John is watching Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time, and I am rewatching it for the 3rd or 4th time. It's my favorite season because I want Spike to be my manbitch for forever an' ever, and it because it's definitely the darkest.
But I was struck this time by the contrast between this season and Season 5. The Big Bad in Season 6 is...three nerds who make Battlestar Galactica jokes, drive around in a van with a Star Wars theme horn and have vague plans of world domination? Joss Whedon is making fun of his own viewers (which is hilarious).
The real enemies are the characters themselves. Xander's waffling, Anya's return to being a demon, Willow's addiction, Spike's 'bad boy who is oh so lovely in bed but makes you an emotional wreck"-ness, Dawn's kleptomania, and Buffy's depression, not to mention Giles leaving. The only one who remains relatively stable through the whole thing is Tara. She's the adult, but as with the other nuturing, mother figure in the Buffyverse, she is not a permanent figure. In the end, the nerds are a secondary issue; the Big Bad is Willow, consumed with grief and dark magic, who confronts each of them with their respective weaknesses during the last two episodes.
It's sad, and painful, and dark, but because of that, it makes the characters so much more human. It takes them down a notch or two from their superhero-ness, and really enables the viewer to relate to them, especially for those of us in our early 20s who are starting to deal with everything that the 'real world' throws at us for the first time.
1 comment:
Hey, on a completely different topic (although yay buffy season six!) I have a question for you, or a favor really. If I sent something to your school email would you get it? s'kind of important.
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