“In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.”
The series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is based loosely on the moderately successful 1992 film where bubblehead Kristy Swanson played Buffy Summers. Joss Whedon, the creator, made improvements by transitioning Swanson with 19-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar and modifying the tone from a bleak and unrealistic world to a funny, cheesy, dark comedic Buffyverse that is now a cult classic.
The series begins with pretty and secretive Buffy Summers, moving with her mom to the “one-Starbucks town” of Sunnydale, Calif. Buffy has been named the “Slayer,” one in a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. This mystical calling gifts her with powers that dramatically increase physical strength, endurance, agility, accelerated healing, intuition and sometimes clairvoyance. In the series the various antagonists realize it’s almost impossible to kill Buffy Summers and keep her buried. She is a reluctant hero and high school student. While destined to be the vampire slayer, Buffy initially rejects her role and wishes she could live out a “regular life.” However, as the series progresses she learns to embrace her destiny as the vampire slayer.
Buffy immediately attracts the attention of her Watcher, proper, bookish, and sensible Rupert Giles, sarcastic; and awkward Xander Harris; quirky, shy and intelligent Willow Rosenberg; and dark, gorgeous in an annoying sort of way Angel. Buffy soon creates an inner circle of these most loyal and trusted companions, the “Slayerettes,” later referred to as the “Scooby Gang.”
The acting is not always Oscar worthy, the set sometimes looks cheap or quickly assembled, the demons and vampires look really tacky in their makeup, but still it’s television gold. The series first debuted in 1996 so forgive the lack of CGI and sometimes mediocre acting because that’s not what makes the series perfect. It’s the cheesy one-liners, the sassy interaction between the characters, the heart wrenching scenes of killing or watching a fan favorite die, it’s the forbidden romance the characters endure countless times, and the pure awesomeness of Buffy and her friends. Everyone can have a stake in the matter. No pun intended.
My favorite character besides the loveable vampire slayer is Angel, the enigmatic love interest for Buffy. Sadly their relationship is complicated by the fact that Angel is a vampire cursed with remorse and a human soul, and if he chooses to be with Buffy he risks losing his soul and reverting back to his psychotic, evil and manipulative alter ego Angelus. Angel ultimately must break up with Buffy despite their love for each other and leaves at the end of the third season.
But everyone has different tastes. Some fans fell in love with Spike, the hilarious, corny, and horrifically romantic vampire and slayer-killer. Spike’s failures during his human life have caused him to lash out at society as a vampire. There is another side to him, however as he is observant of other people’s thoughts and feelings. At first Spike loathes the integrity and morality of Buffy and wants to make her his third slayer victim. But, eventually Spike realizes that he has fallen in love with Buffy and officially joins the Scooby Gang, later being motivated by his love for her to successfully fight to regain his soul.
Others love Buffy’s semi-supportive friends Willow, Xander, Faith and later Anya, Oz and Tara. While their purpose is to help the slayer fight the forces of evil they also deal with more mundane situations. The Scooby Gang usually takes an unimpressed attitude towards supernatural occurrences. Originally the gang is a group of teenage friends attending Sunnydale High, (Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles) but they gradually expand, eventually merging with the Watchers’ Council to become a global organization dealing with demonic threats worldwide and training thousands of Slayers. In the series beginning, Buffy often has to protect her friends from the demons and monsters, but over the course of the series most of them gain supernatural abilities and fighting skills of their own, with Xander as the only notable exception.
The series does showcase strong female empowerment which is why the most powerful members of the team are females (Buffy, Willow and Anya), while the men play more passive roles such as that of Giles and Xander unless a more active response is needed. But the gang does consist of many characters who have lived a more dark and ominous life like Willow, Angel, Spike, Faith, Giles, Anya and Andrew whom at some point in their lives have murdered at least one person. But Whedon presents themes of redemption and moral ambiguity for each of these characters.
So, no matter what you like, good or bad, or what your interests are, you will love fall in love with the dark comedic, empowering, and hilarious world of Buffy.