The cheapening of the vampire

Apparently NBC has a new series about, stop me if you've heard this one, a modern-day Dracula.  Anyway, it's called (are you ready?) "Dracula"! No, wait....don't leave. It's totally original! The vampires are sexy, you see, and... Where'd you go?

Yeah, me too.

Here's a nice review of it over at Salon, and by "nice" I mean critical and unflinching.

I can't help but agree with this guy. If you're going to write about a vampire(s), then make it be for a reason that calls for vampires. There's a problem with the cheap "he's sexy because he's a vampire" trope, and this also applies to the "pirates are sexy" trope that's been going on for even longer. It doesn't mean I don't love me some Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn movies, but anybody who stops to think about what a vampire (or a pirate) really IS for half a minute is not going to find anything inherently sexy in either camp.

This doesn't mean vampire stories are passé‎ and nobody should ever write about them again, but I agree that the vampire as an instant embodiment of "brooding man with dark secret who just needs love to save his soul" has been done to, well, you know...death.