An Ode to the Buffster
Mar. 10th, 2007 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookishwenchOriginally written May 27, 2003
So, it's Tuesday night, about ten minutes to 8:00, and this is it. The first permanent rerun of Buffy, "Lessons," will be on tonight as our good Slayer rides her yellow schoolbus into the sunset. I'm getting misty.
I still haven't posted my finale thoughts yet (mainly because I've been insanely busy and rather sick, and haven't been able to find an hour to sit down, watch, and sob hysterically again), and they'll be forthcoming, but it feels like the right time to go over the series and remember fondly and gratefully (and try very hard not to sound like a eulogy).
I read an interesting little blurb in the paper this week. On the surface, it had absolutely nothing to do with Buffy whatsoever, and yet it was the first thing that came to mind. It was a listing of most of the major films that are going to be coming out over the summer, along with the film's genre and a small plot summary/critic's opinion of the concept. There was quite a list of them, all kinds of movies. There was the Matrix 2, followed by the term "action film," as was Terminator 3 and a bevy of other movies. And then, tucked away about halfway through the article, was Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle. This one was labeled as a "feminist action film."
I blinked. Repeatedly. In an industry where it's perfectly believable for Keanu Reeve's character to jump off tall buildings or Arnold Schwarzenager's futuristic robet to go back in time even though the actor has aged significantly since 1990, they still believe they need to forewarn the public about the completely ludicrous idea of an action film having a female in the lead role. Not only that, but their idea of feminism, from the summary, suggests that it's kinda cute to have three attractive women in pretty clothes play spy as long as they are terminally, deeply stupid.
Cue Buffy.
Cue the movie that gave birth to the series, a movie that was so dumbed down from its original concept that the character is almost completely unrecognizable. That's what Hollywood would have given us as Buffy: a character who was as completely idiotic and devoid of depth as all the rest, someone who would have been swept under the rug and forgotten along with most other female-action-hero-slash-booty-call films. And Joss, cod love him, got angry and took her back.
I don't really think the concept of Buffy as an almost completely new form of character can be overstated. Really think about the female action heroes prior to Buffy. There's Wonderwoman, an admittedly interesting character, but the show (not the comics) usually revolved around her alter ego taking orders from all the menfolk while she pretended to be dumb, then quickly changed into, what else, a stars and bars emblazoned bustier and panties ensemble, with fire engine red knee-high boots and a tiara, for crying out loud, saving the day, then politely going back to being the little mouse in the corner.
I'm sitting here trying to think of another female heroine on TV prior to Buffy. I'm coming up with Batgirl, who seemed to get knocked out every episode, and who was, of course, the "special guest star," not the focus. There's the above mentioned Charlie's Angels. Sadly, at this point I'm remembering Jayna from the Wondertwins, which is pretty pathetic. And then there's... who? Seriously, can anyone come up with something?
Then, we got Buffy. And not only did we get her, we also got a series full of interesting characters, both male and female. Look at the make-up on this board. We've got guys who watch this show religiously. And not just in the whole drooling capacity, either. Cod love you guys, you actually are interested in the show as opposed to just the hemlines and necklines.
So, what journey has BtVS taken us on? It has been, in my opinion, possibly the single most realistic portrayal of the experience of American youth at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. That probably sounds crazy to someone who hasn't followed the show. Vampires? Demons? Invisible people? Werewolves? High school on the hellmouth? Realistic? You're damn right that's realistic. BtVS handled the vast majority of its analogies and plotlines and characterization with greater depth and downright respect for the people involved than just about any other show I've ever watched.
And the trip we were taken on was absolutely fantastic. We watched characters we cared about, characters who were flawed in ways we could recognize and identify with, change and grow and mess up and pick themselves up and carry on. Because that's what Buffy basically boils down to in the end. No matter what happens, they keep going. It was almost like the whole premise of the show was laid out in that first finale. Buffy's told she's going to die. No way to avoid it. She throws a fit, and then does what she had to do. And even though she goes through hell and everyone believes that should be the end for her, she keeps going. Your boyfriend who you love more than anything becomes a creep overnight? Keep fighting. You lose the person you love in the worst way you can imagine? Keep fighting. You're told you're worthless? Keep fighting. Your friends betray you? Keep fighting. You're put someplace strange and awkward where you feel you don't belong and your friends are slipping away? Keep fighting. You're facing odds that are impossible and a situation you can't possibly win? Keep fighting. You lose family? Keep fighting. You lose your sense of self? Keep fighting. And when responsibility is overwhelming, when your back is to the wall and everything looks so black that you feel you're staring into the mouth of hell itself, and you're wounded and hurt and want to lay down and die because it's just too much? You get to your feet, spit in that demon's eye, and you keep fighting.
