I'm a Buffy and Angel fan, of course. I got into an interesting discussion on one of my deviantART pieces with someone about the merits (or lack thereof) of Buffy and it was quite illuminating. She saw Buffy as actually being a victim of stereotyping, but that had lebih to do with the representation of women than of vampires. If you're interested in our conversation, it can be found
link.
Recently, I've gotten into Supernatural. They have Vampires in that universe too, but they're depicted as near extinction. Also, apart from their bloodlust, retractable fans, and aversion to daylight, they seem fairly human. Vampires can choose to dine on animal blood, for example, which happens in "Bloodlust" (in which Buffy's Amber Benson [Tara] plays a vampire, interestingly enough). But the Vampires in "Bloodlust" didn't choose to eat animal blood out of the goodness of their hearts. They did it because a trail of bodies is a big tip off to hunters. They did it to survive - a sort of, "We're not hurting the humans, so anda have no reason to hurt us" kind of deal.
Another interesting thing is that Mercedes McNab, who plays a vampire on Buffy and Angel, plays a vampire again in Supernatural in the episode "Fresh Blood." McNab is a vampire named Lucy, who doesn't know she's a vampire. Another vampire fed her some blood telling her it was a new party drug, and now she's terrified because "she can't come down." This implies that, though it changes anda physically and somewhat mentally with the insane thirst for blood, otherwise the personality remains lebih atau less intact, which makes them different from Buffy vamps, who lose their souls when they're turned.
(WARNING: Some Supernatural spoilers for season 3 follow) Although, being turned does tend to make one lebih manic, I'd imagine, judging sejak the Charles Gunn-like character, Gordon Walker who is turned into a vampire in "Fresh Blood." This seems to intensify his resolve to kill the Winchesters, but it didn't create it. He was already pursuing our protagonists before he was turned into the thing he hated most.
It's corny, but I also really like Christopher Pike's "The Last Vampire" series. If the character of Sita wasn't so fascinating, she might fall victim to the perfect-vampire category. But what I like about Pike's interpretation is that he doesn't forget Sita's age. What I find happens a lot, even in Buffy, is that even though Vampires are hundreds of years old, they act like the age of the actors that portray them. Angel, for example, only seems to have the illusion of wisdom when he first appears on Buffy. I also find it hard to believe - and this kind of goes for Twilight, too - that Buffy (or Bella) is the first person he's ever felt "true love" for, but that might also go with the fact that I don't believe in "one true love" stuff.