Why "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is the Show We Should All Be Binging Right Now.

About a month before I was born, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar) premiered. It began as an adaption of a movie of the same name, but developed into something entirely new, something entirely different, and something far more relevant than the creators might have ever been able to imagine. The show depicts the journey of a young woman and her close knit group of friends (Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris and Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase). A journey of growing up and growing old, of standing up for what’s right and for what matters. Above all else, it depicts a journey in which the choices individuals make matter more than anything. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” isn’t just about a rag-tag group of friends saving their school or the world week to week, it’s about agency, something a lot of us have little ability to exercise right now. This supernatural story helped me grow up even though I watched it a decade and a half later. When I watch it today, it feels timeless and all too fitting to the world we live in today.

Buffy falls into the category of guilty pleasures because, while almost poignantly relevant, it is at its core, a hilarious romp of monster-of-the-week fun explored through the lens of becoming an adult. It is humorous and wacky. Conveniently placed furniture turns into the perfect vampire killing stake and Xander has a never ending range of shirts that could only be worn in the 90s. In other episodes its titular heroine blows up a demon with a rocket launcher because it couldn’t be killed by “any blade forged by man”. The show has a serious side too, with episodes containing intense takes on a hero’s ending and the proper way to say goodbye. This is encapsulated in Season 6 when Willow refuses to let Buffy go, resurrecting her after a heroic sacrifice and pulling her back from her well earned rest in literal heaven. Its characters’ dry wit and fast talking one liners are as good as modern shows like "Riverdale" or "Pretty Little Liars". The series spawned enough inside jokes and pop culture references to fuel the genre for decades. It’s dark and twisted, light-hearted and joyful, and undeniably, ecstatically, fun.

The creator of Buffy, Joss Whedon, also directed another cult classic and favorite of mine, "Firefly". It was through my love of that show that I took a look at his other works and found Buffy myself. It wasn’t long before I was binging through the seasons. I explored concepts of what it meant to make choices and explore your own power in the world alongside the reverently named ‘Scooby Gang’. Today, when I rewatch the series, the choices he made so many years ago continue to add relevancy to the show, even now. Similarly to "Firefly", the actions of the characters directly translate into lasting consequences. You don’t always know that things will simply turn out all right.

Buffy follows a familiar pattern week after week, but that doesn’t detract from the show. In fact, it manages to depict the same issues of growing up that many of us faced week after week as well. Whether it’s facing bullies, feeling like you don’t fit in, or fighting one's demons (inner and outer in Buffy’s case). We get to ask ourselves, along with the characters a question more appropriate than ever in the troubled times of 2021. Can we make a difference? Can we change the world for the better, or are we doomed to watch it devolve into the worst ending the future has to offer? Buffy likes to take these problems head on and maybe we should follow her lead. After all, she has faced down more than one world ending scenario and won.

Buffy is also hailed as a show that has meaningful characters who don’t always make the right decisions, and don’t always win in the end. Characters that are deeply flawed, but keep fighting anyway, because it’s the right thing to do. Buffy is a show that explores its characters inside and outside of romantic entanglements, making it more interesting than other shows on the air at the time like "Dawson’s Creek". Not that the romantic entanglements between Buffy and vampires like Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters) don’t shape the narrative, but they don’t necessarily control it.

I like that the characters of the show are given agency. They begin earlier seasons presented as archetypes that initially allow you to typecast them and then break your illusions of who they are, adding complexity while propelling the narrative. None of the characters that make it to the end of the show remain unchanged from where they started. Through loyalty and shared hardship, we are instead presented with an example of what a rag-tag group of friends can live through together, and survive.

As you continue to watch, you realize that while Buffy is about so many things, the ongoing narrative is about a group of friends that becomes family. Not stereotypically simply because they constantly spend time with each other (though they certainly do), but because they go through the hardest times of their lives with one another. They overcome challenges, face adversity and hardship, and explore what it means to grow up and find one’s purpose. They do it with encouragement, with kindness, and they bond with a fierce protectiveness that you can only find in found family. As we go through this year apart from our own families, found or not, I, as well as many others, find myself longing for that connection again. It remains hard to be connected, but that connection is more important than ever as we fight through hardship together. I am reminded of the powerful connections of the ‘Scooby Gang’ that propelled the characters forward to a better future.

In any discourse of the binge that is Buffy, it would be unfair not to mention the importance of Rupert Giles (Anthony Head). Serving as Buffy’s Watcher over the course of the series, and as her father figure, Giles provides knowledge and insight. More so, however, he provides stability. Buffy’s life is chaotic, but he provides her someone to fall back on. Giles, having once struggled to overcome his own less than savory past, is supported as much by her reliance on his calmness as she is by his presence. The relationship between the two is an inspiring part of a brilliant series because it shows a bond between separate generations that aren’t connected by blood. In a time where generations are often pitted against one another, it is heartwarming to see a show about teenagers and older adults working together instead of against one another.

In the end though, it isn’t relationships, generational differences or inspired and complex characters that makes Buffy the perfect binge that it is (though it certainly helps). Buffy is a binge for 2021 because it’s about choices that matter. Buffy faces challenges that put her in over her head time and time again, and while she is strong, while she has faith in what she must do, Buffy only finds success through her friends’ support of her choices. When Buffy rallies to a cause, her friends rally with her, for better or for worse. When it comes time to effect change, to truly fight in the face of odds too stark to believe, her friends stand beside her. As we all look forward to yet another difficult year, we must understand that while we have to make our personal decisions alone, it is only when we work together that we hope to achieve our biggest goals.

In the final arc of the series, we get to see the climax take this to the ultimate level. Buffy uses her gifts to include every potential Slayer in the world for the final battle. She calls on her friends and allies to face the apocalypse. Buffy is the perfect guilty pleasure of the 2020s because it leaves us all with a message that we should remember every day: our choices will always matter. No matter what the future can throw at us, we mold our own destinies if we have strength in the face of true challenge. Together, we get to make the decision to change the world.