I LOVE Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though it has been off the air for eight years, I still love it as much today as I did then, and I miss it. People laugh at me when I say this. People who have never experienced it, that is. The rest of us Whedonites know better and feel sorry for the kids who think they're too cool for Buffy. Truly. If you've never experienced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's very sad because Buffy is awesome and changed the world. Ok, maybe not the world, but pop culture for sure.
Not just any girl. You're special.
Buffy wasn't just a girl. Xander wasn't just a slacker. Willow wasn't just a nerd. Giles wasn't just a sexy librarian. Angel and Spike were more than just vampires. They were all smarter, tougher, braver, darker, and brighter than they looked and than people gave them credit for. Sunnydale was always painted with various shades of grey and Buffy proved to be a complex show where good people did terrible things, bad people committed great acts of redemption and sacrifice, and nobody was immune to death.
You're nice, and you're funny, and you don't smoke. Yeah, okay, werewolf, but that's not all the time. I mean, three days out of the month, I'm not much fun to be around either.
Was it comedy? Yes. Was it drama? Yes. Was it horror? Yes. Was it magical? Definitely. Dr. Who producer/writer Russell T. Davies said,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed the whole world, and an entire sprawling industry, that writing monsters and demons and end-of-the world is not hack- work, it can challenge the best. Joss Whedon raised the bar for every writer— not just genre/niche writers, but every single one of us.
No, bunch of wanna-blessed-bes.
It's not without its problems, but witchcraft on Buffy was beautiful at times, practical, and often free of major cultural negative stereotypes. Willow remains one of television's most beloved witches among Pagans (though I prefer Tara myself). Jenny was so normal that people often forget she was also a witch and Giles' Magic Shop was the store every witch wants in her/his town. Witchcraft was used on the show in a variety of ways, good and bad. It was mystical, challenging, draining, and it really can be all those things. Witchcraft and magic were neither really inherently black nor white; nothing is that simple in the Buffyverse. Dark Willow was not about black magic, but about fury, grief, and Willow's emotional darkness. One of my favorite aspects of witchcraft on Buffy was how it was used to allude to the eroticism between Willow and Tara. I mean, really, what do you think is going on at the end of this video?
We're in love. We're... lovers. We're lesbian, gay-type lovers.
We may forget this today, but there were no portrayals of lesbian relationships on mainstream television when Willow and Tara fell in love. They are one of tv's greatest lesbian couples and Willow's progression was unique. She had a crush on Xander for a long time and found a boyfriend in Oz, whom she said she belonged to. Then she fell in love with Tara, whom she established a more egalitarian relationship with and who helped her grow in many ways, from a shy computer geek in pink fuzzy sweaters to a powerful witch. Their relationship was never sordid or staged and put on display for the male gaze and, while it might have been sanitized for television, it was definitely sexual. There was also Kennedy, a potential slayer, who was out and assertive. The best part was that these characters were just there. They weren't gimmicky gay characters; they were characters that happened to be gay.
Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own.
Life is hard and it was hard on Buffy too. Buffy herself is often a reluctant slayer. After all, it's not easy fighting all the time, dying (twice), and seeing your friends and family die. There is a lot of evil in the Sunnydale and it's not just the vampires. There is a lot of hardships and pain and there would always be more, but the job still had to get done and Buffy always did it. She saved the world, maintained her sense of humor and her friendships, and then went to the mall.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer has had a lasting impact on television and pop culture. It's even led the to development of Buffy studies, an academic field devoted to examining the show from a range of disciplinary perspectives including women's studies, psychology, and philosophy.
I embrace my geekdom when I embrace Buffy.
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