From Salon.com
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Why Spike ruined "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
Tuesday 13 May 2003, by Webmaster
Like Fonzie before him, this too-cool thug in a leather jacket has diverted a good show from its original mission: To celebrate the uncool outcasts of the world.
May 13, 2003 | A once-good show becomes a bad one through the unexpected popularity of a posturing, vaguely thuggish minor character in a black leather jacket. In television, as in life, events tend to repeat themselves. First there was "Happy Days," where a charming show about growing up in the ’50s was revamped to focus on the Fonz. And now there’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which has been all but destroyed by the Fonzie of our time: Spike.
As "Buffy" comes to an end, its fans are debating where to place the blame for the mediocrity of this season. Was it the introduction of a team of Slayers in Training, all of them so annoying that fans were happy to see some of them get killed? Was it the overemphasis on irrelevant new characters like Kennedy and Principal Wood? Was it the decision to build the season around a villain (the First Evil) who can’t touch anything or do anything at all except talk and talk and talk? Well, that’s part of it.
But the problems with this season can be traced to a moment at the very end of the last good episode, "Conversations With Dead People." That’s the moment when Buffy found out that Spike, blond vampire, attempted rapist, and current possessor of a soul, had somehow been killing people despite his souled status. From that point on, the show has no longer been about Buffy and her friends, or Buffy and her mission, or anything that used to be interesting on this show. It’s been about Buffy and Spike. And that’s about all.
Look at the record. The next two episodes after "Conversations With Dead People" involved Buffy trying to find out why Spike was killing again, following which she spent two more episodes focusing her attention on freeing Spike from a dungeon. Since then, we’ve discovered that a new character (Principal Wood) has a vendetta against Spike, seen an entire episode devoted to filling out Spike’s back story, and sat through various other plot threads about Spike. Even when Spike isn’t on-screen, characters are talking about him.
Meanwhile, the characters who used to matter on this show — Willow, Xander and Giles, who with Buffy formed what is called the "core four" — are getting nothing storywise; Willow gets a token lesbian relationship, Xander gets his eye poked out, and Giles gets to look like a bad guy for wanting to kill Spike (which, on the contrary, made some of us love Giles even more). In the words of "Sep," who recaps "Buffy" episodes for the famously snarky Web site Television Without Pity, "Watching episode after episode about Spike’s journey when Giles has become a prick and I don’t know a goddamn thing about what Willow or Xander are thinking, or even who they are anymore, and will likely never find out, breaks my heart."
It would be less of a problem if Spike were getting brilliantly fascinating stories, but he isn’t, despite the potential inherent in the story of an evil creature trying to reform. At every turn, the "Buffy" staff has copped out on Spike’s story, whitewashing his past (a flashback in a recent episode shows that even when he was turned into a vampire, he wasn’t initially a vicious killer — something that contradicts all the previous vampire mythology on the show) and making no attempt to show that having a soul has changed him one way or the other. By the evidence of this season’s episodes, Spike is still a wisecracking punk who likes to hit women (he’s hit Buffy, Anya and Faith so far this year) and isolate Buffy from her friends, yet we’re still somehow supposed to sympathize with him, because ... why? Because he got a soul in the hope that Buffy would forgive his attempt to rape her and sleep with him again. Except for a couple of throwaway lines, Spike has never been made to seek redemption for his crimes; he doesn’t even apologize to Principal Wood for having murdered his mother. The assumption appears to be that Spike doesn’t need to atone because having a soul makes him a different and better person. But the writers haven’t shown us that; all they’ve shown us is the same Fonzie figure from Seasons 5 and 6, only without the viciousness that made him moderately interesting.
