Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a
US television series loosely based on
the 1992 movie of the same name.
It first aired in
March 1997 on the
Warner Brothers network; after five seasons it transferred to the United Paramount Network (
UPN) for two more seasons, and the final episode aired in
May 2003. The series was created by
Joss Whedon and produced by
Mutant Enemy Productions. The show's title is often abbreviated simply to
Buffy or
BtVS.
The series follows the adventures of a young girl chosen by fate to battle against the forces of
evil, usually with the help of her
Watcher and her loyal circle of misfit friends.
In addition to its critical success and cult appeal, the show functions as a
contemporary parable, using supernatural elements as metaphors for personal anxieties, particularly those associated with
adolescence and young adulthood.
Genesis, Plot and Format
\nThe show's creator, Joss Whedon, has stated that one of his aims was to depart from the usual horror film formula. \nIn a "traditional" horror film, a diminutive blonde girl would take a shortcut through a graveyard and either meet an unpleasant end, or be rescued by a handsome well-armed male hero. By casting that ostensibly "vulnerable" blonde as his heroine, and then turning that cliché on its head, Buffy presented a fresh paradigm which has been embraced by many as an emblem of female power. In Whedon's narrative, Buffy's male friend Xander is more likely to need rescuing. Buffy is more than capable of looking after herself, though her personal life is as confusing and painful as any teenage girl's. \nThis combination of empowerment and empathy has earned Buffy a passionate following among fans.
The show is set in the fictional California town of Sunnydale, whose suburban high school rests on the site of a "Hellmouth", a gateway between our world and the darker demon realms. The Hellmouth serves as a nexus for a wide variety of evil creatures and foul misdeeds. The most prominent monsters in the Buffy bestiary are vampires, who are presented in the show in a variety of ways, selectively following traditional myths, lore, and literary conventions. Buffy and her companions also fight a wide variety of demons, shape-shifters, ghosts, gods, trolls and zombies, and are so frequently called upon to save the world from global annihilation (usually at least a couple of times a season) that they quickly find themselves, as the character Riley Finn puts it, "needing to know the plural of apocalypse". The mythology of the show is often inspired by traditional supernatural sagas and other cultural, fictional, and religious sources. In its seven-year run, the series also developed an extensive contemporary mythology of its own. \nThe supernatural elements of the show almost always have a clear metaphorical or symbolic aspect.
Buffy (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is "The Slayer", one in a long line of (often short-lived) young girls chosen by fate to battle the forces of darkness. This calling also mystically endows her with dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, intuition, accelerated healing, and a limited degree of clairvoyance, usually in the form of prophetic dreams. \nBuffy fights under the direction of her "Watcher", Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who begins the series as the high school's librarian.
She is also assisted by several friends, who later in the series are nicknamed the "Scooby Gang" because of their distant resemblance to the teens in the cartoon Scooby Doo.
The group battles demonic forces using a combination of physical combat, detective work, various forms of magic and sorcery, and the extensive research of ancient and mystical texts.
The show is noteworthy in part for its agile blending of genres, including horror, martial arts, romance, melodrama, farce, and witty comic banter. Unlike the movie, which, for the most part, was poorly received (and practically disowned by its author, Whedon), the TV series achieved great popular and critical success, appreciated equally by middle-aged TV critics and its primarily teen/twentysomething audience. Many attribute the show's success to the smartly written scripts and inspired vision of Whedon. The show and characters inspire an unusually strong emotional connection with fans.
Buffy has also been noted for taking artistic risks in both format and content. The 1999 episode "Hush" included 26 minutes without any spoken dialog, and received an Emmy Award nomination for best teleplay. The 2001 episode "The Body", which revolved around the death of Buffy's mother, was included in over 100 major critics' Ten Best lists that year. The fall 2001 musical episode "Once More, With Feeling" has also received many plaudits.