Did the series have problems? Yes. Our characters lost their way in season 6 and much of season 7. It seemed like the light had gone our for a while there. When every character save Tara began behaving so badly that they were almost unrecognizable, and then Tara was killed (and by the way, I get being angry about Tara's demise, but remember that Joss also created that character, too), a lot of us were furious and hurt and deeply confused. We knew the hand that had been in the series was missing. And, frankly, some of us got scared about exactly where this trip was taking us, and didn't like some of the stops along the way. There's quite a few episodes I would very much like to forget ever occuring. But what strikes me most is the coutcry about what was happening. Xander as the misogynistic jilter or Willow as the crack addict or Giles as the absentee father-figure or Spike as an attempted rapist or Anya as a mass murderer or Dawn as a self-absorbed, gaping plothole or Buffy as a self-pitying, self-centered, abusive, apparently worthless nothing (all the while Riley, who cheated on her and then issued an ultimatum to her, is off being canonized), all of them, we were upset about because we knew, inherently, that these were NOT our Scoobies. And that's just the high point in all that. We knew this wasn't right because we knew our characters and cared about them to a degree rarely found in television. We cared so much that when things went wrong, we still watched, hoping that our favorites would come back home again.
And we got it. Somehow, eventually, Joss tried to make it better again. Oh, there were still problems in the finale, no question. There were huge loose ends that went unexplained and some things came flying out of nowhere, but in the end, we got back what we needed. The Scoobies were recognizable as themselves again. Grievances were forgiven, bridges were mended, and in the end, something quite remarkable happened. In that final scene, where every girl in the world who has the potential to be a Slayer is called and given that power to fight, the show left the screen for a moment.
We've spent seven years being shown, usually in a way that's far from preachy or heavy-handed, that we've got the same sort of demons to face as Buffy in our own lives. And in that sequence where her power was unleashed across the globe, the potential that was realized wasn't just of a little girl playing baseball and knowing she can do it or a woman who was being smacked around and who had the strength to stand up and say no. It was all of us.
And now we know what it is we can do, now that Joss and company have done their best to make us feel our own worth, the lesson remains the same.
Keep fighting.
So, what are you going to do now?
So, it's Tuesday night, about ten minutes to 8:00, and this is it. The first permanent rerun of Buffy, "Lessons," will be on tonight as our good Slayer rides her yellow schoolbus into the sunset. I'm getting misty.
I still haven't posted my finale thoughts yet (mainly because I've been insanely busy and rather sick, and haven't been able to find an hour to sit down, watch, and sob hysterically again), and they'll be forthcoming, but it feels like the right time to go over the series and remember fondly and gratefully (and try very hard not to sound like a eulogy).
I read an interesting little blurb in the paper this week. On the surface, it had absolutely nothing to do with Buffy whatsoever, and yet it was the first thing that came to mind. It was a listing of most of the major films that are going to be coming out over the summer, along with the film's genre and a small plot summary/critic's opinion of the concept. There was quite a list of them, all kinds of movies. There was the Matrix 2, followed by the term "action film," as was Terminator 3 and a bevy of other movies. And then, tucked away about halfway through the article, was Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle. This one was labeled as a "feminist action film."
I blinked. Repeatedly. In an industry where it's perfectly believable for Keanu Reeve's character to jump off tall buildings or Arnold Schwarzenager's futuristic robet to go back in time even though the actor has aged significantly since 1990, they still believe they need to forewarn the public about the completely ludicrous idea of an action film having a female in the lead role. Not only that, but their idea of feminism, from the summary, suggests that it's kinda cute to have three attractive women in pretty clothes play spy as long as they are terminally, deeply stupid.
Cue Buffy.
Cue the movie that gave birth to the series, a movie that was so dumbed down from its original concept that the character is almost completely unrecognizable. That's what Hollywood would have given us as Buffy: a character who was as completely idiotic and devoid of depth as all the rest, someone who would have been swept under the rug and forgotten along with most other female-action-hero-slash-booty-call films. And Joss, cod love him, got angry and took her back.
I don't really think the concept of Buffy as an almost completely new form of character can be overstated. Really think about the female action heroes prior to Buffy. There's Wonderwoman, an admittedly interesting character, but the show (not the comics) usually revolved around her alter ego taking orders from all the menfolk while she pretended to be dumb, then quickly changed into, what else, a stars and bars emblazoned bustier and panties ensemble, with fire engine red knee-high boots and a tiara, for crying out loud, saving the day, then politely going back to being the little mouse in the corner.
