#TBT Buffy The Vampire Slayer Review

First watched in: 2014

Let me be completely transparent here and say I’ve been in a Buffy mood pretty constantly since Halloween, and it’s kind of hard to write down how much I love this show in a 500-word post.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show created by Joss Whedon, based off of the movie of the same name. It follows Buffy Summers, the latest vampire slayer, and her high school and college years with her assortment of monster-hunting friends as they protect their town from all sorts of evil things that go bump in the night. It has been described as groundbreaking, particularly through the way it often flips stereotypes but not in an overly overt way. The main character is a little blonde girl, who very regularly goes into dark alleyways and completely destroys (usually male) vampires and other monsters. How’s that for different?

Buffy is definitely a different kind of show, one that will continue to live on and bring in new viewers for many years to come. It is continually the source of research as to its cultural impact and its many double meaning themes. It’s also just pure entertainment, between the typical high school storylines mixed in with literal demons, the struggles of growing up and taking care of yourself, and hilarious, clever dialogue that will make you wish you could be as witty in your life. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, it’ll make you think. What more could you want out of a show?

There are four episodes in particular that really stand out as groundbreaking in the history of television: one that’s completely silent (“Hush”, 4x10), one that takes place only in dreams (“Restless”, 4x22), one that has no music with a very raw storyline (“The Body”, 5x16), and one that is a musical that seamlessly furthers the plot and story (“Once More, With Feeling”, 6x7). The only downside to these is they are much later in the series and can’t be used to entice new viewers easily. However, knowing you have these to look forward to might be motivation enough, and once you get to them you’ll see why they are as acclaimed as they are.

There are seven seasons that each have a mixture of “monster of the week” and following an ongoing storyline. The first season is rough: low budget, last-minute, only 12 episodes, not very deep storylines. But that means it’ll be very easy to get through, and you really can’t skip it as a whole (though there are some individual episodes you could). Seasons 3 and 6 are probably my favorites, though all of them have their share of good and bad episodes and are liked and disliked rather equally amongst fans for different reasons. That goes for characters and storylines too. My favorite episode is definitely the musical, “Once More, With Feeling”.

Give it a watch; it’ll change your life.

Will I watch again? Yes, most definitely