Elena (Nina Dobrev) is finally started to embrace the vampire life just as senior year has arrived. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has taken Elena under his tutoring as he begins her vampire life which causes Stefan (Paul Wesley) and her friends to tirelessly look for a cure in order to bring back the humanity back to Elena. However, as Elena and Damon finally allow themselves to enjoy each other’s company, trouble begins to brew around them threating to change their lives.

Just when I thought the whole vampire fad was finally over, I suddenly get reminded that it is still quite alive and kicking. Vampire Diaries is a series that continues this vampire romance infatuation with a very much restrained and PG-13 version in comparison of the ever popular HBO hit True Blood. This season four takes right after the events of the last season and continues with the arcs previously set. The show has the looks of a TV production, but borrowing elements from recent popular romantic teenager vampire stories. In comparison Vampire Diaries feels like a real cheeky teenager soap opera.

The fourth season follows along the love triangle between the three main characters, Stefan, Damon and Elena. The complexity of the show comes down to how these three characters and their relationship advances. There are a lot of things at play here specially the humanity aspect being taken away from Elena and that affects the characters around her. This increasingly causes different events to be triggered. As characters develop and change to different roles as the show progresses through the season. Of course the show relies heavily on the ability of its writers to take the story in the right direction, which they seem to all be in sync. The story telling really helps set the tone of the show guiding the viewers through every shocking turn of events and every revelation that we get episode after episode.

The show is definitely aimed for a very specific audience and it closely resembles everything that the CW airs on national TV on a weekly basis. The show has very good writing and great story telling, at least as far as I can tell. The ease in which the story is unfolded is great. However, I will say that I found some of the deaths of characters somewhat disturbing since the frequency were rather high. I question a few of them but I suppose season five will reveal if they were truly good decisions from the production team.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season arrives with a 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The video transfer is surprisingly very clean. The colors appear to be on the darker side; however, they do look rather natural with reds really standing out. Black levels are deep and inky at times, but they don’t overwhelm the image. I saw a bit of crush but not enough to really be bothersome. Detailing is excellent throughout the show. The Vampire Diaries looks great on Blu-ray.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season arrive with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. The dialogue is very clean and clear throughout the show. The directionality works well on the fronts. The rears are active with some ambience effects, bit underused at times, and the LFE output is effective when needed. The soundtrack flows through the speakers without issues. The show is very dialogue driven that the track is not overly loud. The Vampire Diaries sounds great on Blu-ray.

Deleted Scenes

Inking the Brotherhood: The Hunter’s Mark – See the meaning behind the tattoos in the show.

Creating Sila’s Island – See some how the crew works on location and creating what is known as Sila’s island on the show.

Blood, Boys, and Bad Behavior: Becoming a Vampire – See how Elena’s transformation has changed other characters in the show.

The Evolution of Elena Gilbert – The cast and crew talk about the change that Elena has overtaken going from human to vampire.

The Vampire Diaries: The Ultimate Prop Master – The production team discuss the work of Joe Connolly as the prop master.

Second Bite – This featurette is just a gag reel.

The Impact of a Single Show: The Vampire Diaries – Fun Video

Fan Gallery

The fourth season of The Vampire Diaries proved to be actually very well written and complex considering the always clichéd love triangles that these recent vampire stories always seem to tell. There’s good character dynamics backed by good story telling. The Blu-ray looks excellent and sounds equally great. The supplements are a hit or miss, but they seemed to be aimed towards its fans. If The Vampire Diaries are your thing, season four should definitely make it to your collection.