I'm sitting here trying to think of another female heroine on TV prior to Buffy. I'm coming up with Batgirl, who seemed to get knocked out every episode, and who was, of course, the "special guest star," not the focus. There's the above mentioned Charlie's Angels. Sadly, at this point I'm remembering Jayna from the Wondertwins, which is pretty pathetic. And then there's... who? Seriously, can anyone come up with something?
Then, we got Buffy. And not only did we get her, we also got a series full of interesting characters, both male and female. Look at the make-up on this board. We've got guys who watch this show religiously. And not just in the whole drooling capacity, either. Cod love you guys, you actually are interested in the show as opposed to just the hemlines and necklines.
So, what journey has BtVS taken us on? It has been, in my opinion, possibly the single most realistic portrayal of the experience of American youth at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. That probably sounds crazy to someone who hasn't followed the show. Vampires? Demons? Invisible people? Werewolves? High school on the hellmouth? Realistic? You're damn right that's realistic. BtVS handled the vast majority of its analogies and plotlines and characterization with greater depth and downright respect for the people involved than just about any other show I've ever watched.
And the trip we were taken on was absolutely fantastic. We watched characters we cared about, characters who were flawed in ways we could recognize and identify with, change and grow and mess up and pick themselves up and carry on. Because that's what Buffy basically boils down to in the end. No matter what happens, they keep going. It was almost like the whole premise of the show was laid out in that first finale. Buffy's told she's going to die. No way to avoid it. She throws a fit, and then does what she had to do. And even though she goes through hell and everyone believes that should be the end for her, she keeps going. Your boyfriend who you love more than anything becomes a creep overnight? Keep fighting. You lose the person you love in the worst way you can imagine? Keep fighting. You're told you're worthless? Keep fighting. Your friends betray you? Keep fighting. You're put someplace strange and awkward where you feel you don't belong and your friends are slipping away? Keep fighting. You're facing odds that are impossible and a situation you can't possibly win? Keep fighting. You lose family? Keep fighting. You lose your sense of self? Keep fighting. And when responsibility is overwhelming, when your back is to the wall and everything looks so black that you feel you're staring into the mouth of hell itself, and you're wounded and hurt and want to lay down and die because it's just too much? You get to your feet, spit in that demon's eye, and you keep fighting.
Did the series have problems? Yes. Our characters lost their way in season 6 and much of season 7. It seemed like the light had gone our for a while there. When every character save Tara began behaving so badly that they were almost unrecognizable, and then Tara was killed (and by the way, I get being angry about Tara's demise, but remember that Joss also created that character, too), a lot of us were furious and hurt and deeply confused. We knew the hand that had been in the series was missing. And, frankly, some of us got scared about exactly where this trip was taking us, and didn't like some of the stops along the way. There's quite a few episodes I would very much like to forget ever occuring. But what strikes me most is the coutcry about what was happening. Xander as the misogynistic jilter or Willow as the crack addict or Giles as the absentee father-figure or Spike as an attempted rapist or Anya as a mass murderer or Dawn as a self-absorbed, gaping plothole or Buffy as a self-pitying, self-centered, abusive, apparently worthless nothing (all the while Riley, who cheated on her and then issued an ultimatum to her, is off being canonized), all of them, we were upset about because we knew, inherently, that these were NOT our Scoobies. And that's just the high point in all that. We knew this wasn't right because we knew our characters and cared about them to a degree rarely found in television. We cared so much that when things went wrong, we still watched, hoping that our favorites would come back home again.
And we got it. Somehow, eventually, Joss tried to make it better again. Oh, there were still problems in the finale, no question. There were huge loose ends that went unexplained and some things came flying out of nowhere, but in the end, we got back what we needed. The Scoobies were recognizable as themselves again. Grievances were forgiven, bridges were mended, and in the end, something quite remarkable happened. In that final scene, where every girl in the world who has the potential to be a Slayer is called and given that power to fight, the show left the screen for a moment.
We've spent seven years being shown, usually in a way that's far from preachy or heavy-handed, that we've got the same sort of demons to face as Buffy in our own lives. And in that sequence where her power was unleashed across the globe, the potential that was realized wasn't just of a little girl playing baseball and knowing she can do it or a woman who was being smacked around and who had the strength to stand up and say no. It was all of us.
And now we know what it is we can do, now that Joss and company have done their best to make us feel our own worth, the lesson remains the same.
Keep fighting.
So, what are you going to do now?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 05:47 pm (UTC)It was indeed a good show.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 04:51 pm (UTC)And now we know what it is we can do, now that Joss and company have done their best to make us feel our own worth, the lesson remains the same.
Keep fighting.
And never give up and always remember that love is our gift.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 06:53 pm (UTC)Excellent essay on Buffy and its impact on our lives.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-13 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 01:31 am (UTC)