Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Introduction

In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer. – opening narration present in the first few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

There has always been an, I feel, unfair stigma surrounding sci-fi and fantasy television shows, at least some of them. That is, some sci-fi/fantasy shows transcend genre limitations, utilizing their non-drama aspects in order to tell quite dramatic storylines filled with meaningful allegory and social commentary. Battlestar Galactica, probably my second-favorite TV show ever and one of the best reviewed show of last decade, brilliantly uses its space setting and the issues it creates to craft a masterful drama that is simultaneously a great political thriller, an excellent display of science fiction storytelling, and a magnificent examination of humanity and how that humanity is molded by what we know, what we think, what we suspect, what others tell us, and possibly most importantly what others do.

I will be the first to admit that the first few times I heard about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was completely unwilling to make the leap to watching it, even after having watched all of Battlestar Galactica, the rebooted Doctor Who, Torchwood, and bits and pieces of other science-fiction/fantasy-oriented TV series. Then, at the beginning of Christmas break a little over a month ago, I gave in and pressed the play button on Netflix, and I’m so glad I did.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is like every other drama about being a teenager in today’s world in absolutely zero ways. Created by Joss Whedon in the aftermath of the debacle that was the 1992 campy rendition of his truly brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie script, Buffy was formed on one goal set by Whedon, to invert the Hollywood horror movie cliché in which “pretty blonde walks into a dark alley and gets killed every time” and to explore the idea of high school as hell. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, best known by housewives as mini-bitch Kendall Hart in All My Children and by everybody else as Daphne from the unfortunate live-action Scooby-Doo movies, as Buffy Summers, a 16-year-old high school sophomore at series beginning, who has just moved to the fictional California town of Sunnydale after burning down the gym at her previous high school in Los Angeles. And oh yeah, she’s the vampire slayer: a distinction meaning that she was “chosen” to defend the world against vampires and demons and other bad stuff. Plus, Sunnydale is smack-dab on top of a Hellmouth, a center of mystical activity. Soon after arriving, she meets and becomes best friends with two nerds, rather one nerd and her thoroughly uncool friend, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris, portrayed wonderfully by Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon. She also becomes friends with the school librarian, Rupert Giles, likewise portrayed wonderfully by Anthony Stewart Head. Giles is a Watcher, or a member of the Britain-based Watchers’ Council, a council charged solely with training and supervising slayers. She also becomes acquainted with ultra-popular, pretty Cordelia Chase, played by Charisma Carpenter. There are some incredibly important recurring characters in every season, but I’ll get into those when I reach each season.

Before we begin the nitty-gritty, I’ll briefly talk about why the atmosphere of the show is so great. Good comedy-dramas are hard to find, but Buffy is not just a good comedy-drama, but a fantastic one. Instead of trying to make a situation funny, the writers understand that oftentimes the best comedy can be found in characters’ reactions to the situation. Xander’s one-liners about potentially fatal situations are pretty much always hysterical, and Willow’s nervous antics are incredibly endearing and oftentimes funny as well. Also, just like what I said I loved about Battlestar Galactica, Buffy takes its supernatural, fantasy themes and uses the situations it presents to tell stories that discuss powerful and important metaphorical and allegorical issues about adolescence, high school, young adulthood, college, and growing up in general.

I ended up writing quite a few pages about the seasons, so I’ll release those in two season increments every day, starting tomorrow. That should give me enough time to finish up Angel and get to work writing those episode reviews, which I hope will be shorter.