It should be noted, that I started watching the series on DVD. The TV medium, designed to keep us interested until our next weekly fix, can easily foster an obsession when supplied in concentrated doses. At least NetFlix has forced a two-day lull between disks.
Buffy is generally a hard show to talk about without sounding crazy. I inevitably end up using words like demon, vampire, werewolf, witch, dimensions... and their weirder contexts: "he's a vampire with a soul;" "yeah, her boyfriend's a werewolf, but it's only once a month, and they work through it;" or "she was a mystical ball of energy that the monks hid from the evil goddess by turning it into a human.” They don’t make it easy for fans to maintain credibility, but I’ll give it a shot.
While I did find the Buffy movie entertaining in that early-90's-cheese-fest kind of way, it’s important to know that the show is vastly different and better. The film was the source of most of my prejudices, but I eventually, at Krista’s suggestion, watched the first disk (4 episodes), partly expecting to be gathering evidence for my pre-judgments.
I can't say I loved it immediately, but I was surprised. The dialogue was quick and witty; the humor was corny and sarcastic; and the characters, endearingly nerdy—it was made for me. And Buffy, the teenager with super-strength and the destiny to defeat the forces of darkness… frankly, she’s one of the best heroes I know. She lives a life without secret hideouts or alter egos; a normal life with normal problems (not counting the “crazy” stuff, of course). She’s not dark and brooding (Batman, Wolverine), or saintly (Superman), or hopped up on her super-ness (Spiderman). She accepts her responsibility, struggling with it, but always managing to do the right thing even when it is unbearably painful.
Buffy’s greatest strength, the show’s and the girl’s, is the relationships and friendships. The monsters-of-the-week provide action scenes and unique conflicts, but the more familiar drama is why we keep watching.
It’s simply well-written with great characters and engaging stories. Joss Whedon the creator of the show has said, "I'd rather create a show that 100 people need to watch than 1000 people like to watch." This is why not everyone is going to like Buffy and why I tend not to recommend it; but it seems as though I’m one of those 100.
And yes, I am aware that I have now officially blogged about Buffy thus furthering my descent into the nerdy obsessed fan realm, but I hope this has provided an explanation for my new addiction... or at least more substantiated fuel for your Nicole-mocking fires.
