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Somewhat Enjoyable But Ultimately Weak Series, October 14, 2005
Reviewer: Mark Moore (Homosassa, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
Buffy The Vampire Slayer" started in early 1997. It was created by Joss Whedon as a sequel to his 1992 movie of the same name. However, according to Joss, the movie's script had been heavily rewritten prior to filming. The series is a sequel to his original script, not the finalized movie, so, if you've seen the movie, there are some changes that you're going to have to get used to. If you haven't seen the movie, then there's no need to see it to understand the series.

The series starts with Buffy Sommers, a teenager, moving from L.A. to a small town called Sunnydale with her mom, Joyce. Buffy's got a secret: she's a Slayer. She hunts and kills vampires to keep the world (or more often just her neighborhood) safe. Every time that a Slayer dies, a new Slayer is called. Buffy's school librarian, Rupert Giles, is her designated Watcher. The Watchers train the Slayers. Buffy learns that Sunnydale sits on top of the Hellmouth, sort of the nexus of evil in the world or something like that. Buffy soon forms a group of friends that help her in their own way. I'll give you a rundown of the major developments and Big Bads (main villains) that Buffy ultimately fights in each season:

1: Sophomore Year: The Master (a vampire)

2: Junior Year: Spike and Drucilla (vampires); Spike later gets his soul back and becomes (somewhat) good

3: Senior Year: The Mayor (a human turned immortal turned dragon); Sunnydale High School is destroyed

4: College Freshman Year: Adam (a type of Frankenstein's Monster)

5: College Sophomore Year: Glory (a valley girl God); Buffy gains a sister, Dawn; Joyce dies; Buffy dies

6: Three nerds and Buffy's friend, Willow, who had turned evil; Buffy is brought back to life but doesn't confront her; her friend, Xander, does and brings her back to the side of good

7: A minister named Caleb and then the entire Hellmouth; Sunnydale is destroyed; all potential Slayers become true Slayers, making Faith and Buffy nobody special; all of the important characters and Willow survive

This series is okay, but I've got numerous problems with it:

1) Sex - All of the characters have sex at one point or another. It's done rather freely with no thought to the consequences of pregnancy or STDs. This is a bad message for children.

2) Buffy dies temporarily in Season 1 and is brought back to life by Xander through CPR. In Season 2, a new Slayer shows up. She's killed, and a new Slayer, Faith, shows up. Faith is the true Slayer. Buffy isn't, but she still has Slayer powers. Basically, by Season 2, the series' title was no longer accurate.

3) Shoddy vampire physics - In this series, vampires immediately turn to dust when staked. This was probably done to avoid gore, but it's still dumb. What's worse is that the vampires' clothes turn to dust as well. Why? The vampires are harmed and killed by sunlight. This is not part of any vampire mythology.(what vampire myths is he reading?) Vampires don't cast reflections. This makes no sense at all. The origin of this myth is the idea that the reflection is of the soul, which vampires were thought to not have. On Buffy, vampires don't have souls, and they don't cast reflections, but they can still be video-taped and photographed. Also, Angel, a vampire that had his soul restored, doesn't cast a reflection either. Vampires on Buffy also have these weird foreheads whenever they "vamp out" (bear fangs). It looks ugly.

4) Humor - While the humor on Buffy is often very clever and funny, there's also a lot of sexual humor, which gets annoying after a while.

5) Buffy The Everything Slayer - It's not enough for Buffy to kill just vampires; she goes up against witches, demons, dragons, gods, etc. It doesn't stay true to the title of the series.

6) Angst - This started out as a WB series, so this was probably unavoidable. You'd expect a series called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" to be fun to watch, like the movie is.

7) Sunnydale - It sits on the Hellmouth. Murders happen there all of the time. There are constant vampire attacks. One year, the high school actually boasted to having the lowest annual death toll in recent history. Why is the local populace completely unaware that Something Strange is going on in town? Why doesn't the FBI come in to investigate?

8) Made-up mythology - The world has plenty of real mythologies that the series could have used. It did use some, but the writers often made stuff up. This gives the series a false feeling. It would have been great if the writers had chosen to educate the audience about the world's many different vampire myths as well as entertain, but they didn't.

9) Sarah Michelle Gellar is too short and scrawny as Buffy. In the original movie, Kristy Swanson was better built and more believable as a Slayer. While having some special abilities, she fought vampires with her own strength. In the series, Buffy gets her super-strength from her Slayer powers, which is a cheap explanation.

The series has many supporters that love it for its witty humor and Joss' "clever" way of turning the traditional "helpless blonde girl" into the heroine, and they overlook/forgive the series' many faults. Let's not give Joss Whedon too much credit.

I admit that I watched this series from day 1 through the series finale. I can't imagine myself buying this series on DVD - until I got it used, very cheap. Starting with Season 4, Buffy had crossovers with its spin-off series, "Angel". This means that you won't get the entire story of some episodes unless you buy the "Angel" boxed sets as well. The series is not even the way that it originally aired. There are scenes missing and added; there are audio alterations. Rent it and try it out before you decide to buy it.

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Originally posted by Lovok:
[with the death and mayhem in Sunnydale there should be more people asking questions as to what the hell is going on there.

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1) Sex - All of the characters have sex at one point or another. It's done rather freely with no thought to the consequences of pregnancy or STDs. This is a bad message for children.

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The vampires are harmed and killed by sunlight. This is not part of any vampire mythology.(what vampire myths is he reading?)

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Originally posted by queenofthenorth:
Wow. Lol. This reminds me of a bad Serenity review I read where a guy ACTUALLY said that Into the Blue had a much more interesting premise. Some people juggle geese I guess. And sex has nothing to do with real life at all. Oh no.

I give to you the Seeker of Serenity, the Valkyrie Warrior, the Gourmet Cook and the Truth Scoper.

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