Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Ricochet

Jamie starts us off:

Mr. Flamingo, I take pride in being a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I have even used the material to teach philosophy to high school students. Unlike you claim, the show was very weill written and featured many deep themes. I also take issues with many of your assumptions in your seven-paragraph rant about the show. I will concede the point that Buffy did get around with the undead more than a Slayer probably should have. However, on both occassions she had great reason to do so. She fell for Angel before she knew he was vampire, and as you did mention he had a soul. Spike seems an odd choice on the surface, but Buffy had a largely physical relationship with him simply because she struggled to reconnect to anything living after having died and been brought back to life from behing in Heaven. I will also concede to you that the Willow sexuality switch seemed to come from left field. However, anyone who would research the show, would know that Joss Whedon had planned on turning Willow or Xander gay at some point anyway. Could a more effective job have been done using foreshadowing? Definitely. However, Whedon has always been about doing things that were unconventional for his shows. For example, he wanted to have Jesse (a character from the pilot) added to the credits even though he died in the next episode. Whedon felt that this type of unpredicatable nature would hook viewers. He later fulfilled that desire with the character of Tara in Season Six. I would not consider myself delusional at all to feel that Buffy deserved Emmy consideration. It was the highest rated program on its network. Many episodes featured excellent writting such as "Hush" where most of the cast remained silent for the entire episode. (This episdoe was nominated for an Emmy writing category). This episode aired before the movie Cast Away was filmed where Tom Hanks earned acolades for the difficult task of acting without speaking to communicate emotion and meaning. Furthermore, consideration could have been given to "Once More, With Feeling," the all-musical episode, or "The Body" when Buffy’s mother dies. Emmy’s have been given away for much less. The award really loses its prestige in my eyes when the same show continually wins anyway. I’ll admit that I never watched the West Wing, but it won the drama category for four straight years during Buffy’s heyday. Additionally, with all respect to Edie Falco and Alison Janney, it seems presumptious for them to split awards for those same four years. Buffy did win an Emmy for make-up during its run. I think fans would have liked to have seen it nominated for the Best Drama or perhaps Best Actress categories due to the high level of quality across seaons. But, there is no accounting for taste! The largest problem that I have with your column, though Mr. Flamingo, is that it is not even well-researched. You claim that Buffy fans got a good six years, but Buffy ran for seven seasons. You also admit that you didn’t even really watch the show beyond Season 4 when the writing really excelled. I am unfamiliar with your column so excuse my naivete if your standard operating procedure is to list vague and incoherent arguments about shows without doing any research. If that is the case, then I have nothing to complain about. I’ll pretend that you are interested in actual good writing that makes points though, and offer you this advice. If the world of online writing were a vampire world, you would have been slayed long ago. Regards Jamie

Slayed by who??? Buffy??? She’d just get me in the sack. If that’s my fate, then I accept willingly.

As for Emmy’s, one of your arguments is that Buffy was the highest rated show on its network. Yeah. The W Freakin’ B. That’s like winning the gold at the Special Olympics. The point I was making is that Buffy was a sci-fi show and those shows just do not win the big awards. That’s not to say that sci-fi shows suck, it is just how the machine works. For Buffy fans to be outraged at that, to me, is delusional. Speaking of delusional:

okay im 27, male, straight and drunk as fuck., i go on here for wrestling news like 97% of the losers who go on here do. buffy was a show my ex girlfriend got me into. the only good thing she did for me. although season 4 wasn’t the best, to say the show sucked after the 3rd season is the ranting’s of an idiot. spike was way cooler than fuckin emo angel and the shows characters evolved after the third season even bringing in the high school dorks as the new "big bad". you dont think it was funny when spike said billy idol stole his whole look from him? because i in fact do. so basically you have no taste, go review season 2 of will and grace and rant about how cool it was, and get hit by a bus on your birthday. cactusdjt

Well, cactusdjt (how do I pronounce that??), I’ve already gotten hit by a bus on my LAST birthday. A present from my ex. What a sweetie she was.

