Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Audra Duren assumed a class about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” would entail watching the TV show and not much else.

Alex Bednar, a pre-med student, figured the course would be an easy “A” compared to those botany or chemistry classes.

But as the semester comes to a close at Nebraska Wesleyan University, both students have changed their tunes.

“I had no idea how deep (‘Buffy’) is,” Duren said. “It really makes you think.”

Bednar agreed.

“It’s much more philosophical and analytical than I thought it would be,” he said.

Yes, they really are talking about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the drama from creator Joss Whedon about a young woman and her friends - affectionately called the Scooby Gang - who kill vampires and demons and often save the world in the process.

As the students have learned, as well as their instructor, history professor Meghan K. Winchell, there is more to the show than blood-thirsty vampires running amok.

Much more.

“I know people who haven’t seen the show are skeptical of it,” Winchell said. “I dismissed it before I saw it.”

But after watching, she, too, had a change of heart -and a wooden stake had nothing to do with it.

Here was a TV show set in a fantasy world but realistically dealt with hot-button issues and topics, especially several affecting teens: relationships, fitting in, death, rape, religion, sexuality, feminism, humanism, etc.

“It’s pretty timeless in the stories that it tells, about the struggles of who you want to be and who you are,” said local “Buffy” scholar Tamy Burnett, a doctoral English candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ran for seven seasons on The WB and UPN networks. It finished its run in May 2003 but has found an afterlife in syndication.

The NWU course is one of several about the show found at colleges and universities around the country.

The drama also has spawned several publications and text books, including Rhonda Wilcox’s “Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which Winchell uses for her class, a three-credit-hour freshman seminar course.

Wesleyan requires its freshmen to take a liberal arts seminar and its professors to teach them. The seminars are meant to introduce new students to college-level expectations for reading, writing and speaking.

Winchell said the school is great about letting the professors choose topics. Other fall courses include “Quentin Tarantino and the Cinema of Cool,” “Seriously Funny,” “Women and Art” and “The Human in Human Rights.”

Winchell believed “Buffy,” with all that it addresses, would be perfect for a seminar. In addition to watching episodes, students are required to read Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.”

Winchell became more convinced the drama was worth teaching after attending a “Buffy” conference last summer in Atlanta.

It was there she met “Buffy” scholars Burnett and Tanya Cochran, an English professor at Union College who has served as a guest lecturer for Winchell.

Cochran said the show - like a piece of art or literature - is open to interpretation.

“People who want to see vampires and demons will only see vampires and demons,” she said.

The students say they definitely see more, which should put their parents somewhat at ease.

Kate Nicholson said the course has caused her to see how other shows make connections with their audiences. Jeff Stephens calls “Buffy” comparable to art.

“Once you accept it as art, it’s worth studying,” he said.

Buffy-ology

It’s been three years since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” killed her last vampire, but the TV drama and its creator, Joss Whedon, continue to be a favorite of pop culture scholars and TV critics.

Here are four of the most analyzed and critiqued “Buffy” episodes:

— “Hush,” episode 66, season four, Dec. 14, 1999: Remember the tagline from “Alien,” “In space nobody can hear you scream”? What if no one can hear you at all? The town of Sunnydale goes silent when a group of strange creatures called The Gentlemen appear and steal everyone’s voices. It’s easily the series’ scariest episode.

— “Restless,” episode 78, season four, May 23, 2000: Viewers learn a little more about Buffy, Xander, Giles and Willow when their dreams take dark and twisted turns. Buffy encounters the First Slayer in hers.

— “The Body,” episode 94, season five, Feb. 27, 2001: Buffy finds her mother, Joyce, dead on the couch. Despite all her amazing abilities, the Slayer is unable to revive the one thing that is dearest to her. The episode tugs at the heartstrings and again reveals how vulnerable Buffy is.

— “Once More, With Feeling,” episode 107, Nov. 6, 2001: TV shows often use gimmicks, especially during sweeps. This was one that actually worked. The entire show is told with musical numbers, with each giving viewers more insight to the characters.