I will say this. I consider the Buffy show to have some of snappiest, most entertaining dialogue written for the small screen in the entirety of my lifetime.
If you any taste at all outside of your mouth, you will like Buffy. I may be a little bit biased, seeing as how the show introduced me to my wife (long story), but it was consistantly the wittiest, sharpest, cleverest, most interesting show in TV history.
Buffy: “Who are you?”
Angel: “Let’s just say I’m a friend.”
Buffy: “Well, maybe I don’t want a friend!”
Angel: “I didn’t say I was yours.”
Yes, yes, my goodness YES. Middleman, I’ve only discovered Buffy in recent months, but I love it, and so does Selkie, who should be along soon. We both can’t recommend it highly enough, especially to you, considering we’ve agreed on a lot in the past. The vampires and demons are all window-dressing for a wonderful show where the characters all grow and change, fall in love and have their hearts broken, make mistakes, rise to great acts of heroism, and occasionally get to act like normal (but wonderfully-written) teenagers. The writing is top-notch, the ensemble cast is one of the best I’ve ever seen on television, the female cast is all gorgeous, the comedy is hilariously funny, and the drama is powerful and gut-wrenching. Plus, it’s created by a man (Joss Whedon) who clearly loves comic books, and creates a rich mythology and overarching continuity that rewards its audience hundreds of times over. It’s a superhero story without any costumes, but at the same time, it’s a coming-of-age story, a love story, and oh so much more. Give it a chance to hook you… I wasn’t convinced until the season 1 finale that I loved it, but I think you’ll definitely like it.
Buffy isn’t really about killing ooky stuff, though that’s part of the fun of it. What it’s really about is the same thing any good fiction is about, the growth and relationships of people. The dialogue is wonderful but learnng about the major characters and how they grow and change as people is what makes the show so powerful. You care about the choices good and bad that these people make. Its also very much about feminism, specifically the empowerment of young girls. Sometimes the special effects are cheesy. Occasionally the monster of the week is dumb. None of that matters.
Buffy didn’t choose her destiny. It chose her. She has to decide whether she will accept what fate has alloted her or try to live an “ordinary” life. The show makes it clear that there is no such thing as an ordinary life for Buffy, or for anyone else for that matter. I’ve never talked to anybody who ever was sorry they watched it. I don’t think you will be either.
Basically, Buffy takes the “With great power comes great responsibility” mantra from Spider-Man and runs with it, perhaps better than any other comic book hero ever.
Buffy takes that metaphor and runs with it. The mean clique aren’t just adolescent assholes, they’re posessed by animal spirirts and will eat you if you aren’t careful. Your boyfriend who slept with you and now won’t call isn’t just an inconsiderate jerk, he’s had his soul revoked by a curse and is now a creature of incredible evil. The girl who nobody notices really is invisble. It’s not just an exciting supernatural adventure show, it’s also one of the best teen dramas ever produced.
Only with vampires.
And very witty dialogue.
(You’re forgiven if you don’t like Seasons 5-7, the show didn’t hit its stride until season 2, and IMHO started to lose its way after the gang graduated from high school).
Wow. I came here specifically to post I found the dialogue to be eye-rolling-inducingly bad. Talk about corny and poorly acted. The fight scenes were also badly choreographed, in my opinion.
My husband loved the show. I hated it.
My opinion is based on sitting through four or five half-epsidoes and overhearing some stuff while doing things in the next or same room as the television on which it was airing, so there you have it.
Speaking as a recent convert who watched all seven seasons in three and a half weeks, I say without hesitation that at its best, Buffy contains some of the most compelling, emotionally rich fiction in film (large or small screen). I understand why some would compare it to a soap opera, inasmuch as it centers around some very well-fleshed out and believable relationships, but it avoids the cheesiness factor usually associated with that genre.
Like all the best horror fiction, the ghoulies, ghosties, and things that go bump in the night are there to help help the viewer handle the “hot” topics and ethically difficult challenges. They’re there to act as aspects of greater metaphors, not (usually) as ends in and of themselves. That’s an especially good thing, because frankly the make-up and costume designs aren’t exactly the high point of the show. It would be easy to miss the quality of the show on a quick flip through while channel surfing as a result, but trust me, it’s well worth it. The often-snappy dialogue is a great bonus, too; the closest show to it on that score is probably the late, lamented Sports Night.
