it's not life that matters but the journey...

The book series that Vampire Diaries is based on predates Twilight by a number of years, though obviously it's the popularity of Twilight that has made it viable as a TV Show.

As for similarity to Twilight: I find that Stefan can be a little too Edward like at times, but Elena seems to avoid most of Bella's worse traits, and it is set in high school like most of these things. The best character is Stefan's brother Damon played by Ian Somerhalder (Boone from Lost), he steals every scene he is in, I guess he's basically the bad boy type but he's so much more interesting than Stefan - and he has amazing eyes.

I guess it's one of my guilty pleasure shows, one that doesn't take too much brain power but is fun and has vampires (and witches and werewolves!).