Greetings,
For the most part, I think that movies should just be the movies that they are and nothing more. Unfortunately, if money could possibly be made, certain people like to take movies and . . . do stuff with them. Stuff like sequels and remakes and the popular turning them into a TV show. Actually, in recent years, there has been more turning old TV shows into movies, and that doesn't really go well either. But let's go back to a time, quite possibly the only time, when someone took an okay movie and turned it into a great TV show. That would be Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
In case you don't know, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer was a comedy/horror film released in 1992. I don't think it did terribly well, but it did develop a cult following. Don't things like this always. Anyway, in 1997, it became a TV series. The show had a darker feel, but it was not short on laughs either. It was just more dramatic than the film. It starred my girl, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and now she will always be known as Buffy whether she likes it or not. I suppose it could be worse.
So, though I do find many problems with this show, mostly due to my Christian upbringing, I did like it a lot. Well, I liked it enough to devote one of my top ten lists to it. Since I don't feel like giving some long drawn out explanation of the plot and the characters, and since I will be giving spoilers, I suggest you only read this if you have watched Buffy . . . a lot. So here we go. Top ten Buffy, the Vampire Slayer episodes.
#10. "Helpless"(Season 3) - We're coming up on Buffy's 18th birthday, but she feels sick. Really sick. Too bad, because she has to fight a very strong, very mad vamp. That's short for vampire. Turns out, there is a calculated reason as to why she is sick. This is one of the episodes where we really get to see that she and Giles have a relationship that goes beyond that of just slayer and watcher, and it is touching yet heartbreaking to see.
#9. "Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Season 1) - Here we have the first episode. Now in the Buffy movie, the plot is that she finds out she is the slayer and begins to do her work as such. In this pilot, she is already the slayer and has just arrived in a new town, Sunnydale. So it does not do what a lot of pilots for movie based TV shows have done in the past, which is to simply recreate the film only shorter. If for no other reason, that is why this one made the list. But it was also a great start for the show.
#8. "Chosen" (Season 7) - From the first to the last, here we have the finale. Of course, I was sad to see Buffy go, but this final episode was done very well. They did have some good closure, some of which was opened back up again when the new season of Angel started (Hey, Spike! What is up?)), but they also left the appropriate amount of question mark for the characters and their futures. And I love the final look we get from Sarah Michelle here. Perfect.
#7. "The Dark Age" (Season 2) - Up until this point, we have seen Giles as a very straight-laced, 'by the book' man. Turns out, though, that he has quite a dark past involving some of his old friends, and it comes back to haunt both him and those about whom he cares. It was another rough fight for Buffy, but I think this is when she began to realize how much Giles is an actual person, flaws and all, and not just her watcher. Also, the thought of Giles being a bit of a bad boy in the past sounds pretty good to me.
#6. "The Body" (Season 5) - This season was pretty dramatic concerning Buffy's mom, Joyce, and her health. All of this culminates with her death in this episode. It's very different from the rest. There is no music, and this was one of the few times when Buffy literally could not stop something from hurting someone she loves. It also really showed off the acting abilities of all the cast members, Sarah Michelle especially. Love her or not, this episode proves that she is a truly gifted actress.
#5. "A New Man" (Season 4) - Okay, here we have another episode surrounding Giles. This time he is revisited by one of those aforementioned old friends, Ethan Rayne. This dude is pretty bad, but he was always very entertaining. Anyway, he convinces Giles to have a drink with him where he slips a little something into that drink. Don't worry. It's not what you think. Nope, Giles just wakes up the next morning feeling and looking very . . . different. The whole thing is pretty funny, but nothing more than the interactions between Giles and Spike, acted out brilliantly by Anthony Stewart Head and James Marsters. Hilarious!
#4. "Once More, With Feeling" (Season 6) - I discussed this episode in another post about TV musical episodes. Yes, this would be Buffy, the Musical. I think this is one of the "love it or hate it" episodes. Personally, I really like it, some moments more than others. I do have to say how good the songs were, thanks to Joss Whedon, who it appears is also a great songwriter. He is gifted. And some, SOME, of the cast members actually do have very good singing voices. So it all worked out pretty well. I don't know why they never did a musical episode of Angel. You know Christian Kane was probably begging for it.
#3. "Who Are You?" (Season 4) - Being an actor or actress means embodying someone who is not you. After all those years of playing Buffy, we knew how Sarah Michelle did it. We knew how she spoke, her mannerisms, all of it. And when Miss Eliza Dushku came along to play Faith, we learned her ways pretty quickly as well. But we weren't the only ones. Apparently, those girls were paying attention to each other as well, because, in this episode, they had to switch characters. I must say, I thought they both did a great job. And it was a lot of little things you could catch if you had been watching closely. I had been, so I got it.
#2 "Passion" (Season 2) - After turning evil again, Angel starts to kill people. Boo! One person he kills is Jenny Calendar, school computer teacher and girlfriend of Giles. Yay! Okay, let me explain that one. I have always had a little crush on Giles, so you can only imagine why I enjoy this episode. I am horrible. Kidding aside, I must say that David Boreanaz was fantastic in this one. Yep, definitely like him better evil. He's a lot less boring that way. A lot. (P.S. I actually love Robia LaMorte, the actress who played Jenny. She's awesome!)
#1. "Pangs" (Season 4) - My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, so naturally, my favorite episode of Buffy would be the Thanksgiving episode. Everyone is gathered at Giles' house for dinner, even Spike, all nice and tied up. That's right, ladies! Unfortunately, we must also fight the spirit of an angry Native American. What a coincidence. Seriously, though, this situation leads to some hilarious exposition from Spike. As a partial Native American, I probably should not have sided with him on the argument, but he actually was making a lot of sense. But, all in all, this episode had everything we loved about Buffy all there for the taking. Oh, so it was like a good Thanksgiving dinner. Genius!
So there you have it. It has been nearly ten years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air, but these episodes do hold up and are entertaining to this day. There have been rumors flying around about a movie, but I don't know. If they can do it and do it right, I say go for it. If not, please back away from the franchise slowly.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
