"Buffy the Vampire Slayer": a 20th Anniversary Tribute
#BuffySlays20: 20 genre show exec producers pay tribute https://t.co/oPW1rA7YHv cc: @Joss @SarahMGellar @David_Boreanaz #WhyGenreShowsMatter pic.twitter.com/Nzkg1ZOoSa
— Yahoo TV (@YahooTV) March 10, 2017
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Just in case you needed another example of how your life is passing you by way faster than you thought (and I don’t know why you would) Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered 20 years ago today. Even though we’re a good 15 years into the real Golden Age of Television and shows like The Shield, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones have come along to be among the best ever, nothing has ever knocked Buffy out of my top five favorite series.
I caught it early on in Season One and was hooked in a nanosecond. I’m pretty sure the first episode I caught was about this group of Sunnydale student who got possessed by these hyena spirits. Or demons. I’d have to look it up. But the crux of it was that it made them prey on the weak kids, kill them and devour them. And right away it proved what the show was going for: A perfect metaphor for high school life. A smart, funny and scary comment on growing up that had hot, strong female leads and some of the best dialogue in TV history. And made showrunner Josh Whedon into a Nerd God. In the Dark Ages before God created the DVR, BTVS was the one show that I made sure the VCR was set for and I never missed an episode.
I’m not about to invest the 48 hours or so I’d need to rank the best episodes. Instead, here’s an extemporaneous, pulled-from-my-ass and incomplete list of some of my favorite, groundbreaking moments that were so good they made me one of the few men in America who’s VCR didn’t blink “12:00.”
“Hush”
A show noted for its scriptwriting and witty banter goes completely off the reservation with an episode where demons come and steal everyone’s voice. Watching the various ways they find to communicate in silence was a clever plot device, and “The Gentlemen” were nightmare fuel, right from the deepest recesses of your subconscious.
Faith
Eliza Dushku’s Faith was the slayer counterpoint to Buffy. A lone wolf who killed vampires because it’s fun, and then after a night of slaying she’d be so pent up she’d casually bang a stunned Xander. It doesn’t hurt that Eliza is a Masshole and great people. But she was one of the best parts of BTVS even before we became best friends.
Mr. Giles Sings
The archetype of the nebbish, stuffy, tweed-clad British librarian just randomly pops into an episode doing an acoustic version of The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes.” Really frigging well.
Willow
Buffy’s nerdy sidekick who was the brains behind the Scooby Gang had so many great story arcs, I don’t know where to start. There was her first romance, with Seth Green’s Oz. Her offering her V-card to him. Dealing with her boyfriend’s pesky Werewolfishness. Meeting her evil twin who sort of suggest they have lesbian sex with each other. Her dabbling in Wiccan culture until she becomes an actual witch. And then becoming what I think was network TVs first lesbian major character. But they all culminated in her best work: Losing her shit when her girlfriend is horribly killed in front of her and going full blown evil sorceress and her best friends have to figure out how to stop her.
“Once More With Feelings”
After a gut-wrenching season finale in which Buffy sacrifices her life to save the world, her friends figure out how to use some seriously dark magic to bring her back to life. Then in the midst of that story line, they throw in an all musical episode. Like a proto-Glee. And that’s how we find out that not only is she having a hard time adjusting back in the real world, she resents the people she loves because they did nothing less than pull her out of heaven.
Cordelia
Charisma Carpenter’s egotistical, pampered, Mean Girl Alpha was perfect comedy relief who sort of became a frenemy after her spot at the top of the Sunnydale social pyramid got blown up. She joined the group and even started banging Xander. But she never stopped being a bitch.
Jenny Calendar
God, how I loved her. She went from a side character to Giles’ love interest, only to turn out to be a Gypsy, sent to Sunnydale by the people from her village to slay Angel as revenge for his mass murdering spree. Her sudden death was a shock I’m still not over.
Spike
Spike went from the cold-blooded embodiment of supreme evil to cursed with getting his soul back. Which made him not only semi-human, but the friendzoned, sympathetic heart of the show. His genuine crush on Buffy lasted seasons. Until like a wooden stake out of the blue, a rebounding Buffy hooks up with him in the middle of a night of slaying. The government experiment that put a chip in his head that made him suffer every time he tried to go evil was the inspiration for the Cartman V-chip plot in the South Park movie.
Dawn
This wasn’t Euro Trip Michelle Trachtenberger, so knock it off, perv. Dawn is the most divisive storyline in the run of the show. Some people consider her BTVS’s Poochie. And in theory, adding a cute kid character IS one of the primary Jump the Shark indicators. But it took such balls for Whedon to drop a fully formed little sister in the middle of a series and then slowly reveal to the baffled viewers her true nature and why everybody inexplicably accepts her existence. Ultimately making her the key to the universe was a brilliant plot device.
Halloween
I admit that’s not the best clip. But the concept behind the first Halloween episode was genius. Someone turns everyone into what their costumes are. Xander becomes a soldier, goes nuts and tries to destroy the town. Willow is a slut. And Buffy becomes a damsel who’s basically useless to fight the evil. The following season, just in case it happens again, Xander makes sure he’s dressed as James Bond. This episode has inspired me to only go for Halloween as something I’d like to turn into in case it happens for real. Which is why I always went to Barstool parties as guys like Bill Belichick or Carl Spackler. You never know.
Buffy. Of course.
This was Sarah Michelle Gellar at the height of her powers. Cute. Badass. Trying to balance her life as a high school girl with her life as the One, chosen by the prophecies to protect the human race at the opening to the Hellmouth. If I have “a thing,” it’s a thing for fictional chicks who kickass. And SMG’s Buffy is right up there in the pantheon with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, Scarlett Johnannsen’s Black Widow, Lucy Lawless’ Xena and Gal Godot’s Wonder Woman. Happy anniversary, Slayer.
@jerrythornton1