Why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Why I love the Joss Whedon show… in spite of it’s name. 

Joss Whedon is a unique writer. As a director he is most famous for the first two Avengers films, as well as Cabin in the Woods. He has made countless films and television shows loved by nerd culture, including Firefly, which I have talked about on this blog before. Perhaps his most long running and career defining creation however, is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Over the seven seasons of this show, Joss experiemented with the style, format and character arcs in such creative ways that each season feels completely distinct and yet part of a larger whole. Joss has a defining voice and style in his writing that can be simultaneously hilariously quippy and moving at the same time. Buffy is a rare show that lives up to it’s reputation, in fact it’s probably much better than a lot of cynical people will give it credit for.

When I first heard about the show, I dismissed it. I had yet to go to film school and my taste in film and TV was decidedly narrow. I like action and fantasy and that was mostly it. I saw Buffy as some cheap corny show about love triangles and that was all. I was technically right, but I made the mistake of looking at the show from a distance and leaving it at that. I think the title also put me off a little. Its a mouthful and sounds like a cheap B movie. I was wrong. Buffy is a show with one or two love triangles, and the production values are sometimes stretched, owing to the small budget. But it’s also so much more, an exploration of becoming a responsible adult, a grand story about the very real consequences on a person’s life when they actually become the “chosen one” and all the burdens that comes with.

It wasn’t until I watched a video called Why You Should Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Passion of the Nerd that I realised I had been missing out for years.

The show is an epic adventure with many unique and iconic episodes that not only pushed the limits of writing (Hush) but often also influenced the trend of writing for TV for years after. There is a reason that many shows like Grimm and Charmed sprang up after Buffy gained success. The story is compelling, but what really makes me come back to the series is the characters. Joss is best at create interesting and nuanced characters that feel grounded and real. He is the master of witty dialogue, but some of the best moments of the series are when characters simply sit down and talk candidly to each other.

The arcs that each character goes through provide plenty of opportunities for varied stories, and often go in completely unexpected directions. Some characters start off as the main villain of the season, only to become more and more heroic as time goes on. The acting from the main cast is also stellar, as each actor manages to very quickly embody the personality of their role. Sarah Michelle Gellar in particular is just the right blend of spunky, cheerful and intense when neccesary, and the range of performance she demonstrates through all the seven seasons makes me wish that she was still playing the character.

Other films can boast a bigger budget with more polished effects and choreography, but Buffy has something none of those can offer, depth. TV shows have the luxury of being able to explore stories and characters for far longer than most movies, and Buffy takes full advantage. Rather than being an easy show about the relentless return to the status quo, the town of Sunnydale is in constant change. Friends become enemies and vice versa. Characters grow and start new relationships. The show is not afraid to embrace change, and part of that might have been owing to the fact that Joss Whedon was never quite sure if he would get another season greenlit, and so he felt willing to take more risks than he might have if the show was guaranteed.

I’m not suggesting that this show is flawless. It took me a while to get into it properly even after watching Why You Should Watch Buffy. The first season is a mixed bag tonally, and suffers from too many one-off monster episodes, many of which are extremely cheesy. However even in those episodes there are things to enjoy, and by the time I got to season 2, I was having a whale of a time. It keeps you interested by having many interesting themes that drive the motivations of the characters and allow you to understand them better. For instance, choice is often brought up. Characters often argue whether or not they have a choice in their actions and if what they are doing can be judged. There are often heavy consequences for the characters in many of the choices they make. The show implies through Buffy and her stance that there is always a choice in our lives, even if it isn’t always a pleasant one, and that central theme runs through most of what Buffy does throughout her story.

This show has much to offer. I am immensely glad that I finally got around to watching it as has had a profound effect on me and taken it’s place as one of my favourite TV shows of all time. Joss Whedon is an exellent writer and is in my opinion, at his best writing for long running series. Once you get past the title (and parts of the first season) you might just find that this 90’s show about vampires and high school has a lot more to it than you assumed. I did.

Unusual YouTube gems…

I have been rather sporadic in my posts recently, as I have been on a long holiday in Iceland and before that was busy with yet more university work, however I am now back to the grind and can promise I will be posting more regularly from now on, hopefully on Wednesdays. With that said, let’s get down to business!

I thought that since I haven’t seen many new films as of late, and since I want this blog to explore other related topics, that I would take a look at YouTube this week instead. I have been an avid YouTuber for a long time, in fact I started watching videos on the site not long after when it first began. Since 2008 I watched many film-making and sketch shows, and after a while I created my own account, to upload crappy movies my friends and I made. On a side note, don’t go looking for those films, I deleted them a long time ago, and the rest have been lost to the ether. Since 2011 I’ve subscribed to a metric ton of different channels, as my tastes have evolved and so today I thought I’d share five of my favourite channels, still with quite a small audience, and whom I would love to see get more attention.