Many Buffy stories are thinly-veiled metaphors for the anxieties and ordeals of adolescence or young adulthood. In "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" invisibility is used as a metaphor for being ignored. In "The Pack", Xander and other teens become hyenas, which allegorizes the pack mentality that often results from negative peer pressure. Perhaps the show's most celebrated metaphor occurs after Buffy and Angel consummate their love: Buffy loses her virginity, and Angel loses his soul. As Sarah Michelle Gellar puts it: "That's the ultimate metaphor. You sleep with a guy and he turns bad on you." [1]
The show has also garnered criticism for this and other ostensibly "puritanical" subtexts. The episode "Beer Bad", in particular, has aroused controversy among both fans and critics of the show for its apparent endorsement of conservative American norms for teenage behavior. Whedon has denied this charge:
- SFX Magazine: What story will you never tell on Buffy, Angel'\', or Firefly''?\n:Whedon: "Wow, smoking pot is wrong, I see that now!" [1]
Whedon has noted that it was always his desire to have a
gay character on the show. As
Buffy's main premise involved characters who were stereotyped as weak outsiders becoming strong and powerful, he initially wanted to have a gay male character. Eventually it was decided that the character of Willow would discover her
sapphic destiny (at the very time she was awakening to her
Wiccan superpowers), and in season four she began a romantic relationship with the character of
Tara. This created some controversy in the media: the producers and the network received criticism, both from those opposed to gay characters on television, and from some pro-gay viewers who felt that the initial physical tepidness of the relationship, as well as the fact that the gay characters were both "witches", was reinforcing negative stereotypes. The show's creative team insisted that their intent was not to sensationalize or exploit the gay relationship, and displays of physical affection between the two characters were introduced very slowly, eventually becoming a natural part of the show.
Whedon has stated that he is a fan of serialized fiction, and to this end each season, rather than being purely episodic, tends to follow a largely self-contained story arc, with its own unique villain. This "Big Bad" is often preceded by a "Little Bad", a minor villain introduced to throw viewers off-track.
Buffy is credited (alongside the teen drama
Dawson's Creek) with playing a key role in the success of the
Warner Brothers television network in its early years.
Whedon has often noted the impact that
comic books have had on his work. He is currently writing for the
Astonishing X-Men series and has credited
Kitty Pryde as a significant influence on the character of Buffy.
Works Inspired by Buffy
\nBuffy's perpetually tragic, doomed love for the vampire-with-a-soul, Angel, played by
David Boreanaz was a recurrent theme in the first three seasons of the show.
Angelus, as he was originally known, had his human soul restored by a gypsy curse, plaguing him with guilt over the two hundred years of murder and mayhem he had inflicted on a slew of innocent victims. The Angel character was so popular that a series featuring him,
Angel, was spun off from
Buffy; there were occasional "crossovers" between the two shows and these continued into the final season of
Angel even though
Buffy was no longer on the air.
Angel and
Buffy have both inspired several comic book adaptations, magazines, companion books, novelizations,
video games and additional spinoff proposals (including a cartoon series and a
BBC drama), as well as countless websites, online discussion groups, and works of
fan fiction. There have also been two soundtrack albums (
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Radio Sunnydale - Music from the TV Series), as well as a CD (and, in Europe, DVD single) of the "
Once More, With Feeling" musical episode.
The show has recently inspired several academic books and essays, including
Reading the Vampire Slayer, edited by Roz Kaveney, and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy edited by James B. South. \nAcademic courses known as "Buffy Studies" are being offered at an increasing number of universities. Fans of both
Buffy and
Angel often use the terms
Jossverse or
Buffyverse to describe the rich universe the shows share.
As well as these non-televisual offspring,
Buffy has exerted a marked influence on TV and film, with shows such as
Smallville and
Charmed as well as movies such as
The Faculty and
Bring It On owing something in their verbal style and (in the first three instances) thematic concerns to the show. In addition, many
Buffy alumni have gone on to write for or create other shows, some of which bear a striking resemblance to the outer reaches of the Buffyverse. Such Whedonesque endeavors include
Tru Calling (Doug Petrie),
Wonderfalls (
Tim Minear),
Still Life (
Marti Noxon) and
Jake 2.0 (David Greenwalt).
