Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Revisited

When I was thirteen or so, a new show hit the WB 11 lineup in my hometown of New York City. It starred a spunky, sporty gal named Sarah Michelle Gellar and was set in Anytown, USA (well, okay, Anytown, California), a place that proved itself to be a not-so-sleepy suburb under which lay a lair of nefarious vampires. Snarling, ghoulishly-faced, bloodstained vampires.

It, simply put, scared the shit out of me. As a growing teenager, I curled up in my chair at various stages of my life, sitting down to watch the latest exploits of the Slayer and her band of buddies.

It’s been years since I’ve seen Buffy, but now the show has returned to my radar via the ever-popular hulu.com, a site recommended to me by Chris that features streaming re-runs of old (and new) favorites. A bona-fide hulu junkie, I decided to give the show another shot.

The pilot, which is where I start, does not mirror the seat-gripping show I remember from my younger days. In its place is a campy, slightly clunky but incredibly earnest endeavor complete with unlikely effects, strained actin and a young Eric Balfour. Part of the episode, set in an unlikely all-ages bar called The Bronze, looks like an early-nineties music video, bad flailing-crowd scene and head-banging lead singer in baggy shorts and all. The vamps, while hideous in makeup, are too talky and less bitey and David Boreanaz displays all the trappings of a happy novice non-actor looking to break into the scene which, I’ve read, he was.

That said, I have to say I’m sucked (pun intended) in. Buffy is a likable character, a not-so-cool cool girl with a soft spot for the school losers and a healthy dose of resentment towards being an otherwise normal teenager saddled with an abnormal–and dangerous–task. Giles, her librarian mentor, is endearing with his stuttering speech and doe-eyed Willow, Allison Hannigan’s breakout role, is sweet in her shapeless gingham dress as she bumbles her lines.

All in all, Buffy proves itself to be a fun romp but, thus far, just that. But, with lines like “what’s your childhood trauma?” who can’t be won over?