Review - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. And, yes, it is finally time. Today, I'm taking a look at one of my favorite '90s TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, and a revolving door of cast members including Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, Amber Benson, Marc Blucas, and Michelle Trachtenberg. Now, while the series is technically a spin-off of the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Kristy Swanson, the movie and series are set in two different continuities. Luckily, there is a five-issue prequel comic called Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin, which retells the story of the movie in a way that's more in line with the television series. 

        The series is set in the fictional coastal town of Sunnydale, California, which sits atop of a Hellmouth. A Hellmouth is a nexus point between our dimension and all manner of Hell dimensions, and its very nature allows things like the paranormal, supernatural, mystical, and magical to happen with much more potency, which is why so many vampires, demons, and other evil beings are drawn to it so easily. 

        The series focuses on Buffy Summers, who is newly moved into Sunnydale after an incident at her previous school in Los Angeles, which saw Buffy burn down the school gym to stop an army of vampires. In her new school, Buffy befriends Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, and becomes frenemies with the queen bee of Sunnydale High, Cordelia Chase. Buffy also meets Rupert Giles, who is the Sunnydale High librarian, and is Buffy's Watcher after the death of her previous Watcher Merrick. Now, at a point in the third season, Giles is dismissed as a Watcher for forming too much of an attachment to Buffy, and he is replaced by Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who doesn't last long before he's fired as a Watcher as well. Giles is reinstated as a Watcher during the fifth season, however, so it really doesn't matter.

            Buffy also meets Angel, an enigmatic and mysterious young man who is later revealed to be a vampire, but one who has his human soul due to a Gypsy curse placed on him. You see, in the world of Buffy, vampires do what they do because they have no soul, and thus no conscience. However, when a vampire's soul is restored, they will feel all of the horror and pain they wrought. And, in Angel's case, his curse can be broken if he ever feels a single moment of pure joy. Should that happen, his soul will be released, and he will revert to his evil self: Angelus. 

         Now, for a majority of Buffy, each season has what's called a "Big Bad," which is the predominant villain of the season. The first season had an ancient vampire called The Master as the Big Bad, who was followed by Spike and Drusilla as the Big Bad of the second season, and then Mayor Richard Wilkins III was the Bid Bad in the third season. Another thing that went on during the run of Buffy was the introduction of supporting characters who would play much larger roles later in the series. Now, this technically started with the character of Angel, but would also include the likes of Oz, Anya, and Tara. Let's meet these three, eh? 

         Daniel "Oz" Osborne, played by Seth Green, is a guitarist, and a werewolf. Oh, and he and Willow end up going out in the second and third season, which is around the same time that Willow begins practicing magic and becomes a witch. Technically a Wiccan, but still a witch. Anya Jenkins, played by Emma Caulfield, is a vengeance demon, real name Anyanka, who grants vengeful wishes to young women who were scorned. And finally we have Tara Maclay, played by Amber Benson, who is also a witch, who becomes close to Willow during the fourth season, with the two becoming a couple sometime after Willow's breakup with Oz. 

          Speaking of which, during the fourth season, we're introduced to the Initiative, a government unit who studies, captures, and pacifies vampires, demons, and such. One of the vampires they catch and imbed with a microchip to stop him from hurting humans is, ultimately, Spike. Yep, Spike gets to stick around for the long haul, and he becomes a series mainstay for the remainder of the series. Also, Buffy gets a new boyfriend in the form of Riley, played by Marc Blucas, who is a member of the Initiative. Also, the had of the Initiative spends the season working on a special project: Adam. Adam is an amalgamation of technology and demonic parts. Think the T-800 meets Frankenstein's monster. And, of course, Adam is the Big Bad in the fourth season. 

            Now, while the fourth season was going on, a Buffy spin-off called Angel kicked off its first season, and saw both David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter jump from Buffy to the new series. And, the near thing about the first season of Angel is that there were multiple crossover episodes with the fourth season of Buffy, even to the point of continuing a storyline from an episode of Buffy on the concurrent episode of Angel. For instance, in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day," Spike, along with a vampire named Harmony, digs through Sunnydale looking for the Gem of Amara, which can render a vampire one-hundred percent unkillable, not even by sunlight. After Buffy gets it from Spike, Oz drives it down to Los Angeles, which we see in the Angel episode "In the Dark," where Spike follows Oz to L.A. to get the ring back. Also, a Buffy two-parter involving Faith, another Slayer, is continued in a two-parter on Angel.