Hey there Scotty. Great column. I know this is wordy, but I hope you read it, as there’s some good stuff here.I’m glad to see I’m not the only one to notice when once great enternmaint series turn into complete crap. There are so many things you can touch on. I look forward to your future columns. Now, you were spot on with Buffy. My sister and I were huge fans in its heyday. That being said, we ignore seasons 6 and 7 and personally do not accept them as official mythology. To us it ends with Buffy’s death in 5. While 4 and 5 did not match up with 1-3, they were still well done, and the character emotions and actions were still consistent and made sense, with the exception of gay Willow, which I’ll bring up later. To me, 6 and 7 felt like the writers just stuck out their middle fingers and gave a big F you to the fans that were there all along The Spike story line was horrible and made absolutely no sense, as you already stated. Something that you didn’t mention was when Spike’s soul was restored. While Angel took 100 years to recover from his insanity, Spike recovered in a matter of months. Not only that, he was violent and even threatened the life of that principle, whose name I forgot (told you I hate 7). In doing that they basically deficated on their own mythology and made Angel look like a pansy. So basically, we were supposed to root for a guy who killed probably thousands of people violently, and served no penance for it. Yeah, great job writers. As for Willow being gay, yeah, it kind of came from nowhere and was pretty lame. They could of at least alluded to the possibility of it early in the season. For example, in the earlier seasons you could imagine a scene like Cordy spilling something and having to change her shirt in front of Willow, and Willow unwittingly giving her a long stare and Cordy being like "What?" and Willow meekly going "Nothing". Or they could of had Willow in a loveless relationship with a boy. But yeah, it was kind of out of the blue. However, there is a book, maybe one of the Watcher’s guides, that shows Willow walking away from Xander with a Sunnydale cheerleader in each arm. And yes, I’m ashamed of myself for knowing that. As for Smallville, yeah that show blows now too. I hate the theme song too. To me, Japan seems to capture their theme and spirit of their shows with their theme songs. America just seems to look for a popular band or song. Compare the theme of Smallville to something like Berserk, Chobits, or even Cromartie High School, and there is no comparison. As for Lois, I would complain, but my goodness Erica Durance is HAWT. She’s in a battle with Sophia Bush and Alexis Bledel for CW Babe Supremecy. It’s hard for me to complain with someone that gorgeous on the screen. I am disappointed that there is no Bruce Wayne though. I believe Jeph Loeb, who wrote that excellent Superman/Batman comic series, writes for Smallville occasionally. I would love to see a multi-episode arc written by him. Thanks, David

I believe that Loeb wrote the original Red Kryptonite two parter that they did. Yeah, Erica Durance is hot, and she makes a pretty good Lois. I just think that she should have been with tights and flights as an element that came into the picture once Clark became Superman. I didn’t realize that Spike got his soul back, as I didn’t watch the show consistently at that point. If that is true, then it just makes that storyline even worse in my opinion. Next is Chris:

ok first and foremost some of what you said made sense and it was well written but some of your facts are way of. Willow and Tara relationship was about there love for one and other not about them being the same sex and Willow hadshown signs of being gay in the episode Doppleganger when the Vampire form of her showed up. Also she didn’t just turn gay out of the blue the love story grew over many episodes. As for the Emmys Buffy was nominated for the episode Hush. Now i do agree that Riley was a pain in the Arse. Anyway i thought you column and its concept were good you clearly have a passion about you ideas but you need to get you facts right in the future. Chris

My point about Willow is not that her relationship with Tara was poorly handled, but rather the issue of her sexuality. Like one of the previous feedbacks said, it would have been nice had there been more foreshadowing. Actually, any foreshadowing. I don’t think Vampire Willow counts either, as she had no soul at that point. Next up is the man know as simply Big Ez:

I thought Buffy was okay, at least in small doses. Some episodes had their funny moments, like the one about Buffy’s 1st day at college; LOL when Buffy’s roommate/demon hung up that Celine Dion poster, and Buffy had a "she is a demon" face. I just wish they had more Eliza Dushku on that show. Big Ez

