Season 1 - 12 episodes (1997)
Season 2 - 22 episodes (1997-98)
Season 3 - 22 episodes (1998-99)
Season 4 - 22 episodes (1999-2000)
Season 5 - 22 episodes (2000-01)
Season 6 - 22 episodes (2001-02)
Season 7 - 22 episodes (2002-03)
Rent Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield Ford, Michelle Trachtenberg, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, Eliza Dushku
Rated: TV-14
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Plot
A young woman, destined to slay vampires, demons, and other infernal creatures, deals with life and fighting evil with the help of her friends.
Verdict
This is a show about which I remember it being reviewed with great acclaim. It didn't live up to the hype. It starts out as a teen fantasy horror mash up and soon becomes much more mature and always focused on relationships. There is plenty of romance, and a lot of dialog that feels like it's trying to be cool. This did keep my attention just enough through five seasons, but the issues stated above and the difficulty it took to get through the fifth season, I didn't care to watch any more.
It depends.
Review
I missed this show when it aired, but it was often discussed. It was one of those pop culture phenomenons, one of the hyped 90s shows. It was cool, at least that's what reviews indicated. It's different, a unique premise, but the show seems like it's trying too hard to be cool and invent slang.
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a high school student at a new school trying to escape her destiny has a vampire slayer. Unfortunately death and destruction is everywhere. It's up to Buffy top stop it. She fights not only literal monsters but figurative ones as well. The first season especially draws comparisons to the perils of slaying vampires with the trauma of being in high school. It takes a while to get going, and it never really hooked me. It's not bad. This was a mid-season replacement, and it can take a while for a series to find it's groove. I was hoping for something like Veronica Mars, a show with snappy dialog, intriguing plots, and plenty of drama.
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| Season 2 - Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
This feels a lot like a high school version of The X-files with the monster of the week episodes. The excuse is that the school is located on top of a Hellmouth. Buffy has a team to help her fight monsters. Giles is her mentor, a guy that knows everything no matter how improbably it is that he would know these things. The season wraps up nicely. It's a decent season that has some fun moments.
The second season is more of the same. It's the ups and downs of high school combined with monsters each week and Buffy's romance with a vampire, Angel (David Boreanz). There's a lot of teen drama, and we even get a werewolf. I wasn't sure I would watch past the second season. I didn't find anything compelling, and the second season is regarded as one of the better seasons. I wonder if this was a had to be there show. I'm sure it was more unique at the time, and it's been copied since. This does a nice job of individual plots each episode while building a broader narrative, but it's just too much teen drama.
Season three has a lot of Angle drama, and it also introduces a new slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku). She's a contrast to Buffy. They're different in almost every way. I like how this uses the trauma and drama of killing vampires and relating it to high school, but this is a lot of teenage romance. This season really starts to push the slang which can be grating. This show just feels too juvenile. While current shows are about ten episodes, this show was twenty-two. That means it's a lot longer and thus a lot more story lines. We get Angel, Faith, and the mayor. This is a solid season, and it's probably my favorite, though I'll never come back to it. The Angel and Buffy age different always feels strange, and the show never addresses it. While this is a product of the times, despite the female lead who is part action hero, this show is still chauvinistic at times. Another high schooler Cordelia has a relationship with an adult and the show just does with it, never addressing it.
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| Season 1 - Xander, Buffy, Willow |
Season four starts with Buffy and friends in college. Buffy talks about how bad roommate is, but Buffy really comes off as spoiled and immature. There's also a secret underground vampire militia introduced. It's such a wild aspect to this show I give episode ten credit, it's a creative episode where no one can speak. It's no dialog and all score. I appreciate a show that goes outside the lines, and with so many episodes this has plenty of room for it. This season has some big story lines with Buffy's new love interest Riley. There's also a Frankenstein's monster type character. The last few episodes feel like the show ended the season's narrative but had an episode count to fulfill. It goes on a bit too long. This season feels more adult with Buffy's relationships, which is a contrast to the previous seasons that felt more like teenage romance.
Season five is where my interest really started to stray. We get Dracula, but he didn't stay around as long as I imagined. There's a surprise sister introduced, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). That really makes the first section of this season drag as the show doesn't explain how this character just appears and no one notices. There's also a lot of focus on Dawn and her frustrations. If that's not enough, this seasons introduces drama with Buffy's mom. With all of this, this season started to lose me. I didn't like this season, really struggling to even finish it. I decided this would be the last season I watched. I don't really care how this show concludes. It was quite the crawl to finish this season.
I'm surprised at how much acclaim this got. This show just feels a bit juvenile. I recall this show being touted as cool, but the lingo this introduces just feels like the show is trying hard to be cool and not really achieving it. Buffy is atypical as a female action hero, but the show doesn't do her justice. It still bogs her down with needing a boyfriend and romance. Who knows what happens in seasons six and seven, it doesn't really matter to me.
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