Today marks twenty years since Welcome to the Hellmouth, the first story in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series aired. This series was a kind of sequel to the 1992 Buffy movie which was notable for inverted the old horror movie trope of the blonde victim being the victim of monsters. This time, the blonde was the one who defeats the monsters. The film seemed a bit too frothy and camp, but the television series was far superior. It lasted a good seven years and left behind quite a legacy.
When it started, the show was a High school fantasy drama where a young slayer was coming of age.
These first three seasons drew inspiration from superhero comics like Spider-Man, where the hero had to balance their responsibilities as a hero with her responsibilities of being a student. The show could have stuck with this format, but it continued to evolve by allowing Buffy to graduate and move to College and then into adult life. It even got its own spin-off, Angel. It's legacy can be seen in various shows. Smallville would never have existed without Buffy, nor would the far inferior Twilight. When Russell T. Davies brought back Doctor Who, he ussed Buffy as one of the templates for creating a modern genre show.
The first time I watched the show was when School Hard aired on BBC2 in early 1999. I continued to watch the show on and off and became more drawn into it as time went on. I was probably a bit young for it at first, but I still enjoyed the monsters. As I got older, I understood the growing up message. Even now there are very few shows that have surpassed it.
Buffy herself was the ditzy blonde. She got a lot of character development over the years as she went from sassy schoolgirl to confused adult and finally to mature young woman. She even took on a parenting role in looking after her younger sister, Dawn.
Willow was Buffy's best friend, a girl who starts out shy but becomes a confident young witch. Alyson Hannigan did a brilliant job as the character.
Xander stays relatively the same, as an easygoing guy. He is more foolish in the early episodes but becomes a confident construction worker and is the voice of reason in the Scooby gang.
Anthony Stewart Head was also great as Giles, the Watcher. This was a role that caught people's attention and he had a wealth of roles after this.
The two vampires with souls, Angel and Spike. Angel started out noble but Spike went from being a villain to becoming one of Buffy's most crucial allies. His journey was so long it would take a while to put together all the content.
There were many other great recurring characters, including Cordelia Chase, Tara, Anya and many others. A lot of the actors can be seen in a great deal of other programs.
All in all this was a great show. I never quite got into the comics but the show was great. Hopefully the anniversary will see more Buffy related content coming out.
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