Given all that has happened in Vampire Diaries over the years, and characters changing between "good" and "bad" and their allegiances and relationships, etc., I imagine it would be very difficult to tune in now and have any idea of what is happening! As to time period, it is present day, but there are lots of flashbacks to things that happened to those characters who were around in lots of earlier periods. Although, I don't recall any scenes from the periods you suggest on this latest one. The only thing that I remember are some scenes from the 1950s.
