Buffy as a show was just as guilty of toxic masculinity, Buffy as a character is supposed to be the antidote, but Xander’s crush on her and subsequent jealousy of Angel is not cute, endearing or charming. He’s a dickhead, which plays off Cordy’s bitchiness, sure, but Willow’s too sweet and innocent and he really is condescending with her, not sweet. I can’t remember if he’s nicer when he and Willow cheat on Cordy and Oz, that hardly matters when he’s a total ass to Buffy for rejecting him and choosing Angel.
I actually hate him more than I’m meant to hate Angelus, who’s kinda cool comparatively to Angel, who’s a total fop, he’s not that “manly” when he’s good. In a way, it’s better he acts like a lovesick teenager since Buffy’s one too, but people still had issues with the age gap, there wasn’t an internet around to really bitch about it during the show’s airing but it’s been around long enough the Reddit forum finally got to have its opinion and I’m tired and no longer care. But I appreciate Buffy doesn’t mourn Angel that long. Dru’s kinda comical for a bad guy, the Spike/Angelus dynamic is fun.
The issue is, Buffy’s a victim of not only main character syndrome, (I know she’s not fighting alone all the time but she’ll harp on about it being all on her, and 97% of the time everyone’s primarily worried about her needs*) but battered victim-to-badass fighter syndrome too. It was cool back then, audiences find it less substantial now. I know she wasn’t entirely fuelled by victimhood and she’s a well-developed, fun character to start off with. Her complexities are clear, she’s not a drip, I don’t remember the movie that well but it doesn’t suck. What sucks is Joss is a sexist, racist asshole and he had us all fooled with Buffy. I know he may not have been behind the Spike/Buffy r-word scene, but the core of his misogyny is in his shows, and craftily masked behind supposedly sweet, dorky Xander who’s supposed to be a loveable puppy but who’s really an immature shithead. Or the major jock turns out to be gay (which plays as a cool joke when Xander accuses him of lycanthropy but then classic Xander’s all gay panicking in return lol not funny). The show was cursed with 90sitis and Jossitis and bad egg fans who kinda ruined it too. Fans who were totally cool with Xander, who doesn’t really ever improve. Cordy and Anya both bitch about his obsession with Buffy, and he’s either weird about Willow dating Oz or worse when she dates Tara. Because teen/early 20s Xander just wants to see girls make out. So that means Joss wants the same. Whatever shit Xander does, just imagine Joss being that way his whole life. I could forgive his shit if it was something he let go of but evidence suggests it never went away.
Buffy’s outfits make me lament losing my camisole/pencil skirt/see-thru tops/cute cardigans when I had the right bod for it. 90s fashion is so neutral and not even cringe. We haven’t evolved beyond it because it was actually cool by 1998. The makeup isn’t even that dated. The chunky crosses might be out, but the fits are still fucking cool.
Eliza Dushku isn’t as cringy as I remembered. I always found her little mannerisms kind of stupid and excessive but she’s cool, Faith’s cool. I don’t even feel mad at her for defecting, I like her with the Mayor, it’s fun. The stuff that used to make me mad is the most enjoyable shit.
Also, justice for Cordy and Riley, who were better characters than Angel and Xander. Honestly, I get why Angel leaves but the lack of actual chemistry he has with Buffy is kind of a joke, I think they went out of their way to make it a failed thing because it wasn’t right for Buffy, but it wasn’t without a bunch of problematic age gap issues. I still liked Angelus over Angel.
Buffy’s college experience is a lot like mine, thank Christ I had my own room even if I was sharing everything else, which sucked, having privacy at all was nice and a lockable room in college would be a privilege. (I think Tara has her own room and it’s huge and looks so cool). Not that I slept there much. I think I got used to staying up all night and sleeping through the day instead. I got my shit done, I don’t really know how.
Season 4 Xander is less douchey but still a douche. Willow’s a little insufferable with her “we have to be better friends to Buffy who’s not the world’s best friend to us”. Evil Willow is way cooler, that’s kind of the funny part, their evil counterparts are more entertaining. Giles still playing Watcher outside of the bounds of the Order means he gets to hang around but that video essay about Xander is right, he hasn’t any use in this season, really. Giles is worth keeping around, Xander would be dull without Anya playing off him.
