Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Series still has so much heart that it can stake it to the wariest viewers

I’ve always had a handy excuse to get out of seeing any movie or TV show that didn’t interest me.

From “Harry Potter” to “The Neverending Story” to “The Ring,” I brushed them off with a flip, canned response: I don’t do sci-fi.

It became a running joke among my friends just how broad I deemed the science fiction category. Fantasy, claymation, horror and futuristic genres all fit under my enormous sci-fi umbrella.

So when my boyfriend received all seven seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for Christmas, I immediately wanted nothing to do with a show about high school kids killing other-worldly enemies with an arsenal of weapons that includes wooden stakes, holy water and crosses.

I begrudgingly agreed to watch the first season because it’s only 12 episodes long. But by the end of the first episode, “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” I knew Buffy had sunk her demon-vanquishing hooks into my heart.

For those of you unfamiliar with writer and director Joss Whedon’s series, which ran from 1997 to 2003 on the WB Network and later UPN, allow me to introduce you to Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

When the series begins, Buffy has just moved to Sunnydale, Calif. She and her mother (Kristine Sutherland) relocated from Los Angeles after Buffy accidentally burned down her old school.

Sunnydale is located above the “hellmouth,” the epicenter of evil. Buffy is the slayer, the one destined to purge the world of vampires, demons, ghosts, etc.

Always watching Buffy’s back are the goofy but lovable Xander (Nicholas Brendon), the sweet brainiac and budding wicca Willow (the fabulous Alyson Hannigan), reformed snob Cordelia (the very sexy Charisma Carpenter) and Rupert Giles, Buffy’s “Watcher” who mentors her and acts as a surrogate father. Giles is played to hilariously uptight perfection by Anthony Stewart Head.

Later, Emma Caulfield joins the show as Anya, a former demon who becomes Xander’s love interest. Seth Green is fabulous as Oz, a rocker werewolf who woos Willow.

We also meet Faith (Eliza Dushku). Like Buffy, Faith is a slayer. However, Faith doesn’t have Buffy’s scruples.

Things change a lot as the gang heads to college at the beginning of season four. For starters, there’s a new witch named Tara (Amber Benson), and I suspect she and Willow may become more than just friends and spell partners. They are in college, after all.

But I’m neglecting perhaps the most integral, heart-wrenching aspect of “Buffy”: the slayer’s love affair with a vampire.

Angel (David Boreanaz) spent the better part of his 200-plus years as the evil vampire Angelus. Thanks to a gypsy curse, he gains a soul and a conscience - and subsequently gives up drinking human blood.

Angel (Angelus’ good alter ego) joins forces with Buffy and the gang to fight the dark powers. In the process, he and Buffy fall madly in love.

Without giving the story away, I’ll tell you that it becomes too torturous - and dangerous - for Angel and Buffy to be together. So, he moves to Los Angeles and gets his own spin-off show.

At this point, my boyfriend informed me that we needed to start alternating episodes of “Buffy” and “Angel,” since the plots are interrelated.

I was so addicted to “Buffy” that I couldn’t stand to interrupt our marathons with something new. Plus, I couldn’t imagine being interested in a show just with Angel. However, since I’d been wrong about “Buffy,” I decided to give the spin-off a shot.

Turns out “Angel” is almost as fantastic as “Buffy.” It’s darker, grittier and less campy, but it’s still a lot of fun.

And Angel does take some of the old Scooby gang with him. Cordelia moves to Los Angeles to pursue acting. As her career tanks, she helps Angel run a private protection agency.

They’re also joined by Wesley, a former Watcher who’s now a “rogue demon hunter.” Wesley, played by Alexis Denisof, reminds me of a mini-Giles. I can’t get enough of either one of them.

I know these plots all sound completely ridiculous, but they’re great shows. If I haven’t tempted you enough yet to rent the DVDs and give them a try, then let me introduce you to one more plot twist: The Initiative.

At college, Buffy meets a cute teacher’s assistant named Riley (Marc Blucas). It turns out he works for a secret military organization that fights vampires and demons. Buffy and Riley join forces in combating evil, and in the meantime fall in love.

The Initiative has developed the technology to neutralize vampires, leaving them unable to harm humans. One such “neutered” bad guy is Spike (James Marsters).

I’m only partway through season four of “Buffy” and first season of “Angel,” but I’ve already grown to care about these characters.

Joss Whedon does an excellent job of exploring relationships between people. Although “Buffy” and “Angel” focus on fantastical occurrences, the emotions the characters feel very real.

As a friend and huge Joss fan recently told me, everything in high school and college feels like the end of the world. A frat house party where you learn that not all guys are trustworthy, having to balance responsibilities with studies and a private life and navigating judgmental cliques can all seem apocalyptic. “Buffy” and “Angel” just take that literally, making every adolescent right of passage the potential end of the world.

I actually crave these shows now, whereas I used to scoff at the notion of a series about a pretty blond girl who kills imaginary bad guys. I crave them like Spike craves blood that’s not purchased at the butcher’s shop. Someone should make me write, “Not all sci-fi is bad” 100 times on a blackboard as penance.

“Buffy” and “Angel” are diamonds in the sci-fi rough, and I’m so addicted that without them, I’d burst into flames like a vampire exposed to direct sunlight.

Buffy is an extraordinary girl facing regular and irregular challenges, and doing it with a noble sense of purpose and dedication. I’ve learned to expect nothing less from someone whose mission statement reads, “In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.”