And when they write a decent Spike scene, it gets cut. The second episode of this season, "Beneath You," was originally supposed to end with a scene where Spike expresses guilt for his past crimes, admits that he got a soul for selfish reasons (he thought Buffy would love him if he had a soul), and arrives at the realization that having a soul hasn’t made him good enough for Buffy ("God hates me. You hate me. I hate myself more than ever"). But creator Joss Whedon rewrote this scene so that Spike talked mostly about the fact that Buffy "used" him for sex — just another attempt to create unearned sympathy for Spike and deemphasize his past role as a killer and sexual predator. And James Marsters, a good actor who has shown himself capable of the kind of underplaying this show used to thrive on, made matters worse by playing this scene as an over-the-top fit of lurching and moaning, like one of William Shatner’s lesser method moments on "Star Trek." (The gratuitous shirtlessness just adds to the comparison.) Any interesting stories about a vampire with a soul have already been told on "Buffy" and "Angel"; with Spike, all we’ve been getting is a lot of half-naked posturing.
But it’s not just the overemphasis on Spike that’s the problem; it’s the way this emphasis has betrayed one of the most appealing themes of the show: that it’s OK to be uncool. "Buffy" began with a high school girl, formerly cool and popular, who discovers that she has a destiny that will prevent her from ever having a "normal" life. But she finds some comfort when she befriends people at the school who are social outcasts for other reasons: Willow, a shy computer geek; the loyal but socially awkward Xander; and Giles, head of a school library that none of the other students ever seem to visit. The bond between these four characters was the heart of the show for the first four seasons, more than anything else, even romance (there were many episodes where Buffy’s love interest, Angel, didn’t appear or was relegated to one or two token scenes). Every week, these characters proved what we’d all like to believe when we’re outcasts in high school: that the uncool kids, the ones no one takes seriously, are really the coolest and most heroic of all.
To make this clear, the monsters on the show were often portrayed as the twisted embodiment of high school coolness. In the pilot, Xander’s friend Jesse goes from "an excruciating loser" to an effortlessly cool bad boy after he is turned into a vampire. Another episode, "Reptile Boy," made frat boys the villains. And Spike, when introduced in Season 2, was exactly the kind of smartass punk who makes high school a miserable place for geeks: Arrogant, cocky and contemptuous of anyone who wasn’t equally cool, he was a superficial, self-confident Fonzie type who deserved to get smacked down by our awkward heroes.
With the transformation of Spike into a lovable antihero, "Buffy" has stopped celebrating the uncool outcasts; instead, it celebrates the cool punk, the guy who would push the first-season Willow or Xander out of the way in the school halls. And it’s not just Spike. Willow’s new love interest, Kennedy, is a confident loudmouth with a privileged upbringing, who obnoxiously admires Willow not for her intelligence but for her power. Spike’s nemesis, Principal Wood, is described in one of the scripts as "The Coolest Principal Ever." And Andrew, the show’s answer to "The Simpsons’" Comic Book Guy, is constantly mocked for his geekiness, because a show that was once on the side of geeks now portrays them as buffoons or villains. And whereas the early seasons usually showed the characters learning how to defeat monsters by researching them in Giles’ books, they now find everything they need on the Internet — a far cry from Giles’ wonderful first-season speech about the superiority of books over computers. It seems that on a show where an unrepentant mass murdering monster can be a hero, there’s no more room for a celebration of the power of book learning, or the nobility of uncool people.
Which brings us back to "Happy Days," and the Fonz. Just as "Happy Days" went on for years with Fonzie even after Ron Howard left the show, there are rumors that the character of Spike may go on after the end of "Buffy" — perhaps moving to "Angel," or perhaps to a spinoff. The character is popular; cool characters often are. But "Happy Days" was a better show in the first two years, when it was just about the uncool Richie Cunningham. And "Buffy" was a better show in the first four years, before Spike fell in love with Buffy, before Spike started taking his shirt off in every episode, and when the focus was on four uncool people and their quest to rid the world of ... well, of characters like Spike. 19
Forum messages
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30 January 2004 12:29, by Anonymous
U people just take wots given to u and dont think twice about it. Spike and the first and also principal wood have just given the story more meaning only those with eyes can see and understand. Willow and xander and giles still play quite a big part if i dont recal. You no the whole xander getting his eye poked out, willow turning the potentials into slayers and giles catching a harbringers axe and inch from his face. You obviously dont understand the importance of looking outside the circle.
