Buffy spin-off/new show? Your thoughts

Cafe Society
1

This one seems to come up like clockwork every week’s Buffy threads, so let’s set it out.

It seems damn likely that SMG isn’t going to sign on for season 8. We know for a fact that EC isn’t going to (shame, Anya is still one of my favorite characters). One of the early episodes had a feel of generating the Scrappy Gang with Dawn and some other high schoolers, though one of them getting killed seemed to nip that one in the bud.

And let’s face it: without a “Buffy”, a show named “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” just won’t make much sense. So it is going to have to be a spinoff show. What could be done? Who could carry it?

Well, I think we’ve got three options. Giles (duh, wasn’t this one already in the works as “Ripper” in the UK?), Willow, and Spike. Even though I do like Dawn, and even though the end of Season 6 showed her fighting along side big sis, I don’t think she could do it, and besides it would feel far, far too much like simply rehashing the series anyway as Dawn is at Sunnydale high, is young, et cetera.

I like the thought of a Willow show. Someone in another thread—I’m sorry I don’t remember who and if I name who I think it was I’m almost certain to be wrong, but they’ll show up here, anyway—mentioned a Spike / Willow combo. Now, that sounds quite nice to me, to tell the truth. Their own respective backstories could play well off each other as they both have a dark side to them that presumably needs to be controlled, but neither of them seem like they can really do it. Lots of work that could be done there.

Also, even though Buffy spends a lot of time battling demons as well as vampires, a sort of non-prophecy-bound witch character could expand this even more, I think.

I must admit I’ve never watched Angel, so perhaps between these two shows there isn’t much where else to take these characters… but I just don’t want to lose them. :frowning:

2

Only one of these threads is the real one…

:smack:

3

I really don’t see how we can get much more out of this franchise. It may be about time to call it quits.

The only pssibility I see for a show that wouldn’t just continue to be the same thing over and over would be for something involving that team of high-tech monster hunters that Riley hooked up with. Globe-trotting secret agents rooting out supernatural evil? Alias meets X-Files meets Buffy? I’d sign on for that.

I don’t really see what more there is to do with Spike and Willow, and they haven’t really bothered to expand on any other characters to a point where a spinoff would be feasable.

4

My own speculation, which might be wishful thinking is the brand new show Wicca, centrering around Willow. I don’t know if we really need any of the other characters, maybe Xander, but Willow is very interesting and I would surely want to see where she’s going.

Also I posted this 9/25/02:

5

I read an interview with SMG somewhere (no, I don’t have a cite) from a few weeks ago where she indicated she was interested in sticking around for S8, but I haven’t seen any follow-up. It seems likely that this is the last year, but it’s not impossible.

–Cliffy, who thinks that the show could go on without SMG but given the mediocre ratings, won’t.

6

If there is a spin-off at this point it’ll be like a vamp, a twisted perverse creature with a superficial resemblence to the original. Let the show and characters rest in peace. I really hope they build up to a big finish, tidy up lots of loose ends, get closure on the main themes, and ride off into the sunset.

Or finally kill off the whole lot of them and show a new slayer being elevated, followed by a fade to black. I’m not sure how they can resolve the whole good vs evil thing in one neat package since they still have Angel set in the same universe.

I’m still rooting for Clem to carry a new show.

7

Yes indeed. Where is Clem?

Wasn’t he actually the first good Demon in Buffy. I’m not really counting Whistler. Hell, he got to baby sit Dawn.

Lotsa good demons in Ats, though, but none in Sunnydale.

8

I’m sure someone in a previous thread has brought this up, but here it is anyway.

When Buffy sacrificed herself in “The Gift”, she died. Technically there was supposed to be another slayer raised because of her death.

Where is that slayer? Why did we never meet her?

It’s probobly too late to create a spin-off using that slayer, if she even exists, but it’s one idea.

9

Rumour is that Faith carries the Slayer line now. This has never been confirmed but since Buffy was killed by the master for a little while the new Slayer was activated based upon that death and the powers forgot about Buffy. When she was revived she didn’t get back into view of the Slayer picking device, it was centered on Kendra and after Kendra died it centered on Faith.

“You were supposed to die. It was written.”
“What can I say? I flunked the written.”

I interpret this witty banter as indicating that when Buffy didn’t die, thanks to the intervention of a friend, she slipped out of the bonds of prophecy. I haven’t heard any more prophecies about her and she isn’t intertwined in any of Angel’s. In fact the prophecies about Angel presume that Buffy would never cause him to loose his soul. She almost disrupted all of those prophecies as a result of living past the point she was meant to.

10

I’m pretty sure that Joss has explicitly said that the slayer line goes through Faith. Buffy is out of the picture for the succession, but obviously still in the picture with the killing and the gore and the flavin.

