Buffy: the end

Under the care of Joss Whedon's brilliant mind, this show grew from being an inspired piece of fun to a seriously challenging body of work. Joss assembled an astonishing array of talent to work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Working with very low budgets, they managed to produce a show that consistently looked better than many high budget feature films. The actors, the crew, the stunt people and choreographers, the set designers -- Joss seemed to know how to get the best out of his people. But the stories... oh! the stories!... this is where the show truly shone. Joss' writers created stories with themes and plots so unusual and refreshing that I doubt there will be a comparable series on TV for a long, long time.

Joss has told how he used to cringe when he'd see the pretty blonde girl screaming helplessly while being attacked by a monster and having to be saved by the hero. He set out to turn that on its head with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (The name is intended to indicate the show's content: "Buffy" indicated that it was humor, "Vampire" was for gothic horror, and "Slayer" meant action.) Buffy is small, cute, blonde, unprepossessing schoolgirl, but when monsters attack she stands her ground and protects the guys. But the "damsel in distress" theme is not the only tradition Joss and his merry band of writers wanted to undermine. During Buffy's 7 years they covered an enormous range of topics. From the beginning they used Angel to indicate that you can't reliably judge people by their appearance. The Mayor was a happy, jokey, family-values guy and was the scariest bad guy they ever developed for the show. The current villain is a preacher who quotes the bible while dealing out death (not surprising considering the persecution of this wonderful show by religious nuts).

Past episodes have carefully considered various wish fulfillment fantasies, such as being telepathic, or magically making yourself the most popular person. Many times it examined what immortality could mean. Mostly these were cautionary tales of the "be careful what you wish for" variety, but the topic was always treated freshly and gave many insights into the human condition.

The Buffy series pushed its own boundaries. This was one of its best attributes. Not wanting to rest on his laurels with the show being highly acclaimed for the sparklingly witty dialogue, Joss Whedon resolved to make an episode with almost no speech at all. Hush became one of the best Buffy episodes made. When they decided to make Willow, one of the most important characters in the show, fall in love with another girl, television executives were uneasy. They told Joss that the show could have lesbians, but they must not kiss onscreen. Clearly this rule annoyed the writers and they developed a scenario where nobody in their right mind could object to Willow and Tara kissing. After that the two had the most stable relationship in the show and were often seen cuddling in bed. They could have played this for prurient interest, but they didn't. In fact the most remarkable thing is that the Willow-Tara relationship became unremarkable! The lesbian pair were as completely accepted as if they were a traditional boy-girl couple. This was a magnificent achievement.

One of the strangest things about Buffy was its ability to cross social groups. Although the largest following is among young women, I regularly chat online with young males, middle-aged males, young women and girls, middle-aged women, and older women, wealthy and poor people in many different countries who all enjoy this extraordinary show.