OK, I mentioned a couple of posts back that I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD recently. I'd actually only ever seen a few sporadic episodes of this show before, and while I really liked what I'd seen, I somehow just never did manage to make a point of catching it regularly. (This is, in fact, something of a pattern with me. It seems like I almost never get into a show until it's been on the air for at least a couple of years. Although even that's a big improvement: it used to be that it wouldn't happen until the show'd been off the air for at least a couple of years.). Anyway, after a little prompting from my sister (who's a big Buffy fan), I decided to make an effort to actually sit down and watch the thing in some sort of serious way. The problem is, despite the aforementioned pattern, I really do much prefer to start watching a series from the beginning, especially when it's as strong on continuity as I've been told Buffy is. The solution? Well, I discovered that you can get the entire first season on DVD for about thirty bucks. Yeah, that's only 12 episodes, but it still seems like a pretty good deal to me. So I shelled out for it, and I've been bingeing on Buffy for about the past week.

The first few epsiodes were only OK, but somewhere in episode 4 something suddenly clicked, and I found myself falling quite in love with the show. Which isn't too surprising, I guess, since it has many of the same qualities that appeal to me about Farscape. (And, no, I'm not going to go off onto that subject again. Well, not much.) For one thing, I've always particularly liked shows (and, for that matter, books and movies) which blend together different genres and styles of storytelling. The result, if it's done right, can be something wonderfully refreshing and different, something much more than the sum of its parts. And Buffy definitely goes in for that sort of genre-blending. It's got character-based drama. (Though, admittedly, not nearly so much in those first 12 episodes as in some of the later ones that I've seen. You've got to establish your characters first, after all, before you can effectively start putting them through the emotional wringer.) It's got action-adventure. It's got classic horror elements. It's got humor. Lots of humor. In fact, one of the things I like best about the show is its ability to be both funny and serious at the same time. You have to have good actors to be able to pull that off, and Buffy, fortunately, is blessed with an excellent cast who know just how to make it work.

The other thing that particularly impresses me about the show (and which, again, is also part of what appeals to me so strongly about Farscape) is its willingness to do things that are totally unexpected. There were a number of plot twists, just in those first 12 episodes, that took me completely by surprise, and a few others that doubtless would have if I hadn't known about them in advance. (One of the major disadvantages to coming into a show that's already got six year's worth of episodes, a huge fan base, and a spinoff series is that it's rather difficult to avoid spoilers.) There were some interviews and commentaries featuring the show's creator, Joss Whedon, on the discs, and according to him, this is very intentional. In fact, the entire concept of the show is based on him taking a horror-movie cliche -- the helpless blonde, female, teenage victim -- and deliberately turning it on its head. I love that sort of thing. I love having my expectations subverted. I love seeing new and different twists on old ideas. Indeed, the older and more jaded and cynical I get as a viewer, the less patience I seem to have with the predictable and the familiar. (I could go on about the last couple of episodes of Enterprise at this point in illustration, but this is supposed to be about Buffy, so I won't.)

The series also has some really good characters, which isn't just a desireable feature, IMO, but an essential one. I can believe in these people. The weirdness factor aside, I can almost believe I went to high school with some of them. My personal favorites, hands down, are Willow and Giles. Now, this is exactly what we need in today's world: more introverts on TV! I must, say, though, that I did find myself slightly disappointed by one particular character: Angel. I'm always seeing this dude in TV Guide and places like that, and he's always being described with words like "sexy" and "fascinating." So I was expecting something a bit more... special. I mean sure, I guess he's good looking enough, in that bland, generically hunky sort of way. But he does absolutely nothing for me, either appearance- or personality-wise. (On the other hand, I think Giles is absolutely adorable, so maybe my tastes are -- ahem -- a little idiosyncratic.) Oh, well, maybe he gets more interesting later on. But there is no doubt about it whatsoever: Nick Knight's status as the Sexiest Vampire on TV is quite secure.

But, hey, we can't all be Nick. I'm certainly not gonna hold that against the show. In fact, I hear that the season two DVDs are gonna be out in a couple of months... Where's my wallet?