Task #1 – Why I’m a Buffyholic

My name is Michael Butterfield, and I’m a Buffyholic.

That’s right. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Alright stop sniggering now, you twerp.)

I know what you’re thinking – it’s just a show about a hot girl who kills vampires – but that’s a criminally simplistic description. Stick with it, and by the time you get to the end of season 2 you’ll realise that, by some margin, Buffy is the most unique, complex, innovitive and brilliant piece of story-telling ever created.

Note how I said ’story-telling’ and not ‘TV show’? That’s because right from the very first scene of the first episode, I realised how special this show was. It opens with a boy and girl breaking into high school at night to sneak around, probably to make out, right? Wrong. Just as they go in for the kiss, the girl suddenly bares some serious fangage and kills the boy dead.

This two minute opening sequence encapsulates the show’s brilliance – you think it’s gonna go one way, and then suddenly it turns into something completely different and sucks your heart out through your neck.

SPOILER ALERT: It’s Amazing. And Angel is a vampire.

Essentially, the supernatural plots are used as metaphorical springboards to say something meaningful about the characters, or life in general. From the endless drugery of everyday living, to the traumatic complexities of love, no aspect of life went unexplored – except that in the Buffyverse, these figurative life demons become literal monsters. Being the strong ass-kicking type however, Buffy and her friends would defy them again and again. And again.

The list of reasons why the show resonates with me so much is endless. (Well okay, maybe not endless, but it’s really long, so I’ll try and keep it like myself – short. And kinda hairy.)

It constantly subverted genres and expectations, something which I’ve always and effortlessly managed to be dramatic, scary, funny and action-packed, occasionally all at once – something that no other TV series (or film for that matter) has ever managed to do.

When it’s dark and I’m all alone, and I’m scared or freaking out or whatever, I always think, “What would Buffy do?” – Xander Harris

Episode to episode, scene to scene, the show could go from being bladder-emptyingly funny, to brutally heartbreaking. I don’t ever cry from watching films or TV, but there are moments in Buffy that, no matter how many times I watch, will leave me sobbing and whaling on the floor like a big hairy baby. The look on Buffy’s face when she finds her mother’s dead body lying on the sofa is like being slammed into by an emotional 10 tonne truck. Every time. <clip> Later on in the season, before Buffy sacrifices her own life to save the world, she tells her sister one of the most simple, profound and truthful things I’ve ever heard: “The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it.” She then proceeds to swan dive into a portal, and dies. Full-on, stone-cold, dead. Once again the show does something that never happens on television, and kills off it’s main character. And that wasn’t even the first time she’d died.

Throughout all seven seasons of ‘Buffy’, the wonderful characters continued to change, evolve, and cover new ground. Every episode felt new and fresh and had a unique tone to it, and I love every season because the standard of writing manages to stay consistently high for the entire duration of the series. Ah yes, the famous writing. I haven’t even mentioned the succulent-for-the-ear dialogue that is itself is a major source of joy and serious linguistic study for many.

The show is praised for its idiosyncratic dialogue, its “Buffyspeak” – the slick one-liners, the play on teen-speak and in-jokes.

Whedon plays with his genres. One episode, “Once More with Feeling”, was an all-singing, all-dancing musical. Another, set in Angel’s ancient Italian past, starts with subtitles. “The Body”, about the death of Buffy’s mother, was devoid of music and sound effects, giving its grief a stark reality. “Hush” had no words.

And yet, even in the HUSH, it’s pretty much a masterpiece.

I’ve watched the entire series (and it’s spin-off ‘Angel’) in completion about a thousand times (and counting), and I keep up my serious geek-credentials by obsessing over every article, interview, and any kind of intelligent dialog regarding the show, all to unravel the many layers of complexity and depth that exists beneath the awesome surface.

So has Buffy made a wider impact? It’s a bonafied pop-culture phenomenon. It’s legions of fans all over the world are still obsessed with it as I am, gaining it official cult status. But it’s also attracted the interest of academics and scholars, who deconstruct and write extensivley on it’s themes of enpowerment, gender issues, philosophy, feminsim, sociology, theology (whatever the Hell that is) and pop culture, to name a few.

Countless other TV shows have since been influenced by it’s complicated, season-long story arcs and nuanced character development. It’s sucess has led to it becoming a multimedia franchise- expanding to comic books, novels, and video games (most of which I own, of course).

