Even if it’s now become suddenly difficult to finish out that last season of the original Star Trek with my daughter since introducing her to Buffy, it’s been well worth the break from Kirk and the boys (anyway, let’s be honest, Season 3 of the Trek is leading to some diminishing returns, hurt by the obviously shrinking production budget and lessening reliance on genuine sci-fi writers for their tales). Considering how many positive things I’ve always heard about it, it’s not surprising how fun it’s been watching cute teen Buffy, both smart and ditsy — and her very engaging high school sidekicks, Willow and Xander (the first members of what will eventually become known as “the Scoobies”) and her librarian Watcher Giles — kick some major vampire ass (and, it really has to be said, that theme song seriously rocks).
What’s immediately elevated Buffy in this first season was how through its episodic, monster-of-the-week nature (even though there is a continuing ‘larger’ monster tale covering the season, the vampire Master determined to kill the slayer and open the mouth of Hell directly below them, his inclusion isn’t overriding and narratively encompassing until later in the season and allows a lot of breathing room for all sorts of fun monster tangents) the show plays consistently (and really intelligently) with that thing that horror has always had to offer — literalizing and exploring through metaphor painful underlying truths and themes. It’s the notion of how high school can be Hell — and what better way to play that out then by having an actual mouth of Hell (that the Master wants to open for good to allow all sorts of awful beasties to pour in) literally right underneath Sunnydale High School where our vampire slayer has found herself (after being transferred out of the LA school whose gymnasium she apparently burned down during some vampire slaughtering, all which happened from, I guess, in the original “Buffy” movie, which I never saw, but probably should catch up with at some point).

There’s a lot of juicy, high school angst-ridden tales told, but a favourite (nicely haunting) example is the lonely, shy girl paid so little attention to by anyone that she actually finally disappears… and now, in her new form, realizes she can extract revenge against those, including the teachers, who ignored her. As entertaining as the episode itself is, its poignancy also led to all sorts of valuable conversations about the often painful dynamics of high school with the kiddo. However, though, that last episode definitely turned up the drama and the intensity (leaving us in the final moments with Willow feeling a real sense of underlying trauma at finding the dead bodies in the school rec room), leaving both of us keenly looking forward to Season 2 (well, after we finish up on the last Season 3 Star Trek eps, that is)…

Though there was a nagging question that perplexed both myself and my daughter throughout the season… exactly how many suicides, students dying with organs pulled out, principals eaten by pigs and innumerable other insanely depraved activities must occur at a school before the parents start having their kids transferred the hell (pun intended) out of there?

Buck A Review   buffy the vampire slayer   science-fiction   teen fantasy