Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Part 2

Season 1

The first season finds Buffy and her mother attempting to start their lives over again in Sunnydale, after being forced to move from LA due to the trouble Buffy got into in the course of her Slayer duties. Buffy is hoping to shrug off the past and lead a normal life once again. In fact, one could say the entire series is about Buffy trying to live a normal life while dealing with forces most people never dream exist.

But of course there is a rhyme and a reason for Buffy ending up in Sunnydale, home to a Hellmouth that draws the supernatural like compost draws flies. Obviously normal is out of the question.

In what was really half a season, we are introduced to several characters that end up being important to Buffy's story. Buffy herself is contradictory, being a trendy, fun-loving, relatively unexperienced teenager as well as a strong, intelligent leader. Despite all that she went through in LA, she quickly finds that it's nothing compared to what lies ahead of her. The rest of the characters dip heavily into stereotypes, but are thankfully fleshed out during the season to reveal much more realistic personalities.

What was most amazing right from the very beginning is the way the show handles real issues under the guise of the supernatural. In this first season alone one can see storylines that discuss parental pressure, sex, dating, bullying, the dangers of the internet and child abuse. Most of all is the theme that nothing and no one is ever what they seem. These topics are treated within the context of monsters, magic, etc. but the messages still resonate for viewers in a very real way.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is one that the audience learns-- that normal or extraordinary, everyone deals with similar problems and issues over the course of their life, and there is no easy way out of that. How you deal with those things is what defines you, the same way it defines the characters you're watching on your TV.

And in the final episode of the season, Buffy is introduced to another continuing theme of the series: her own mortality. How she handles that speaks volumes about what things will be like in the rest of the series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Part 1

The last few months of 1997 I was 15 years old, a sophomore in high school. I fit the typical honors student/nerd stereotype for the most part, but I also had a love for all things spooky, mystical and otherworldly. I'd been reading about the supernatural ever since I was old enough to comprehend it, and at that point in my life I had been following Wicca for about 2 years.

I've learned over the years that once you get people talking about ghosts, astrology, vampires, fortune-telling, witchcraft, etc. they often are fascinated by some tidbit or another, and are rather impressed that you know of such things. At 15, I didn't talk to very many people and thought I would be judged harshly for being interested in such taboo topics. I was also often depressed as a teenager, so I would look for an escape in books, movies, TV-- anything.

Luckily that year the WB debuted a brand new TV show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember seeing a commercial for it and being very intrigued. I'd seen the movie of the same name and thought it fun, but not much more than that. When I saw that first episode I was hooked. The characters were my age, the dialogue was witty and more importantly, the show was about something I was passionately interested in.

I rarely missed an episode until years later when a job I had interfered, but even then I would often tape episodes and watch them the next day. The show made me feel like I belonged somewhere. I would imagine myself as part of Buffy's world, and dream up all sorts of ways that I would help them out, become part of their group. As you might guess, this did lead to my own little bout of fan fiction. It was actually the longest piece of fiction I had ever written, about the size of a small novel. That's how much Buffy inspired me.

It killed me when the show ended, but at the same time I knew it would just go downhill if it went on for too long. I think we all felt some of the pressure and tension that was around that last season. I still thought it was one of their best seasons ever, although I know other fans would disagree. The way they ended the series brought me to tears, as I'm sure it did many others. Over the years I collected the entire show on DVD and have watched it in its entirety at least 3 times.

This show has meant everything to me. It's taught me a lot about who I am and who I want to be. As Buffy grew into adulthood, so did I. I feel like that character has done more to shape me than anyone else could have done, and I know that watching the show got me through some really rough times. Now I'm starting a 4th run through the entire series to see what it has in store for me at this point in my life.