Vampire shows are starting to become mainstream again with new shows becoming fan favorites like Van Helsing and V-Wars. There was a time back in the early 2000s when vampires and werewolves were everything anyone could talk about. With the popularity of Twilight, entertainment culture started to see the niche market they could tap in to.
Vampires and the supernatural were appealing and alluring to audiences that always involved forbidden romance, the possibility of death, fatal enemies, and bloodlust. There have been some hit shows over the years. IMDb has a list of fan-favorite shows ranked. Let’s take a look and see if it holds true.
Van Helsing (6.2)
Van Helsing is fairly new to the list of popular vampire shows. It originally aired in its first season on SyFy in 2016 and has been gaining more and more attention. Vanessa Van Helsing wakes up three years later from a comatose state to find the world in a post-apocalypse.
During her slumber, ash from the eruption of Yellowstone Caldera blanketed the sky. The ash blocked the harmful sun rays and allowed vampires to emerge from the dark to wreak havoc on humans. Vanessa Van Helsing wakes up to find her daughter missing and soon learns she is the solution to saving the human race.
From Dusk Till Dawn (6.9)
The popular Quentin Tarantino film, From Dusk Till Dawn, from 1996 was adapted into a television series by the same name in 2014. The show follows the same base storyline of the Gecko Brothers, Seth (D.J. Cotrona) and Richie (Zane Holtz).
The Gecko brothers are wanted by the FBI for a bank robbery that resulted in fatalities. They are pursued by Texas Ranger Freddie Gonzalez as they flee to Mexico. The Gecko brothers hijack a family and their RV and are led to a strip club by a drug lord. There they encounter snakelike/ vampire people.
Blood Ties (7.2)
Blood Ties was one of those shows that weren’t necessarily popular unless you had an interest in the genre. The Canadian show was based on the Blood Books series by Tanya Huff. It later premiered in the U.S. in 2007 on Lifetime.
Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) is a former Toronto Police Service officer now turned private investigator. She suffers from a condition that causes her eyesight to slowly tunnel until she is completely blind. She encounters a supernatural case that leads her to meet Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid). Fitzroy is a 470-year-old vampire. Vicki, Henry and her former partner, Miker Celluci (Dylan Neal), develop a love triangle as they solve bizarre supernatural mysteries.
The Strain (7.3)
In 2014, FX released a new horror drama series title The Strain. The series was based on a novel trilogy of the same name created by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The show’s plot centers around Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stroll) who is asked to investigate an airplane landing.
All of its passengers are declared dead but upon investigation, they are infected with a strain of vampirism. As the virus spreads, Dr.Ephraim and the city’s residents must protect themselves against a new evil.
Dracula (7.4)
Dracula was a show that fans never got to see blossom into what it could have been. The show aired in 2013 but was canceled after only one season. It was a new reimagining of the famous novel Dracula by Bram Stroker.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers played the lead role of Dracula. Dracula takes a cover as Alexander Grayson, an American entrepreneur who wants to bring modern science to London. He has an unsteady alliance with Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschmann) to seek revenge on the Order of the Dragon. Things become complicated as Dracula falls for Mina Murray (Jessica De Gouw), a possible reincarnation of his deceased wife.
Moonlight (7.6)
Moonlight was a fan favorite back when it premiered in 2007 but it was sadly canceled a year later after only one season. The show starred Alex O’Loughlin as its protagonist Mick St.John. Mick is a private investigator who is actually a vampire for the past 55 years. He was turned by his bride Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) on their wedding night.
Mick finds it hard to stay away from his attraction to Beth Turner, a newspaper reporter. Between his ex-bride Coraline, Beth and his friendship with Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), Mick finds it hard to keep a straight head. Not to mention dealing with other vampires in Los Angeles.
The Vampire Diaries (7.7)
The Vampire Diaries ranks high on the list of vampire shows. It became a huge success when it aired on the CW in 2009 and concluded its run in 2017. The show was an instant hit with teen audiences seeing as it was during a time when Twilight rose to popularity. The show was a television adaptation of the hit book series of the same name by L.J Smith.
Fans fell in love with the characters and the storyline. The show follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Their town has a history of the supernatural and it comes alive again with the arrival of Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Stefan is a 162-year-old vampire who falls in love with Elena. Their love becomes complicated with the arrival of Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and a dangerous past love.
True Blood (7.9)
True Blood was the more erotic and adult version of The Vampire Diaries. It aired on HBO in 2008 and after seven seasons concluded its run in 2014. The show was also based on a popular series titled The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is a telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. The show is set two years after a synthetic blood substitute called “Tru Blood” nourishes the vampires who made themselves known to the human race. Between anti-vampire organization, vampire-human rights and vampire foes, Sookie must navigate her relationship with 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (8.2)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most acclaimed vampire series to ever be created with one of the biggest fan bases on television. The show was created by Joss Whedon after the 1992 film by the same name. The show’s popularity led to a cult phenomenon that led to novels, comics and video games. It coined the term “Buffyverse” with a spin-off sequel show titled Angel.
The show followed a young teen named Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who is the next “Slayer” sworn to rid the world of vampires, demons and the forces of darkness. The problem is that Buffy just wants to be a normal teenager like everyone else. She soon starts to see the importance of her destiny and rids evil with her circle of friends.
What We Do In The Shadows (8.4)
What We Do in the Shadows has gained popularity for its dark comical twist on vampires. The show was originally a film, by the same name, written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. The show premiered on FX in 2019.
It follows four vampire roommates in a mockumentary style filming. The four vampires are Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). They live in Staten Island and document their daily lives and being housemates for the past hundreds of years.