Sincerely Xtreme Buffy Fan Wesley Wintum Quinton Travis Rupert Giles Price
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29 February 2004 21:28, by VJ
wow...first off the last 3 seasons of Buffy were great...a big change from the usual "see villian-fight villian-kill villian" seasons. The First being the Season 7 Big Bad was genius...finally Buffy has to fight something she CAN’T use her powers against, and that in general Cannot be destroyed. 2nd, blaming James Marsters and the character Spike for what you think is the downfall of the show, is entirely disrespectul to him and Spike. They gave the show much more emotion and feeling than most other characters did. And Spike falling in love with Buffy was an awesome improvement in storyline. Spike character is complicated, hence all the backflashes, and he is basically a phenomenon, being that he does not fit the profile of all the normal vampires when they are first sired. Spike, and James, are not to blame for what you think is the show’s downfall. The only thing they are guilty of doing is livening the show and putting a lot of emotion into it.
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16 March 2004 09:45, by Anonymous
4give me 4 my English (i’m French) but i think it’s been a long time since Spike became one of the main characters of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
Do u really watch "Buffy.."?? i’m not sure!
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17 March 2004 02:23, by Anonymous
I do not profess to know everything about Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but what I do know is this:
Spike did suffer for his sins as a non-souled Vampire, why else was he muttering mad, incoherent stuff in the school basement?! I believe that James Marsters did an excellent job in portraying a complicated character like Spike. The background on Spike, the flash-backs etc. were brilliant, giving the viewers an insight into a pretty shielded Vampire.
We see that he didn’t jump straight into being a vicious killer, and that he did cling to a small amount of humanity, which if my memory serves me right was also protrayed in a great film called "Interview With A Vampire"
And personally, your comment on his un-apologetic attitude to Principal Wood for killing his mother, please sit and think. Principal Wood’s mother was a Slayer, a mortal enemy of a Vampire, and Principal Wood did try to kill Spike. Would you apologise??!!
I think that the information overload was good on Spike, because we didn’t really learn much about his past until the later series’, whereas we learnt almost everything about the other main characters right at the beginning. Personally I believe Spike is the kind of Vampire, every girl desires, and every guy wishes he could be!!
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2 April 2004 09:13, by abundantraymo
Hey, I kinda agree with u. I mean I think Spike had way too much air time in Season 7, and I think the "core four" with the exception of Buffy did NOT get enough. It’s rubbish to say we already knew everything about the characters because of earlier seasons, I mean would have thought that Willow would have gone evil at the end of Season 6 think about that! Oh also, I pretty much agree with what u said about Wood and Kennedy, also just like to say if Willow loved Tara so much that she would try to end the world when she died, why did she suddenly get with Kennedy??? (Even Alyson Hannigan had a problem with this and even complained to Joss, guess he didn’t listen). Also true about Andrew, I mean he is basically just an extension of Xander. SO in conclusion, I agree I think giving Spike so much air time, did kinda ruin the show, but I think other things contributed to it as well, I mean the "core four" stuff was exactly why, I mean couldn’t they have all gone to College, and just continued like they had in Season 1-3, hmm, guess we’ll never know!
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21 April 2004 02:49, by Wolverine68
Had Joss been a good lad, and ended this show after 5 season when he should have, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Would we?
It’s called desperation. The things writters & producers throw at us to keep a show going, when it is clearly fallign down hill. You can tie a rope on it, and hold it, but it is only going to stay for so long.
So no, it is not Spike that killed Buffy. It is the lack of creative writting. Once all the good plots were palyed out, you leave yourself no where to go.
