Classic literature can be defined in a variety of ways. Obviously, I'm not going to tell you all the reasons why something is a classic, as classics must stand the test of time, but if we consider all the other factors, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a future classic. Here’s why.
Game changer: An amazing marker of a good classic is that it was/is a gamer changer. In season 6, this 7 season show had the first widely popular musical episode. Joss Whedon, the main writer and director of the show, is the reason this episode is so popular. It was integrated into the plot, (a musical demon came into town making everyone burst into song about their darkest secrets in cheery tunes until they burst into flames by dancing too much.) The reason this was so important is it caused the main character to reluctantly reveal to her friends she isn’t happy with life as, when they brought her back to life in previous episodes, they unknowingly pulled her out of heaven. This was such a revelation to the audience, it changed the game by influencing others to have musical episodes during later seasons of many shows.
Speaking of “influence” that brings me to my next point. Influence: Buffy the Vampire Slayer had many big firsts in terms of television. Joss Whedon was brilliant in the way that he was one of the first writers to have a monster-of-the-week type show and quit it.
Monster-of-the-week is a term that was commonly used to describe a type of show, typical throughout the 90’s but still used today. These kinds of shows had an in-and-out underlying plot that ended with a big scary villain at the end of each season. Although, throughout the season each episode would have a new villain which would be defeated by the end of the episode, and really never heard of again. This was very typical, especially in the 90’s and in kids’ shows.
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was like that, all throughout the first season. It had episodes like that all throughout all seven seasons. However, after the first season, he tapered off into very serious seasonal plotlines and dropped the cartoony aspects.
This was one of the first television series to start off with monster-of-the-week that would later go much more in depth. For example, in the first season, every episode was a monster of the week. As it went on, the audience got to know the characters, with the underlying plot being a prophecy about Buffy. She was the “chosen one,” aka the vampire slayer; the one girl to be chosen and gifted with super strength, agility, and other superhuman gifts, who would fight the things that go bump in the night until her death when a new slayer would be chosen. Buffy was chosen with a prophecy to kill “the Master,” one of the oldest and baddest vampires still around. She did defeat the big monster-of-the-week at the very end of the first season.
So Joss Whedon moved on and made the episodes of later seasons focus more on the morality and drama of Buffy, her friends, and her mother, while they all slayed vampires together, facing up to an ominous big bad every season.
One of my favorite characters was a vampire, he was the main villain of season 2, but unlike monster-of-the-week where the villain would die or be locked away, this vampire, William, (Spike), got a character arc, a love story, and a tragic death seasons later. Not to mention, for a while he was even treated as great comedic relief with a tragic backstory.
Many shows were influenced and inspired by Joss Whedon’s work, including one of the latest adaptations of Star Trek and the very popular Netflix series, Supernatural, As well as many other popular titles.
Anyway, I would like to go back to share one more great way Buffy is a future classic. Classics will address permanent and universal human concerns. There are many great ways Buffy the Vampire Slayer does this throughout its’ 7 seasons. The big one is mortality. Big surprise a show about the undead dives deep into death. Let's go back to season 1.
In season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there is the aforementioned prophecy that the title character will face the main villain of the season. This prophecy reveals that the sixteen-year-old highschooler will die facing this monster. The lead up to the big season finale battle is Buffy finding this out and deciding to go to prom instead of dying. Even so she decides to face death, and indeed she does die. She is bitten by the big bad and drowned. However, friends come just in time to revive her after her heart stops for two minutes. This dives deep into Buffy’s feelings and human psychology all under the veil of drama. This is just a glimpse of the way this show teaches us about how life comes to an end.
Later on, in season five, Buffy’s beloved mother Joyce passes away. You would assume this to be by supernatural cause, but no. Joyce battles a brain tumor which is successfully removed in surgery. Weeks later, due to complications, she passes away on the couch at home while Buffy is elsewhere and Buffy’s kid sister, fifteen year old Dawn, is at school.
Unfortunately, Joyce does not come back to life. The camera slows, we as the audience experience Buffy discovering the body, in shock trying to wake her mother up, crack a rib trying to resuscitate Joyce, throwing up in a haze, calling 911, and calling her father figure adult friend Giles, even going to school to tell her little sister the bad news. Buffy now must face preparing a funeral, trying to pay all the bills, parent her sister, mourn her mother, and all while being a Slayer, which unfortunately does not come with a paycheck.
In another episode later on down the line, Buffy experiences monster poisoning making her question reality. She has episodes where she believes herself to be in what seems like our reality, where the fictional town she lives in doesn’t exist, her little sister and all her friends are made up, and all this time she thought she was a slayer she has actually been a schizophrenic in a psych ward, and her father and mother are both alive, a happy couple, even though she believed them to be divorced. Buffy almost kills her friends, believing her counselor that they aren’t real and only keeping her from getting better. However, she tells her mother goodbye and goes back to her fictional town and saves her friends by the end of the episode. She almost killed her friends for a chance at normality, a life where she doesn't have to risk her own, and her family is small and happy. By the end of the episode, the audience is still left wondering if Buffy is actually in a psych ward under psychosis, or if this was just monster poisoning.
Even later, Buffy’s friend Willow, who is a witch, goes through watching her girlfriend Tara being shot. She deals with it by going bad and killing everyone responsible. Still not being able to deal with her loss, she decided to end the world. She only snaps out of it when her and Buffy’s mutual best friend gives her a hug while telling Willow “I love you” over and over again.
Finally, at the end of it all, Buffy’s now lover, Spike, the vampire with a character arc and English accent, sacrifices himself in front of Buffy as they cry. For the first time, she tells him “I love you” before he dies to save the world. Buffy has broken the laws of the universe by letting any and all potential slayers become a slayer. The burden of saving the world and dying young doing it, is gone, as so many are capable and ready for the job.
All this to explain, the audience can connect, grieve, love, and hate, while watching this very dramatized show. Just another reason, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a future classic.
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