YMMV / My Babysitter's a Vampire

• Badass Decay: Erica. After the pilot movie, Erica becomes useless most of the time; usually, she bares her fangs to the Monster of the Week and the next thing we see is that she's been knocked out, transformed into a doll or hypnotized. Or trapped in a van. Said decay is probably a consequence of The Worf Effect, though. It's more of a subversion of The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, in that Erica makes it perfectly clear that she does feed on humans (and says as much in "Flushed" and "Village of the Darned"), but we just don't see her do this on screen.
• Complete Monster (season 2): "The Cloaked Man"-actually Vice Principal Stern—is an arrogant, cold-hearted, and genocidal wizard. Desiring to wipe out all vampires, despite knowing that they are not all evil—and that some are even his students—he starts his operations by summoning the breath of death, a demonic mist that drives all infected vampires mad and forces them to kill each other, before Ethan foils his plan. In retaliation The Cloaked Man stalks Ethan into an alternative dimension and tries to directly murder him and his friends. Upon finding out Ethan is a Seer, The Cloaked Man curses Ethan to hallucinate everyone is dead and that he’s failed them all, just to make sure he doesn't cross him as his plans near fruition. The Cloaked Man also gets his hands on the Lucifactor, an energy-draining weapon of incredible power, and goes on a killing spree before planning on using the Caller beacon to project the Lucifactor's energy, wiping out vampires en masse. During the climax, to prevent Ethan and Sarah interrupting him he uses his magic to force Ethan's friend Benny to try and kill them.
• Growing the Beard: Season 2 saw the show go through notable improvement, with some genuinely witty dialogue, subtle characterization, much improved acting across the board, and an even more post-modern, satirical sense of humor. There was still Narm, but now it worked and added to the fun. So of course it had to die.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Benny and Ethan calling themselves Betty and Veronica while disguised as girls in "Three Cheers for Evil" has become all the more amusing now that Vanessa Morgan, who played Sarah, is now part of the cast of Riverdale.
• Hollywood Homely: Erica before being bitten.
• Magnificent Bastard: Horace "Jesse" Black is the former vampire master of Whitechapel, before being overthrown, even then ruling the vampire community from behind the scenes. As a top high schooler by day and cult leader by night, Jesse uses his position to organize a vampire attack to harvest the souls of his victims and resurrect his fallen flock, kicking it off by draining a girl in front of an audience, while considering the loss of his current followers only a small setback. Returning from the dead, Jesse comes out on top by forcing his ex-girlfriend Sarah to drink Ethan's blood after biting him. When exiled, Jesse returns when he learns of the threat Stern poses, out of ostensible altruism. It's revealed Stern is the descendant of a wizard that Jesse previously saved the community from, having sacrificed dozens of his followers to do so, keeping the Lucifactor safe and out to reach. When the Lucifactor has been found, Jesse directly helps fight Stern, nearly getting himself killed in the process. A charismatic, if manipulative vampire master who bounces back from his failures, Jesse manages to be one of Whitechapel's more formidable figures, even with the loss of his power.
• Moral Event Horizon: Jesse crossed it when he bites Ethan to force Sarah to give up her last chance at humanity. Although he claims to have done much worse.
• Nightmare Fuel - The first episode gave us the zombie animals...especially the dog
  • The episode Guys and Dolls has that doll that's turned into a 30 year+ woman obsessing (ala pedophilia) over the main character's little sister. Not to mention her falling apart and getting damaged and draining the life force out of humans (and vampires) and turning them into dolls.
    • Later at the end of the episode when Debbie Dazzle has been turned back into a doll, while all the characters are dancing, she turns her head and winks.
  • Possessed Rory in "Die Pod" (the special effects worked a little too well), and possessed Sarah in "Three Geeks and a Demon".
  • Evil Sarah in "Independence Daze", on a psychological rather than visual level. The idea of sweet, lovable Sarah turning evil is terrifying.
• So Bad, It's Good: Mainly because it tries too hard to be dark, leading to a lot of Narm. That, and the special effects.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Arguably, to Wizards of Waverly Place, albeit Darker and Edgier than its TV-G predecessor.
  • Could also be considered a kids version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, between the obvious connection and the Monster of the Week format.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: For a Disney Channel show, it can get pretty dark.

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