         Oh, yeah, I should talk about Faith, shouldn't I? Okay, so Faith is a Slayer, who was activated after the death of another Slayer named Kendra. As for how Kendra was activated, well, it happened when Buffy died, albeit briefly, in a fight with the Master at the end of the first season. And, because her death still counted, Kendra was activated, and so now TWO Slayers exist at the same time. But, upon Kendra's death at the hands of Drusilla, Faith was activated as the new Slayer. Initially, Buffy and Faith work together, but after Faith unintentionally kills the Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale, Faith starts down a dark path, leading her to work with Mayor Wilkins. Eventually, Faith ends up in a coma, waking up sometime after the Mayor's defeat, and continues her feud with Buffy. And eventually, she heads to L.A., but I think I'll save that for when I talk about Angel. 

         And, unfortunately, I now come to one of the least popular characters on Buffy: Dawn. Dawn is a character who was retconned into Buffy's story. You see, up until the fifth season, Buffy was an only child. But, during the premier episode of season five, which sees Buffy face off against the legendary vampire Dracula, we're introduced to Dawn, who is supposed to be Buffy's younger sister. Now, as for how Buffy has a younger sister who's supposed to be in her teen years? Well, that ties into the season's big bad Glory. Properly known as Glorificus, Glory is a Hell goddess who, after being defeated by the other two Hell gods in her dimension, had her essence placed into a human boy named Ben, in the hopes that she would be trapped within him when he died a normal human death. However, Glory's power proved to be much greater than predicted, and so she occasionally takes over Ben's body, transforming him into a woman whenever Glory takes over. 

        Glory's goal is to return to her dimension, but she needs a mystical Key to do so. So, order to protect the Key from Glory, a group of monks turn it into a teenage girl, sending her to the Slayer for protection, and rewrite history to make everyone believe that Dawn was always around. This even affects characters like Faith and Angel, who TECHNICALLY never actually met Dawn on television BEFORE her introduction. But, Glory does eventually discover that Dawn is the Key, and uses her to open a portal to her dimension. However, Buffy jumps in to save Dawn's life, and dies a noble death. 

       Unfortunately, the fifth season of Buffy marked the end of an era. You see, Buffy's first five seasons aired on The WB network, who decided to part ways with the series after five seasons. The WB would continue to air Angel, but Buffy needed a new home. Luckily, the WB's rival network UPN would pick up Buffy for two more seasons, which would see Buffy be resurrected by her friends, who thought she was suffering torment in some kind of Hell dimension. However, she was ACTUALLY at peace in Heaven, and started to feel like she WAS in Hell after being brought back. Also, Giles ultimately departs from Sunnydale to return to England. 

       Two of most beloved episodes of Buffy happen during the sixth season, and those episodes are "Once More, with Feeling" and "Tabula Rasa." "Once More, with Feeling" is a musical episode that sees the town of Sunnydale turn into a massive musical, all due to the magic of an amulet belonging to the musical demon Sweet, played brilliantly by Hinton Battle. The episode was conceived of by Joss after he learned that a number of Buffy stars had singing talent. And, the three that had the best singing chops were Anthony Stewart Head, Amber Benson, and James Marsters. Michelle Trachtenberg showed off some pretty amazing dance moves during the "Dawn's Ballet" segment of the episode, which led into Sweet's song "What You Feel." 

        "Tabula Rasa," meanwhile, sees Willow attempt to affect the memories of both Buffy and Tara, but it instead erases the memories of EVERYONE in the magic shop: Buffy, Tara, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Willow, Anya, and Spike. Luckily, everyone is restored to normal, Giles leaves, and Tara breaks up with Willow, who is starting to abuse magic throughout the season, going down a very bad path. 

        As for the Big Bad this season? It's a group called The Trio. And, they're easily the most embarrassing Big Bad in the history of Buffy. The Trio is a trio of dorks, Jonathan Levinson, Warren Mears, and Andrew Wells, who literally want to use mysticism and science to take over Sunnydale. They really don't pose much of a threat to Buffy, up until Warren grows so desperate that he goes after Buffy with a gun. And, sadly, one of Warren's stray bullets kills Tara, just as she and Willow begins to reconcile. This sends Willow so far into the darkness that she becomes Dark Willow, a powerful dark witch bent on destroying not only the Trio, flaying Warren alive, but the world as well. Her violent and dark rise leads Giles to return to Sunnydale, having been sent by a Wiccan coven in Devon, to try to help save Willow with some borrowed magic. 

