Why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer
My sister, at my suggestion, started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She'd never seen any of it. Her first response was, huh, why do you like it so much? I felt the same way when I first saw an episode or two. I completely derided the show for creating a ditzy saviour named Buffy who slayed vampires. Ha! Absurd! And then one weekend in grad school I watched the entire first season with a friend who loved the show - and I was hooked.
Firstly, I love camp and feminism, and Buffy has these in spades. Both of these elements are used to carry the various themes of the show: evil, growing up and coming of age. The first season starts off feeling strongly in the camp vein as the show finds its stride. It has a slight feel of a mash of 90210/Saved by the Bell/California Dreams sort of teen show-dom. But the ridiculousness of fighting vampires puts it in a category all its own. Again, we're a decade away from Twilight - and Buffy's mainstream success ends up making Twilight possible (and don't get me started on the ways S Meyers rips off some of Buffy. Edward *wishes* he was Angel). As the seasons wear on the camp elements remain a part of the shows DNA, yet I would say that seasons 5 on become much more dark. In some ways that mirrors growing up: we conquer all sorts of things in adolescence only to discover that Evils get bigger, more complicated, and sometimes parts of our selves are the evils needs we to conquer. Earlier seasons have Buffy facing baddies that are metaphors for being a teen. There's one about a potential step-dad (and deals with domestic violence), there's the demands of prom and being popular. There are issues of love and sexuality. When you're a teen everything is The End of the World - so the show takes that to the edge: what if it really was the potential end of the world? Grown ups make things like teenage sexuality seem like Such Big Deals. OMG you'll ruin your future! So what if losing your virginity really did change everything? And of course, it's just absurd that a tiny blonde airhead saves the world, repeatedly.
Which leads me to the feminist aspects of the show. A tiny blonde airhead saves the world. It's GREAT to see a strong female ass-kicker - and not wearing cleavage, stillettos, and latex suits, and using guns to do it (there are occasionally guns in the show, but they are rare and not treated in cavalier manner). Buffy has to deal with the consequences of strength and power in a world that expects her to be weak and powerless. How does she balance the responsibility of saving the world and also being a regular girl (we find that she's not as dumb as she seems, it's just really hard to study when you have to save the world every night). Power issues often come up: there is even a sort-of rape scene, only it's the man who is powerless at the hands of a rogue slayer. The Big Bads (these are each season's main Baddie, as opposed to the episodic baddies) are all, if I remember correctly, male in form. And this also is somewhat true to the feminist underpinnings of the show. Male as patriarchy and powerful beyond the average person's control. The strongest characters in the show are women (a rarity on television) and there are many different kinds of women - brains and strength and beauty are all respected. There are great male characters and while they are not ignored at the expense of the females (as often happens in tv and movies, strong women come at male expense) they are not the point. I love Xander being the main strong young guy, who is also at a power disadvantage to the Slayer's powers and (eventually) to Willow's growing witchcraft skills and even to Anya's demonic knowledge. And Joss Whedon does in fact call himself a feminist in interviews, so none of this feminism is accidental.
One great aspect of the show which is also one of its biggest flaws is the use of the supernatural. The 'Buffy-verse' doesn't have a worked out theology -not so far as I can make out- and this allows for all kinds of new Bads. Yet this allows for a lot of creativity and camp and exploration of themes. Evil becomes more amorphous and personal as the seasons wear on. I've heard it said that the last season or two are loose metaphors for the new post-9/11 world. Which makes sense given that the show started in the 90s - after all the Great Evils of Nazis and Communism were over. The 90s seemed nothing but prosperous and hopeful. And now we have Islamic and other forms of terrorism as our new Big Bad. The show wrestles with ideas of Good and Evil. Sometimes Evil is clearly opposite from Good (as much of American media would like us to believe that there is Good and there is Evil, and both sides are clear), but sometimes the Big Bad is ourselves or isn't so clear cut, or was once Good and might be Good again (Angel is a great example of this).
At the end of the day, though, a good show needs to have characters I care about and good writing, this show has both. Over the course of the first and second seasons I genuinely come to care about the characters, what happens to them, and how they feel. I love the core 'Scoobies': Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow. But I also love Oz and Cordelia and Angel. I love the character of Faith, but the actress portraying her is sooooo awful. She's got one note, no nuance, which is a real shame. I come to love Spike (who leaves and returns).
The writing, like all shows, can be hit and miss, but it is for the most part very consistent, is able to develop themes and characters, and at the same time throw out the one-liners that make it famous, as well as occasionally make me cry (no mean feat there). Any episode written and/or directed by Joss Whedon is guaranteed to be awesome. He sometimes stretches the boundaries of tv by doing things like a silent/dialogue free episode and a musical episode (we're talking 10 years before Glee). Of course, because of the goofy nature of the show he has the option to swerve into high camp or take things dark and serious.
I would suggest getting through season one (only 12 episodes, all the other seasons are 22) and start in on season 2 and then deciding what you think. It might be a little dark for [Miss A who is 11] in spots, but she might also love it. I certainly think the women are great role models.
So there's my mini-treatise on why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I failed to mention to her one other aspect I love about the show: the idea of a saviour. Yes, a tiny ditz saves the world every week, but as we find out (and this is one of my core theological ideas): we save ourselves and each other. Very often we can only save ourselves and others with other people's help. Buffy repeatedly shows us that one lone saviour cannot do it all. I think this counters a lot of the religious and culturally Christian myth that one guy (Jesus) will save us from everything.
Another thing I failed to mention about the show's weakness is its abysmal/campy approach to the supernatural and occult. It's such bad magic. I'm no big fan of Wicca in general, but real Wicca bears little resemblance to what Willow ends up practicing. And yet: mainstream magic like that was and is hard to come by.