Scratch justice for Riley. His insecurity is the major issue and it’s obvious early on, it’s literally not Buffy’s fault she’s objectively stronger and more experienced. Plus they have the whole “order/chaos” dynamic that constantly puts them at annoying odds. Yeah, Riley’s super annoying now I remember, he makes a lot of crap her problem because of his insecurity. She’s modest as fuck about it and overly apologetic. And I forgot Forrest is like Riley’s jealous of Buffy boy crush. He sucks. I see how slash fiction gets made it takes one vaguely homoerotic exchange between two attractive male characters and imaginations run wild.
And now Tara’s shown up she’s the one who should be getting justice. All three main characters are responsible for hurting their love interests, okay Willow didn’t deserve Oz choosing another werewolf over her and she only made out with Xander (who hurt Cordy who sincerely did nothing wrong, she was just overwritten to be pointlessly bitchy to Xander to justify his poor treatment of her, and Jesus does she get hard done by in Angel, justice for Charisma Carpenter). Anya being autisically oblivious to social norms and objectifying Xander overcompensates for his asshole behaviour. But Tara is another innocent bystander who gets trodden on by Willow’s insecurity and drug addiction. I cannot think of anything Tara does wrong. Xander screws over Anya, and she’s screwed over by the show and being taken out and left behind, and Buffy kinda screws over Riley. But Riley does act like a dick in the end. So does Buffy deserve Spike for a love interest? Spike didn’t suck until the show decided he should be extra “evil” to Buffy. Neutered Spike is fucking hilarious, he’s one of the best things about the show until the show had to “remind” us he’s a nasty vampire. Giles gets two love interests, one dies the other can’t live with the demon stuff. He has to leave Buffy (the show) which makes sense, season 6 is a tough watch, season 5’s okay but arduous with Dawn.
Dawn is affected by Michelle Trachtenberg’s weird slippage in acting ability. She can be great and terrible in the same episode, she’s not the worst character, but she’s thin as an actor. Crazily, she’s only three years younger than me. I keep forgetting how old this show is.
More to the point, fuck was music amazing around 1999/2000. Early 2000s pop culture and fashion was actually good, I noticed fashion’s not dramatically changed since then, we weren’t wearing a lot of stupid Y2K shit, nothing’s dated about it, Moby’s Play is a timeless album. Okay, we’d not shaken the casual racism, sexism and body shaming, but Buffy hasn’t aged like milk. This is still at its worst a watchable show.
Giles and Spike’s dynamic is fun, I completely forgot about it. I might see if I can find Angel and try watching it, I kinda tuned in and out, worst thing about that time was shit being on late at night, if you were out and didn’t have a VCR, you’d miss stuff. Of course it’s not on Netflix.
To be fair, the characters are all flawed and capable of hurting people, which is a good development thing, you have invincible people with fallible natures. Willow hiding Tara only makes sense in the homophobic hangovers we also suffered through back then. Every potentially gay character had to have a period of being “in” out of fear of reactions from people. Nobody was allowed to be gay back then.
Having said what I said about fashion, it’s a good thing to point out how easy it was to get away with “nudity” when you were dressing girls in tops with the least amount of fabric you could get a couple of head and shoulder shots and literally make them look fucking naked on a show for teens.
And I forgot how manipulative Willow is of Tara once they’re making spells, she’s still over confident and Tara plays along to win her affection but it’s actually kinda gross considering how innocently Tara behaves. She’s like a super shy version of Willow that’s too trusting and she grows up later but still, justice for Tara, she loses her mind. I get she’s a part of the gang early on. but she’s still an abused love interest of one of the main three characters. Once again, she does suffer a great deal for hurting Tara, she goes through it and learns lessons how Xander doesn’t, but people forget the power hungry, over-enthusiastic Willow who fucks up a lot.
The switcheroo episodes are really well done from Eliza and Sarah being clued into each other’s mannerisms and inflections. I think those kinds of body swap episodes only work if the two characters are neck-deep in the show and have worked together enough, it worked great on Red Dwarf only dubbing the voices made more sense, Chris was better at mimicking Craig. I usually hate mistaken identity stories or any ones where someone can’t prove who they are or they were framed and it takes too long for everyone else to figure it out, it’s an overdone soap cliche too. But at least this one takes a turn when Faith effectively beats the shit out of herself once she has a conscience. And they lean into the potential of Buffy and Spike much more than I remembered, either via Faith hitting on him or Buffy being under a spell, it’s hard not to feel like they had the most chemistry.