       But, is it Giles or Buffy that brings Willow back to her senses? Nope! It's Xander. Yep, you read that right. Xander, through the selfless love he had for Willow, who had been his best friend since kindergarten, brings Willow back to her senses and saves the world. Spike, meanwhile, goes on something of a spiritual journey to become the person Buffy needs. And, after completing a series of dangerous trials, Spike has his human soul restored to him. Not because of a Gypsy curse like with Angel, but because he earned it. Wow. 

         So, the final season sees the reopening of Sunnydale High, newly rebuilt and state of the art. And, unlike previous principals like the timid Principal Flutie and the strict, no-nonsense Principal Snyder, the new principal is Principal Robin Wood, who volunteered for the job, and proves to be the perfect man for the job. One, because he gets along swimmingly with students and staff, including Buffy who becomes a school counselor. And second, Robin is the son of a Slayer. Nikki Wood, to be precise. And, unfortunately, Nikki is one of the two Slayers killed by Spike. Willow, meanwhile, begins to rebuild her confidence with help from both the Devon coven and Giles, eventually returning to Sunnydale after seeing a vision of the Hellmouth getting ready to open. 

          Now, the Big Bad this time around is the First Evil. And it commands an army of Bringers, Turok-Han/Uber-Vamps, and a psychotic and misogynistic preacher named Caleb. And seeing Nathan Fillion take on such a vile role, especially given his role as the stoic Malcolm Reynolds on Joss Whedon's Firefly, is definitely different. I mean, seriously, Caleb gouges one of Xander's eyes out, in a very gruesome scene that sees Xander wear an eye patch for the rest of the series. As for the First Evil's big plan? Completely eradicate the Slayer line, including all Potential Slayers AND the Watchers' Council. So, Giles begins bringing as many Potential Slayers to Sunnydale for protection, as well as training with Buffy. One of the Potential Slayers, a girl named Kennedy, grows close to Willow and the two form a relationship. And unlike Tara, who exercised caution in the use of magic, Kennedy is more supportive of Willow's magic use, and is always by her side when needed. 

         And, because both active Players are targeted as well as Potential Slayers, Faith returns to Sunnydale to help Buffy in the fight. Now, as for where she plays into the story at this point, that'll have to wait until my review of Angel. Just know that Willow is called to Los Angeles to help Team Angel with something, and when she returns, Faith is with her. Oh, and Faith becomes attracted to Robin, who has an initial rivalry with Spike over his mother's death, but the two set aside their issues to save the world. Also, after being manipulated into killing Jonathan by the First Evil, Andrew joins Buffy and her team to save the world. 

         So, before the final battle ensues within the Hellmouth, Angel returns to Sunnydale for the last time to give Buffy a pendant to help close the Hellmouth for good. Willow uses a mystical weapon to cast a spell to activate every Potential Slayer across the world to be a fully active Slayer, this creating an army of Slayers. Spike, wearing the pendant, sacrifices himself to seal the Hellmouth, in an act that turns Sunnydale into a crater. Sadly, a few of the new Slayers, as well as Anya, don't survive. With the Sunnydale Hellmouth gone, Giles mentions another Hellmouth in Cleveland, but Buffy looks to the horizon, hopeful now that she isn't alone in the fight against evil. 

         Overall, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of television's greatest series. And, like a fine wine, it just keeps getting better with age. Honestly, I loved the performances in this series, with my favorites coming from David Boreanaz as Angel, Seth Green as Oz, James Marsters as Spike, and Amber Benson as Tara. Sarah Michelle Gellar, of course, is absolutely fantastic as Buffy, as was Eliza Dushku as Faith. And, with the likes of Clare Kramer, Mark Metcalf, Nathan Fillion, and Juliet Landau playing villains throughout the series, Buffy boasts one of television's most impressive recurring and guest casts, a feat not seen on television again until Game of Thrones.

        But, the best thing about Buffy is its handling of vampires, werewolves, and demons. The vampires are all exactly how vampires are supposed to be. Set 'em on fire, stake 'em in the heart, toss 'em in the sunlight, douse 'em in Holy Water (or make 'em drink the stuff), or chop their heads off, and they turn to dust. Direct exposure to a cross will burn 'em. Vampires are repulsed by garlic, and they can't enter a place of residence without direct invitation. Everything that has been a major part of vampire mythology is very much a part of vampires in Buffy, with the exception of flight and transformation into bats or wolves. And, of course, werewolves are exactly as they are in most representations of them, transforming during a full moon, aversion to silver, and the like. 

          Honestly, I've gone on enough about this series. The fact is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the best television series ever produced, and it boasted a fantastic cast, clever writing, and the most accurate portrayal of vampires on television. I'm giving Buffy the Vampire Slayer a rating of 5/5. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time.