OK. There was a time when "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (from now on I'm going to use the abbreviation BTVS) was among my favorite shows. I was in my early twenties and I'd watch it with my - then - 14 year old sister. She loved it, and so did I. It was just so deep, so profound, so real.
The only problem is that it wasn't, though. As I grew older, I began to realize that the premise of the show was absolutely preposterous. The way they tried to combine the life of a normal teenager with the life of a young woman whose calling is to save the world from supernatural threats almost worked. Almost. Even when I loved the show, I couldn't fail to see this, and now... Now I just see that BTVS is simply a young-adult story with every single downside of this category - namely, extreme and phony emotion, love triangles, inserting contemporary teen problems in situations where they just don't belong, and so on. To top it all, it's simply dripping with teenage girl power fantasies - and no, I'm not talking about Buffy's strength. I'm talking about the fact that she is simultaneously the unpopular girl in school and desired by every single hot guy here, apart from the ones who look old enough to be her father. But not the ones who actually are older than the city she lives in - two vampires fall head over heels for her. One of them - Angel - falls so deeply in love with her - when she is 16 and he is at least ten times as old as she is - that this actually triggers a curse causing him to become a horrifying killing machine. The other one - Spike - displays his love by trying to rape her, among other things, and yet she changes him for the better. Now, do I need to explain why I have a problem with this? Because it's not only beyond creepy (we're talking about two really old dudes lusting after a girl in her teens, after all), it's also beyond stupid, if you think about it. Are we really supposed to believe that Angel has never met a woman worth loving in his rather long life, before he met this teenage girl?
Then there is the problem with the whole premise of the show. As I said earlier, it's absolutely preposterous. You see, there is this ancient order of well trained soldiers protecting the world from supernatural threats. This order is rich enough to train and send soldiers all over the world, and they can easily find the next vampire slayer and send someone to pose as her school's librarian and train and guide her. So, if they are as rich and powerful as they were shown to be in BTVS and "Angel" and they can easily find the only person who actually has the strength to fight toe-to-toe against a vampire and win and is the world's biggest asset in the war against the darkness, what should they do with this person? Should they train her as a warrior, or should they send her to a normal high school where she won't even have the time to be a warrior and she'll eventually be forced to live as a pariah, torn apart between killing demons and trying to be a normal high school student? Let's say the latter, which they chose, isn't as moronic as it is. But after she graduates from high school, should they use their rather significant means to support her, so that she can dedicate her time and strength to training and fighting for the world, or should they let her waste her time and strength working in a diner to support her family, while at the same time they require her to pass their exams? Where is the logic in that?
And then there is Joss Whedon's approach to writing relationships. One would think that with all the love polygons in this show, there'd be at least one stable relationship, right? Wrong. The two partners will either get separated by some circumstances, or one of them will be killed. There are no other options that I can think of right now.
Sorry. I still value the show for being exactly what I needed when I watched it, but I can't ignore its flaws now. I wish I still could.
The only problem is that it wasn't, though. As I grew older, I began to realize that the premise of the show was absolutely preposterous. The way they tried to combine the life of a normal teenager with the life of a young woman whose calling is to save the world from supernatural threats almost worked. Almost. Even when I loved the show, I couldn't fail to see this, and now... Now I just see that BTVS is simply a young-adult story with every single downside of this category - namely, extreme and phony emotion, love triangles, inserting contemporary teen problems in situations where they just don't belong, and so on. To top it all, it's simply dripping with teenage girl power fantasies - and no, I'm not talking about Buffy's strength. I'm talking about the fact that she is simultaneously the unpopular girl in school and desired by every single hot guy here, apart from the ones who look old enough to be her father. But not the ones who actually are older than the city she lives in - two vampires fall head over heels for her. One of them - Angel - falls so deeply in love with her - when she is 16 and he is at least ten times as old as she is - that this actually triggers a curse causing him to become a horrifying killing machine. The other one - Spike - displays his love by trying to rape her, among other things, and yet she changes him for the better. Now, do I need to explain why I have a problem with this? Because it's not only beyond creepy (we're talking about two really old dudes lusting after a girl in her teens, after all), it's also beyond stupid, if you think about it. Are we really supposed to believe that Angel has never met a woman worth loving in his rather long life, before he met this teenage girl?
Then there is the problem with the whole premise of the show. As I said earlier, it's absolutely preposterous. You see, there is this ancient order of well trained soldiers protecting the world from supernatural threats. This order is rich enough to train and send soldiers all over the world, and they can easily find the next vampire slayer and send someone to pose as her school's librarian and train and guide her. So, if they are as rich and powerful as they were shown to be in BTVS and "Angel" and they can easily find the only person who actually has the strength to fight toe-to-toe against a vampire and win and is the world's biggest asset in the war against the darkness, what should they do with this person? Should they train her as a warrior, or should they send her to a normal high school where she won't even have the time to be a warrior and she'll eventually be forced to live as a pariah, torn apart between killing demons and trying to be a normal high school student? Let's say the latter, which they chose, isn't as moronic as it is. But after she graduates from high school, should they use their rather significant means to support her, so that she can dedicate her time and strength to training and fighting for the world, or should they let her waste her time and strength working in a diner to support her family, while at the same time they require her to pass their exams? Where is the logic in that?
And then there is Joss Whedon's approach to writing relationships. One would think that with all the love polygons in this show, there'd be at least one stable relationship, right? Wrong. The two partners will either get separated by some circumstances, or one of them will be killed. There are no other options that I can think of right now.
Sorry. I still value the show for being exactly what I needed when I watched it, but I can't ignore its flaws now. I wish I still could.