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::sniff:: [Or Why I'm Sad to See Buffy Over]
From the moment that Joss Whedon decided that he wanted the little blonde girl in the alley in all the horror movies to kick the monsters' asses, the best show that many people probably never saw was a-brewin' in the back of his brilliant mind. The movie was a box office flop, which turned into a mid-season replacement on the WB in 1997. The first season was fairly choppy, but the dialogue was great and it held a hint of the promise that Joss's vision would accomplish in later years.
During that first season, the viewing audience was re-introduced to Buffy, a sophomore in high school with a huge secret: she was the only person on the planet who could get rid of the forces of darkness. We met her friends at the same time that she did, and we fell in love with her relationship with the brooding, ensouled vampire Angel [though if you ask me this anywhere else, I will deny it profusely].
But it was the second season broadcast on the WB that truly ensnared me. I remember clearly flipping through the channels one night, and pausing for a moment because I'd seen James Marsters, the actor behind self-proclaimed bleached-blond Big Bad 'Spike', who was literally from the moment he stepped onscreen one of the most interesting characters that Joss ever created. Along with Spike came his crazy vampire girlfriend Drusilla, and then it was revealed to the audience that in fact Spike, Dru, and Angel were all related. Buffy and Angel had sex, Angel lost his soul, and the rest of the season was spent trying to keep him from killing all her friends. Instead, she ended up killing him, and ran away to Los Angeles, where the third season began.
In the third season, we met another one of my very favorite characters, Faith [played brilliantly by Eliza Dushku]. Faith's barely-concealed vulnerability in the beginning of the season gave way to a brash young woman who crossed the line into darkness after accidentally killing a man. This gave us a new and different dynamic: pitting Slayer against Slayer. Again, I praise the genius of Joss.
Fourth season was mainly about Buffy moving on from her split with Angel, and the introduction of her 'normal' boyfriend Riley Finn [nice guy and all, but he was really not understanding when it came to demons - see "all demons are evil, even if they're Oz"]. See, he was part of this top-secret government organization called The Initiative, who wanted to harness the power of the demon world for their own use. This they did by putting behavior-modification chips into unwitting demons' heads, thereby not allowing them to hurt humans. This is where Spike comes in again.
See, Spike was one of those poor little demons who got captured by the Initiative, and got a chip stuck in his noggin. He lost his bite. Literally. Started having to bag his snacks. This lack of being able to kill his food himself caused a slow emotional change in him, to the point that in the middle of season 5 he discovered, much to his dismay, that he was in love with Buffy. Of course this led to a climax [literally] in the sixth season when she jumped his bones and they screwed the house down. And then, The Bathroom Scene happened. The Bathroom Scene is one of the only scenes ever filmed on Buffy that I cannot watch again. See, apparently Spike thought "no" meant "yes, yes, take me you fool!" with Buffy, and so he nearly raped her. Then he left, horrified by his actions, and took a trip to Africa to get his soul. [Why he didn't go to Willow is beyond me.]
I realize that I skipped over the storylines of every other character, but now that I think about it, it's All!About!Spike. Really. He's evolved more than any other character ever created by Joss Whedon, and I think even though the show is titled Buffy, the Vampire Slayer it's more about Spike than anything else. Redemption is key, people.
Back to my point. It sucks that Buffy is going off the air after seven great seasons. No longer will we be able to see the amazing ensemble cast that Joss threw together in the first season interact. My television watching will shift over to Angel, provided of course that the WB doesn't can that show. I'll be sad if we have a Jossless year next year.