Anya being completely obsessed with Xander’s kind of sad and one note and not that funny. It’s amusing but the pair of them are filler content, Anya proves more use for being an ex-demon. Xander’s there because they can’t kill him off, but you think maybe they considered writing him out. Only… people liked him. It was oh, poor goofball Xander. Him fighting with Anya’s funnier than when he and Cordy fought except it’s still toxic, piece of shit Xander playing the victim to a shrew girlfriend, not him hurting someone by being an insensitive shithead.
I still don’t get this episode where Buffy and Riley can’t stop fucking and everyone ends up like traumatised kids. It’s creepier than half the other episodes, the house makes people stupidly horny and have orgasms by touching a wall, then they get all ashamed, and it’s just a dumb premise given it’s got something to do with abused kids I think. It’s the worst especially since it’s exploiting the premise of victims of abuse like that one episode of Family Guy where Peter got a prostate exam and acted like a victim. And a tree thing stops Buffy and Riley from being cockblocked, it’s just dumb. It’s supposed to be an indictment on religious abuse but it’s played so badly when the haunting is founded on teenage lust, then Willow’s just, “get the fuck over it”. So, they get mad. Sorry, it’s fucking icky when you realise Buffy and Riley are about to fuck themselves to death and this show is way too preoccupied with her sex life. That’s the worst part, everyone has to know when she fucks and who and how it messes with her life and theirs. That’s my issue with the show, I finally found one. This episode also seems to go for way too fucking long as well. What a meandering piece of shit, just for Anya and Xander to bond as a couple and for Buffy to be all, oh wow, creepy much. UUUUGGGH JOSS WHHHYY. Her fucking Angel screws him up, her fucking another guy makes her cranky and bummed and the third guy’s just a big dumb puppy who can’t deal with her being stronger and everyone has to know alllll about it because it’s Buffy, and she gets worshiped by these guys too so you’d think it was some suburban housewife coming up with this stuff. So, Joss was just obsessed with her being a teenage girl, and those types of shows were pretty egregious about depicting teen sex. Until Skins came out and made it straight up explicit. And they’ll argue shows about horny teens are marketed to horny teens but adults tend to watch them more. And we didn’t technically “grow up” with them.
I also forgot the Initiative lab is a lot like the one from Cabin in the Woods. And Giles sings and plays guitar before the musical episode. (Anthony Head makes a mean Frankenfurter too.) He plays pretty hokey songs but it’s adorable when people catch him in the act.
Putting Riley and Angel in the same room, you realise they both fucking suck and Buffy can do better. She bickers with Angel in a crossover episode worthy of inclusion in the “previously on” section, they really had absolute certainty all fans would eat up Angel. I think it was a good show but it’d probably bore me after a while. Xander doesn’t deserve the big hug they have after the gang’s Yoko inspired breakup. The big breakout at the Initiative proves the plot armour clause for Giles, Willow and Xander. I don’t think modern streaming watchers appreciated that shows used this for decades to justify not losing main characters. The only way to avoid the accusation is to not put them in absolutely perilous situations like they did with Game of Thrones. Better Call Saul actually managed to put its mains in that position and still evoke tension despite you knowing it’s a prequel.
Ugh, and Joyce is hot, don’t get me wrong, she’s a hot TV mom but the way she ends up seducing Xander twice is pretty crass. He always has to be the good guy turning her down but it’s not without temptation. Funny as Band Candy is, it’s good they didn’t pair up Joyce and Giles, it was too obvious an idea as well, so they have a shared custody arrangement while Giles plays father and Buffy has to have daddy issues from being left behind. Daddy issues plus strong female lead is incredibly tired. I think Wonder Woman’s the only heroine who didn’t have a built in missing dad complex.
Xander gets to play Renfield in the Dracula episode and it’s quite appropriate, it’s a cute episode. Everyone’s kinda cute with their dialogue full of Jossisms, but the argument you could put any line in any character’s mouth and they’d be indistinguishable is a solid one. Firefly was quippy, too. I’m kinda considering doing a rewatch after this.
