In seven seasons, vampire hunter Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) saved from 1997 to 2003 countless times the world – and at the same time horror television. When the psychically gifted Buffy pulls out her stake, not only the forces of evil but also the forces of boredom are averted.
You can find out here why Buffy the Vampire Slayer deserves its image as a milestone in horror television and for me personally.
“I am the one monsters have nightmares about”: Buffy revolutionized horror television
That’s what it’s about: In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the student of the same name with supernatural powers competes against various demonic creatures in the small Californian town of Sunnydale. Sunnydale is, of all things, a kind of demonic hot spot due to the hellhole hidden underneath – and therefore a constant mystical danger zone.
With these classic ingredients, the series could have easily ended up as a predictable horror fairy tale about good and evil. Instead, she is one of the most exciting series in (horror) television history become. It doesn’t shy away from telling difficult-to-digest topics such as the search for identity, loss or death in a varied way and offers characters that you look forward to episode after episode.
Buffy was created from a simple thought game: What if the blonde girl in the horror film declared war on the monsters?instead of running away from them screaming – and even winning? Fortunately, this is normal for today’s screens, but in the 1990s it was an almost revolutionary idea.
In this television era, there were already independent female characters in leading roles such as Dana Scully in The X-Files. However, Buffy added teen series charm and ’90s girl power à la Spice Girls. Buffy is a quick-witted girl in the truest sense of the word, who worries about school, dating, and ruined fingernails in a fight as much as she does about the latest monster of the week. She prefers to fight monsters in high heels and, as a heroine, makes no apologies for expressing her feminine side.
But it’s not just Buffy who has a multi-layered protagonist structure. The series includes a strong ensemble of characters. We grow so fond of it as viewers that every scene with Buffy and her friends feels like arriving home. This lays the foundation for an emotional bond between the audience and the main characters that has never been experienced before – especially in the horror genre. The horror hits us ten times harder because Buffy, Willow, Xander & Co. are so important to us.
You can sympathize here on many levels, because monsters here are not just monsters, but one imaginative metaphor for different aspects of growing up. At Buffy’s side, we compete against power-hungry vampire patriarchs, lovesick ghosts, stalking zombies and many other demonic visitors from the pit of hell who vividly deal with the everyday challenges of a teenager. The horror in Buffy helped young people like me face their fears in front of the television.
The series easily manages to bring variety to the screen in 144 episodes. Humor is an essential keyword here. This takes place in Buffy the Vampire Slayer via dialogues. Things develop regularly between the characters, especially in dangerous situations hilarious dialogueswho not only play cleverly with words, but also expose them in a self-deprecating way. Later famous series such as Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina were more than just inspired by this dialogue humor.
Buffy hasn’t just done a great job for horror television and the TV landscape itself. Buffy changed me too.
Buffy was like therapy for me – and after that nothing was the same
When the series finale flickered by, nothing was the same for me. The experience of oscillating between euphoria, heartbreak and adrenaline fireworks in Buffy’s world released emotions like no other series. She uncompromisingly divided the reality of my life into two states of being: life before and life after Buffy.
When I stumbled upon Buffy as a teenager back in 2006, that viewing experience was groundbreaking. It signaled to me: We are all free in our decisions and have the power to take our lives into our own hands. Until then, there were hardly any bad-ass girl role models like Buffy on genre television for me. Xena was cool, but older. And everything else was animated series.
Even though the cast should have been much more diverse, Buffy was surprisingly diverse for the turn of the millennium when it came to depictions of femininity. With characters like the empathetic and queer witch Willow, the strong-willed ex-demon Anya, Buffy’s clever mother Joyce or Buffy herself – armed with a wooden stake and perfectly manicured fingernails – the series proved to me that no one has to allow themselves to be pigeonholed. That vulnerability and strength, high heels and monster hunting are not mutually exclusive. That femininity is not fixed and no one can dictate to the other who is allowed to live it out or how it is lived out.
The good reputation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer contrasts with that of series creator Joss Whedon: his behavior in various film and series projects was criticized by employees as massively toxic.
Enduring numerous monster fights side by side with the Huntress and going through not only literal but also emotional hell cleansed my emotional balance more thoroughly than any therapy session. The series constantly confronts you with a series of all-too-familiar fears – while at the same time showing you ways to leave them behind. Life after Buffy was for me a life with significantly less fear.
A series that offers its viewers emotional support on such an entertaining level and celebrates individual (female) identity would be a great enrichment today. For horror television, for me and for everyone else.
You can watch all seven seasons of Buffy Disney+ Stream by subscription.
Podcast tip: Why Buffy is still exciting after 20 years
There’s even more love for Buffy in our anniversary podcast for the fantasy series:
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Laura and Esther talk about what defines Buffy as a series, its influence on the world of the series, their favorite characters, their further development over many seasons and which similar series Buffy fans could discover for themselves.