Thoughts on Buffy while rewatching bits. <3
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Buffy (seasons 1 through 5)? I don't talk about it enough these days but to confirm, it is, in fact, STILL MY LIFE. So, I've been rewatching season one with people in my life who haven't ever watched it(!), and appreciating early bits despite its flaws because it all leads to the awesome series finale of season five.
I'm always afraid to go back and watch Buffy because I think that I'll find it offensive or that it wouldn't push as many of my fictional buttons or mostly that I'll bring a million tons of my Joss Whedon baggage to it and hate it on principle the way I have sort of come to dislike Firefly on principle (it...doesn't help that I know Inara was supposed to be gang-raped by reavers at some point. SO GLAD it got canceled before that. Plus, most of the best stuff on Firefly is written by Tim Minear, anyway, so.) But am always pleasantly surprised by how awesome it is despite the fact that I have had years of literature studies, bitter television watching, and have just become a hater in general since I first watched it.
But that first scene? Still gets me every time because yeah, pretty much on any other TV show, it would've been the guy attacking the girl and that's how it's set up, but then Darla bites him. Which is a very nice reverse of the usual horror trope. (You guys, I know that as far as deconstruction goes, simple reversal of tropes isn't very complex, but it's often what makes me squee with delight.) And it is one of the few shows with a female lead (that I know of!) where most of her important relationships are to other women. And I'm really appreciating that fact these days when I probably didn't care as much originally.
I think it probably helps a lot that it started just as I was starting high school? Since these days, I scoff at high school angst, but I looooooooove stories about people girls discovering their destinies, coming-of-age narratives, and angst and real world drama given to me in the form of METAPHORS. And Buffy had all of this? And with a GIRL, no less. These days, I really, really hate Joss' girl/woman issues, but you know how Dollhouse was the perfect playground for all of Joss's weird issues with women to come out and play? Buffy was sort of the perfect narrative in which to keep them out for the most part, and I can go back and point out his developing issues and there are certainly many, many issues still. But the good, for me, generally outweighs the bad, which may or may not change as I rewatch more. But I'm able to separate Buffy from the Joss hate the way I can't separate any of his other creations.
It occurs to me that Buffy is the only thing Joss has done that's a female POV journey, and I actually wonder how many of his issues these days come from having switched to a male POV? Certainly, that's a HUGE part of Dollhouse issues, where women are constantly written/filmed as objects, and Cordelia and Fred both became casualties in Angel's narrative journey.
I mean, it's an incredibly limited narrative, and as far as deconstruction goes, it's a simple gender-reversed mythic heroic journey. But I love that within that archetypal heroine's journey, the show also mixes in the horror/gothic-coming-of-age character study that subverts the common stereotypes of women in that genre, and it's such a weird mix, and I realize that my love and appreciation have a lot to do with my general love for mythic stories and gothic-themed horror narratives. But it delivers wonderfully on both those ends, and this is what I signed up for, and that makes me happy. It somehow allowed Buffy's journey to feel very mythic and very individualized both at once. I think a lot of Buffy's narrative success is because the story sort of stuck to what it started out as and advanced that journey, but never tried to add too much to it. (And when it did, that's when it started failing hard.) Conversely, I think Angel fails as a narrative (for me, anyway) because it never had a clear idea of what it wanted to do, and the premise changed from season to season.
And I love, love the whole narrative level that's given to us in dreams. And it has an awesome payoff in season five. Unlike, you know, the Opera House dreams or the Four Square dreams. I’ve read that the story for all five seasons was planned before the show started, and I believe that the narrative framework, at least, was set up in advance. Season five, which I know many of you hate and put in with the last two as a season of fail, is really, really important in terms of bringing all those narrative arcs to a conclusion. I love how the episodes between "Becoming" and "The Gift" actually make Buffy less selfless? But I love that that's handled in a way that I see it as growth. But it's very much about...taking the idea of heroism that the Watchers’ Council has defined for her -- duty above all, the slayer against the world, the slayer alone -- and making it into something that's all her own? And she makes it about a heroism that's less selfless (and I appreciate that in a female narrative more, since there's an emphasis on self-sacrifice in women's narratives), more individualized, and more personal? I like that in season two, she's willing to kill Angel and save the world. (I've really come to dislike the trope where the male hero chooses to always save the girl when the choice is between the WORLD and the girl.) I like that she kills Angel, but I like that she LEARNS not to repeat that mistake. It's not a narrative given in romantic plots where you just ASSUME the heroine/hero would save the love of her/his life. She kills Angel, but I think if she could go back, she wouldn't. We see the reverse of this choice in "The Gift," and that's so much what MAKES Buffy's whole journey for me. I love that it's no longer, "Save the world, first." I love that she's learned from her mistakes, worked with the council, understood it wasn't for her, and is now willing to do things her way. Season five is all about growing up, and it's perfect and OMG, how much do I love that she fights a GOD in it? Coming to her Classical heroic roots, and just...sigh. <3 <3 <3 Seaons five is also a perfect descent narrative, and I have so much love for those. I love that at the end of it, she sacrifices her life, but it never feels like she’s sacrificing her SELF. <3
If Buffy had ended with season four, I think most of my love for it would be nostalgia-based? But season five just...rounds out everything so nicely and takes care of so many of the issues I have with earlier seasons that I really, really need that season to make it all work for me. <3 I'm looking forward to rewatching to see if it still feels as epic.
I think I loved Buffy very differently than I love shows now when I get really focused on one character to a degree that the rest of the show becomes completely irrelevant. (With Buffy, this only happens when Faith is there and I start resenting each second of screen time not being spent on her.) So with Buffy, I really get to appreciate the ENTIRE narrative journey, and not just the narrative journey of my OTC. And I think it's because I'm not OTCing Buffy as a character that I'm okay with just sitting back and being told the story, instead of having STRONG opinions about where the story should go. The story, of course, being season one through five. Because season six and seven still don't exist.
In other news, you guys, season one feels so horribly dated now, and a lot of the dialogue makes me cringe. And if I had watched it today, I probably would've not gotten over that? But the narrative themes are still awesome, and I still feel a weird bubbly love for the whole "In each generation, there's a chosen one" monologue, and just...sigh. I miss loving shows like this. When I didn't think about them, and didn't get focused on one aspect of storytelling, and this was before my obsession with dark heroines started. I mean, I'm pretty sure I hated Faith initially? (I know, blasphemy!) But, of course, she's the first dark heroine I totally fell in love with, and since then, it's pretty much been only dark heroines that I OTC over.
I'm always afraid to go back and watch Buffy because I think that I'll find it offensive or that it wouldn't push as many of my fictional buttons or mostly that I'll bring a million tons of my Joss Whedon baggage to it and hate it on principle the way I have sort of come to dislike Firefly on principle (it...doesn't help that I know Inara was supposed to be gang-raped by reavers at some point. SO GLAD it got canceled before that. Plus, most of the best stuff on Firefly is written by Tim Minear, anyway, so.) But am always pleasantly surprised by how awesome it is despite the fact that I have had years of literature studies, bitter television watching, and have just become a hater in general since I first watched it.
But that first scene? Still gets me every time because yeah, pretty much on any other TV show, it would've been the guy attacking the girl and that's how it's set up, but then Darla bites him. Which is a very nice reverse of the usual horror trope. (You guys, I know that as far as deconstruction goes, simple reversal of tropes isn't very complex, but it's often what makes me squee with delight.) And it is one of the few shows with a female lead (that I know of!) where most of her important relationships are to other women. And I'm really appreciating that fact these days when I probably didn't care as much originally.
I think it probably helps a lot that it started just as I was starting high school? Since these days, I scoff at high school angst, but I looooooooove stories about people girls discovering their destinies, coming-of-age narratives, and angst and real world drama given to me in the form of METAPHORS. And Buffy had all of this? And with a GIRL, no less. These days, I really, really hate Joss' girl/woman issues, but you know how Dollhouse was the perfect playground for all of Joss's weird issues with women to come out and play? Buffy was sort of the perfect narrative in which to keep them out for the most part, and I can go back and point out his developing issues and there are certainly many, many issues still. But the good, for me, generally outweighs the bad, which may or may not change as I rewatch more. But I'm able to separate Buffy from the Joss hate the way I can't separate any of his other creations.
It occurs to me that Buffy is the only thing Joss has done that's a female POV journey, and I actually wonder how many of his issues these days come from having switched to a male POV? Certainly, that's a HUGE part of Dollhouse issues, where women are constantly written/filmed as objects, and Cordelia and Fred both became casualties in Angel's narrative journey.