 

1. AgentXPQ.

A channel I have followed for a long time, Levni Yilmaz is a Turkish American film-maker who makes short, mostly anecdotal animated videos in a series called “Tales of Mere existence”. I discovered him when I came across his video “a typical conversation with my mom” which I found so instantly relatable and funny that I subscribed on the spot. His style is to film short static cartoons of what he is talking about as the lines are still being drawn in, creating a unique and really cool look for the series. His videos cover many observations about his life and pop culture in general as well as quite a few amusing and unusual stories from his life. The videos have a mildly pessimistic and sardonic tone, and while I am not a pessimist, it is very cathartic to watch a melancholy perspective to balance out some of the more positive and saccharine channels I watch. The series is also very funny in a dry pithy sort of way.

2. Harry Partridge.

Another channel I am a long-time fan of, Harry Partridge is in my opinion the finest 2D animator working on the internet currently. He has been around for a long time, originally posting mostly to Newgrounds, and has developed a lot as an animator. His cartoons are highly polished and very funny, the humour a mixture of campy parodies of various pop culture and absurd and slightly immature comedy. I think Harry is at his best when making completely original content that sends up old material, such as his most famous creations, the Starbarians, a loving parody series mimicking the classic 80’s Saturday morning cartoons by being as far from them in tone as possible. Full of blood, crudity and completely reprehensible characters, the Starbarians is the most hilarious cartoon series online at the moment. The overblown style of the animation and the stellar voice acting from Partridge make for a winning combination, even if the videos are inevitably a little short on plot. The only major drawback is that owing to the time-consuming nature of hand-drawing cartoons, and Harry’s own heightened perfectionism, you can expect maybe two videos a year currently! I for one though, feel they are more than worth the wait.

3. Lindsay Ellis.

One of the creators I love most that came out of Channel Awesome, I would say that Lindsay Ellis has far outgrown her slightly cringey beginnings. For those who don’t know, Lindsay started her online career as the Nostalgia Chick, a persona created by the Channel Network now known as Channel Awesome to parallel the Nostalgia Critic, a character played by Doug Walker. She won a contest to play this character, and the idea originally was that she would focus on the “girly” side of nostalgic film and television, leaving the Critic free to keep his fragile masculinity intact. As such her early content is hampered by a lot of restrictions, first of the limited material and secondly the need to keep a similar style to Walker’s content. However, in recent years, and especially since leaving Channel Awesome, a very smart move in retrospect, Ellis has started to make some of the best video Essays on film I have ever seen. She may be my all-time favourite YouTuber, and there is some tough competition. Her style and voice have really developed over the last few years, and her roots as a film student have really come into play. Her analyses of films are insightful, deep and very engaging. She has taught me quite a bit about story structure and auteur theory, and she has a cheeky, dry sense of humour that I really appreciate.

4. FilmJoy.

Taking a look now at a more recent find. FilmJoy is a relatively new channel, having started only four years ago. The Channel has a small number of subscribers as of yet, but the content is worthy of a hell of a lot more. In particular the “Movies with Mikey” series created by Mikey Neumann is a great watch. The videos explore various aspects of films, from popular blockbusters to more obscure films like The Rocketeer. Mikey has a very laid-back style, seeming almost drunk in his speech, but nevertheless extremely insightful, and in every single video has a unique perspective on the film in question I have not heard before. His humour is quite anarchic and careless but funny in its own way. However, what really got me interested in his videos is his video editing. Each entry in his series seems incredibly slick and professional. The openings to the videos are colourful and well shot, the clips of films are fantastically edited, keeping the pacing light and quick and yet the series is unmistakable in its style. You know when you’re watching Movies with Mikey.

5. Passion of the Nerd.

Lastly, I wanted to share a YouTuber who is still criminally small for the quality of content he puts out, Ian Martin, AKA Passion of the Nerd. Ian caters to a very specific corner of the internet, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. I have no doubt he has brought renewed interest to the series through his videos “Why you should watch Buffy/Angel” because I started watching those series mainly because of him. He started out making weekly videos looking at Buffy episodes in his Buffy guide, mostly to let you know which ones to skip. However, after a while his videos have evolved into deep analyses of the series sub-textual meaning as well as the character growth and story arcs. His take on each episode and how it fits into the series as a whole is very interesting and engaging. He is also of course very funny when he wants to be. Now making reviews and discussion videos on other movies and media as well, he still makes his best content looking at the works of Joss Whedon and exploring its cultural impact. His guides have been fascinating and stimulating, and I sincerely hope he gets millions of subscribers, because Ian really deserves more.

 

So that’s my top five most interesting YouTubers, I hope you check some of them out! I’m definitely going to try and expand this blog, talk about more aspects of films, and not just Hollywood movies, so expect more posts looking YouTube channels and videos in the future. Also expect more posts in general, as I’m going to try and keep to a very loose schedule from now on. If any of the channels I have covered sound interesting I urge you to give them a watch as many of them are quite small and could do with many more subscribers. Hope you enjoyed this different sort of post and let me know if you want more content like this in the future.