First for the good. Very believable story, at least in season 1. Diana is smart. She has the POTENTIAL to be powerful. The reason she allows her vampire mate to protect her, is because currently HE IS MORE POWERFUL, and she is smart enough to realize it. For anyone who wishes to see the type of film where the women are always the ones being the most bad ass...good news; 90% of movies and tv shows are like that, so go and watch any one of them. I suggest Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Mashed Potatoes. All the males are dingbats, and only the Scarlett Witch and some annoying teen girl have the power that matters. Go watch it.

To anyone surprised that Diana would reject magic when seeing it....who wouldn't? Even if you were the most magical thing on the planet, 99.9% of the things you see would still be explainable by non magic. That would typically be the first thing you would assume.

Is it different then the books? Yes. As you should expect. Unless your talking Harry Potter, everything is different then the books.

With season 2 we have some issues. First of all, Dina's completely illogical demands get weird. She is getting a little too powerful for the story, AND I STILL GET THE FEELING THEY ARE BETTER THEN THE BOOKS. Because the books seem very much like wish fulfillment for someone who wishes they were a really pretty all powerful wish, who had a sexy vampire husband, and got to meet interesting historical people. What fun...but a bad story.

The incessant complaints about "its like Twilight" are seriously annoying. ALL VAMPIRE STORIES WILL BE SOMEWHAT LIKE TWILIGHT. Because Twilight vampires are pretty much like all vampires. They are drawn to human blood, they drink blood to survive, they are super strong, tend to be pale......actually, Twilight is a bit more realistic as far as vampire politics go, and as far as the pressure of living so long on the human mind. They make it very clear that while the Volturri do not go mad or anything, neither are they entirely sane. And its much more realistic to show the Volturri as much a gang struggling for power as a dignified ruling body with rules that they follow. So think twice before you diss it.

Ok, back to this; Do century old creatures start acting like old humans? Do they act like humans at all? Do they get smarter? Who knows. If you ever run into an immortal ask them. In my opinion, almost no one can write an immortal.....scratch that; Fred Saberhagen, in his Dracula Files came the closest. The Count is smart, but he isnt a genius. He admits to typically acting on his instinct, because thats simply what he is like. I do agree that the creatures in this show are a bit too human, but I think that can be excused. I haven't noticed that older people are necessarily wiser.

So, give the show a shot. You will probably like it. At least season 1.