complete. When I read more on this, I found out that it was developed for TV by Julie Plec together with Marguerite MacIntyre. Plec was non other than co-creator of The Vampire Diaries, while MacIntyre used to play the role of Sheriff in it but later became part of the writers of its spin-off series The Originals. So I guess their experience were very useful in developing this series. 

The closing credits showed that it was based on the book series by Richelle Mead who wrote 6 novels altogether with Vampire Academy being the title of the first book. This was actually the second adaptation of the novel, although the 2014 movie failed commercially and was panned by critics, while this one was better received. The first season consisted of 10 episodes with duration between 45 to 55 minutes. Of all the episodes, I thought the 7th was the best as it gave the long awaited answer on big question from the beginning. I also liked the 6th and the season finale which seemed to promise more adventure in next season (if they choose to continue). 

As a fantasy series of vampire, this one was quite interesting to me. The distinction between Moroi and Strigoi was refreshing as opposed to the traditional type of vampires, and the creation of Dhampir as guardian to Moroi was a nice touch. I thought Richelle Mead was amazing in creating these different classes. I also like the series' story telling and have to admit that I found myself enjoying the series more as it progressed, especially with the maturing of the two lead cast and the variety of other characters. The love relationship was not really the main focus as it also dealt with the political fight over the changes in society which somehow did not feel overly patronizing. There were also some nicely done fight sequence with adequate special effects. So if you are looking for an interesting vampire TV series based on the popular young adult novels, then you could give Peacock originals a try.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars