What was buffy the vampire slayer about

I get angry when Spike tries to rape Buffy, a character choice that felt out of sync with the fabric of the series. I grow annoyed every time Xander opens his mouth to shame Buffy for her choices, seemingly forgetting all the times she saved him and the world itself. Despite all these issues, every time I hear the theme song kick in, I remember with startling clarity how deeply the show spoke to the girl I once was and still speaks to the woman I am today.

Its larger cultural influence is inarguable. The show spawned a generation of leather-clad, crime-fighting virtuosos who delivered comebacks between roundhouse kicks. Yet, Buffy was never merely a Strong Female Character. She was too complex, too flawed, too human for that. Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription. Account Profile. Sign Out. Tags: buffy the vampire slayer buffy legacies sarah michelle gellar tv vampire week More.

Lost used it too, but broke its overarching story into smaller pieces and swapped primary objectives getting off the Island, etc. Probably not. But the format is present even in non-genre shows, from Scandal to Justified. Each season, some major crisis or villain dominates the storytelling, and every episode reflects on it somehow, sometimes in a major way and sometimes in a much more minor one.

And his debt to Marvel shines throughout the show, particularly in its wildly inventive plot twists. Characters on Buffy are never one thing. They all flirt with evil.

Sometimes they actually become evil. They float in and out of relationships, have their hearts broken, and emerge stronger in the end. That sister turned out to be the center of a massive magical conspiracy, of course. From the beginning, Whedon envisioned a structure for Buffy that at the time breached a whole new frontier for TV but has since became something of an assumed routine.

Every week, Buffy and her friends ran up against monsters that would in some way tie into the struggles they were facing in their own lives. People who felt invisible might literally become invisible.

Seductive preying mantises might make a teenage guy feel less lonely. When Buffy lost her virginity to Angel in season two, his immediate transformation into an evil version of himself made the omnipresent reality of men who turn on a dime once they sleep with someone searingly literal.

And when the world felt like it was ending For Whedon, this came from wanting to make a high school show in which the horrors of being a teen came to terrifying life, but could be defeated by the end of the episode. So he created Buffy, a former Valley Girl who reluctantly began slaying vampires in her not-so-friendly local graveyards. Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, as a mid season replacement for the show Savannah on The WB network, and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Bros.

In , the show went into syndication in the United States on local stations and on cable channel FX; the local airings ended in , and the FX airings lasted until but returned to the network in Beginning in January , it began to air in syndication in the United States on Logo.

Reruns also briefly aired on MTV. On November 7, , it began airing on Chiller with a hour marathon; the series airs weekdays. Chiller also aired a hour Thanksgiving Day marathon on November 25, In , it began airing on Oxygen and TeenNick. In August , Pivot announced that, for the first time, episodes of Buffy would be broadcast in high-definition and in a widescreen format authorized by the studio, but not by any of the series' principals.

Each episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer features a title sequence, presenting each show's cast members, consisting of clips from the show itself. The series began on March 10, and ran for seven years until May 20, In that time, episodes of the series aired.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured original score. The composers spent around seven days scoring between fourteen and thirty minutes of music for each episode.

Christophe Beck revealed that the Buffy composers used computers and synthesizers and were limited to recording one or two "real" samples. Despite this, their goal was to produce "dramatic" orchestration that would stand up to film scores. Alongside the score, most episodes featured indie rock music, usually at the characters' venue of choice, the Bronze. Buffy music supervisor John King explained that "we like to use unsigned bands" that "you would believe would play in this place.

The musical episode had its own album, in CD and LP formats. Based on the TV show, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series has expanded into licensed comics , novels , and video games.

These stories either adapt aired episodes, fill spaces between stories, or offer a continuity to the series, often involving the original cast and crew. Although the canonicity of these creations aren't always confirmed, notably the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight and its following seasons have been produced as the direct continuation of the series in comic form. Mitch Is Gonna Die. Arachnids Not Insects. An Explanation. Killer Clown. Smoking Kills. The Dummies Perform. Touching Base. Tracing Letters.

Willow's Stalker. Angel Turns Evil. Buffy And Angel Reunite. Crush on a Friend. Hyenas On the Hunt. Troublemakers Attack. Casting a Spell. Lunch Surprise. The Substitute. Buffy And Cheerleading. Cheerleader Fight. Cheerleader Versus Witch. Buffy Enters the Dungeon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Opening Credits. Vampire Fight. Vampire Harvest Ritual. About this Show Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a comedy-action series that chronicles the adventures of Buffy Summers, a teenage girl who is gifted with the strength and skill to hunt vampires.