Television
"The form of art most suited to an age will produce both its best work and its most work-so by statistical likelihood, many bad works will be produced in that form."
Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy matters, the Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Yes I've started reading my first Buffy book, a Christmas gift from "my little calisson", Jane from thehappyblog (thank you again, Cheron, not sure you'll see this since you never post on your blog, but thanks nonetheless).
Rhonda Wilcox is right, television can produce the worst and the best...many bad "works" (bad soaps, horrible reality crap, stupid tv games) but also a few extraordinary works such as OZ, Farscape (the series, not the finale mini series that was too mainstream for my taste), Firefly, Nip/Tuck (yes despite the disappointing ending of s3),...and entertaining/suspenseful quality shows like Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Lost, The Shield, Rescue Me, etc (I won't make the list of all the shows I've loved in the 80's and the 90's). I haven't seen Veronica Mars so I can't express an opinion.
But for me BTVS reached a level that is beyond anything else. Besides being moving, it's so rich, so inspirant, thoughts-provoking, refreshing and so well done in regard to cinematic method (given to the money they had) . Hush or Restless are mere masterpieces.
I've been discussing Buffy/Ats online for nearly 4 years, thus meeting my own Scooby Gang through the Internet, and I still find out new stuff when re-watching my DVDs! Buffy led me to read fanfictions, something I has never done for any other work.
Oh yes Buffy matters...and will matter still in 2006.