Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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It's her first day at a new school, and Buffy Summers gets her new friends caught up in a world of supernatural dangers. The vampire slayer is forced to come out of retirement and pick up a stake in order to protect Sunnydale from the monsters that go bump in the night. 

This is the show that changed the face of teen drama; at its best it is the best, and at its worst it is...well, it can get pretty bad sometimes. This series is full of quick-witted dialogue and subversive themes that make it good repeat viewing. Buffy the series is the creature that Joss Whedon wanted Buffy the movie to be, and I couldn't be happier that he was given the chance to bring his character to the small screen.

Cordelia Chase, played masterfully by Charisma Carpenter, is a fascinating creature; she's clearly smart, spouting a clever barb every time she opens her mouth, but she can turn on the charm, befriending Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in a matter of seconds, and quickly turn into the villain of the piece, lashing out at Willow (Alyson Hannigan) without provocation or hesitation. Cordelia is, at once, everything that Buffy wants to be and everything that she's loathe to become, and she's a pleasure to watch every moment she graces the screen with her presence.

It's incredibly atypical for a teen-oriented show to have one of its main characters styled so poorly, but to dress Willow Rosenberg in any other way would be so against character that I'm glad Whedon managed it. This depiction of the unpopular nerdy girl is so true to life for someone of her social stature, and it's refreshing that a show like this would allow that kind of fashion.

The soundtrack to this episode is played, perhaps, at too high a volume, and somewhat ill-fitting to the situations depicted. The mood is often off-set by strings that are somewhat too obvious, chords that are too juvenile, and it's clear that they had yet to find the modern-Gothic sense of style that this series so rightfully deserves.

Willow strikes me as the kind of girl who wouldn't have gone to a nightclub alone; had Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Jesse (Eric Balfour) convinced her to go out with them, then, yes, I imagine she would have gone, but not alone. And, even after a pep talk with Buffy, I can't suspend my disbelief enough that this same girl would follow a strange boy into the night.

Angel's David Boreanaz and Darla's Julie Benz, in this early outing, cannot deliver lines to save their lives, and Hannigan appears to be struggling for breath during most of her dialogue, constantly pausing mid-sentence to gather a mouthful of air. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Buffy with more unwarranted awkwardness than the reserved confidence she should have, and Anthony Stewart Head plays Giles a bit more green than he might later down the road. Nicholas Brendon (as Xander) is written and acted in such a real way that I can't imagine anyone else could have played that role.

Charles Martin Smith directs the first foray into Sunnydale and manages fairly well, with only minor missteps. The shot of Buffy as she hangs upside down above the alleyway, while interesting on paper, makes absolutely no sense on screen, and the choreography might have us believe that flipping is the fastest mode of travel.

Whedon knows the ins and outs of each of his characters, and writes them so clearly in his script that no one needs much introduction. He's so apt in the creation of his universe that the viewer can be introduced to a new character, a new concept, and immediately accept it as real. The dialogue is fun without being ridiculous, each character has the right balance of genius and idiocy, and nothing is black and white. Every word in the script it deliberate, and it all fits so perfectly that to take anything out would cause the entire structure to collapse.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has an off-putting title, but, given the chance, will dazzle it's viewers with it's intricate storytelling and brilliant acting. This is a series that had a lot of potential from the very beginning, and it could have gone either way; instead of wasting what it could have been, it became something great. Buffy is a pop culture icon for a reason, and this is a series that's not likely to be forgotten any time soon.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in the running to become the feature for Wednesdays. The series ran from 1997 to 2003 on The WB and UPN with a total of 144 episodes.