Parents' Guide to Vampire Academy

This vampire show does its best to carve out a niche somewhere between The Vampire Diaries and True Blood, but is there an audience for adolescent storylines alongside some very adult content? The aesthetic of Vampire Academy is a delight, with dashes of Baz Luhrmann, The Hunger Games, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all thrown together, and the series doesn't shy away from jumping right into the action. Along with the requisite hand-to-hand combat fight scenes, themes of classism, politics, duty, and working for the benefit of many over one are all explored. The show is also refreshingly progressive. The friendship between two female main characters drives the story, many of the main characters are people of color, men and women are considered equally capable as protectors, and two of the most prominent members of society are a gay couple. There will be plenty of teen viewers drawn to this series, but with frequent profane language, partial nudity, and sex scenes that sometimes include things like choking, there's a lot that's not suitable for them. And though the world building is strong through the first season, the less-than-stellar acting and writing will disappoint older viewers who have come to expect higher quality of their fantasy series.