Moreover,
2003 saw a number of new shows going into production which featured strong girls/young women privy to some supernatural power or destiny that they are forced to come to terms with while trying to maintain a normal life. These "post-
Buffy" shows include the aforementioned
Tru Calling and
Wonderfalls, as well as
Dead Like Me and
Joan of Arcadia. In the words of Bryan Fuller, the creator of
Dead Like Me and
Wonderfalls:
- [Buffy] really turned a corner for series storytelling. It showed that young women could be in situations that were both fantastic and relatable, and instead of shunting women off to the side, it put them at the center.
Characters
\nMain Characters
\n*Buffy Summers, played by
Sarah Michelle Gellar\n*
Xander Harris, played by
Nicholas Brendon\n*
Willow Rosenberg, played by
Alyson Hannigan\n*
Rupert Giles, played by
Anthony Stewart Head\n*
Angel (a.k.a.
Angelus), played by
David Boreanaz\n*
Spike (a.k.a. William the Bloody), played by
James Marsters\n*
Cordelia Chase, played by
Charisma Carpenter\n*
Daniel 'Oz' Osborne, played by
Seth Green\n*
Anya, played by
Emma Caulfield\n*
Dawn Summers, played by
Michelle Trachtenberg\n*
Tara Maclay, played by
Amber Benson\n*
Riley Finn, played by Marc Blucas\n*
Joyce Summers, played by Kristine Sutherland
Big (& Little) Bads
\n*Season 1 - The Master \n*Season 2 -
Angelus (
The Anointed One,
Spike &
Drusilla)\n*Season 3 -
Mayor Richard Wilkins III and
Faith (Mr. Trick)\n*Season 4 -
Adam (
The Initiative)\n*Season 5 -
Glory (
The Knights of Byzantium)\n*Season 6 -
Willow Rosenberg (
Warren Mears,
Jonathan Levinson,
Andrew Wells)\n*Season 7 -
The First Evil (
Caleb)
Occasional Characters
\n*Principal Flutie, played by
Ken Lerner \n*
Principal Snyder, played by
Armin Shimerman\n*
Faith, a rogue Slayer, played by
Eliza Dushku\n*
Drusilla, played by
Juliet Landau\n*
Harmony Kendall, played by Mercedes McNab\n*
Jonathan Levinson, played by
Danny Strong\n*
Jenny Calendar, played by Robia La Morte\n*
Warren Mears, played by
Adam Busch\n*
Andrew Wells, played by
Thomas Lenk\n*
Glory, played by
Clare Kramer\n*
Ethan Rayne, played by Robin Sachs\n*
Maggie Walsh, played by Lindsay Crouse\n*
Amy Madison, played by Elizabeth Anne Allen\n*
Kennedy, played by Iyari Limon\n*
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, played by
Alexis Denisof\n*
Kendra, played by Bianca Lawson\n*
Darla, played by Julie Benz\n*
Buffybot, a robot Buffy played by
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Other Languages
\n(See episode entries for details on translation)
- German: "Buffy im Bann der Dämonen" (roughly "Buffy enthralled by demons"); "slayer" is translated as "die Jägerin" ("hunteress"), "watcher" as "der Wächter" ("guardian").
See also
\n*Buffy the Vampire Slayer plot summary\n*
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes\n*
Cliff Richards,
comic book artist
External links
\n*BuffyGuide.com\n*
The Buffy Body Count episode synopses\n*
The Phoenix Board aka Buffistas\n*
Buffy Directory\n*
Buffy Fanfic\n*
Buffy News: slayage.com\n*
The season to talk to dead people\n*
Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies\n*
Whedonesque: Joss Whedon weblog\n*
WhedonWiki: the Joss Whedon Wiki\n*
Wikiquote:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
\n\n\n\n
Category:Buffy\nCategory:UPN network shows\nCategory:The WB network shows
