I Am a Traitor to My Kind...
So I have a television confession to make. I'm pretty well-known in my family for literary sacrileges like announcing at the dinner table that "I don't like Steinbeck" or "I just don't think Huck Finn is especially well-written," but I don't usually horrify and offend everyone with my taste in movies, music or television. It was only a matter of time. There is clearly also now something wrong with my taste in serialized science fiction.
I just can't get that into Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I know, I know. What is WRONG with me?
I want to like this show. I really do. First of all, it is one of the iconic geek shows of our time, a cultural touchstone for my own subculture that is practically necessary for participation in the herd. I'm the tail end of the Star Trek Next Generation generation. For anyone younger than me, it's Buffy up until you get to people as young as my students. For another, as interested as I am in representations of gender and sexual orientation, I should like this show, right? It's ground breaking and empowering and gutsy. And yet...after watching the first two seasons I'm unattached. It's a cool conceit - casting the ditz in the heroine role - and one that plays into the kind of valuing-women-while-not-further-devaluing-the-feminine statement that I like. But for all the innovation in gender, the teenagers are still rather cardboard as teenagers. Maybe I'm just too old for this show? I mean, I do find myself bizarrely put off by all the scenes that take place in that weird warehouse/fast food joint that totally has the vibe of a bar, but maybe doesn't actually serve alcohol and even if it doesn't it's a total meat market and WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE KIDS' PARENTS?! Maybe I'm just out of touch, but these teenagers don't sound or live anything like teenagers I knew (and I am not actually THAT old, people) and I like a few nods to reality in my science fiction. I've caught random episodes from later, and I've heard that we get more good subversiveness re:sex and gender, but I haven't seen a solution to the whole "secret of lives of brats" issue...
So am I tasteless? Have I not given it the time it deserves? Does it come into its own in the third season? Am I immune to the subliminal awesome vibes because I am the only person ever who is not attracted to any of Angel/Buffy/Xander/Willow? Do you want to kick me out of nerd-dom forever and always? Something else?
I just can't get that into Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I know, I know. What is WRONG with me?
I want to like this show. I really do. First of all, it is one of the iconic geek shows of our time, a cultural touchstone for my own subculture that is practically necessary for participation in the herd. I'm the tail end of the Star Trek Next Generation generation. For anyone younger than me, it's Buffy up until you get to people as young as my students. For another, as interested as I am in representations of gender and sexual orientation, I should like this show, right? It's ground breaking and empowering and gutsy. And yet...after watching the first two seasons I'm unattached. It's a cool conceit - casting the ditz in the heroine role - and one that plays into the kind of valuing-women-while-not-further-devaluing-the-feminine statement that I like. But for all the innovation in gender, the teenagers are still rather cardboard as teenagers. Maybe I'm just too old for this show? I mean, I do find myself bizarrely put off by all the scenes that take place in that weird warehouse/fast food joint that totally has the vibe of a bar, but maybe doesn't actually serve alcohol and even if it doesn't it's a total meat market and WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE KIDS' PARENTS?! Maybe I'm just out of touch, but these teenagers don't sound or live anything like teenagers I knew (and I am not actually THAT old, people) and I like a few nods to reality in my science fiction. I've caught random episodes from later, and I've heard that we get more good subversiveness re:sex and gender, but I haven't seen a solution to the whole "secret of lives of brats" issue...
So am I tasteless? Have I not given it the time it deserves? Does it come into its own in the third season? Am I immune to the subliminal awesome vibes because I am the only person ever who is not attracted to any of Angel/Buffy/Xander/Willow? Do you want to kick me out of nerd-dom forever and always? Something else?