in defense of... pt.2

this week -

in defense of:

Buffy



that's right, the Vampire Slayer.

i've mentioned stuff about Whedon, Buffy, and Firefly before in the course of my blogging, but i need to set the record straight on some things.

From a personal, narrative perspective: i caught some episodes of Firefly on Sci-Fi before i graduated and consequently stopped getting cable TV (too expensive). My wife and I watched the 1-season series, then watched the follow-up movie Serenity - and cried at key points of the movie. Is it an intentionally emotional movie...? not necessarily. it's an action flick with great dialogue and an engaging plot - but what led us to tears was the death of a character who we had grown to love in only 14 episodes of the show.
how did we get to this point?!
the structure of the character arcs, the flow of the plotlines, the brilliantly nuanced universe in which everything takes place - Joss Whedon had crafted a phenomenal piece of art, and we got hooked.

as one thing leads to another, i went from Whedon's Firefly to Whedon's run on 'Astonishing X-men.' now, i grew up on the old X-men cartoon show, and have read pretty much every trade paperback of X-men available at B&N or the library, and Whedon's current arc has some of the best interaction of these established, complex characters that i've ever read. i wonder what his draft of X-men the movie would have been like...

from the comics, i was drawn closer to Buffy: the Vampire Slayer. Sarah had watched the show growing up, so she remembered it fondly and recommended that we check it out. In order to disguise my true movites and maintain the facade of stubbornness, i bought it "for her" at her birthday last year. We watched season 1, and although it was a little weak, i was starting to dig the characters. I then bought her season 2 for Christmas, and thus begins our real journey. During one of Amazon's amazing sales, we bought the box set of the series, and then for the heck of it bought the box set for Angel, the "spin-off" series, as well.

over the past 8 months, we have indulged in some of the best TV ever made, through 7 seasons of Buffy and we'll be finishing the 5th season of Angel this week, most likely.

I'm not one to lavish compliments on anything or anyone, contrary to the tone of this post. I really want that to be clear, because it will give better context for the many, many compliments i will exude in the course of a conversation about Buffy and/or Whedon's work.

Certainly, the title of the show is a little silly - you can't really say "Buffy" without smirking. The sheer variety of topics, themes, directing styles, and plot arcs in this show keep one involved mentally long after the TV is turned off - and THAT is key to telling a good story. In addition to my not being very complimentary of things/people, i am also very ANTI-bandwagon. I am ANTI-trend (with a few exceptions), and thus my stubborn attitude toward Buffy for so long - it's silly, it has a girl lead character, and there's a bunch of nerds who write books and talk about this stuff, and i'm definitely not going to join their club.

Now, i find myself wanting to at least peek in the window of a club meeting. The characters and stories in the Buffy 'universe' allow for some really deep and diverse philosophical conversation, even spiritual conversation, if one is familiar with the themes and mythology. knowing Joseph Campbell's work has helped give me a great framework for understanding the Buffy story.

To close off my ranting defense of Buffy (please comment with specific questions or critiques you may have of the show/writers/etc), i have one nagging, interesting thought: Whedon is an avowed agnostic/atheist. And yet, some of his stories are more potently spiritual than things i have read/seen produced by Christian media. In a similar way to Orson Scott Card's phenomenal grasp on interpersonal/emotional relationships within a spiritual framework, yet he is a Mormon... I can't quite get my head around how/why this phenomenon occurs - someone with very different conclusions, or very different presuppositions, can produce something that moves ME spiritually, in most cases closer to Who i believe is that Author of Truth...