The Supernatural-Buffy Cage Match

[yourlibrarian]

Not long ago there was a blog post about how Supernatural compared to Buffy, and whether the poster should try out the show. Personally I thought these were two separate issues. While I found Buffy to be a high quality show in many ways, I've enjoyed those that aren't so good and I've enjoyed ones that may be better. To me that's like suggesting

Comments

[thatotherperv]

There is no such rich tapestry in SPN. While there is no reason why some of the many interesting characters who have appeared (sometimes repeatedly) could not be broadened to have their own internal lives, their own separate, conflicting motivations, and their own reflective storylines, the writers have not chosen to do this. Characters tend to appear to serve an (often brief) narrative function but we learn very little about them, and what we do know the fandom has often assembled from very close viewing.

This was my original beef I had with the show when I started watching it, and you stated it beautifully. I think, not only did btvs give us more genuine minor characters with an explicit arc, there were plenty of others that we found out very little about that were constructed in such a way that it was easy to imagine them living and breathing off-camera. we knew people *existed* outside of Buffy's view (although sometimes *she* forgot that was true, haha), whereas on spn, other characters read to me very much like props for Sam and Dean's lives to happen against. I'm thinking of Anne in Buffy/Angel vs, say...Ava. Ava, who at first we *literally* thought had ceased to exist for 6 months. I think one of the consequences is that fandom is sort of straight-jacketed into the Wincest pairing.

I think one other place where spn falls short of buffy is the way Kripke drops his bombs. they're both big and messy and blindsiding, and sometimes you love them and sometimes you want to punch the creator in the face for fucking your show up, but the plot twists on supernatural always leave me feeling unsatisfied after the fact. On Buffy, those big moments had consequences and ramifications that played out for weeks, or in some cases, years. there are a few exceptions, but I would say most of the time, we got to see our characters changed by life-altering events. I suppose the same is true in spn but it feels like he always pulls his punches afterwards. something happens that would fundamentally alter any human being here in the real world, but on the show, things sort of go on as usual the next week. Sam's character after the prolonged torture of Mystery Spot, Dean's character after returning from hell. as a result, he throws away a lot of interesting opportunities.

I've probably said all of this to you before. haha. *cough* I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

[yourlibrarian]

there were plenty of others that we found out very little about that were constructed in such a way that it was easy to imagine them living and breathing off-camera. we knew people *existed* outside of Buffy's view (although sometimes *she* forgot that was true, haha), whereas on spn, other characters read to me very much like props for Sam and Dean's lives to happen against.

A hundred times yes. What's worse this seems to have become more true as the seasons went on. In a previous meta I talked about how, despite its other failings, S1 of SPN gave us people who we could imagine being fleshed out in the future or who clearly had independent internal lives. I think a good example of the difference is if we look at Metamorphosis. Jack's story took a LOT of screen time in that episode. But what did we really learn about him besides the fact that he loved his wife and was obviously having something weird happening to him that he didn't want to admit to?

On Buffy, those big moments had consequences and ramifications that played out for weeks, or in some cases, years.

Yes, I mean there were some notable cases where something should have been followed up on and wasn't but for all the crap that Marti Noxon got for S6 being a downer, well, Buffy had died. She'd been left with a pretty big issue to address and I happen to be glad it wasn't swept under the rug. Also, Xander and Anya had been foreshadowed in S5. The real surprise was Willow and Tara's storyline. And really, Oz had already been worried about this in earlier seasons. It also didn't come out of the blue.

I've probably said all of this to you before. haha. *cough* I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

You and me both! A lot of what I've said above I've said before in bits and pieces elsewhere, but I was very interested in the pro-SPN views because it made me rethink what people were looking at.