ButtUgly: Main_blogentry_020423

I'm not late - I've just been taking my time!

by KimnCris Knight

Over twenty years ago, my friends were raging about this new TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". They had watch parties and they talked about it and there were games around it and all sorts of things. So I was peripherally aware what was going on, and I watched the first season. Hey, geeky friends, so we should share preferences, right?

I tuned out after a few episodes. Monster of the week, teenage girl problems, not particularly funny even. So I left it be, and expected it to be forgotten, just like so many TV series from the 90s.

After a few years, I realized that I had probably been utterly wrong, since many of my friends started to speak about it as if they had found the entire series a defining - even a transformational - experience of their lives. So I got intrigued again, and when both Buffy and Angel became available on direct streaming, I started rewatching them. Then they left the streaming service (Netflix IIRC), so I had to borrow them from the library, which was a chore, and then I was finally able them both when they became available on Disney Plus.

It's a total of about 189 hours of watching, if I counted correctly. It's not something you can easily do these days, with the kids and all, but turns out you can enjoy them quite well while cooking. Just flip the burger during the fight scenes - you won't miss much. All the interesting stuff happens between the fights anyway, since at its core both series were about the interplay between the characters and the big plot was just a backdrop and an interesting reason to throw crap on the character's faces.

I'm now old, so I wouldn't call the series transformational. Entertaining, yes; thought-provoking; sure. Silly? On occasion. But I can certainly see how watching these in my late twenties would've impacted my personal development to a degree: they handled growth, relationships, death ("The Body" anyone?), fears, happiness, belonging, transformation, etc - all packaged in quick-witted parlay between the characters.

Unfortunately it has later emerged that not everything was well during the filming. In fact, things got downright creepy at times. While there is merit in looking just at the series in a detached fashion, I don't think it is the right way in the end. We need to consider also always how things are made, not just the end result.

But the series are still good.

P.S: I really, really liked the way Buffy took music as an integral part of the series. I don't recall very many shows from that time (or even later!) where music has made a serious impression on me - usually it's just background noise, but in Buffy, the score is at times quite profound. I might even call "The Bronze" as a series regular character. The theme continued on Angel, with Andy Hallett as the music-loving demon Lorne. So nice. Good opportunity for comedy as well as the calms between the storms.