I don’t mean this thread to be derogatory, although if you wanna debate go ahead.
I’ve never seen a single work of Joss’s, but his following is nothing short of cult, so I’m curious as to what everyone loves about him.
Why doesn’t this message board have a smilie for sitting back and eating popcorn for when the fireworks begin?
I am a Joss lover - he is simply a great crafter of ongoing-plot series - he knows how to take a story arc up, down and all over the place and keep you hooked. And he loves language and makes up new words and…well, you just have to see some of his work…
…others, on the other hand, hate him with the intensity of a thousand suns…
Well, I don’t think everyone does.
Anyway, I’ll start as one who does like his work.
Witty Dialogue
What else?
Well, he’s fantastic in bed…
His work is literate, funny, insightful, and witty. His dialogue sparkles. His plots intrigue. He also writes songs.
I’m very impressed with Whedon. His dialog is some of the best in all TV, and his plotting is surprisingly well done. He also has a nice ability to take a cliche and turn it into a direction that’s both completely surprising and completely logical.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still his best work, mostly because he seemed to have written more episodes, but there’s nothing shabby about Firefly, Angel, and Dollhouse.
Dunno. I loved two of his shows (BTVS and Angel), thought one was mediocre (Firefly) and gave up on the 4th after three episodes (Dollhouse), and given that my levels of enchantment for his series have been on a chonological decline, I no longer expect to love his new projects.
There is also a meme amongst Whedon haters that Whedon’s fans are just sheep who automatically claim to love anything he does. I really don’t think this is genuinely true. If anything, we tend to be fairly critical because our expectation are so damned high. Take Dollhouse, for example. It found its footing eventually, but was really weak the first half of the first season, and took quite a drubbing.
But, generally speaking, he produces consistent work that appeals to a lot of us. It’s not for everyone, but then, what is? I find most of what he does funny, moving, and insightful. He’s also a genuinely nice, modest, self-effacing guy in real life who does everything he can to keep the spotlight on his actors. I have an enormous amount of respect for the man.
Besides, he has a great track record.
Great - Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible
Good - Angel
OK - Dollhouse
Not to mention two of the best bits in X-Men.
I like his characterization and dialogue. He makes characters that I genuinely like and would love to know in person, and he pretty consistently makes me laugh, which can be hard to do. Also, I am a fan of action girls and waif fu, which are two of his calling cards.
Also, since we’re apparently ranking:
- Buffy and Firefly (amazingly great)
- Angel (has its moments)
- Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible (unremarkable)
I probably don’t qualify as a fan as I haven’t watched all of Buffy yet and didn’t like Firefly. I think the man has a wonderful ear for dialogue and writes fun and engaging characters. He can do convincing drama but I think he’s too melodramatic most of the time and the plots too meandering
I’ll disagree with everybody and say that in my opinion Dollhouse is his best show in terms of drama, though Buffy is his most fun show, with Angel a close second. (For those who dislike Dollhouse I’ll grant it never reaches the heights of The Body, Once More With Feeling or Smile Time, but I still feel it’s a much more consistent show than his others. I think the limited amount of episodes forced a discipline that’s missing on the other shows.)
“Great dialogue and witty banter”
This is a pretty common theme here…so on a scale from 1 to Aaron Sorkin how is he?
I am not a ‘hater’, I am just very underwhelmed by Whedon’s work, both his TV and comic book stuff. I don’t think it’s hating of me to point out that Whedon does have flaws (I mean, really. Whedon’s California is inhabited almost solely by white people.)
I liked Buffy and Angel, I also liked Firefly. For most of that time, I had no idea who Whedon was (I’m not big on reading screen credits and stuff). I just liked the shows.
To be fair about Dr. Horrible, it was done during the writer’s strike with no budget & no distribution deals. The music was written by the Whedon family. In other words, it was a project that all involved participated in because they thought (knowing that $ might never come) it might be a lot of fun to do.
Find another project that did as much.
That being said, I’d put Dr. Horrible well above ‘unremarkable.’ It’s Freakin’ awesome.
If Sorkin is a 10 I’d rate Whedon as an 8. He’s heads and shoulders above the average, but hasn’t got the same range as Sorkin. IMHO, of course.
Let me put it this way- you’ve never seen them in a photo together, have you? 
Seriously, it’s hard to say. Sorkin produces snappier, quicker dialogues, but Whedon might be better in terms of one-liners, quotable bits, and throwaway lines. That’s not to say that Whedon’s never snappy or that Sorkin never gets good one-liners, but just where they each excel. It’s a very close call.
Whedon’s also great in plotting and story arcs. His characters usually act in logical ways, but rarely in predictable ones. He might taunt you for half a season with cheesy flirty banter between two characters, then snap them off to date other people with no warning.
One small point- I think Joss Whedon is better at killing off main characters than anyone I’ve ever seen. I’ve only seen some of his work, but I can think of three deaths in particular* that were extremely moving. He devotes just the right attention to the deaths- not the overwrought slo-mo crap that you usually see on TV, but really making a point of how sudden and unexpected death can be. His treatment of death in primary characters is some of the best I’ve ever seen in TV, movies, or books. Superb.
*There are three names in the spoiler box. I’m not going to mention which works of Whedon’s they’re from, just to avoid ruining those works with anticipation. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Wash, Jenny Calendar, and Penny
Part of the Whedon cult has to do with the type of stuff he works on. Vampires, science fiction, and comic books tends to attract a lot of people who are apt to be fanboys and girls. Second, he does a pretty good job of creating interesting shows. I don’t consider myself to be a raving fanboy but I do think he’s done some pretty good work. Buffy was a flawed show but it was an excellent show. Angel was pretty good, and, you guessed it, it also had some serious flaws. I liked Firefly but it didn’t exactly change my life. I didn’t like Serenity as much as I liked the series. I gave Dollhouse a season and some change but just couldn’t get fully into it. I found that when I missed an episode I didn’t care that I missed it.
Odesio
Agreeing with appleciders, Whedon does character death better than anyone else, really. His handling of specific characters untimely and unexpected demise is amazing, to say the least. It’s formed my gold standard for unexpected deaths in television series, and hasn’t been matched.
I wasn’t a particularly big fan of Buffy, or Angel. But I do rather like Firefly (rather, I love firefly) and Dollhouse.
In retrospect, I think it’s a good thing that Firefly only went on for 1 season. It was quickly approaching the point, even during the movie Serenity, that it wasn’t quite realistic enough. I liked that it seemed relatively well grounded in science (with the understandable exception of Artificial Gravity), and they were really pushing it with the 30 odd habitable celestial bodies and psychics.
My reason is simple. I like everything he does. Firefly and BTVS’s seasons two and five are some of the greatest TV ever.
As for why his stuff is good, I think it’s because of the emotional realism. His shows are fantasy, but the emotions the characters go through are very real. Which makes the characters more realistic and enjoyable. What hurts the most about a Whedon show ending is knowing that I’ll never hear another new line from Spike, Jane, or Willow again. And that is just depressing.
Another thing Whedon does that I love is that he writes characters who change over time. Just think about the way Willow, Wesley, and Spike have changed from the first time we see them. I’ve never seen that from any other TV show. Willow went from a nerd to powerful witch and it never seems fake or contrived. The same for Wesley going from uptight pansy to bad ass.
I can’t really compare Sorkin to Whedon. Sorkin does politics and Whedon does action. When Sorkin writes dialog for an action film or Whedon writes a political drama, maybe then I could say that one is better than the other.