Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or the best heroine to grace popular culture)
To aspire to be a vampire slayer was something I was obsessed with, I had a wild imagination and in my mind thought that vampire's did indeed exist. I would practice my high kicks like Buffy would do with Giles in the library at the high school. I was that obsessed with Buffy. I even used a stake of some kind that I had created out of a small stick, I was that hardcore a fan.
I had very nice dreams involving being bitten by Angel or Spike, at first it was definitely Angel who was my vampire crush, but in my latter years definitely Spike, the bad boy vampire. I was going through my pretty guy phase and not even a teenager yet.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer holds a special place in my heart as one of the best TV shows to ever be made, and I count myself lucky that I was allowed to even watch such a programme at such a young age.
There was never any restrictions on what we were allowed to watch in our household as kids. My mum was no kill joy. How are you supposed to learn what is right and wrong in the world without watching programmes that show you these moral lessons.
Whilst killing vampires and saving the world from demons of the underworld isn't exactly the norm in real life, but the stories were well written with lessons to be learnt each episode.
With whom should we thank and adore for the brilliance of one of the most well written TV shows in popular culture? Well that would be Joss Whedon. Buffy was his brain child, his creation and they had cast the most perfect actress to portray Buffy on the small screen; Sarah Michelle Gellar.
She was intelligent, spiky, feisty yet had the girl next door type that made it easy to see how she could go undetected in high school as the 16 year old vampire slayer kicking ass.
It all took place in Sunnydale which was a fictional town but thrived on being shot in California. The town just happens to be settled on top of a hell mouth which churned out the worst in all of demon-hood.
From the very first series to the seventh series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer progressed over time to become bigger and better throughout the expansion of the world of Buffy and the characters that made up the "Scooby gang." The gang consisted of Xander and Willow as well as Giles the schools librarian and Buffy's watcher, basically teacher for the only slayer.
They were referred to as the "Scooby gang" because they would always solve the case by the end of the episode. It was a cheeky reference to another pop culture phenomenon from the equally popular Scooby Doo, who Gellar would portray as Daphne in, with her future husband Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred.
The TV phenomenon finished in 2003 in it's seventh series. It had one of the best runs of any decent TV shows from the 90's. It put at rest the characters who we had grown to love over the years and who had gone on such a journey throughout the seven series.
Buffy who had grown up so much from the preppy high school girl to being in charge of her own household, after dealing with her mother's natural death. Dealing with looking after her younger sister whilst trying to save the world and working a day job.
Willow who was the unassuming yet most integral and most intelligent of the gang; who had fancied Xander. She fell in love with a Werewolf drummer, dabbled in being a witch, to dabbling in a lot of darker witchery, to becoming a lesbian, to taking responsibility for her mistakes when it came to sorcery.
Xander who had a major crush on Buffy constantly, to falling in love with a demon in one of the funniest characters, Anya. To learning to kick some serious ass throughout the course of the seven series.
And finally Giles who was the glue to hold the gang together, who was the "watcher"/librarian but was also taught many lessons by the gang to loosen up and stop being so British.
No TV programme has been as ingrained in my brain as Buffy, showing that girls can kick ass, do it with style, intelligence and still be as feminine as they liked. We are as good as the boys. Whedon's creation of well written female characters lives on in the recent Marvel film The Avengers.
Luckily for me I own the box set and can watch Buffy go from the preppy 16 year old to the fully grown feminist kick ass heroine, who just happens to save the world every other day on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.
All credit to The Passion of the Nerd's video. He may pick out the flaws, because all shows have them, but his reaasons why you should watch Buffy, I can agree with.
Is Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of your favourite TV programmes? Does it make you realise your passion for staking vampires or did it give you nightmares?
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or leave me a comment on what Buffy means to you.
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