Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/ABC Family/CW
I have never seen an episode of The Vampire Diaries. But I have watched Jenny Nicholson’s 153-minute-long video essay about it, which has given me more information on the entire eight-season series than I ever could have wanted to know. I’m also convinced it has provided me far more entertainment than the show possibly could have.
Nicholson’s Vampire Diaries video is neatly broken up into 28 different sections, in which she walks through topics including the lore, the book series, characters she doesn’t like, villains, and, my personal favorite, the random insertion of main cast member Candice King performing musical numbers on the show. Even with a nearly three-hour runtime, I couldn’t stop watching the video. And I’m not alone: Since Nicholson uploaded it in early 2021, the video has been viewed more than 9 million times.
Nicholson’s intensive breakdown video—among several she’s made—inspired other YouTubers to follow suit. That includes Mike’s Mic (real name Michael Messineo), who’s recapped Pretty Little Liars over the course of three “appropriately unhinged” videos exceeding a combined six hours and 10 million views. His videos recount the show’s plot episode by episode, and I ate it up: the absolute whiplash of the plot twists, the disappointment of the false leads, and the hilariousness of those cringeworthy lines of dialogue.