Aha! You've finally come around! But then I see you nearly recant again in the response. The shows ARE different. I pick Vampire Diaries over Buffy if only because of the vastly superior caliber and quantity of prettiness. Everyone on Buffy was fairly average-looking. Riley was cute, but he's about as cute as the plainest guy on VD - Matt. Ok, fine Riley was cute. But no one had anywhere near the gorgeousness or sexiness of Damon, Stephan, or Tyler. Angel and Xander were puffy and rarely took their shirts off, for good reason. Here on VD, we get gratuitous male nudity like noone's business. Also Buffy herself, I don't like her physical type the way I liked Xena or Nikita. And the chemistry between Damon & Elena is at least as good as Buffy & Angel or Buffy & Spike.

What finally makes VD better than Buffy is the story - the underlying, overreaching plot. It's an ongoing mystery with consistent character development, far more suspenseful. Also, a lot more cute lovely romance. Buffy just had angst.

And the last 5 minutes of the season finale - I've never rewatched any piece of television as many times as that. May be the best 5 mins of TV I've seen. I was breathless, I was screaming at the TV, OMG.