Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer

I was reluctant to watch Buffy, The Vampire Slayer . Apparently, I'm not alone. Perhaps it's the campy title, but despite repeated pleas from my buddy Mike to check it out, I simply wasn't interested. My turning point came last year when I finally watched Firefly on DVD. Mike kept telling me, "If you like Firefly, you'll love Buffy."

He was right.

Season one begins slowly. Buffy was a mid-season replacement and clearly didn't have the budget (nor was CGI as abundant as it is today) to pull off some of its ambitious ideas. The season's lead villain (or "big bad") also wasn't that appealing. However, the monsters never were the point of the series which is why it's easy to overlook the lackluster special effects in favor of the characters and dialogue.

However, season two is where the show takes off -- and never slows down. This season (probably my favorite of the seven) has it all: comedy, tragedy, horror, romance, and probably a host of other genres and styles I can't think of. By the time I watched the season finale, I couldn't believe there were five more seasons awaiting me. After all, it seemed as if they had done it all. I wondered, where could they go from here? Fortunately, the show manages to entertain and enthrall throughout its entire seven year run (despite the addition of Dawn).

This year marked the tenth anniversary of Buffy's premiere. I may have come late to the party, but better late than never.

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