It's based on a YA book series written back in the 90's, and is very much the glossy, stylistic, teenage horror romance and angst wrapped around the idea of sexy teenage vampire school. Sort of. The tv show decided to shift the focus to the general town rather than purely the high school.
So depending on your personal tastes, your milage will vary.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheVampireDiaries