Discovering Buffy / L - O
Anonymous
I am in high school and I am 14. I first watched Buffy from Season 3 - the last episode - Graduation Day Part 3. It didn't take a whole lot of persuasion from die-hard Buffy fans (in fact no one I know IS one) or flipping channels - hey, that's a great way to be hooked onto a show, but yeah. Anyway I lived in Malaysia before I moved here to Australia and Malaysia was really really really really slow in like EVERYTHING. It was 2 or more seasons behind in Buffy. Well, I didn't watch a lot of TV because of that. Obviously I'd heard of Buffy, everyone had, it was one of those cultural phenomena. Anyway I was a pretty major book buff ~ is there such a word? So, I happened along Buffy books in the bookstore. I first thought it was just one of those sci-fi, vampire things - which I 'm sorry to say, am not really big on. OK, great, so then I started reading novelizations on Buffy and got immersed in the whole Buffy verse and I was quite amazed. I was like ,'Wow, this is Good!'. So, I read more and more and more until I KNEW all these things about it, and still had not watched the show until a friend of mine, thank god for her, told me what time it was on, on TV. Unfortunately it was the end of the season - season 3! So I was like NOOO!! I have to wait a YEAR to watch the next season. Oh well, in fact I did. And it was the best most amazing years of my life. Then, I moved to Australia and Australia was in Season 6 unfortunately so my Buffy viewing is extremely screwed up. Then after I watched and laughed and cried over it, my TV screwed up and I could not watch Season 7. That is my total disastrous history of Buffy viewing and since I am 14- do not have the money to buy all the DVDs!!! It seems like everything is conspiring against me but I WILL watch all the seasons!! Anyway, I think Buffy is the best show ever, I AM SO obsessed with it, I talk about it everyday. I also try to convert people but am very unsuccessful. What I really like about the show is the subtext and the fact that everything isn't summed up into nice little packages like in Charmed. Oh, Buffy dies but then she comes back. Everyone is sad for one episode then there is an event that makes everyone reunite and be all happy again in 3 episodes. Life isn't like that. Buffy isn't like that. Buffy has real consequences, Buffy teaches you and the characters are real and complicated characters like you and me. Look for instance at the evolution of Willow. She grew up from that geeky girl she was in Season 1 to the Big Bad on season 6. That could only happen on Buffy and we look back on that long-ago girl much like we do on our own lives because we grew with her, we cried with her, we felt for her when she found Tara, we were sad when she died. That is the greatness of Buffy. And the show is incredibly clever – you can see this in the fact that Jonathan himself at the end of Season 6 voiced all OUR feelings – how Willow had changed so much. Not only that, but Buffy has subtext - everything is not just taken on face level. Nothing is black and white - there is ALWAYS something to debate about. ALWAYS something to talk about. If you're not smart enough, you don't get it. It also has the best comedy around and is not all sitcom-y. Also, Joss pulls such amazing plot twists on us - he plays with our minds. We can NEVER guess what happens on Buffy. It's like life, unpredictable and not like all those formulaic TV shows you see on TV.
And for all of those people who said that Buffy jumped the shark, I say, it NEVER did. OK, that's a bit long - as you can see, I am incredibly obsessed.
I am in high school and I am 14. I first watched Buffy from Season 3 - the last episode - Graduation Day Part 3. It didn't take a whole lot of persuasion from die-hard Buffy fans (in fact no one I know IS one) or flipping channels - hey, that's a great way to be hooked onto a show, but yeah. Anyway I lived in Malaysia before I moved here to Australia and Malaysia was really really really really slow in like EVERYTHING. It was 2 or more seasons behind in Buffy. Well, I didn't watch a lot of TV because of that. Obviously I'd heard of Buffy, everyone had, it was one of those cultural phenomena. Anyway I was a pretty major book buff ~ is there such a word? So, I happened along Buffy books in the bookstore. I first thought it was just one of those sci-fi, vampire things - which I 'm sorry to say, am not really big on. OK, great, so then I started reading novelizations on Buffy and got immersed in the whole Buffy verse and I was quite amazed. I was like ,'Wow, this is Good!'. So, I read more and more and more until I KNEW all these things about it, and still had not watched the show until a friend of mine, thank god for her, told me what time it was on, on TV. Unfortunately it was the end of the season - season 3! So I was like NOOO!! I have to wait a YEAR to watch the next season. Oh well, in fact I did. And it was the best most amazing years of my life. Then, I moved to Australia and Australia was in Season 6 unfortunately so my Buffy viewing is extremely screwed up. Then after I watched and laughed and cried over it, my TV screwed up and I could not watch Season 7. That is my total disastrous history of Buffy viewing and since I am 14- do not have the money to buy all the DVDs!!! It seems like everything is conspiring against me but I WILL watch all the seasons!! Anyway, I think Buffy is the best show ever, I AM SO obsessed with it, I talk about it everyday. I also try to convert people but am very unsuccessful. What I really like about the show is the subtext and the fact that everything isn't summed up into nice little packages like in Charmed. Oh, Buffy dies but then she comes back. Everyone is sad for one episode then there is an event that makes everyone reunite and be all happy again in 3 episodes. Life isn't like that. Buffy isn't like that. Buffy has real consequences, Buffy teaches you and the characters are real and complicated characters like you and me. Look for instance at the evolution of Willow. She grew up from that geeky girl she was in Season 1 to the Big Bad on season 6. That could only happen on Buffy and we look back on that long-ago girl much like we do on our own lives because we grew with her, we cried with her, we felt for her when she found Tara, we were sad when she died. That is the greatness of Buffy. And the show is incredibly clever – you can see this in the fact that Jonathan himself at the end of Season 6 voiced all OUR feelings – how Willow had changed so much. Not only that, but Buffy has subtext - everything is not just taken on face level. Nothing is black and white - there is ALWAYS something to debate about. ALWAYS something to talk about. If you're not smart enough, you don't get it. It also has the best comedy around and is not all sitcom-y. Also, Joss pulls such amazing plot twists on us - he plays with our minds. We can NEVER guess what happens on Buffy. It's like life, unpredictable and not like all those formulaic TV shows you see on TV.
And for all of those people who said that Buffy jumped the shark, I say, it NEVER did. OK, that's a bit long - as you can see, I am incredibly obsessed.
Lance, Kathryn
I am a professional writer of fiction and nonfiction (50+ books published). I had shunned the movie and the series because of the off-putting title, but something I read somewhere persuaded me to give it a try in the middle of the second season.
I was completely hooked from the first five minutes. The sheer wit of the show knocked me out. Yes, this is what high school was like! A horrible place where you are at the mercy of mean teachers and the "high rollers" (popular kids) with nothing to make life bearable but your own nerdy friends. I was so impressed with the acting and writing from the beginning, though eventually quit watching as the show became more a real show and less an allegory. I believe that the first three years of Buffy are a real high mark in the history of American television.
I am a professional writer of fiction and nonfiction (50+ books published). I had shunned the movie and the series because of the off-putting title, but something I read somewhere persuaded me to give it a try in the middle of the second season.
I was completely hooked from the first five minutes. The sheer wit of the show knocked me out. Yes, this is what high school was like! A horrible place where you are at the mercy of mean teachers and the "high rollers" (popular kids) with nothing to make life bearable but your own nerdy friends. I was so impressed with the acting and writing from the beginning, though eventually quit watching as the show became more a real show and less an allegory. I believe that the first three years of Buffy are a real high mark in the history of American television.
Lapinski, Stephen
I'm a typical sci-fi/anime/video game/comic book geek recently out of college and still trying to figure out what to do with myself. At first I watched Buffy during the first season. Thought it was interesting, although it didn't really click with me, since everyone seemed trying too hard to fit in with the normal people I was indifferent to in high school. Then Dawson's Creek joined the network, which established a seeming pattern of marketing to youth by making them feel important that I wasn't going to fall for. I started college the same year, so I didn't have the opportunity to watch it anymore between all the other shows I followed. Once I graduated, though, I happened across Hercules the Strong's fanatic rantings on aintitcool.com. I'd been hearing ads about it moving to UPN, and I also started getting fx on cable, so I could easily catch up through the reruns. The rest is, er, yeah...
I'm a typical sci-fi/anime/video game/comic book geek recently out of college and still trying to figure out what to do with myself. At first I watched Buffy during the first season. Thought it was interesting, although it didn't really click with me, since everyone seemed trying too hard to fit in with the normal people I was indifferent to in high school. Then Dawson's Creek joined the network, which established a seeming pattern of marketing to youth by making them feel important that I wasn't going to fall for. I started college the same year, so I didn't have the opportunity to watch it anymore between all the other shows I followed. Once I graduated, though, I happened across Hercules the Strong's fanatic rantings on aintitcool.com. I'd been hearing ads about it moving to UPN, and I also started getting fx on cable, so I could easily catch up through the reruns. The rest is, er, yeah...
Lattey, Kate
My name's Kate and I'm a 22yo BA graduate (English and Media Studies) living in Wellington, New Zealand. And I'm a Buffyholic. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has shaped my life and my identity. I don't know who I would be if Buffy had never existed, but I wouldn't be the person I am today. Not just because my ambition for a career in TV or film screenwriting was predominantly due to watching Buffy. Not just because I have Buffy merchandise, posters on the walls, and have styled (some) of my wardrobe after Buffy. Because the boundary between who I am and who Buffy was has been crossed so many times.
But to start at the beginning: I began watching Buffy in 1998 when my half-brother and his family moved over from Australia. They were lamenting that Buffy wasn't on TV over here, so when it did come on (starting with season 2) they convinced me to tune in. The first episode I saw was "When She Was Bad". It was great, but I remember it being "What's My Line part 2" that got me hooked to the show, because it was about then that TV3 took the show off the air. I only had a tape of that one episode and watched it over and over and over, meanwhile reading everything I could find on the 'net about Buffy.