So yeah, I have mad love for this show. It's amazing to me that something I can write about critically can also be just plain fun.
Firstly, I love camp and feminism, and Buffy has these in spades. Both of these elements are used to carry the various themes of the show: evil, growing up and coming of age. The first season starts off feeling strongly in the camp vein as the show finds its stride. It has a slight feel of a mash of 90210/Saved by the Bell/California Dreams sort of teen show-dom. But the ridiculousness of fighting vampires puts it in a category all its own. Again, we're a decade away from Twilight - and Buffy's mainstream success ends up making Twilight possible (and don't get me started on the ways S Meyers rips off some of Buffy. Edward *wishes* he was Angel). As the seasons wear on the camp elements remain a part of the shows DNA, yet I would say that seasons 5 on become much more dark. In some ways that mirrors growing up: we conquer all sorts of things in adolescence only to discover that Evils get bigger, more complicated, and sometimes parts of our selves are the evils needs we to conquer. Earlier seasons have Buffy facing baddies that are metaphors for being a teen. There's one about a potential step-dad (and deals with domestic violence), there's the demands of prom and being popular. There are issues of love and sexuality. When you're a teen everything is The End of the World - so the show takes that to the edge: what if it really was the potential end of the world? Grown ups make things like teenage sexuality seem like Such Big Deals. OMG you'll ruin your future! So what if losing your virginity really did change everything? And of course, it's just absurd that a tiny blonde airhead saves the world, repeatedly.
Which leads me to the feminist aspects of the show. A tiny blonde airhead saves the world. It's GREAT to see a strong female ass-kicker - and not wearing cleavage, stillettos, and latex suits, and using guns to do it (there are occasionally guns in the show, but they are rare and not treated in cavalier manner). Buffy has to deal with the consequences of strength and power in a world that expects her to be weak and powerless. How does she balance the responsibility of saving the world and also being a regular girl (we find that she's not as dumb as she seems, it's just really hard to study when you have to save the world every night). Power issues often come up: there is even a sort-of rape scene, only it's the man who is powerless at the hands of a rogue slayer. The Big Bads (these are each season's main Baddie, as opposed to the episodic baddies) are all, if I remember correctly, male in form. And this also is somewhat true to the feminist underpinnings of the show. Male as patriarchy and powerful beyond the average person's control. The strongest characters in the show are women (a rarity on television) and there are many different kinds of women - brains and strength and beauty are all respected. There are great male characters and while they are not ignored at the expense of the females (as often happens in tv and movies, strong women come at male expense) they are not the point. I love Xander being the main strong young guy, who is also at a power disadvantage to the Slayer's powers and (eventually) to Willow's growing witchcraft skills and even to Anya's demonic knowledge. And Joss Whedon does in fact call himself a feminist in interviews, so none of this feminism is accidental.
One great aspect of the show which is also one of its biggest flaws is the use of the supernatural. The 'Buffy-verse' doesn't have a worked out theology -not so far as I can make out- and this allows for all kinds of new Bads. Yet this allows for a lot of creativity and camp and exploration of themes. Evil becomes more amorphous and personal as the seasons wear on. I've heard it said that the last season or two are loose metaphors for the new post-9/11 world. Which makes sense given that the show started in the 90s - after all the Great Evils of Nazis and Communism were over. The 90s seemed nothing but prosperous and hopeful. And now we have Islamic and other forms of terrorism as our new Big Bad. The show wrestles with ideas of Good and Evil. Sometimes Evil is clearly opposite from Good (as much of American media would like us to believe that there is Good and there is Evil, and both sides are clear), but sometimes the Big Bad is ourselves or isn't so clear cut, or was once Good and might be Good again (Angel is a great example of this).
At the end of the day, though, a good show needs to have characters I care about and good writing, this show has both. Over the course of the first and second seasons I genuinely come to care about the characters, what happens to them, and how they feel. I love the core 'Scoobies': Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow. But I also love Oz and Cordelia and Angel. I love the character of Faith, but the actress portraying her is sooooo awful. She's got one note, no nuance, which is a real shame. I come to love Spike (who leaves and returns).
The writing, like all shows, can be hit and miss, but it is for the most part very consistent, is able to develop themes and characters, and at the same time throw out the one-liners that make it famous, as well as occasionally make me cry (no mean feat there). Any episode written and/or directed by Joss Whedon is guaranteed to be awesome. He sometimes stretches the boundaries of tv by doing things like a silent/dialogue free episode and a musical episode (we're talking 10 years before Glee). Of course, because of the goofy nature of the show he has the option to swerve into high camp or take things dark and serious.
I would suggest getting through season one (only 12 episodes, all the other seasons are 22) and start in on season 2 and then deciding what you think. It might be a little dark for [Miss A who is 11] in spots, but she might also love it. I certainly think the women are great role models.
So there's my mini-treatise on why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I failed to mention to her one other aspect I love about the show: the idea of a saviour. Yes, a tiny ditz saves the world every week, but as we find out (and this is one of my core theological ideas): we save ourselves and each other. Very often we can only save ourselves and others with other people's help. Buffy repeatedly shows us that one lone saviour cannot do it all. I think this counters a lot of the religious and culturally Christian myth that one guy (Jesus) will save us from everything.
Another thing I failed to mention about the show's weakness is its abysmal/campy approach to the supernatural and occult. It's such bad magic. I'm no big fan of Wicca in general, but real Wicca bears little resemblance to what Willow ends up practicing. And yet: mainstream magic like that was and is hard to come by.
So yeah, I have mad love for this show. It's amazing to me that something I can write about critically can also be just plain fun.