Why Buffy is Worth Watching

Being a science concentrator, pretty much all my life, I look a little strangely at those who who devote their lives to Literature or Social Thought or other unuseful act. As an undergrad, we scientists used to call such students in the "Humanities", pronounced contemptuously as if one was going to spit. They were the ones who got to go clubbing and drinking, while we went to lab. We thought they were self-righteous jerks, like their fields. And lots of them are.

But, like many things, there is a little something there. At its best, media can point us towards a world outside our everyday existence, then help us look at our life from the changed perspective. For example, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Milgram's Obedience to Authority caused seismic shifts in my mind. I don't expect every book or TV show to change me that much, but it's a great thing when seemingly mindless pursuits invert the escapism and force us to examine the world more fully.

Good science fiction passes that test. The world of Buffy is like our own, except for vampires and demons and other strange creatures, some good, most evil, and sometimes both at once. It's a place where evil takes form, and folks struggle against it. They win mostly, fail sometimes (in opposition and in themselves), and have to deal with issues from our world like family and dating and school. Sometimes it doesn't work out, and we viewers are sad, for we're part of the shared vision. The characters grow and change; we see them suffer, a metafiction, and everything isn't alright at the end of 60 minutes. TV doesn't do that much.

There's evil in our world as well; not as obvious at times as someone trying to break your neck, but how can I call a currency raider or cocaine dealer anything but evil? Buffy helps us see the necessity of struggling against the monsters we face. (The inscription on my official guide, from a dear friend, is "Happy Monster-Killing.") They deal with pain, lots of pain, and we try to learn to deal with ours. In some ways, we are aided by turning fear, isolation, rejection, and other suffering into physical demons so we can stare them down and vanquish them. The fact that someone, even a fictional character, does struggle for good gives me a glimmer of faith and hope, always in short supply in modern America. And sometimes, we even see love. What more can I ask?

Notes and Quotes

The picture on the TV page is of slayer Buffy and slayer Faith, from season 3. Faith is Buffy without support, still trying to fulfill her destiny, but without friendship and agape, Faith has substantially more difficulty. The picture at the top of this page reminds us of how important research is to the slayer, how one must know the enemy to defeat it. (Has anyone on a "conventional" show like Nash Bridges ever opened a book?) And the love picture is of Watcher Giles and girlfriend Jenny Calendar, from season 2. Their romance gets tragically broken, with suffering and heartbreak. This isn't a show for those without compassion; there are tales of how stubborn grown men cried at the end of season 5, "The Gift", in hushed and accepting tones. (I did.)

Instead of me writing more about the concept of the show, I'll quote from interviews in the tie-in books a bit.

A lot of people want to dismiss Buffy, and need to, because ultimately she is a threatening figure. She threatens our deeply held notions about beautiful people. Funny, pretty women are stupid, the blond bimbo. And powerful women are plain, at best.
We're doing these sort of mythic hero journeys in our minds. A lot of times, the story doesn't make sense until we figure out who's suffering and why. Including the bad guy. If the bad guy's not hurting, not relating to her, then it's just a cardboard guy to knock down.
The series sets a precedent as far as presenting a first-time-ever hero who is a librarian. If ever there was a ready-made message just waiting for representation on a poster, it was this series being used to promote the idea that books, reading, libraries, and their many available avenues of research are a vitally important tool in combating the forces of Darkness.
"Lie to Me" is very disturbing. It's about the idea that there is no innocence, there is no good in the world. The bad guys and good guys aren't clearly delineated.
[In The Pack]There is a fat kid sitting, a pack of kids walk by him and they say something mean about him being fat, they pass by Buffy and Buffy observes that these kids are pretty mean. ... Joss said, "The fat kid is sitting by himself, there is a pile of candy wrappers in front of him and he's eating a Snickers. Get rid of the junk food wrappers, get rid of the Snickers, give him a piece of fruit, and give him some friends."

Quotes from Dialogue

[Buffy] "We fight monsters. This is what we do." The old startup sound on my computer... .
[Angelus] "I want to torture you. I used to love it, and it's been a long time. I mean, the last time I tortured someone, they didn't even have chain saws."
[vampire Drusilla, to Spike] "I'm naming all the stars." "Can't see the stars, love. That's the ceiling. Also, it's day." "I can see them. But I've named them all the same name, and there's terrible confusion. I fear there may be a duel."
[Giles, to Xander] "I suppose there is a bit of Machiavellian ingenuity to your transgression." "I resent that! Or possibly, thank you."
[Buffy] "Oh, I know this one! Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah blah bliddy blah, I'm so stuffy, give me a scone."
[Willow] "He got a perfect score, and then he recreated the original proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in the margins around the answer bubbles."
[Buffy] "Hey Ken. Wanna see my impression of Gandhi?" [Ken looks at her, she swings the club down on his head, a sound comes from inside his head. A bystander asks, "Gandhi?"] "Well, you know ... if he was really pissed off."
[Willow] "Then talk. Keep eye contact, funny is good, but don't be glib and remember: if you hurt her, I will bear you to death with a shovel. [gets a look] A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. Have fun!"
[Jenny, to Giles] "Well, you really are an old-fashioned boy, aren't you?" "Well, it's true I don't dangle a corkscrew [earring] from my ear." "That's not where I dangle it."
[Jenny] "I'm not running around, wind in my hair, the hills are alive with the sound of music fine, but I'm coping."
[Oz, to Willow] "I think about kissing you and everything stops. It's like, freeze frame, Willow kissage, but I'm not gonna kiss you." "What? But ... freeze frame ..." "Well, to the casual observer, it would appear like you want to make your friend Xander jealous. Or even the score or something. That's on the empty side. See, in my fantasy, when I'm kissing you ... you're kissing me. It's okay, I can wait."

[Jenny, to Giles] "Honestly, what is it about [computers] that bothers you so much?" "The smell." "Computers don't smell, Rupert." "I know. Smell is the most powerful memory trigger there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell, musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be smelly."
[Faith, to Buffy] "You're still not looking at the big picture, B. Something made us different. We're warriors. We were built to kill..." "To kill demons. But it does not mean we get to pass judgment on people, like we're better than everyone else ... " "We are better. That's right. Better. People need us to survive. In the balance? Nobody's gonna cry over some random bystander who got caught in the crossfire." [Buffy] "I am."
[Buffy, to Giles] "Does [life] ever get easy?" "What do you want me to say?" "Lie to me." "Yes. It's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everyone lives happily ever after." "Liar."

Written in 2001, updated September 2004.