When Season 2 finally returned, I tried to convince my friends to watch the show. Unfortunately "Ted" and "Bad Eggs" were the next two episodes, and being rather overly camp and silly in many ways, a lot of people gave up on the show. However those who stuck around for "Surprise" and "Innocence" never regretted it. I taped the rest of Season 2 and then for a long time had only 11 episodes on tape. I watched them over and over and over. I was hooked.
Buffy never got the respect of the networks over here, either airing edited at 7.30pm, or unedited at 11 pm on weeknights, or (as later) airing on a channel less than half of the country can get. The final six episodes of season 3 were run in a "Marathon" from midnight to 6am, when only the most dedicated fans would watch those superb episodes. Re-runs only played on Sky (cable). But there were still those of us who persisted, sweated blood to see those Buffy episodes.
But it wasn't until Season 4 that Buffy really became a part of me. Like Buffy, I went to University that year. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was a real struggle. My attempts to carve out an identity for myself were failing left, right, and centre. Some days I tried to think "What Would Buffy Do?" and couldn't work out why an answer to that never came. Until finally Season 4 premiered and I watched "The Freshman". And I realised something. Buffy didn't know what her identity was either. What Buffy would do changed from day to day, just like me. She got dumped in "The Harsh Light of Day" less than a week after I experienced nearly the exact same thing, right down to the guy using the same lines on me! Buffy and I started to merge. I began to understand that the construction of your identity is part of growing up. This is what "teen angst" is, not the endless romantic sagas of "Dawson's Creek". Despite the fantasy of Buffy, it was more true to life than any other show.
And when Season 5 rolled around, and Buffy suddenly had a little sister she was protective of, the bounderies between who Buffy was and who I am continued to blur. I have a little sister whom I deeply love. She can be a pain sometimes, but at the end of the day, she's my sister and I will always love her. I don't get a choice in that. And my sister and I bonded over Buffy. When Joyce got sick, and died, we sat nex
My name's Kate and I'm a 22yo BA graduate (English and Media Studies) living in Wellington, New Zealand. And I'm a Buffyholic. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has shaped my life and my identity. I don't know who I would be if Buffy had never existed, but I wouldn't be the person I am today. Not just because my ambition for a career in TV or film screenwriting was predominantly due to watching Buffy. Not just because I have Buffy merchandise, posters on the walls, and have styled (some) of my wardrobe after Buffy. Because the boundary between who I am and who Buffy was has been crossed so many times.
But to start at the beginning: I began watching Buffy in 1998 when my half-brother and his family moved over from Australia. They were lamenting that Buffy wasn't on TV over here, so when it did come on (starting with season 2) they convinced me to tune in. The first episode I saw was "When She Was Bad". It was great, but I remember it being "What's My Line part 2" that got me hooked to the show, because it was about then that TV3 took the show off the air. I only had a tape of that one episode and watched it over and over and over, meanwhile reading everything I could find on the 'net about Buffy.
When Season 2 finally returned, I tried to convince my friends to watch the show. Unfortunately "Ted" and "Bad Eggs" were the next two episodes, and being rather overly camp and silly in many ways, a lot of people gave up on the show. However those who stuck around for "Surprise" and "Innocence" never regretted it. I taped the rest of Season 2 and then for a long time had only 11 episodes on tape. I watched them over and over and over. I was hooked.
Buffy never got the respect of the networks over here, either airing edited at 7.30pm, or unedited at 11 pm on weeknights, or (as later) airing on a channel less than half of the country can get. The final six episodes of season 3 were run in a "Marathon" from midnight to 6am, when only the most dedicated fans would watch those superb episodes. Re-runs only played on Sky (cable). But there were still those of us who persisted, sweated blood to see those Buffy episodes.
But it wasn't until Season 4 that Buffy really became a part of me. Like Buffy, I went to University that year. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was a real struggle. My attempts to carve out an identity for myself were failing left, right, and centre. Some days I tried to think "What Would Buffy Do?" and couldn't work out why an answer to that never came. Until finally Season 4 premiered and I watched "The Freshman". And I realised something. Buffy didn't know what her identity was either. What Buffy would do changed from day to day, just like me. She got dumped in "The Harsh Light of Day" less than a week after I experienced nearly the exact same thing, right down to the guy using the same lines on me! Buffy and I started to merge. I began to understand that the construction of your identity is part of growing up. This is what "teen angst" is, not the endless romantic sagas of "Dawson's Creek". Despite the fantasy of Buffy, it was more true to life than any other show.
And when Season 5 rolled around, and Buffy suddenly had a little sister she was protective of, the bounderies between who Buffy was and who I am continued to blur. I have a little sister whom I deeply love. She can be a pain sometimes, but at the end of the day, she's my sister and I will always love her. I don't get a choice in that. And my sister and I bonded over Buffy. When Joyce got sick, and died, we sat nex