In the first 10 minutes of the first chapter he already turns the movie twenty times. Do not expect uncontrolled action, it is a series of magic and vampirism, of politics and social class struggle. Many people will consider it slow and soporific but that is where its grace lies, it cooks over a slow fire and has a good plot. The cast does very well and although it is true that they do not fit very well with some descriptions of the books they do an excellent job. Recommendable.

I'm a fan of the books and although the movie has changed a lot of things, this series, in two minutes, makes me give up watching. Seriously, if you like the Vampire Academy book series, don't watch this series. Vampire Academy is one of my favorite book series of all time and if I kept watching this I would really throw my books in the trash. They changed the entire context of the story in TWO MINUTES!!!!!! Maybe in the other 45 minutes it will get better, but I doubt it. Now I understand why it was canceled in the first season.

I almost overlooked this series as it the pilot feels very much like a glossy teenage vampire series, but once you get into it a bit you start to see the underlying themes of mystery and plotting. I will confess that the politics is a bit shallow and some of the character dynamics and society depiction could use some depth, but it is not terrible. The main characters are quite good, and the story have a good mix of character gray scales rather than black and white which is nice. For me the appeal however was in the pursuit of the main characters mystery pursuit and to some extent motifs of the main antagonist. I am glad I stuck with this series and it is a shame it was not renewed. It had potential and was entertaining.

Honestly, I like the tv show better than I like the books. Sure, it’s rather rushed and lacks emotional depth in certain ereas, but the things they’ve changed have mostly been for the better. I especially like the characters themselves a whole lot more; there were so many times I genuinely felt angry when I read the books, but I didn’t really feel that way now. Lissa, for example, was such a selfish brat in the books but she was actually helpful and caring here. She was a huge change for the better! And so were plenty of others, especially the ones we never really got to know well in the books, but I really loved in the show, such as Mia, Meredith, Sonya, or Mikhail. Christian was a total cutie here as well, but I already loved him in the books too, even if he was super different there, so I’m not sure what version of him I prefer. The one thing I wish they had also changed from the books but didn’t was the whole “duty” thing. I’ve never liked how many times Dimitri pushed Rose away because of his loyalty to his job, so I could have definitely done without that here. Rose being so understanding about it and even agreeing in the end only pissed me off too. Like, come on! Just be together! And definitely don’t string poor Mason along for no reason in this whole process.

This whole series seems to have been set up with the idea of being as woke as (not at all) possible and don't give a crap about the source material, just use the name and the general thought without being or even attempting to be canon. Rubbish crap. Too bad they didnt manage to cancel it after the very first episode already. This should have never made it past a pilot.