'Vampire Diaries' headed into 'Buffy' territory?

At first glance, "The Vampire Diaries" looks an awful lot like "Twilight."

But, as the new CW series gets going, it sounds like it might end up looking a lot more like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Without the vampire slayer.

"Diaries," which debuts Thursday at 7 p.m. on Ch. 30, is based on L.J. Smith's series of teen novels. (Although fans of those books will notice some obvious changes on the TV show.)

As the series begins, 17-year-old Elena (Nina Dobrev) is still mourning her parents' recent deaths. She's the most popular girl at Mystic Falls High School, but she's dealing with her grief.

However, her attention is riveted on the new boy at school — the mysterious Stefan (Paul Wesley), who's handsome and, well, odd.

It's not giving anything away to tell you that Stefan is a vampire. And — shades of "Dark Shadows" — Elena looks exactly like the girl Stefan loved back in the 19th century.

It turns out that Stefan wasn't the only one who loved that girl. He fought with his brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) — and now Stefan is the good vampire brother and Damon is the bad vampire brother.

The similarities between "Vampire Diaries" and the "Twilight" series are undeniable. (But, don't forget, "Diaries" was published long before "Twilight.")

But executive producer Kevin Williamson ("Dawson's Creek") said the vampire stuff in "Vampire Diaries" is only going to be part of the story.

"There's a lot going on here. We have the teen drama aspect of it, which, I guess, you can compare to 'Dawson's Creek,' " Williamson said.

And, indeed, there's all sorts of teen angst that doesn't have anything to do with getting bitten in the neck.

After seeing just the first episode, we'll have to take Williamson's word for it when he insists, "It's not just a teen show. We're trying to not make it a high-school show. It's sort of more of a small-town show.

"Once you get past the premise of girl and vampire, we start to develop the story about a town."

A town that's apparently going to be chock-full of supernatural goings on. Which sounds a lot like Sunnydale, where Buffy and Co. battled all sorts supernatural foes, in addition to vampires.

"What we loved so much about the books was the mythology of the town and what they created. What L.J. Smith created was this huge mythology, and we're diving right in," Williamson said. "The vampires are our way into that."