
Buffy the Vampire Slayer at 20 - ohjeez
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/10/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-at-20-the-thrilling-brilliant-birth-of-tv-as-art
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brighteyes
I've been a fan of Buffy since it aired. It certainly was amazing.

At the same time, I feel the article goes a bit overboard with "birth of TV as
art". For example, you can go back earlier to Twin Peaks as raising the bar
for TV to the level of art. Other shows have gotten similar acclaim.

Not to diminish Buffy, it's a classic and it certainly transcended the "teen
entertainment" genre.

~~~
mistercow
Oddly, "what about Twin Peaks" was my immediate thought as well. I'm guessing
that if I were older, I'd probably have thought of an even earlier example.

Still, there was definitely a change from the way TV told stories in the 90s
to the way it tells them now, and I think that the article is right about
Buffy being an early part of that.

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pan69
I do remember watching Twin Peaks, it was certainly odd. Quite a few X-Files
episodes had this same oddness as well. I think X-Files also made the whole
supernatural thing popular in the 90's and I remember that by the time Buffy
came along it was pretty much hyping.

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sevensor
Well said. Everybody has demons. The conceit of Buffy is that the demons
exist, physically, and can be punched in the face. But they're still
metaphorical demons. It's brilliant.

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yarrel
One of the many reasons "Angel" didn't work. At all.

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walterbell
Season 5 has some corporate metaphors, after the production team was no longer
spread across Buffy, Angel & Dollhouse. Angel S5 is almost a standalone
series.

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sevensor
Didn't Dollhouse air years after Angel was over? I don't recall an overlap. Do
you mean Firefly?

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walterbell
I don't recall details, but the Dollhouse set was reused for the law office in
Season 5 of Angel.

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dragonwriter
_Dollhouse_ production didn't start until years after _Angel_ ended; if any
set was shared, it was sets from _Angel_ used for _Dollhouse_.

(Or Joss had access to an actual time machine, which seems unlikely.)

~~~
walterbell
My mistake. Looks like both sets were designed by Stuart Blatt.

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technofiend
Who can forget The Buffy Singalong? Considered one of the best Buffy episodes
written (by most top 10 lists), fans would attend a screening and sing along
with the show. I attended it in Houston and there were several hundred people
there watching it outdoors on a giant inflatable movie screen. Lots of fun if
you're into that sort of thing.

[http://www.geekpittsburgh.com/joss-whedon/buffy-sing-
along](http://www.geekpittsburgh.com/joss-whedon/buffy-sing-along)

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Kristine1975
It should have ended with the 3rd season. The 4th season was directionless,
the 5th season was ok, the 6th season again went nowhere (not to mention the
stupid magic-as-drug subplot and Tara's death), and that's when I stopped
watching.

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ghshephard
Tara's death is the only time I've literally screamed out loud watching a
television show. It was devastating. And absolutely brilliant TV - completely
made Willow's following behavior completely understandable.

Season 5, where Dawn appeared (confusing me to no end - I was like, hold on,
it's _impossible_ that i've missed an episode, but this is making no sense at
all...) shook things up and was great.

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tomjen3
I assumed I had missed something, so I went and looked it up and it spoiled
half that seasons arc. Still a great show.

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pmoriarty
Art is what you can get away with. -- Andy Warhol

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BrandoElFollito
Out of curiosity, why is such an article flagged on HN?

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Glyptodon
I think Buffy doesn't age that well, really. Most anything involving Angel is
especially bad.

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elastic_church
I watched the first episode of Buffy and thought Rick Astley was going to pop
out of a high school locker

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babesh
Bunch of horny teenagers and older people thinking their coming of age tv show
is art. Hello! There were great tv shows before that!

~~~
brighteyes
I think you might be a little too critical, but overall I think you're closer
to the truth than the article.

For example, Charmed [1] was on around the same time as Buffy, and shared many
elements (positive critical reception, fantasy used as metaphor for real-life
problems, strong female characters, etc.). I think it's hard to say that Buffy
is "the birth of TV as art" and Charmed isn't. More fair to say that both were
good shows, and influenced the genre.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charmed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charmed)

~~~
dragonwriter
Charmed is a _lot_ more stylistically conventional than Buffy. I don't think
it makes sense to call either "the birth of TV as art"—TV has always been a
medium for (heavily commercialized) art—but I think that there are substantial
contrasts between. Buffy and Charmed as examples and influences in TV-as-art.

