Re-Watching Old Favourites!

I’ve found some time lately to indulge in an old favourite now that it’s being re-run late at night. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was one of the coolest and most popular shows of my youth and it’s great to be able to re-live it all since I never bought the DVD collection. If you haven’t seen it, firstly, where the hell have you been? Second, it’s still just as great as I remember! It came from the mind of the super talented Joss Whedon who’s become somewhat of a titan in the entertainment world since Buffy. You’ll probably know him from writing the first Avengers movie, as well as his stint writing the Astonishing X-Men comic and a host of other projects, but Buffy was pretty much the start of all that. The show spawned from a 90s cult movie which didn’t make a huge impact, but when the TV show arrived, it captured the hearts and minds of a generation.


It was part of the late 90s obsession with the supernatural, coming out around the same time as shows like Charmed and films like The Craft (which is also one of my favourites) and eventually spawned its own spinoff, Angel. It built up a rich mythology over the years and managed two combine strong storylines, drama and suspense with clever quips and comedy and even a musical episode, managing to hit the right notes with audience and critics alike. One of the hallmarks of Whedon’s writing is that he managed to weave jokes and fun into the darkest of scenes, which actually works really well! The storylines are enough to keep you hooked without taking themselves too seriously – all in all it’s a pretty good package!


One thing I’m noticing though, after twenty years is how dated some things are. There’s an episode in the first season where an ancient text is scanned into a computer and the demon who was imprisoned in the text ends up inside the computer and does lovely things with early internet and huge CRT monitors. I’d actually forgotten how large computers were back then!


Another thing I’ve noticed is the absence of mobile phones. I can’t remember if they crop up in the later seasons (I’m currently on season 5) but all the instances of “we have to warn Buffy!” And there’s a whole sub-plot about finding her to tell her some vital information (this is quite frequent) -I just think the episodes would be a lot shorter and less thrilling if they could just text her. Who know’s, with Buffy’s penchant for knobbing the undead, she might have even had some sort of vampire-dating-app if this were set now and we could just skip seasons of character development.


Then there’s the plethora of hotties in the show! First of all, I’m not going to start with the obvious one, Angel, but I was always quite into Xander. Probably an early manifestation of me being really attracted to funny men, which I only seem to have realised in the last few years. The actor may not have aged well and may have had his share of problems in recent years, but I’ll always remember the episode where he donned some nice speedos to track down what was killing the swim team (which also starred a young Wentworth Miller of Prison Break fame). My teenage homo-heart just couldn’t take it! Then there was Oz, Willow’s guitar playing werewolf boyfriend before she realised she liked girls. Nowadays, you’d probably know the actor as the voice of Chris in Family Guy but back then with all the brooding and occasional ripped clothes scenes, he was totally delicious!


Of course, it was OK to fancy these guys as they were all in their late twenties while they were playing freshman students! The obvious early Buffy totty was Angel – If you didn’t have a thing for him back then, were you even alive? He was elegant, brooding, sexy, well dressed, the full package. Also, it didn’t hurt that he seemed to be contractually obligated to be shirtless at least half the episodes of the first couple of seasons.


Then, of course, there was Riley, the big, clean-cut soldier guy. Sorry, B, but you should never have let him get away! Having had the opportunity to hug the actor in real life, I can confirm his hugs are just as amazing as you’d imagine. Stupid slayer. And don’t even get me started on Spike (Oh god, I sobbed in his final scene in the show’s finale). Strangely though, now that I’m older (only a little), there’s two men in the show that I’d never realised where actually quite dishy (oh god, I just said ‘dishy’ – am I my own grandmother now?)


The Watchers, Giles and Wesley. Watchers are an ancient order of bookworms and trainers who prepare the Chosen One for her Slayer duties. Giles was Buffy’s watcher and Wesley was rogue-slayer Faith’s for a while. I don’t know what it is, but now that I’m a little more mature, Giles, played by Anthony Stewart Head (who anyone who lived through the late 80s and early 90s as the Gold Blend coffee advert guy – the first series of ads with a running storyline) actually does it for me a little! Especially the few episodes where he sings! Yes, there are a few! Also, Wesley Wyndham-Price, the other watcher is possibly the man who started my suit fetish. He may have been a bit useless and by the book in his short time in Buffy, but by the time he moved to spin-off show, Angel, he was much tougher and even sexier, though sadly minus the three-piece suit. The lucky actor that played him, Alexis Denisoff ended up marrying Alyson Hannibal who played Willow on the show, who you’ll also remember from American Pie and How I Met Your Mother.


I could get lost on the men of Buffy for hours, do excuse me. However, one of the things that still stands out to me now is the brilliant depiction of one of the main characters coming out and entering a same-sex relationship. Even now, it’s one of the most beautiful depictions of someone finding themselves and their sexuality, which the audience could see coming before she did, but it wasn’t rushed, forced or contrived – it was tasteful and wonderful. I think this was the most positive and normal depiction I’d seen when it first aired and resonated with so many LGBT+ people out there. The part that was particularly fantastic was that when Willow finally came out to people, there was no drama. It was accepted and the story moved on. None of her friends looked at her differently and no-one recoiled. It gave hope to a generation of LGBT+ nerds, trust me. It’s definitely up there with the best closet-exits of film and TV. These things are seriously important when you’re growing up.


Also, having just re-watched the episode where Buffy’s mother passes away, I was bowled over (all over again) at how this show handled the concept of grief and bereavement. It was honest, frank and sensitive, just as it should be, but also strangely hopeful and reassuring and still remains one of the most real depictions of all the odd thoughts we have in such a situation. Anya, the former demon, delivering a monologue about how she doesn’t understand why Joyce can’t just come back was a stroke of writing genius, as this confused, brash outsider of the gang somehow managed to capture the exact thoughts all of us have on the inside at that moment. It just shows how clever the writers were on this show and what made it so successful.


So, yeah, it’s been really nice catching up with this old friend and looking it through different eyes. It’s still just as fantastically entertaining and just as gripping and actually even better than I remember, even if some bits are slightly dated. It’ll always be a classic – so much so that there are continuing seasons in comic book form after the show ended, taking the story further.


Have you been rewatching any old favourites recently? Why not tell us what you’ve been watching and what you’ve been loving. What have you noticed has changed in the years since these shows were made that might have changed them completely? Oh, and of course, who were your TV crushes back in the day? Let us know in the comments and we can compare!


Til next time, stay safe, stay sane and stay Vidalicious


X

• Add Comment
• View Blog