I wish there had been a spin-off show called Faith and was about her taking showers for an hour each week. Next up, we hear from Richard:

Scotty, This is the first time I’ve read your column, and it certainly had its charms. However, I just had a couple of things to chime in on: First, Buffy The Vampire Slayer got seven seasons, not six. And I think the biggest problem with watching the show go was that, while the show was definitely coming down in quality, it still felt premature. Like, suddenly halfway through Season 7 Sarah Michelle Gellar says, "Yeah, I’m done," and we’re all supposed to be okay with that. They did a decent job of wrapping things up in the end, and the Season 7 finale DID give us a resolution to most things. But the show only got a single hour to wrap things up and say goodbye. It just felt like it was too soon. One more season, knowing that the show was going to go, probably would have made a lot of people happier. But I totally agree about Willow’s sexuality. Someone probably informed the WB that the show scored high with homosexuals and Wiccans and the following discussion probably ensued: WB: Hey Joss. JOSS: Yeah? WB: You know, you have a good show that gets us decent ratings in a specific demographic. JOSS: Yes, I know. WB: But you know, we were thinking that there’s a demographic that we could also TAP into. JOSS: What’s that? WB: Well... you know... people... who like... people... that are... you know... like themselves... JOSS: Christians? WB: Not exactly... You know... Guys that don’t like girls... JOSS: Are you saying you want a gay character? WB: Whew... we thought you were going to make us actually spell it out for you. JOSS: Why do I need a gay character? Isn’t there already plenty of gay characters on TV? And are you indicating that my show is somehow anti-gay? WB: NO! No... no... Joss. No. But you see, there’s a lot of Wiccans out there who are... you know... JOSS: Lesbians... WB: Yeah. JOSS: So, you want a Lesbian/Wiccan character? WB: Yeah. JOSS: Don’t you have a show called Charmed that actually has three Wiccans? Why no lesbians there? WB: Well, Joss... You see, Alyssa Milano is the carnal desire of many a young man. We want her to seem... still accessible to young men. JOSS: What about Shannon Doherty? WB: Are YOU gonna ask her? JOSS: Good point. Holly Marie Combs? WB: Well, she’s not really the lesbian type. JOSS: (blank silence) Okay... WB: So, we were thinking that this Willow character might be good. JOSS: Willow? You realize that I’ve spent 3 and a half seasons on her hooking up with BOTH of the show’s only male leads that aren’t named David Boreanaz or in their 50’s. WB: Really? JOSS: Don’t you watch the show? WB: ... JOSS: I see... WB: So, about this Willow character. JOSS: OK, fine! Willow’s a homo! I’ll just write out an extremely popular character played by a rising young star and replace him with a quiet, chubby, blond girl who pouts a lot just so I can take a show that’s perfectly OK and try to sweep up a couple of extra viewers! WB: Good. Nice talk, Joss. Love the hairdo. Call us later, we’d like to talk about a spin-off. With Angel. And there you have it. Of course, it’s possible that, seeing as how Joss Whedon is known for being incredibly harsh to his characters and audience, that he might have turned Willow gay simply because he thought it would be interesting. It, of course, was not. Not even remotely. But it did lead us to Willow going all crazy after Tara died, and that was very, very good. So, I guess he broke even. I’m just glad Angel got cancelled when it did, because the way he talked about Spike and Angel on the Season 5 commentary was certainly enough to make any Buffy fan go... eww... (Yes... He seriously was considering it.) Anyway, if you’d like a target for a future column, I’d suggest Enterprise. That show blew like Mount St. Helens. You know, without warning and taking a lot of innocent people along with it. Have a good week,
 Richard

Heh. Mount St. Helens. I’m stealing that one.

As for Whedon. I think it was more his idea to turn Willow gay. It just seems like the sort of curveball he likes to throw into his writing. If he was considering going all Brokeback with Spike and Angel, that just supports my theory.

I would do a Bullseye on Enterprise, but I have never seen a single episode. I learned my lesson way back with my 24 column that it is a pain to write on something you’ve never seen.