Wednesday 22 May 2013

Things I Love - Buffy

Two days ago it was the 10th anniversary of the last episode of Buffy being shown in the US. Since then, I've been wanting to blog about the show, but didn't want to rush my thoughts. So, after a little rumination, I am ready to spurt forth my thoughts on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This is without a doubt my favourite TV show, if not one of my favourite things. No other show, film, book, etc has had the same impact on me that Buffy has. Some have come close - Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars for example - but none have matched it.

Some people will look at Buffy and they will wonder why this show is so special to me. I think there are many reasons, one of them being my age when the show started. I watched the show when it first aired on BBC2 in 1998. I was 23 at the time - in my first job, trying to find my way in my world.  At the start of the show the characters themselves were 16 and in High School. Although I was a few years older than them, I could see myself in many of their choices and decisions, obviously not including the areas to do with demons and vampires! But this was another beautiful thing about the show - take away the vampires and the demons and the group of people you are left with are some of the most realistically written and portrayed characters I've seen in anything else. They are trying so hard to be "good", but they do make mistakes and sometimes operate in the grey areas. For me this was the first time that a TV show dispensed with the stark white and black hats, allowing the characters to get a little dirty. Isn't that life??


Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer
As well as the characters, I also loved the actors that played them - Sarah Michelle Gellar perfect as Buffy; Alyson Hannigan who can cry like no other actress/actor; Nicholas Brendon playing the comedy and pathos of Xander to a tee; Anthony Stewart Head - so suave and handsome playing the father figure of the show with a twinkle in his eye. And there was also the rest of the gang - David Boreanaz, James Marsters, Seth Green, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg and Kristine Sutherland. The range portrayed by these actors is immense and I think their success is vastly under-rated.

I also loved that the show was never afraid to do what you weren't expecting, keeping you on your toes and not allowing you to relax when a character's life was in danger. I can't remember the first episode I watched, but I saw a few episodes in series one. It didn't blow me away. I remember then seeing a few episodes from series two - including School Hard with Spike and Drusilla's first appearance - and liking where the show was going. And then there was, for me, the game changing two-part episode of Surprise and Innocence, in which the main love interest for Buffy in the show, Angel, was transformed in to the big bad for the series, Angelus. I remember admiring the bravery of a show to do this and to have him then go on to be a REAL baddie, played so superbly by David Boreanaz.

Then there were the other 'brave'/different episodes - The Body, Once More with Feeling (the musical episode) and Hush (the silent episode) among many others. 

Then the character deaths! But not just the deaths but the way in which they were dealt with, giving the characters the time and space to grieve. This doesn't tend to happen in a lot of shows, with characters seemingly springing back from the loss of a loved one.

A lot of these points go back to the quality of the writing and the attention to detail given by the writers and the show's creator, Joss Whedon. For example, at the end of the second episode of series one (The Harvest) the following dialogue takes place:

BUFFY: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school.
XANDER: Hey, that's a plan. 'Cause a lot of schools aren't on Hellmouths. 
WILLOW: Maybe you could blow something up. They're really strict about that.
 BUFFY: I was aiming for a subtle approach, like excessive not studying.
GILES: The earth is doomed. 
In the final episode of the show (series seven's 'Chosen'), as the gang are preparing to face the final battle, this happens:
XANDER: See, it's the eye-patch thing.
BUFFY: Right, do you go with the full black secret agent look?
WILLOW: of the ruffy shirt pirate-slash-poet feel? Sensitive yet manly.
XANDER: Now you're getting a little renassaince fair on me.
GILES: The earth is definitely doomed.

Image from: http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Chosen
But what makes it even better is that the order in which they walk away from Buffy as they go to their battlestations, is the order in which she met them in the very first episode.

Perfect!


4 comments:

  1. Wow I never noticed that the order they broke away in thr end was the order Buffy met them. That has actually really moved me! Going to have to rewatch the 1st and last ep now for that reason alone.
    Great blog! X

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    1. Yay!! I love it. It's one of those things that if you don't see it, it doesn't take away from the viewing. But if you do see it, it makes your heart happy! Thank you hun :)

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  2. Love your blog!! You described it perfectly haha. And I couldn't agree with you more on the subject that it is my favorite tv show of all time, actually favorite thing, period ;). xoxo

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