Bye bye Buffy!

As Toni rightly commented, finally managing to watch the 7th and last series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer merited at least a short entry in the blog!

You see, when 'Buffy' first hit the airwaves, myself and a group of friends had started watching it, slowly becoming, if not obsessed, very very interested (some of the group more than others hehehe!) Since the series was not available here, we'd patiently wait for the videos (no dvd's then!) and watch them together at someone's house.

From the start, I really felt myself drawn to the series - For those who don't know, Buffy is erm... a vampire/demon slayer. But she is also an ex-cheerleader and all-round popular girl who, really has this destiny thrust upon her. Sounds cheesy eh? In fact, the first materialisation of Buffy was as the 1992 film of the same name starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland which was cheesy! But it gave the creator Joss Whedon (a GENIUS) the idea for the TV series and a cult TV show was born.

The TV series (I'm not going to be too lenghty or the post will never end - click on this link if you want an overview - but there are spoliers)was drastically different from the film. Joss Whedon (did I mention that he is a GENIUS?)'s ideas and direction is legendary - he made Buffy and her friends come to life; he made you really care about the characters. And the writing was simply amazing. The fantastic actors he found, including Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy, Nicholas Brendon as Xander, Alyson Hannigan as Willow and Anthony Stewart Head as Giles (whom I watched in 'Pirates of Penzance' in London 2 years ago. I sat in the front row - heaven!) were perfectly cast and worked so well together it was difficult to believe that they weren't best friends in real life as well.

Anyway, years later, I somewhat lost touch with the Buffy group and they started watching the series online. however, I'd still meet them occacionally and watch the vidoes, and sometimes dvd's (which had been invented by then hehehe!)

Some episodes were simply unforgettable - My favourite ever of course being 'Hush', known as 'a special Buffy' where demons take away the voices of the inhabitants of Sunnydale (where Buffy et al live). So something like 90 % of the episode is without anyone talking - it is simply amazing, VERY scary... and absolutely hilarious! In 'The Body' a major character dies and I must admit, it really made me cry. It was very real and very well-handled - the filming, writing and acting were all top-notch I was really upset! And of course, how can I not mention the musical episode 'Once More With Feeling' in which a demon makes all the character burst into appropriate song?! The songs are all amazing and very catchy. Of course, the songs were written by the GENIUS Joss.

And so, we come to approximately 3 years ago when the first half of the 22 episodes came out on video. i went to the flat of one of the Buffy group members and watched the first 11 episodes. And then, well, it was just one of those things - I never watched the second half. It just never happened. I always said I'd borrow them off someone. But it just never happened. I tried video stores but they never happened to have series 7. And then, an off-chance remark to my brother (see my previous post) meant that finally, after over 3 years of studiously avoiding any mention of 'Buffy' on the internet; of closing my ears and singing 'la la la la' when the Pea mentioned anything to do with the last series; of making sure I changed the channel on the TV whenever one of the 'Buffy' actors appeared - finally I got to see how it ends!

And what a marathon session it was! As I was really sick on the Thursday and Friday, I only managed to watch a couple of episodes before I re-took to my bed. Most of the 22 episodes (I re-watched the first half too) were watched on the Saturday. I laughed a lot at the brilliance of some of the lines... and I must admit that more than a few tears were indeed shed when it was all over.

Next up... well, I intend to read aaaaaaaaalll the Buffy scripts from Series 1 to 7 - sad, maybe - but I can't wait!!!