Why Buffy still slays us

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Show was staked years ago, but it's back as a comic book.

ART BY GEORGES JEANTY

Season 8 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer won't be on your TV. Instead, you'll have to head to your comic-book store to catch up. Here she leads junior vampire slayers into action.

March 04, 2007

Malene Arpe
Nikki Stafford

ART BY GEORGES JEANTY

Season 8 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer won't be on your TV. Instead, you'll have to head to your comic-book store to catch up. Here she leads junior vampire slayers into action.

Buffy slayed her first vampire 10 years ago Saturday. The series ended after seven seasons. The WB, which originally aired Joss Whedon's show, ended last year. Why should we still care about a blonde in high heels killing creatures of the night?

Only because Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show ever on television, of course. D'uh!

All right, we're fans. Nikki wrote a book, Bite Me!: An Unofficial Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, about it. Malene on a regular basis bores perfect strangers with her nattering about the show.

But there is reason to revisit the topic besides an anniversary. It's still on the minds of millions of other fans. Thoughtful books keep being published analyzing the show, adding to its cultural cachet. Its influence is being felt on TV's best shows (see graphic opposite). And this month, Dark Horse Comics releases the first instalment of the 26-part Whedon-penned "eighth season," The Long Way Home – Part One. It's as good an excuse as any to talk about our favourite subject.

Malene: I was a latecomer to Buffy and didn't catch up until somewhere around the beginning of Season 6 via DVDs and reruns. But I was hooked from the moment I saw Darla attack the boy in the school hallway. What about you? Did you watch from the first episode 10 years ago, and what convinced you Buffy was special?

Nikki: The first episode I saw was "I Robot, You Jane," the low point of Season 1. So I ran screaming from the show, until other people whose taste I admired said, "No, really, you must watch this show." Someone lent me the tapes during the Season 2 April hiatus, and I watched them straight through and was completely in love. For me, the show just clicked because it showed high school as something other than the magical, happy place from other shows. I loved the metaphor that the high school was built on a Hellmouth and it was the language that convinced me this was special. To this day, I can just read favourite lines from the episodes and I'm laughing out loud (or getting weepy). Of course, despite loving many episodes in the first season, it was Season 2 that really made me say, "WOW." And to this day I think it's still my favourite for sheer pain and heartache. It begins with us not liking Buffy very much, then her boyfriend turns evil, and by the end of the season, she's forced to put a sword through his heart ... at the very moment he becomes good again. That scene still slays me.

Malene: I also think Season 2 is wonderful. The grand love story and, with the finale, an understanding that this is not some silly teenage show. However, I must admit I have a weakness for Season 6, a season often vilified for dealing with the everyday instead of the big supernatural bad. But, despite the fumbled magic-as-substance-addiction metaphor, I think it's the season that best conveys what I believe the whole series is about: the possibility of choosing redemption. It also has some of my favourite episodes. The musical, of course, but also the incredibly funny "Tabula Rasa." I've seen it too many times to count, and it still makes me laugh. Besides, Season 6 has all that illicit Spike sex, which is always easy on the eyes, but also speaks to the point that Buffy is simultaneously the most moral and the most immoral show on television. This is not, by the way, something I cleverly came up with, but the thesis of Gregory Stevenson's book Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Speaking of books, there's a mountain of academic texts on both Buffy and its spinoff, Angel. I think it's safe to say that nothing else on television has inspired this kind of egghead devotion. For a show that on a regular basis featured really bad CGI snakes, robot love slaves and discussions about pancakes, that's pretty good going. What do you think is at the core of this interest?

Nikki: I agree the Buffy scholarship is leagues ahead of that of any other TV show. I think it stems from the fact the show could be seen as an allegory of the human condition. (I know that sounded WAY too deep, but bear with me.) Those who have never watched the show avoid it because of the title. Buffy the Vampire Slayer sounds like it's one notch below Scooby-Doo. But the monsters in the show are metaphorical: sure, Buffy's battling them every night and they are tangible, but they stand for teenage angst, the monsters that adolescents fight every day. The fact she's being pushed into a calling she never asked for is representative of the pressures faced by young people every day. The show dealt with heavy issues: divorce; sibling rivalries; puberty; death; homosexuality; love; loss of love ... the list is endless. Name any kind of emotional pain, this show dealt it out in spades. Each character is representative of a whole group, and a lot of the academic scholarship focuses on facets of the individuals. Or why Buffy's pancakes were shaped differently than Xander's.

Another massive appeal is that the characters changed and developed. Buffy started as a snappy, cocky 16-year-old girl, and ended as a 23-year-old woman who'd seen more death and horrors than 10 people in their lifetimes. Willow was the wallflower who ended up a confident, powerful woman capable of anything. Along the way, both hit rock bottom and had to claw their way back up (Buffy, quite literally). What was your favourite character development?

