That could be the case, but this is a show made (in theory) for consumption by an audience wider than the original comic. The whole goth culture thing isn't as huge now in terms of public memory, whereas it was a lot more noticeable in that sense in the 90s so the reference/satire is more spot on.
Instead, you have to factor in what would be in the market's recent memory. Stuff like True Blood or Twilight. Granted those are heavily influenced by the Rice and Buffy stuff, but they still all did "I am tortured, but sexy and powerful and confident" thing with their vampires. Playing "against" type makes your character stand out more, because it is a newer take and kind of dumps on the True Blood/Twilight vision of vampires where you're "better" as a vampire, whereas Cassidy is still heavily flawed (perhaps even more so as a vampire).
Cybsled
take a swipe, and I try to respond to that too. 
Amod
. It was getting pretty tiresome to see our discourse coarsened by random outbursts of "You just hate empowered women!". Sucks that random jackholes can't handle criticism well enough that sterner moderation becomes a necessity.