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21 April 2004 19:32, by Anonymous
Ok, whoa. I understand where this guy is coming from but man, I have a lot of problems with this article. First off, the theory that Spike as a main character took the show’s focus off of praising geeks is completely ridiculous. If you look back at "Fool for Love," you see Spike, pre-vamp, as what? A geeky poet who lives with his mother. Spike isn’t the "Fonz" who makes all the other kids look bad. HE’s a former geek who managed to change his image, somewhat of an inspiration to geeks everywhere if you ask me.
Also, granted, season 7 was pretty bad but I never understand everyone’s problems with season 6. Season 6 was, IMO, one of the best seasons of BtVS simply because of the stark sadness it portrayed and it’s uniqueness compared to other seasons. It finally had the Scoobies facing something they’d never really had to deal with before: real life. Buffy battled taxes and bills instead of monsters, Xander went up against his fears of ending up like his family, and Willow struggled with addiction. The only problem I have with season 6 is Dark Willow’s characterization in "Two to Go." That could have been handled better.
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10 May 2004 21:56, by Anonymous
thats not fair to spike or james i loved that he got all the that air time becasue hes hot and can act in fact i like him a lot more than giles or xander.
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19 May 2004 03:52, by LightBlaze
I think that’s reading too much into this- the sole theme of Buffy is not about celebrating the uncool kids. That may be part of it, but mainly the show celebrates the timeless battle of good vs. evil; doing what’s right despite sacrifices and consequences. Also, it’s about fitting in- normal kids who do unnatural things every day and try to blend in. So to say that Spike ruined Buffy because he is a cool guy is ridiculous. He represented what Buffy stood for: acceptance of outsiders and redemption for bad deeds. Is Angel not also a cool guy character, all leather-coaty like Spike? Is Riley not the superficial-type popular guy?
This article is very contradictory because they say that it’s all about accepting outsiders, yet they do not support the acceptance of Spike (an outsider) into the show’s very elite group (core four). Just because Spike is cool does not mean he isn’t an outsider as well. And to say that Fonzie ruined Happy Days is hilarious- he’s the signature character! TV series need variety in their characters- without it, shows would lose their multidimensionality and much of their audience.
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19 May 2004 19:10, by Anonymous
Well, there’s a lot of truth in that article. I think the previous post pretty much sums it up:
"thats not fair to spike or james i loved that he got all the that air time becasue hes hot and can act in fact i like him a lot more than giles or xander."
In other words, there was a lot of misconceived pandering to a specific fanbase who like to watch some actor with his shirt off, rather than concentrating on good storytelling.
First Evil? Good idea, but not well handled, and there was too much time spent on inconsequential characters. Not that 6 and 7 were bad television by any means - there were some outstanding individual episodes - but with hindsight it would have been a better choice to go with the original ending for Season 5. Now *that* would have been memorable - and it would have been nice to see the series go out with a bang, and "Not Fade Away."
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20 May 2004 23:17, by Illyria
Whatever, I only read the 1st paragrah and I refuse to read anymore, he soooooo did not ruin Buffy he’s what made it intresting. Him and Buffy so whoever wrote this can SHOVE IT!!! And I agree this is not fair to James.
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23 May 2004 05:16, by Kaula
I want to start off by saying, SPIKE DID NOT ruin Buffy. It added a lot of interest for me, I wish he was on there more. He’s definatley one of the most likable characters for sure. Sounds like love and attraction are not something for you but most people like that kind of stuff. Fonz and Spike are totally different! The article was ridiculous and only 1 opinion!
See online : answer to article on spike ruining buffy show
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7 June 2004 23:56, by Anonymous
I wish people would stop writing articles on Buffy and Angel when they clearly don’t understand anything about them.
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27 June 2004 07:42, by Anonymous
i’m agree with that, he has a lot of centre of attention in the season 7 and not just in buffy ...then ANgel..he have a lot of fans but...one thing is that he is a regular character and other thing he’s the pirncipal ...i started to get tired of him...but that doesn’t happen...