For most of its run, the show does an excellent job of rewarding long-term viewers with small nods to continuity without becoming so continuity laden that one can’t step in at a later season and understand what’s going on. I’d even go so far as to recommend skipping season one and beginning with season two. By the end of the first episode you’ll be caught up on everything you need to know, and season one is best viewed at the end. (Trust me). Season two definitely has its rough spots, but the overarching story arc is so good that I’ll bet you’d be willing to overlook them - and if not, Big Bad Voodoo Lou and I can easily direct you as to which episodes to avoid. The quality evens out beautifully for season three, which is outstanding in all respects.
By all means, try it. Beg, borrow, or steal the DVDs if you have to, but try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was.
It depends - I’m not particularly a fan because I feel that Whedon can’t pace a complex story to save his life and is not particularly concerned with continuity or coherence, but he is excellent at creating interesting and complex characters. Also, I tend to agree with UrbanChic that the acting wasn’t particularly good - while it’s didn’t require particularly great acting, it got kind of old when the lead actress expresses her undying love for someone in the same tone of voice she uses to talk about her homework.
To be fair, I think Buffy was probably the least interesting character, and Sarah Michelle Gellar the weakest actress in the cast. I don’t think she sucked by any means, but compared to Xander (Nic Brendon), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Giles (Anthony Stewart head), Spike (James Marsters), and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), Buffy/Sarah just isn’t as compelling or fun. Buffy is very much the “straight woman” who has to stay calm and normal despite all the weirdness around her, and the supporting characters get a lot more leeway to be zany and funny and weird and scary while she remains stable the entire time.
David Boreanaz, who plays Angel, is not the greatest actor either, but about halfway through season 2, the character becomes a lot more interesting and the actor seems to come to life (pun intended this time). Longtime fans know exactly what I’m talking about!
Have you watched season six yet? The one thing she doesn’t do that season is remain stable (and an argument could be made for season 7 as well). Though that’s one of the things I like about that season.
Anyway, I never had an issue with the acting on the show (other than the times when David Boreanaz trotted out his horribly bad attempt at an Irish accent, but that was more confined to Angel the show). And at times I think Gellar really knocked it out of the park, so to speak. For instance, Buffy’s talk with Angel and Giles in “Prophey Girl” is very well done, IMO. Of course, Buffy is easily my favorite character on the show, so we probably see things a bit differently.
In spite of being a big fan of the show, I kind of agree with this. Whedon has a lot of strengths as a TV writer, but being able to construct an airtight plot has absolutely never been one of them (though I do think some of it is due to the limitations of the medium itself). Not to get into the late season vs early season stuff, but I know a lot of fans online will complain about, say, the plot holes in season 7, and I won’t deny that they exist, but to my mind they’re no worse than some of the holes/unexplained stuff in season 2.
Ultimately though, that stuff just doesn’t matter to me in any significant way, because the show has so much other stuff that I do like.
SMG earned her acting chops in a soap and it kinda shows. She has this tendency to communicate emotions with really big gestures and eye movements, which makes her appear as being a worse actress than she really is. She is no way nearly as good as Eliza Dushku, Seth Green or Alyson Hannigan though, but still better than Charisma Carpenter, Nick Brendon and David Boreanaz.
Tony Head is the best, of course, but he’s playing in a different league.
Hanningan can be hit or miss for me. She’s given some fantastic performances (“Dopplegangland” being probably the best example), and most of the time she’s fine, but sometimes her line readings just seem off to me. I don’t tend to focus on acting very much, and I can’t explain why her performances bother me occassionally, but they do. Examples would be most of the last 3 episodes of season 6, or (to bring up another show) her first scene on Veronica Mars.
Just saw Season 5 last weekend for the first time. Very nice. Enjoyed the DVD features. Bit of advice: stay away from spoilers.
Oh, and I like to think of Tony as Stewie Head, mainly because I’ve been watching a lot of Family Guy recently. I’d like to hear him say “What the Deuce?”