I'm struggling with this show, mostly because the show's original themes SEEM to still be there, but they're not really. Yes, the humans are still prejudiced toward supernaturals, and aren't they mean and oooooh. But after 5 years, this is only true about faeries and shifters (and to an extent, wolves). At this point in the story, when it comes to the vampires, I side with the humans. The vamps have now given the human sufficient reason to go after them out of self-preservation. Sure the human leaders we've seen have been sinister hand-wringers, but the bigger they make this story, the less it makes sense that most human leaders would be that way in this kind of world.
Other than Eric and Jessica, when I watch the show, I look at almost any vamp onscreen and think, "Well, you've got it coming to you, what do you expect?"
But I still watch of course. But I'm sure you can tell I don't read the books. ENLIGHTEN ME.