Thursday, August 27, 2015

Why I Love Buffy

After all these years, I still do a Buffy-marathon whenever the mood strikes me, every twelve to eighteen months. This is a show that will never grow tired or old to me. No matter how many times I hear the jokes, I still laugh. The great writing (thanks to Joss Whedon) and the incredible cast of actors makes this a remarkable show that we'll still be talking about decades from now.

What do I love about Buffy?

1. The Characters: Of course, there is Buffy, a beautiful teen girl who hangs out at cemeteries, dates a vampire, and kills monsters. Her only complaint: I broke a nail. lol

Her friends include Xander (a well-meaning boy with a wild crush on the slayer), Willow (a sweet geek who later turns into a witch), Giles (her watcher is a stodgy Englishman with quite a few surprises, for example, he sings great). 

Then, there are the villains. Spike and Druscilla are my favorite vampires. They breeze into town now and again. Spike sticks around for the last few seasons after Angel leaves.

And what about Angel? The two hundred-year-old vampire Buffy has a thing for. Well, I really think Angel started the whole 'brooding vampire' thing, so blame him. But, he sure was sexy doing it.

2. Clever Writing: I'll never forget Pose-able Dawn. Dawn was paralyzed by a monster, and Anya had a great time posing her as if Dawn was her life-sized Barbie. It was awesome.

There were some incredible storylines like when Dracula visited and made Xander eat bugs. And I'll never forget how one night with Buffy turned Angel into Angelus, a more evil and far more interesting version of her vampire boyfriend. Oh, then there was the time Anya pulled another version of Willow from an alternate reality. It was a lot of fun to see Willow's wild side, and the real Willow's reaction to it.

My favorite episodes were the two groundbreaking ones. They did an entire episode without hardly saying a word. Then, they sang in one of them, did a little musical. Both were clever, and I loved them. 

3. Wordage: Lol. The show invented some interesting words that I use to this day like snackage. Joss Whedon seemed to believe you could put 'age' on the end of everything and make nouns into verbs. It was awesome.

4. Vampires in Love: As I've already said, Spike and Druscilla were my favorite villains. They returned time and again to mess with Buffy. When Angel turned into Angelus, he joined their side for a while. 

It was sweet to watch how Spike cared for Dru. He'd be in the middle of making plans to kill the slayer, and Dru would have an 'episode' which usually involved funny noises. Spike would drop everything to cater to her. Sometimes he danced her around the room. It was a beautiful love story... until she ran off with a nasty, mucus drizzling demon, and Spike got left behind.

5. Powerful Moments: For a while, Buffy and Angel gaze at each other with adoration, but they keep their hands (and lips) to themselves. Angel shows up at the prom and has a dance with Buffy. They hold each other close. When he backs away, the image of her cross is burned into his chest, reminding them and us that this potentially awesome love cannot go anywhere because Angel is a vampire.

This is one of the shows that I'll never forget and will still be watching years from now.

What about you? Do you like Buffy? What do you like the most about it?


2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love Anya trying to be good only because she likes Xander.

The romance between Willow and Tara was so sweet and ultimately heartbreaking - indeed, the whole of Series 5 is pretty amazing.

In the first episode of Series 3, I think, there is a long single-action shot through the school full of colour and noise and movement that cuts abruptly to Buffy sitting still and alone in drab surroundings.

I love the scene at the end of Series 4 where they defeat Adam: "You cannot begin to understand the source of our power - but yours... is right here."

Kasi Blake said...

Yes. There were so many epic moments to the show, one reason I'll never get tired of it.

Anya was totally awesome! She was one of my favorites, and I hated it when Xander left her at the alter. I wanted their love story to work out.

And the way Giles would look at Buffy sometimes, like when she wanted to be a cheerleader and he said, "I can't believe you've gone and joined a cult."

And the look on Angel's face when she ran him through with the sword.

And I'll never forget when Spike and Buffy got engaged cause of a spell, and he threatened to 'get her lip' when she was pouting. So adorable.