11

The problem is that JOSS has explicitely said that’s what’s going on, but the show hasn’t really bothered to say it outright. That’s what you get when you start communicating to the viewers through interviews and message baords and not the actual show. <insert flamewar here>. But yeah, imagine it as a torch. Buffy held the torch, then briefly died. Passed the torch to Kendra. Then Buffy came back. She’s still there, but she doesn’t have the torch anymore. Kendra dies, passes it to Faith.

If I were the Watcher’s Council, I’d be really working on killing Faith about now. Their whole raison’ d’etre (as far as it’s ever been explained) is controlling the Slayer, and they currently don’t have one.

12

I still think that Spike is the only character strong enough to carry a spinoff, but Willow would definitely have to be in it, too. Maybe the two of them could share the top of the marquee. There was some really nice chemistry between them in S4 (I’ve been informed that they were originally supposed to be a couple, after the breakups of Woz and Sprusilla, but they decided to go with Spuffy instead- well, sort of). In the few scenes Spike and Willow have had together, James Marsters and Alyson Hanigan played very well off each other. I can see them as sort of best-friends-but-Spike-is-harboring-some-romantic-feelings-toward-Willow (not really in love with her, but some definite attraction to her, sort of like Mulder and Scully in the later seasons of The X-Files. I’d like to see Dawn in the capacity that Willow filled in the first two seansons of BtVS, the one who’s good with computers, (she’s already shown some talent in that area- she got online and pegged Gnarl pretty fast, and I’m sure Willow could teach her some hacking skills), but more badass than early Willow (who seemed to need a lot of rescuing in the early days). I think Xander would have to be in it, too, much as I dislike his character. His antagonism with Spike would provide some tension and balance. And Giles would definitely have to be a recurring character.

I think having a second vampwith-a-soul show would take some work to keep it from turning into Angel 2.0, but it’s doable. When I look at Spike and Angel as characters, I see Angel as the one who almost seems stuck in a groove, bound by prophecies (I don’t watch Angel, so my info is pretty much all second hand, so If I’m wrong about this, please correctly), which are somewhat ambiguous as to his role in the Apocalypse. He doesn’t seem to have a lot of freedom in determining his destiny, he just accepts it and tries to work within the paramaters that his pre-sealed fate allows. Spike is more of a wild card. Angel had his soul stuffed back in against his will, Spike chose to get his back. I’ve never seen any reference on BtVS to any prophecies that would apply to Spike. He makes his own destiny. When all the other vampires in Sunnydale were kissing ass, Spike killed the Annoying One. He follow his own internal code, but he doesn’t play by anyone elses rules, and would most likely tell anyone talking prophecies to sod off. Spike is a fundamentally different creature than Angel, so I think a Spike-centered show would be very different than Angel

[sub]Yeah, I know, Spike is currently being controlled by TETD, but he’ll get over it.[/sub]

13

I think Willow and Faith would make a good team…

14

… as a lesbian team…
::drooling on the keyboard::

15

I think the best thing they can do is take a couple of years off. Let Angel run its course. And then create a spin-off following either a completely new slayer with supporting roles from a couple of current Buffy/Angel people OR actually use one of the B/A people to be the main character.

One Buffyverse show at a time might not be a bad thing. Keeps the writers (and Whedon) a little more focused.

16

I can see a show with the new Slayer in a supporting role, actually. From what I’ve been able to glean from the show, the Council has a pool of potential Slayers to draw from when the current one buys the farm. I can see them choosing a really dim bulb as the next Slayer, because after Buffy decided not to work and play nice with the Council and the whole Faith debacle, they would potentially want someone with a lot of muscle, but not real big with the critical thinking skills.

But Wolverine is right, some down time would probably be a good idea. I’ve heard some rumors to the effect that this will be the last season for BtVS, but that the show might continue as a series of made-for-TV movies, but that SMG would not be interested in doing them. If that’s the route Joss ends up taking, definitely let it rest awhile (since we’ve all gotten used to Gellar as Buffy), then find another actress to portray Buffy who has an acting style that’s fairly similar to Gellar’s (but, please, not a clone).

17

Okay One, informed by whom? I’ve never heard that before. And Two, okay I know we have this cute thing going here where we describe a 'ship with a hybridized single name, but let’s not go overboard with it :p.
The Gaspode: Drool indeed!

Thea Logica: I don’t think the Council gets to choose the new Slayer. But who knows?

18

There’s a right answer, and there’s the answer that makes me drool inside:

The right answer, of course, is the spinoff focuses on Faith as she walks the earth, atoning for her sins and trying to stay a step ahead of the authorities and the Council of Watchers. Think “Kung Fu” mixed with “The Incredible Hulk” mixed with “Buffy” and you’ve got the premise down. Would also love to see a guest shot with Oz, but that’s just because I like Seth Green immensely.

The premise that makes me drool, however…

“Vamps.” Starring Spike and Dru, pre-chip days.

Vampire anti-heroes and their conquests.

Thoughts?