Ode to Buffy, Slayer of Vampires

We just finished watching the last of the 7 seasons of Tammy's all-time favourite TV show (last time I checked): Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Going into this 144 episode endeavour, I had my doubts about how likely it was that I'd enjoy it. The show had always seemed pretty silly whenever I stopped on it for a few minutes while channel surfing, and very insular (if you knew what was going on, great; if not, you were lost). And really I don't think I'd have ever given it a chance if it weren't for Joss Whedon's foray into mainstream comics in the form of Astonishing X-Men, a title launched a little over two years ago. Not being a big X-fan anymore (I lost interest during the explosion of X-titles in the 80s when it was impossible to follow just one title and have any clue what the stories were about) I wouldn't in turn have even tried out AXM when it started up but for the fact that Planetary artist John Cassaday was providing the artwork. I'd read just about anything Cassaday drew, I like his work that much. So when they announced an X-Men title that some guy who did Buffy and Angel was writing, that didn't get my attention.. but when they said Cassaday was drawing it, I perked up. And proceeded to buy, and really like, the comic, and not just for the gorgeous art.

So that adventure opened up the possibility of trying something else Whedon-esque. But my thoughts didn't immediately turn to young Buffy. Instead, around the same time, the ads for Serenity, the sci fi movie written and directed by Joss started making the rounds. I found out it was a followup to the short-lived Firefly TV series, which neither Vicki nor I had watched, largely because of its description as a "Western in space." I can count the number of Westerns I've ever really enjoyed on one finger (Unforgiven) so that sort of tagline had actually turned me off from sampling a science fiction TV show like I usually would. And it had come and gone in half a season so I hadn't felt like I'd missed much. But Serenity looked interesting, so when Space - The Imagination Station did a Firefly marathon one weekend, I PVR'd them all and Vicki and I settled in to check them out. About halfway through the first episode, we knew we were going to like it, and sure enough we did! A couple of the episodes recorded badly (bad SARA.. bad!) but PeterJ at work was kind enough to lend us his DVD set so we could watch the ones that we'd missed, and then we were ready to hit the theatre and see Serenity, which we did. And I think we'd both count Firefly/Serenity among our favourites now.

All of which lead to Tammy suggesting we try Buffy. By now I was willing to trust that Mr Whedon can write a good story, so it wasn't the hard sell it would've been otherwise. However, she did something very smart: she warned us that the first season (only 12 episodes in length) was the weakest of the bunch, and that season 2 marked a significant jump in quality that was largely maintained for the rest of the run. I think without that, I might've given up partway through the first season, as it really was just a Monster-Of-The-Week kind of show then that wouldn't have held my interest. Since I'd experienced a similar sort of thing with my personal all-time favourite TV show, Babylon5 (where the first season is by far the least interesting), I could relate to this and be patient through those first dozen episodes.

And sure enough, the second season was much, much better. And by the time it was half over I was hooked and wanted to see what else the show had to offer.

Now that I've seen them all, I have a fondness for it that doesn't quite put it in my upper echelon of TV shows, but not far out of it, either. Each season holds together well, which I really appreciate in a program. I wish that there had been more of an overall arc to the entire series, but that's because I love epics so much. It's the sort of fiction that could've easily pulled that off, but apparently that wasn't the effect they were going for. It's clearly a show that skews more to the younger audience, but not to the extent of alienating or ignoring older viewers. I could've done without the musical episode, for example, as it was all flash and style and when you strip that away, the story in it was pretty silly. And really that's about the only aspect of the show that wore on me, over time: the juxtapositioning of world-ending threats and banal considerations of what clothes to wear or which boyfriend to choose, which I'm sure was considered by the writers to be the zenith of irony. I can see how that would play very well with the teens and tweeners and even young adults, but anyone hoping for a little more gravitas could be left out in the cold at times.

But that's a small criticism compared to the high level of enjoyment the show provides. And, as mentioned earlier, from my channel surfing experiences (but now from the other side of the aisle), once you're in, you're all the way in, and it feels like an exclusive club that rewards you each episode for the fact that you've been paying attention! I like that. I like it in comics, where it's fairly common; and I like it when it happens in TV shows, which is rare. This year, in much of the current crop of network TV, continuity is king, but that's hardly ever been the case, so hats off to Whedon (and JMS, with B5) for doing it when it wasn't in vogue.