I mean, it's an incredibly limited narrative, and as far as deconstruction goes, it's a simple gender-reversed mythic heroic journey. But I love that within that archetypal heroine's journey, the show also mixes in the horror/gothic-coming-of-age character study that subverts the common stereotypes of women in that genre, and it's such a weird mix, and I realize that my love and appreciation have a lot to do with my general love for mythic stories and gothic-themed horror narratives. But it delivers wonderfully on both those ends, and this is what I signed up for, and that makes me happy. It somehow allowed Buffy's journey to feel very mythic and very individualized both at once. I think a lot of Buffy's narrative success is because the story sort of stuck to what it started out as and advanced that journey, but never tried to add too much to it. (And when it did, that's when it started failing hard.) Conversely, I think Angel fails as a narrative (for me, anyway) because it never had a clear idea of what it wanted to do, and the premise changed from season to season.
And I love, love the whole narrative level that's given to us in dreams. And it has an awesome payoff in season five. Unlike, you know, the Opera House dreams or the Four Square dreams. I’ve read that the story for all five seasons was planned before the show started, and I believe that the narrative framework, at least, was set up in advance. Season five, which I know many of you hate and put in with the last two as a season of fail, is really, really important in terms of bringing all those narrative arcs to a conclusion. I love how the episodes between "Becoming" and "The Gift" actually make Buffy less selfless? But I love that that's handled in a way that I see it as growth. But it's very much about...taking the idea of heroism that the Watchers’ Council has defined for her -- duty above all, the slayer against the world, the slayer alone -- and making it into something that's all her own? And she makes it about a heroism that's less selfless (and I appreciate that in a female narrative more, since there's an emphasis on self-sacrifice in women's narratives), more individualized, and more personal? I like that in season two, she's willing to kill Angel and save the world. (I've really come to dislike the trope where the male hero chooses to always save the girl when the choice is between the WORLD and the girl.) I like that she kills Angel, but I like that she LEARNS not to repeat that mistake. It's not a narrative given in romantic plots where you just ASSUME the heroine/hero would save the love of her/his life. She kills Angel, but I think if she could go back, she wouldn't. We see the reverse of this choice in "The Gift," and that's so much what MAKES Buffy's whole journey for me. I love that it's no longer, "Save the world, first." I love that she's learned from her mistakes, worked with the council, understood it wasn't for her, and is now willing to do things her way. Season five is all about growing up, and it's perfect and OMG, how much do I love that she fights a GOD in it? Coming to her Classical heroic roots, and just...sigh. <3 <3 <3 Seaons five is also a perfect descent narrative, and I have so much love for those. I love that at the end of it, she sacrifices her life, but it never feels like she’s sacrificing her SELF. <3
If Buffy had ended with season four, I think most of my love for it would be nostalgia-based? But season five just...rounds out everything so nicely and takes care of so many of the issues I have with earlier seasons that I really, really need that season to make it all work for me. <3 I'm looking forward to rewatching to see if it still feels as epic.
I think I loved Buffy very differently than I love shows now when I get really focused on one character to a degree that the rest of the show becomes completely irrelevant. (With Buffy, this only happens when Faith is there and I start resenting each second of screen time not being spent on her.) So with Buffy, I really get to appreciate the ENTIRE narrative journey, and not just the narrative journey of my OTC. And I think it's because I'm not OTCing Buffy as a character that I'm okay with just sitting back and being told the story, instead of having STRONG opinions about where the story should go. The story, of course, being season one through five. Because season six and seven still don't exist.
In other news, you guys, season one feels so horribly dated now, and a lot of the dialogue makes me cringe. And if I had watched it today, I probably would've not gotten over that? But the narrative themes are still awesome, and I still feel a weird bubbly love for the whole "In each generation, there's a chosen one" monologue, and just...sigh. I miss loving shows like this. When I didn't think about them, and didn't get focused on one aspect of storytelling, and this was before my obsession with dark heroines started. I mean, I'm pretty sure I hated Faith initially? (I know, blasphemy!) But, of course, she's the first dark heroine I totally fell in love with, and since then, it's pretty much been only dark heroines that I OTC over.