Malene: As I said, I'm all about the redemption, which, of course, means that I have to pick Spike's arc. He starts out as gleefully evil and ends up willingly sacrificing himself to save the world. Although, to a certain degree, I agree with those who claim Whedon betrayed the whole girl power thing by, after seven years of Buffy kicking ass, having the fate of all mankind end up in the hands of a guy. A very pretty guy, but still.

So, the fact we're talking about this show some four years after it was cancelled speaks both to the endurance of the show and to the fact that maybe we don't get out very much. Do you think that 25 years from now Buffy will still be relevant? Is it an enduring work of art or are we just arguing it is so we can talk about vampires?

Nikki: You're right – Spike was the one sacrificed, but Buffy lived on, and her power has been disseminated among other slayerettes so the gals will continue to save the world. In 25 years, I do think the show will be relevant. Sure, the pop culture references will seem outdated, but the core of the show transcends its time. The original Star Trek is 40 this year, and the outfits, hair, and technology on the ship are about as archaic as they come, but it endures because of the message. Buffy was originally seen as a kids' show, then became critically acclaimed, and is now regarded as one of the best series ever. It would be nice to see the sister show, Angel, get its due as well. While I'll stick up for the girl power quotient in the Buffy finale, I thought Angel's finale far surpassed it.

Malene: I didn't particularly swoon over Angel while he was on Buffy – except when he started smoking and torturing people for sport – but I really grew to like him on his own show. Angel the series was darker from the beginning and I agree the finale was both way better than Buffy's and, in my opinion, one of the best series finales ever. You just sat there stunned and sad and uplifted at the same time.

But it's really never over. Fan fiction and art, fan movies, ongoing plot discussions on televisionwithoutpity.com, shout-outs on other shows, obsession with every move Whedon makes on whedonesque.com and so on and so forth. And, of course, now an eighth season in comic-book form. Written by Whedon! Canon!

I'm just a tiny little bit excited. What about you? Also, what shows since Buffy and Angel have been off the air have filled the void for you?

Nikki: Oh, I am SO excited for the comic book. Anything about Buffy that is sanctioned by Whedon, involving the actual writers of the show ...I'm in heaven.

The thing that's come closest to Buffy, for me, is Lost, which is why I wrote my latest book, Finding Lost, about it. It's a very different show, but the writing, acting, and directing reminds me of Buffy. The two shows are primarily dramas, but have moments of high comedy. For the most part, I've found several shows to replace aspects of Buffy. Veronica Mars for the sassy female lead and fun ensemble cast of helpers; Six Feet Under for the angst; Lost and Heroes for the genre element and ensemble casts; The Office for the laugh-out-loud hilarity. I watch a LOT of television, but nothing has replaced Buffy. Every time I sit down to watch episodes of Buffy, I almost weep, I miss it so much.

And I'm not alone. The fans keep talking about this show, as you say, and one thing that helps keep the show alive is that accessibility of Whedon himself. He is a god among Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans, yet he doesn't sit in an ivory tower. He's always posting over on whedonesque.com, and his posts are classic. He paid attention to the fans and interacted while the shows were on the air, and he's never stopped. I think the fans very much influenced the direction of the show.

Malene: It's hard to say. On one hand, Whedon always appears super-appreciative of fan feedback, but on the other, he famously said (after killing popular character Tara and facing the wrath of a lot of lesbian fans) he wants to give the audience what they need, not what they want. It's his world, or 'verse – to be all fannish – and we just visit. But you're so right about missing the show. I had hopes for Veronica Mars, but the effort to gain ratings has mostly killed its charm. I do love Battlestar Galactica, because it's dark and brutal and full of despair. But you're right again that you need a bunch of shows to replace the one that had it all. So, do you want a bit of a spoiler from the comic book or can you wait for it to come out on Tuesday?

Nikki: While I agree about Joss doing most things on his terms, he also listened to a lot of the fan reactions and took them to heart. There wouldn't have even been a lesbian couple as prominent as theirs if the fans hadn't been asking over and over again why there weren't any major gay characters on the show.

Spike was supposed to die after five episodes, and he lasted right to the end ...and then some. The Initiative was supposed to be all of Season 4, but the fans loathed that whole government plot SO much it was relegated to a minor subplot. Then Riley, the most hated of the Buffy boyfriends, was kicked off the show. But, for the most part, the show was Whedon's, and we just had to join the ride.

As for the comic book, yes, I can't wait. Though, I'm not a huge fan of spoilers, so maybe something small?

Malene: Hmmmm ... Maybe just this then: Buffy and The Immortal? Maybe not exactly what you'd think from watching the last season of Angel ...

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You can check out Nikki's blog, Nik at Nite, at nikkistafford.blogspot.com.