Dawny…. Dawny, Dawny, Dawny. She’s an annoying little sister. That’s basically her role. I don’t think she sucks that hard, she is actually pretty young in this. I forgot how much time they spend building up the premise she’s an anomaly. Everyone defends her existence but Buffy, it’s almost like she’s the new Buffy and everyone loves her unconditionally. Buffy does get some blowback later, like the show needs her to go down several pegs for half an episode.
But she’s right about Dawn being stupid and annoying and hard to protect, Dawn should know better about vampires and her fuck ups aren’t excusable, she’s living with the Slayer, you tell me at fourteen to watch my mouth around monsters, I’d respect you, and that’s even when I was in my “God, I wish Brad Pitt would bite me/Lestat’s a goddamn hero” phase. I hero worshiped Claudia, by the way. Really, it’s not a character issue, it’s a dynamic issue with them being typical sisters. Maybe shit felt kind of directionless and repetitive and Buffy saving Dawn all the time was tiresome.
I don’t love Buffy’s fits this season, halter tops were still a thing but hers weren’t the best colours. I think I loved Tara and Willow’s vibes more.
Anya’s also a bitch for having her own place and demanding Xander get her a condo. I think they deserve each other.
Dawn’s actually a bit too childish, like not a teenager, I think Joss thinks 13/14 is baby mode then 15/16 is adult mode (and legal). I don’t know why I thought it took ages to acknowledge Dawn’s killing Joyce. She’s also annoyingly clumsy too. Like she can’t do as she’s told and that’s the whole issue with her so now I get why she’s so fucking annoying. She runs her mouth off and doesn’t take the hint and I think this is just what Joss thinks a little sister does. I was a little sister and yeah I was annoying but I wasn’t this dumb. Like I drop shit but not every . other fucking second. Goddamn it they lean so hard into making an absolute, inept little brat out of her, I know it’s to justify Buffy’s hatred of her but still, we don’t like her and why would be want her protected by now? Buffy treats her like a threat, you don’t feel that bad for Dawn and you want her to go away. Then she comes off all evil and it’s like, damn fuck this noise. And she drives a wedge between Riley and Buffy, which is already massive and annoying and needs to be terminated.
But shit’s also been extra Peaksy, you forget the influence it had on everything after.
Glory’s just a more annoying and racist version of Faith. And Ben’s kind of a jerk all on his own considering he’s causing the army of mental patients. Then he brings more shit to deal with it. Ben and Glory suck together and separately.
Okay, Dawn doesn’t suck that much, and it didn’t take that long to get to her knowing she’s the key. It’s likely I had to watch this in real time and not binge time so it seemed to go on forever. But I have binged other shows and assumed it took ages to get to certain storylines. I also forgot this is seven seasons and the last two weren’t that great. Dawn sticking around doesn’t make that much sense once she’s redundant, she’s Buffy’s ward. And eeeww Xander loves Dawn has a crush on him then is obscenely offended thinking she likes Spike. But again, Dawn gets herself in the shit so often it’s annoying, I think that’s the stupid part, she’s important but she’s an irresponsible kid, so they don’t talk to her and she gets herself in more shit. By now, everyone’s doing dumb spells and making shit worse and they learnt nothing.
The last episodes of season 5 are really good. Dawn’s actually not so insufferable you want her to die, I still think they could’ve ended the show with this episode and it would’ve been totally fine. Everyone’s kinda done their full arc, Xander’s mostly redeemed and Anya’s human enough and they get engaged, effectively, that’s nice. Willow hits peak powers and saves Tara. Giles embraces his inner baddy and kills Ben. Dawn actually offers to sacrifice herself and Buffy finally realises her purpose and effectively fulfils it. And the Buffy Bot gets to be useful. Spike finds his humanity too and mourns Buffy, he doesn’t get to be with her. Why not end it with the shot of her gravestone? It was the last WB episode. Overall, it’s a very well structured, well paced season, it sucks it was followed up with two mediocre ones.
I am actually so reluctant to put on season 6 now, even if it has the musical episode, I think so much of what happens is characters making poor decisions, like Sons of Anarchy or Peaky Blinders, at some point it’s impossible to root for characters who are active in their own downward spiral.
*except when she needed to stay dead and they couldn’t let her, I did identify with that A LOT.
