Vampire Academy brings back teenage vampire romance. But is it worth watching?

It’s a lot of pressure to manage the expectations surrounding Peacock’s new series, Vampire Academy (streaming locally on Stan), given just how many people will watch with a judgmental eye.

The 10-episode series has been adapted from the New York Times bestselling series of the same name, written by Richelle Mead between 2007 and 2010. It’s also not the first time an adaptation has been attempted, with the 2014 film, also called Vampire Academy, flopping both critically and commercially.

While fans of the novels are still devoted to the original source material, series creators Julie Plec and Margeurite MacIntyre are also battling the zeitgeist, trying to make a vampire TV show popular long after Twilight and True Blood-mania have settled down.

What we have in the end is an inter-textual and busy series, which reminds us a lot of Bridgerton and The Hunger Games both rolled into one. However, these nods to our updated expectations for television and movies make the series an exciting one.

Daniela Nieves as Lissa Dragomir. Image: Stan/Peacock.

The background for Vampire Academy, explained.

Binging the first four episodes of the series, which dropped in one go last week, it’s easy to think that a viewer with no prior knowledge might be a bit confused. The Vampire Academy book series had pages and pages to set up a racial divide among the mortal Moroi vampires, who rule the fantasy world's dominion, and their guardian counterparts - the Dhampir - who are half-human, half-vampire. But in the series, we’re trying to wrap our heads around all of this very quickly, which makes for a couple of stumbling blocks along the way.

However, as more time passes, our understanding grows - while main characters Rose Hathaway (Sisi Stringer) and Lissa Dragomir (Daniela Nieves) are best friends, they will never truly be equal. While Rose was born a Dhampir, sworn to act as guardian and protector of the Moroi race; Lissa has been chosen to succeed the current reigning Moroi queen, giving her an important role in the dominion. 

Each character represents one half of the tightly-sequestered world inhabited by the races, who are both hiding away from the Strigoi, the evil and murderous breed of immortal vampires that the Dhampir are born to protect the Moroi from. You can see how it gets confusing, especially if you’re not a fan of the books.

While the class divide is a big topic to take on - and a hard one to portray in a couple of episodes - the theme shows ambition from the show’s creators, and gives us a strong starting point for the episodes, and maybe seasons, yet to come.

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What’s the casting like in Vampire Academy?

Early on, Mead encouraged fans of the books to ‘be kind to each other’, perhaps predicting complaints about how the cast look very different to the way they were described in the novels. 

Similar to other fantasy shows of this era, like House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power, the show’s creators have made colourblind casting choices, with Rose becoming a woman of colour alongside other smaller characters like Victor Dashkov and Sonya Karp.

“I think the goal is for it to not even be a thing anymore. For it to be so normal to watch a fantasy show or any show that you love and see all kinds of people that look completely different, that sound completely different … like there’s someone representing you somewhere,” Nieves said of the casting choices.

Stringer has taken on the role of Rose with vigour, with her determined and not always likeable nature playing out perfectly on screen, while Nieves embodies the softer, more naïve traits of Lissa, as well as the queenly demeanour required of the character. While the pair don’t share a heap of screen time given the divide between their races and worlds, their chemistry is compelling, and will have you cheering for them from episode one. 

While some of the other characters in the series pale in comparison to the strong connection shared by Stringer and Nieves, the potential is clear - between the occasionally awkward and cheesy line delivery.

The cast of Vampire Academy. Image: Getty.

A vampire romance?

The strongest chemistry on screen definitely exists between Lissa and Rose, making it a little sad that they'll only ever be platonic friends. However, both get a forbidden romance, which is where the calls back to Twilight and all that cheesy goodness we love comes into play.

In episode one, we meet Christian Ozera, a Moroi royal whose parents have committed the mortal sin of choosing to become Strigoi, making him an outcast among his peers at St Vladimir's Academy. Their budding relationship, while cute, serves more to show off Lissa's kindness and her ability to look past prejudice. Also, André Dae Kim (portraying 'Christian') gives one of the weaker performances in the series so far.

Just as in the books, Rose flirts with Mason Ashford (Andrew Liner), but her true love comes in the form of Dimitri Belikov (Kieron Moore). While 'show' Dimitri has been made British instead of Russian, he's got the brooding and the shirtless exercise scenes pretty well-covered. Coming in as a quieter character, we hope to see him flourish more as the series progresses.

Should I watch it?

Ultimately, it feels like Vampire Academy is still finding its feet - which is not uncommon for the first series of any TV show. If you have the patience to wade through the muddling of confused backstory between the Moroi, the Dhampir, and also the Strigoi, then it’s a very easy, pacey watch about some teenage vampires and their struggles.

The world has adored this trope since the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it’s not surprising to see it updated once more for a new and growing audience. If you loved the books, or any kind of vampire, fantasy, horror-esque escapism, then Vampire Academy is definitely a show for you.

Vampire Academy is now streaming on Stan. 

Feature Image: Peacock/Stan.