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5 July 2004 23:52, by Anonymous
This was written a while ago and I remember one of the buffy writers commenting on how who ever wrote it clearly has no understanding of the show whatsoever. I pretty sure it’s from one of the succubus club interviews.
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14 January 2005 14:50, by Bling
F*** OFF! For those of you who are dissing this article. You are the one who can’t see outside the box. The only reason you can’t see, what this article obviously says, is because you are loyal Buffy fanatics who can’t admit shit when they see it even if it was in front of them. One thing you had right on, just one thing, is that James Marsters isn’t the one to blame, it is all the stupid ass writers. He did his job great, it’s just that the script and material he got was soooo bad. BUT the writer of the article didn’t say shit about James Marsters. So WTF are you guys bitching about?! And what the article meant with Spike being good (before and after soul), is that it wasn’t reasonable, it was contradiciting and overdone. You may love it as much as you want, it just wasn’t reasonable, any of it. Buffy was made a slut the second she bended over literally to Spike. Willow; "ooh, I love and miss Tara", after a few ep she is with another girl. Whore! And the Wood thing, you all say if it was me "I wouldn’t apologize" just because he tried to kill you. BOO fucking WHOO, this guy has MURDERED HIS MOTHER! And all he gets is a few punches, and just because of it, Wood doesn’t deserve any apologiez? get bent. And the other thing you say is: "Nikki was a slayer and Spike a vampire, it is their job to kill one another". Well, BRAINIACS, you are not making any sense and you are contradicting yourselves. IF you argue Spike is good in s7 cause he has a soul, you can’t then go and say it was his job to kill the slayer (Nikii) therefor it is ok. That’s STUPID as hell. God you all pissed me of, cause you were so damn ignorant, naive and stupid.
You would’ve seen that if you weren’t to blind, and btw I have seen all the series and was a fan of the first 5 seasons, so don’t start with "you don’t know what you’re talking about".
Btw brilliant article!
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12 August 2005 23:17, by Miss Sunnydale 2005
W.H.A.T.................................personally I think season 7 was fantastic. If you want a crap season.....and this is from a HUGE buffyverse fan.......watch season 4!! If you wanna talk crap then thats the crap that you should be talking about. I didnt like the whole buffy / riley / initiative thing and i think that the ’big bad’ adam was about as interesting as getting your eyeballs poked out. The only episode that I can say that I like from season 4 is restless...I cant think of an episode in season 7 that I didnt like. Anyway it’s says at the beginning of the article....original mission’celebrate the uncool outcasts of the world’. Spike was an outcast to the group and even to Buffy (most of the time) and in the words of Xander Harris.....what is cool!!!
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7 March 2006 10:14, by Anonymous
wow what an utter waste of time. in your outgoing ramblings you forgot to see that episodes like Fool for Love and Lies my parents told me show that Spike isn’t a cool punk but even more uncool than season one Xander. There is no such things as redemption for you can’t change what you did, saving one life doesn’t make up for one you killed. Your guilt is your to feel not to show to the world and get sympathy like Angel. As for Wood, Spike killed a slayer why should he apologise do slayers apologise to the family of demons they slay? Anyway Spike spared Wood on account that he had killed Nikki, while Wood was was trying to kill a changed man who had saved his life many times. I don’t think BTVS was ruined you apparently grew up and got bored
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Ahhh, thank God someone hates or dislikes Spike as much as I! The most prominent question in my mind when I hear anything about Spike, is "why the hell is attempted rape being swept under the rug?" It’s not something you can just get over, even though Buffy tries to ignore the pain from it.
Spike took all the attention away from one of the greatest lesbian couples of all time, a couple that helped how many girls feel comfortable with their sexuality, one that set a shining example of the value of honesty and trust in relationships, just so we could see some pasty, skinny guy with no shirt? Laaaame. Drusilla was the best part of Spike’s career on the show anyway.
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