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Television Media

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Officially Over 715

Posted by chrisd from the no-annoying-kennedy-series-please dept.
tstoneman writes "Say it ain't so! Yahoo has an article says how SMG herself confirmed the rumors of the series demise. Even though it is clearly in its twilight, it's still one of the vest best shows on TV. It however points to the fact that a spin-off will emerge, hopefully one that is more successful than Angel."
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Officially Over More

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Officially Over

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  • first post (Score:4, Funny)

    by Whitecloud ( 649593 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:09AM (#5392971) Homepage
    Perhaps a more '2000' reality based vampire show is in order, where the vampires vote each other off the show :)

  • Somewhat glad... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tmhsiao ( 47750 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:12AM (#5392987) Homepage Journal
    After dealing with some sub-par allegory and poor storytelling in the third to sixth seasons, I'm kinda happy that the series will end with this season, where the writing has appeared to improve despite Joss Whedon's attention to Firefly.
    • After dealing with some sub-par allegory and poor storytelling in the third to sixth seasons,

      Woah, woah, woah. Back up.

      Buffy came in as a mid-season replacement, so you are saying you only thought the show was up to par for a season and a half!? Only to "appear" to improve this year? Why do you even care enough to post here?

      Also, for the record, SMG's decision to leave is not an official declaration that the show is ending. They might have to take the name "Buffy" out of the title, but if Whedon, Espenson, Noxon & Fury are still on board, it's still going to be better than pretty much anything else on broadcast TV. Several cast members, including Alyson Hannigan & Nicholas Brendon, are signed on for two more years of BVTS, but are not signed in any way to any spin-off. This means that if Mutant Enemy wants to keep the other two of the big stars of the show locked in, they gotta find a way to continue the series with a new slayer. (It probably won't be Faith, as Dushku has already signed to star in a different show.)

      I'm so fucking sick of all these "go out on top"/"don't jump the shark"/"Don't overstay your welcome" jackasses calling for the show to end while it's still good. The fact that the final two seasons of X-Files were horse shit did nothing to diminish what a great show it was in its prime. If a long-running show has even the potential to be good, I say keep producing it as long as people are willing to watch. Sometimes shows bounce back from slumps. Some of the best episodes of Cheers and M*A*S*H were made after the shows went through major cast changes.

      Those of you who dig the show, keep hope alive.

      • Talent wastage... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Goonie ( 8651 ) <[robert.merkel] [at] [benambra.org]> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:14AM (#5393359) Homepage
        The point is that what could Whedon and co be doing if they weren't writing yet another series of Buffy?

        Eventually all the things that can be done within the confines of a series, get done, and the series gets stale, particularly on character-driven shows like Buffy. (Law and Order, for example, is easier to sustain because it doesn't depend so much on character, more issues which they often pretty much rip out of the newspaper). With Buffy, they have done well to sustain things by letting the characters grow up, introducing and killing off other characters, and so on, but, still, it would be much easier to write for a new series where there's still room to flesh out the characters and play with new relationships, and produce better results.

        So don't just think of what you're gaining from the umpteenth series of your favourite show, think of what you're losing by having your favourite writers struggle to take the characters places we haven't already seen before.

    • Uh, pass the crackpipe. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by eatenn ( 572604 ) <ennteeNO@SPAMlocalgod.net> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:06AM (#5393323) Homepage
      The third season? I realize that it's personal opinion, but how can you say the THIRD season was bad? I can understand a complaint about the fourth season (when the season story-arc kind of sucked, if only because it was poorly executed). And the sixth season was darker than usual and perhaps out of the show's character... But the third season was arguably the best!

      A brilliant, three-dimensional villain who wanted to become a giant snake and eat people... but who had hangups on germs and profanity. A slayer who was destined to rid the world of vampires and got a taste for killing people instead. And what about Buffy and Angel's relationship? It had survived monsters, demons and an apocalypse or two, but in the end it couldn't survive the sobering truth that ultimately, they just weren't compatible.

      It's these grey areas that make the show so brilliant. The bad guys aren't bad for no reason, the good guys have their weak moments, and the romance is relentlessly true-to-life. No other season represented that better than the third, IMO. It's out on DVD [amazon.ca] now, btw.



      Plus, females get fingerbanged by Hollywood. The only thing they're good for, it appears, is to be rescued. I don't know about you, but female empowerment is sexy :)

      • While significantly stronger than most of the subsequent seasons, the third season is marred by a couple of issues.

        The Mayor's character, while well-quirked and fleshed-out, never really had any ambitions beyond turning himself into a giant snake. The Master wished to free himself, Angelus wanted to foment chaos, and even Glory wanted to escape the mundanity of this plane of existence. But for all the buildup, for all the anticipation for what the Ascension was to be, turning into a giant snake was a bit of a letdown.

        Faith's turn to darkness wasn't so much a spiraling descent more than a flip of the "Let's turn her insane" switch. The problem with this particular facet of season three is that from "Consequences" on, we're to assume that (at least according to what's presented and Angel's somewhat authorial edict) Faith has "got a taste for killing" following the accidental manslaughter of the deputy mayor--it's this lame reason that she tries to strangle Xander in that episode. The writers decided to ignore the more compelling (and more foreshadowed) reasons Faith could turn to the dark side.

