Buffy the Vampire Slayer

### Starring:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Anthony Stewart Head, James Marsters

### Episodes:

144

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an American Comedy-Horror television series created by Joss Whedon that ran from 1997 to 2003. An adaptation of Whedon’s own 1992 film of the same name, the series aired on The WB and UPN throughout it’s run, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendan, Allison Hannigan, and Anthony Stewart Head in it’s lead roles, with David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter playing supporting characters.

## Plot:

Buffy Summers is a high school student who, chosen by fate to become the Slayer, battles the forces of evil whatever they may be. She’s moved to the town of Sunnydale, where she learns is the center of the “Hellmouth”, and other forms of magic.

## Why it Slays:

1. Despite the title, it takes a deeper turn for it’s plot that gets much more complex as the series goes on, not just focusing on Buffy slaying Vampires (though there is plenty of that), but also fighting against creative demons and other villains throughout as well. Sometimes, there’s not even any vampires in a given episode.
2. Excellent acting all around, especially from Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, managing to put plenty of substance into the character.
3. The characters are often very interesting and likeable, with plenty of incredible heroes and interesting villains who each get plenty of character development over time.
	1. Buffy is somewhat ambivalent about her duty as a Slayer, as it often interferes with her life during high school, which forces her mom to move away with her, and causes plenty of her teachers to think she’s a problem child. While she is extroverted, she also holds plenty of personal problems inside, often brought on by the secrecy and difficulty of her destiny.
	2. Willow Rosenberg, one of Buffy’s only friends, starts out as a shy geeky type, but always tries to help out where she can, and soon becomes interested in magic in order to help Buffy on the front lines, even despite the addictive qualities of Black Magic.
	3. Xander Harris is a highly sarcastic comic relief character who adds a lot of humor to the story, but is also anything but incompetent, helping Buffy and Willow battle the forces of darkness, even becomes more of a protagonist as the series goes on, sometimes outright being the one to defeat the big bad. He also starts to take things more seriously as he grows up.
	4. Rupert Giles is Buffy’s “watcher” and trainer, though he’s disturbed by the advancements of the digital age, always relying on books instead. He develops a somewhat fatherly relationship with Buffy, wanting her to have a normal life, even if he knows that’s impossible. He also has a past of accidentally summoning a demon in his youth, which causes him to sacrifice a great deal for the greater good.
	5. Angel is a vampire who once ravaged the world until he was captured and had his human soul restored in order to regret his actions. As a result, he only battles other vampires and even develops a romance with Buffy, though he eventually realizes that his own fight may never end, which leads to his own spin-off show, Angel.
	6. Cordelia Chase starts off as a mean-girl who bullys the “Scooby Gang”, but eventually starts to relate to them and even become more friendly and understanding, to the point where she ditches her former friend group and even actively helps them. She too transfers over to Angel, where she actively helps the lead.
	7. Spike starts out as a villain to end all villains, killing the Vampire’s “Chosen One” in order to wage a personal war on Buffy. Though he too has his human soul restored and strives only to help them afterwards.
	8. Warren Mears is an abject misogynist and an enemy of Buffy and the Scooby Gang, trying to ascend even the Vampires, even if it means outright killing others.
4. A very unique style that’s both intentionally highly cheesy and genuinely entertaining, often becoming more of the latter as the series goes on and even having better fight scenes and storylines and the like.
5. The series often takes its overarching storyline involving magic to explore some social ills, like the dangers of a mob mentality, parents exploiting their own children, and consequences of toxic curiosity, to name a few. Many of these can actually lead to plenty of interesting episodes, even ones that play into the main storylines.
6. Joss Whedon’s signature style of writing and witty dialogue shines through in this series, still managing to take plenty of serious turns that aren’t too jarring and work to great effect.
7. The plot progresses much more naturally than it’s “monster of the week” formula would imply, not only with it’s overarching storyline, but also with plenty of smaller moments like the “Scooby Gang” growing up, graduating from High School, going to College, and finding careers in between fighting vampires.
8. Many great episodes throughout, with the aforementioned aspect of depicting social ills often shining through, such as the episode Hush, depicting the difference between language and communication through various plot points, especially when everyone loses their voice. That may sound ridiculous, but the execution is surprisingly great, with the villains, “The Gentlemen”, being genuinely terrifying and well remembered as a result while also progressing Buffy’s relationship with Finn, especially when he’s a member of a secret organization.
9. The opening theme song is awesome and catchy.
10. A very good blend between humor and darkness, the series also isn’t afraid to get very serious at plenty of points, but still have it feel natural rather than forced.
11. Lots of great moments throughout the series, all building up to an excellent finale (even if the series would be continued in comics).
12. Lots of awesome fight scenes that become more so as the series goes on.
13. It also had an equally excellent spin-off series, Angel, which follows Angel himself while also having some connected episodes and showing some of what happened afterwards.

## Bad Qualities:

1. Joss Whedon’s reputation for poor treatment of his people goes back as far as this series, with actor David Boreanaz being a particular subject, especially when leading in Angel.
2. Some mediocre or bad episodes that are a far cry from the rest of the series, Beer Bad is a particularly hated episode for heavy handed symbolism and a poor villain. Some episodes often go into filler territory as well due to the plot structure, and some just aren’t as good.
3. Many of the effects have aged badly (even if they did get better over the course of the series), namely the vampire’s faces looking a little too cheesy and the digital effects for them disintegrating looking poor.
4. Some of the humor has also aged badly.
5. Season 6 was somewhat controversial to fans for its darker tone compared to previous seasons and increased violence and sexual content among other things.
6. Season 1 can be slow paced at times, despite its shorter length than the rest of the series.
7. As good as the series finale was, it left some plot points unresolved, which would thankfully be explored in the comic series (the next five “seasons”).

## Episodes with their Own Pages

* Becoming (parts 1 & 2)
* Hush