The Slayer from LA

What made the Vampire Slayer from LA the most popular girl after Zina?

Joss Whedon has a series of films to his list of screen writes including Alien: Resurrection, Toy Story, and the 1990 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film. The film itself wasn’t a hit but the idea behind it obviously was as it is now one of the most popular and successful series on television. Joss’ idea was seen as opposition to the original horror films where the women were victims who ran away screaming from situations waiting for a man to come and be their hero. Instead Joss created a heroine who took the role of the typical male hero but who still had the vulnerabilities of her teenage counter parts. When the pilot for Buffy was released it was originally thought by critics to be targeting a teenage audience, but to every ones surprise it has become a popular series for vampire fans of all ages. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a success, now in its sixth season with the spin off Angel in its third season and two more spin offs in the pipeline. There is a large fan base all over the globe who not only follow the series but also have a large part to play in the success of the merchandise. Buffy is what Pierre Bourdieu calls ‘mediatization’ – the delivery or channelling of television itself as a mass media genre. This is true in the sense that every episode is made on a large-scale film budget with writers who are used to writing for the large screen.

You can’t bring your boyfriend home to meet your parents ’cause they just won’t understand and your parents will never understand you or your problems. It’s no accident that most of the demons are male and adult, or that the teenage demons often look like those we know. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a continual illumination of the transformations in the lives of young people as they are initiated into high school, college, and the realities of adulthood. Naturally, any series that is, on the surface, about slayers and vampires must be about transformation especially regarding the Angel/Angelus figure.

Each season, the writers have given Buffy a character-building crisis to deal with. She lost her virginity to Angel and he turned on her. She had to lead an apocalyptic battle with evil at her graduation ceremony. But they were only dress rehearsals for what she faced in series 5. In “The Body”, Buffy’s mum, Joyce, dies from an aneurysm. Joyce’s death was unexpected as she was nursed back to health from a brain tumour by Buffy (who also took on the motherly role of taking care of her supernatural sister Dawn). In this portrayal of death it is Buffy who discovers her mothers lifeless body face upwards on the sofa, as Buffy realises that her mum is dead her eyes turn from concern to terror. Buffy tries to revive her mum but doesn’t succeed and inevitably listen to the paramedics tell her, that her mum is dead and there is nothing anyone can do. This is difficult for Buffy to grasp as she is always in control of things.

In some cultures Buffy the Vampire Slayer may appear to be reflecting reality, but it doesn’t fit the Western culture, as we know it. Agreeably it does, just below the surface, represent every day issues and problems but as soon as you get past the issues that are explored and look closer at the surface of the program you will notice that it is unlikely that it represents any cultures reality. All the characters look like they have just walked off a modelling shoot, which in reality, yes, there are people who look like that at school but it isn’t everyone. Also there is a non-existing ethnic minority in the high school or social groups of Sunnydale. We see the odd person show up but the only recurring actor was a black man ‘Mr Trick’ who was a vampire. If looked at, this could bring up whole new issues about ethnic minorities, and black men in particularly being evil and shouldn’t be trusted. Therefore this representation of reality isn’t precise for the Western culture and I would even say it isn’t representational of America as they have a large ethnic minority.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer borders closely on the fantastic and realistic narratives making it difficult in places to depict the difference, but most of what we see in the show are representations of reality in a fantasy genre. I think it is popular with the teenage audience because of its depictions of teenagers struggling to mature and progress into the world I believe its popular precisely because it offers weekly solutions to the "vampire's plight" with humour and finesse.

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