To (finally) conclude, no other TV show, sorry – story-telling, has ever managed to balanced so much,. I love it so much I want to cover it in oil and rub it all over my hairy body.

Buffy just slays me. Every time.

That’s right. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (All right stop sniggering now, you twerp.)

I know what you’re thinking – it’s just a show about a hot girl who kills vampires – but that’s a criminally simplistic description. Stick with it, and by the time you get to the end of season 2 you’ll realise that, by some margin, Buffy is the most unique, complex, innovative and brilliant piece of story-telling ever created.

From the moment I saw the very first scene of the first episode, I realised this show was special. It opens with a boy and girl breaking into high school at night to sneak around, probably to make out, right? Wrong. Just as they go in for the kiss, the girl suddenly bares some serious fangage and kills the boy dead. This two minute opening sequence encapsulates the show’s brilliance – you think it’s gonna go one way, and then suddenly it turns into something completely different and sucks your heart out through your neck.

SPOILER ALERT: It’s Amazing. And Angel is a vampire.

Essentially, the supernatural plots are used as metaphorical springboards to say something meaningful about the characters or life in general. From the endless drudgery of everyday living, to the complexities of love and death, no aspect of life went unexplored. Often these figurative life demons became literal monsters. Being the strong ass-kicking type however, Buffy and her friends would defy them again and again. And again.

The list of reasons why the show resonates with me so much is endless. (Okay, maybe not endless, but it’s really long, so I’ll try and keep it like myself – short. And kinda hairy.)  It constantly subverted genres and expectations, something which I always try to do, and it successfully managed to be dramatic, scary, funny and action-packed (occasionally all at once) – something that no other TV series, or film for that matter, has ever managed. And its all down to creator and all-round genius-man Joss Whedon.

Episode to episode, scene to scene, the show could go from being bladder-emptyingly funny, to brutally heartbreaking. I don’t ever cry from watching films or TV. Ever. But there are moments in Buffy that, no matter how many times I watch, will leave me sobbing and whaling on the floor like a baby. The look on Buffy’s face when she finds her mother’s dead body lying on the sofa is like being hit by an emotional 10 tonne truck. Every time.

Later on in the season, before Buffy sacrifices her own life to save the world, she tells her sister one of the most simple, profound and truthful things I’ve ever heard: “The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it.” She then proceeds to swan dive into a portal, and dies. Full-on, stone-cold, dead. Once again the show does something that never happens on television, and kills off it’s main character. And that wasn’t even the first time she’d died.

Throughout all seven seasons, the wonderful characters continued to change, evolve, and cover new ground. Every episode felt new and fresh and had a unique tone to it, and I love every season because the standard of writing manages to stay consistently high for the entire duration of the series. Ah yes, the famous writing. I haven’t even mentioned the succulent-for-the-ear dialogue, aka ‘Buffyspeak’, that is itself is a major source of joy and serious linguistic study for many. Having said that, it even manages to subvert it’s own expectations in the famously dialogue-free episode ‘Hush’, which is a near masterpiece.

I’ve watched the entire series (and it’s spin-off ‘Angel’) in completion about a thousand times and counting. I keep up my serious fanboy-credentials by obsessing over every article, interview, and any other kind of intelligent dialogue regarding the show and it’s creator Joss Whedon, to unravel the many layers of complexity and depth that exists beneath it’s awesome surface.

I don’t really know what it says about the ‘wider media context’ other than compared to Buffy, most of it sucks. But has it made a wider impact? It’s a bona-fide pop-culture phenomenon. It’s legions of fans all over the world are still obsessed with it as I am, gaining it official cult status. But it’s also attracted the interest of academics and scholars, who deconstruct and write extensively on its themes of empowerment, genre, gender issues, philosophy, feminism, sociology, theology (whatever the Hell that is) and pop culture, to name a few.

Countless other TV shows have since been influenced by it’s complicated, season-long story arcs and nuanced character development, and it is one of the reasons sci-fi and fantasy shows have gained respectability and popularity (Heroes, Doctor Who and Lost to name but a few). It’s success has also led it to becoming a multimedia franchise, expanding to comic books, novels and video games (most of which I own of course).

Basically, I love it so much I want to cover it in oil and rub it all over my body. It makes me laugh, makes me cry, and yes I’ll say it – it’s changed my life. Buffy just slays me. Every time.