Every Tuesday night around
8:30 I'd get the call. "Did you see that?
Ohmigod, why aren't you watching?! Go turn
your TV on! Why not?! Turn on your TV! Turn
on your TV! Turn on your T-V!" Sometimes I
would, and sometimes I wouldn't. I was resistant
to BUFFY from the start. As someone still
coming to terms with a XENA affliction (Click
see Teri's review of the XENA
SEASON TWO BOXED SET, adding another
guilty pleasure to my viewing habits would've
been just too much. The premise from the DVD
booklet:
"After moving to Sunnydale,
California, Buffy Anne Summers just wants
to be a normal teenager. Back in Los Angeles
her first Watcher had died, she inadvertently
burned down the school gymnasium at her old
high school, and her parents got a divorce.
The move to Sunnydale is supposed to give
both her and her mother, Joyce, a clean slate.
But then she meets the school librarian, Rupert
Giles, and quickly learns there is no escaping
her destiny.
"With Giles as her new
Watcher, she reluctantly steps back in to
her role as the Slayer. But this time she
is not fighting alone. For she now has an
inner circle of special friends ready to join
the fight and drive in a stake or two if need
be: Willow, Xander, Cordelia, and a mysterious
young man named Angel."
The series was based on
a movie bearing the same name and starred
Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry. But as BUFFY
creator Joss Whedon told STARLOG in 1997,
the film wasn't exactly his vision. "I liked
the movie," he says, "but it was broader and
more comic than I intended. There was an idealism
to the movie I think fell by the wayside."
It's bad enough with all
this vampire business but add to that the
teen element - 90210 meets THE LOST BOYS.
Bleech. Can you see why I resisted? Well,
it was my loss.
The television series gave
Whedon a chance to do it his way. As he explains,
"The series is Buffy at school with her friends
and her mentor figure fighting not just vampires
but all matters of beasts and occult problems.
The idea was to use horror as a metaphor for
teenage life, so that certain episodes will
reflect teenage angst taken to such a degree
that monsters actually arise from it. When
I tell someone we're doing high school as
a horror story, they usually reply, 'Well,
high school is
a horror story.' And that was certainly true
for me. Part of the fun of doing this show
is being able to speak to those teenage problems
and concerns in a sardonic, off-the-wall,
creepy sort of way."
Indeed, there are many
elements of this first season that remind
me of how teen life was taken to horrific
extremes in HEATHERS. Cordelia's "What's your
childhood trauma?" sounds awfully reminiscent
of "Heather, what's your damage?!" Instead
of murder and mayhem, though, BUFFY gives
us grody demons and vampires sprinkled with
some TWILIGHT ZONE-like creepies. The invisible
girl in OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT and the
ventriloquist at the mercy of his possessed
dummy in THE PUPPET SHOW are wonderfully exaggerated
versions of school outcasts.
With so many growing pains,
Buffy's lucky she's got a gaggle of friends
that would eventually be dubbed the Scooby
Gang. You know, as in "Scooby Dooby Doo, where
are you?" As Whedon so warmly praises in the
DVD commentary, Sarah Michelle Gellar is backed
by a fantastic cast. Nicholas Brendon as geeky
Xander, Alyson Hannigan's queasy Willow, and
former Tasters Choice ad leading man, Anthony
Stewart Head as Watcher Rupert Giles.
I've always thought of
Buffy as the female counterpart to Peter Parker.
She's someone a lot of kids can relate to.
She's in trouble with her mom and at school,
has bad grades, hangs with the wrong crowd,
and don't even mention her love life! Gellar
does a great job balancing the burden of being
the Slayer with the zippy one-liners, though
I'd always had a problem watching her do any
action. Let's face it. She runs like a girl!
I suppose, though, if I'd known the premise
of the series, I would've forgiven this earlier.
Like, ohmigod, what would you expect from
a transported Valley Girl suddenly bestowed
with super powers? Whatever Gellar does in
the drama and comedic timing departments more
than makes up for her girly moves.
The only thing about this
show that absolutely makes me cringe - and
you know I couldn't let this slide without
mentioning it - is the horrible intrusion
of bad pop songs, particularly to emphasize
character anguish. ARGH! It doesn't happen
in every episode, but it would later become
a staple of all WB shows. I'm just going to
chalk it up to pressure from the network.
I know, I know. Money, money, money. It's
television. I understand, but I'm still cringing.
One final note on the DVD
set. This is a very nicely put together package
with great commentary by Joss Whedon, interviews,
trailers, photo galleries, the original pilot
script, and a DVD-ROM with web links. The
care that Whedon put into his baby is evident
in all of these features. Hearing him speak
about the show is a real treat. It's no secret
that Whedon, a descendant of a long line of
writers, considers writing to be his first
love. If only more genre shows would make
this a priority, but I suppose that's why
BUFFY'S so special.
