Buffy The Vampire Slayer

New season seven Buffy and our fave demon-ass kicking, vampire slaying TV stars are growing up...

It’s season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the much awaited new series after Willow tried to end the world. There’s changes afoot in Sunnydale- new school, new characters and new roles as the Scooby gang matures and grows up. With bad hair and great fashion...

Less action, more one-liners

I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about season seven as the past two have been getting less clever and witty and more action-y, but Josh Wheadon and team of writers are on fine form again, with a suspense thriller episode full of puns and one-liners that had me laughing out loud. For example, the new principal says to Buffy, ”You’ve had a chequered past” and Buffy replies that it’s more plaid, really..a clan tartan of pasts...

Dawn, Vampire Slayer

At the opening of season seven, Dawn is being tutored as a slayer by Buffy in the graveyard and has to be saved from a chomping by her big sis, who gives her a weapon as a present - a mobile phone- for the dangers that await; her first day at Sunnydale High, rebuilt over the Hell-mouth of the old school. Xander arrives at the Summers’ house in a flash car and dressed up, as a successful contractor rebuilding the school, and checks over the school plans with Buffy for pentagrams and such things...

Willow Tree

Meanwhile, Willow looking all orange haired and bereft of the make up she needs like eyebrows, is in Westbury, England- the England that Americans only know outside of Guy Ritchie Geezer London, i.e. rolling green Merchant Ivory pastures. Sitting under ye olde oak tree is Willow, getting in touch with Gaia and “the roots that connect everything” as she discusses with Giles her time with the British witches club.

At her new coven, all the girls are scared that she’ll “turn them into ‘Bangers and Mash’, whatever that is”. There’s quite a funny line referencing Harry Potter where she says Giles has “come over all Dumbledore” on her. Nice.

The Clothes

Aaaah. Such nice clothes. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has long been a fashion showcase of sorts, with SMG wearing Chloe and other designer labels on the show; almost a Hex in the City for witch fashion... Buffy looks like a Ralph Lauren spring catalogue in hipster camel trousers and white split shoulder tops. Dawn continues to be a growing fashion plate on their zero household budget in Pringle cashmere sweaters. Spike thankfully eschews black leather trenches and pants for his other typical look, the Open Shirt and six pack chest with scars. Xander has gone all Chandler in a suit-and-tie I’m a corporate man now look. Anya, now a vengeance demon who’s gone soft ‘cos of her love for Xander, is brunette and looks like Alanis Morrissette instead of Cameron Diaz.

Principle Role

We meet Sunnydale High’s new hot, young, black principal, Robin Wood and wonder- is he evil or not? Either way, he puts the Pal into Principal. Wood sees the rapport between Buffy and Dawn and her new outcast friends after saving them from talisman controlled dead manifest spirits, as you do, and offers her a job as a guidance counselor at the school.

More Curly than Spiky

Spike should be called Curls, with his I’m Back With A Soul permed hairstyle. Defying evil for the love of a good woman, just like Cole ‘The Source’; boyfriend of Alyssa Milano’s good witch Phoebe, does in Charmed. Spike is tormented by an evil presence who morphs into Warren, Glory, Druscilla, the Mayor, The Master and eventually Buffy, saying that there’s no right or wrong, only POWER...in a cheesey but very sinister kind of way.

So, that’s how episode one of series seven panned out- good clothes, bad hair, some role changes and maturing of characters. It’s better than last series, and one thing’s as sure as trouble rising in Sunnydale- that come next Wednesday, I’ll be watching...