I’m here to talk about my time spent watching all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But before I do that I need to get something out of the way. The relationship between Buffy (a high school girl) and Angel (a 250 year old male vampire) is not okay. I don’t know why this doesn’t come up more often. It is even more creepy to me because the Buffy character is a strong role model to young girls.
My interest in this show stems from many people over the years telling me that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was “their show”. And even someone who thought of it as their safety blanket.
Okay lets get to the show itself. 7 Seasons, 144 episodes. Sarah Michelle Geller plays a vampire hunter. David Boreanaz plays a vampire. They are star-crossed lovers. There’s some friends along the way who get into all sorts of trouble. Most notably Alyson Hannigan is in the show and Felicia Day comes later. You can’t really do much wrong with those three women. Personally I can’t really tell much difference between David Boreanaz playing “Angel” compared to his role on Bones or his role on whatever show he’s on that requires a “serious guy with a thick shell” character.
The show was aired on The WB — who also would have “Charmed”. Another supernatural show. And of course later they would get a spin-off of Angel. Which fortunately doesn’t delve as deep into the Buffy/Angel relationship. (But still the “serious guy with a thick shell”).
I understand this show being a safety blanket. It goes somewhere but it takes its time. It isn’t trying to shock you or even leave you on cliffhanger as much as — we know where we’re going and we know Buffy is going to take us there and that is that. The show really doesn’t stray very far from the blueprint and doesn’t need to. I wonder how many cues the show-runners took from X-Files which was running at the same time but had already written itself to the moon and back by the time Buffy was hitting its stride.
By the way, Seth Green is in the show. That dude is great.
I wish I could tell you a lot about this show but it isn’t that kind of show. Its Scooby Doo for teenage girls. There’s a bit of a soap opera going but none of the relationships besides Angel are memorable in any way. They tried really hard to make “Spike” a thing but I don’t think anyone could find him attractive after he loses his “bad guy” attitude. (Again, show for teenage girls).
Because the show doesn’t have a lot of memorable moments I would say it isn’t a “must watch”. I have yet to run into a situation where I am like “Oh this is just like that time in Buffy”. I’d even put the original Charmed ahead of Buffy as far as memorability. But I am also writing from the perspective of not looking to either show for role models for myself. Your milage may vary especially if you are a teenager girl.