        While you might find the Buffy-Angel romance of season three a prime facet of season three, the execution of it showed that the then multiplying writing staff had some trouble deciding what their week-to-week status was. One week, Buffy would breakup with Angel, the next they'd be all over one another. It got so melodramatic, they parodied themselves in "The Zeppo."

        All of these are minor cracks in the veneer of season three. The main issue I can't really forgive it, despite the general fun of the villainous Mayor, is the failed metaphor that the writers try and foist upon us for the season finale. When faced with the prospect of losing the world or losing her boyfriend, she chooses to risk her own life--the life of the only person who's really capable of preventing Apocalypse--to save her lover. Despite the touching scene at the end where Giles hands Buffy her diploma, the two-part "Graduation" shows that Buffy is still very much a petulant child, and not at all ready to "graduate" to the responsibilities and sacrifices of adulthood.

        Sheesh. I'm a geek...

  • The really shocking thing... (Score:4, Funny)

    by astrashe ( 7452 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:15AM (#5393012) Journal
    ...is that they're making a sequel to the Scooby-Doo movie.

  • Freudian Slip (er, vest?) (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pyrosophy ( 259529 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:15AM (#5393014)

    After the picture on the site it's linking to [yahoo.com], I might be thinking "vest" too... and other words that end in the sound made by "est"...
  • it's still one of the vest best shows on TV.

    I perfer SMG in blouses, thank you very much. especially ones that does not block NIR.

    how in the world do you mistype that anyway? I mean, it's not like "vest" is a more commonly used word than "very," and "vest best" is not a alliteration so it presents no artistic value.

  • She's killing Buffy so she can make more Scooby Doo movies? This season doesn't feel like it's the end of the story. It's too soon to call it quits. Besides, look at the movies that SMG has made. They're all crap. She clearly should not be allowed on film, unless (maybe) it's a Buffy movie. Note that she said "in this incarnation" (though she could have been referring to the comics. Oh, well. I blame Prinze for this. And cancer.

  • On slashdot? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by YahoKa ( 577942 )
    Ok, is it just me or is buffy totally not a geek show. No geeks I know watch(ed) it, and I dont watch it. So what the hell is this doing on the geek site slashdot?

    Of course, i could be wrong... any geeks here watch it?

    • Re:On slashdot? (Score:4, Funny)

      by geeber ( 520231 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:31AM (#5393112)
      I love it when personal anecdote trump statistics.

      No geeks I know watch it.

      Therefore, buffy can't possibly be a geek show.

      Never mind the fact that the show's cancellation was posted to Slashdot.
    • Me and the wife are geeks. We've watched it for years. It was/is a great show. Funny, interesting, clever. If it had been anything but vampire slaying, SMG and AH would have been nominated for Emmys years ago.(They wouldn't have won because of their age, but they'd have been nominated.)

      I even bought the cast album of "Once More, With Feeling", the musical episode.

      Now if Joss can convince ED to spin off ... Yeah!

    • Re:On slashdot? Sure! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by LoadStar ( 532607 )
      Ok, is it just me or is buffy totally not a geek show. No geeks I know watch(ed) it, and I dont watch it. So what the hell is this doing on the geek site slashdot?

      I consider myself a moderate geek, and I watch Buffy (and it's sibling show Angel). And you know what? As I write this, I can't for the life of me say exactly what hooked me and keeps me coming back for more.

      Of course part of it is the fact that the show raised the "stunt" episode to a new art form. "Hush" used silence, rather than dialogue, to tell a story, and used that silence to set a singularly creepy feeling to the episode. "The Body" was one of the best portrayals of the human reaction to a sudden loss of someone close. "Once More With Feeling" told a story in the form of a musical, without being even remotely corny or over the top - the musical numbers just flowed into the dialogue naturally.

      Another part of what attracted me to the show is what attracted many people here to Farscape - the writing. On the whole (excepting the odd clunker episodes that every series has) Buffy has some of the best writing on TV - enough to make you forget the patently - and by design - absurd concept for the show.

      But in the end, Buffy is one of those shows that unless you watch, you just don't and won't get what the fascination is with the show.

      Strangely enough, it seems to me that Buffy is just one of those shows that ratings just cannot begin to indicate how popular the show really is. Compared to shows on the larger networks, Buffy's ratings are not great (to put it mildly) - yet the announcement that it was coming to an end made headlines on virtually every major news source, and will be the cover story on next week's Entertainment Weekly. Obviously, it must be a big enough story and have enough people that care for it to get this much attention.

      Ah, well... all good things must come to an end, I suppose. Hopefully we continue to get more stories and shows from the Buffyverse (while continuing to realize the mistake of Star Trek, that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing).

    • Re:On slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Golias ( 176380 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @02:18AM (#5393671)
      Of course it's a geek show!

      There is no program on American prime-time TV that comes closer, in content or tone, to Japanese animation:

      A young school girl is a chosen warrior to fight vampires and demons. She has friends who use magic to help her. Comedy, melodrama, and action are freely mixed within almost every episode. Most of the stories are alegorical tales about growing up. There were even several cases of girls being attacked by tentacles, and Buffy was nearly raped by a disembodied demonic spirit two weeks ago, so you even have similarities to the Hentai stuff.

      How could there even be room to question it? Buffy, in essence, is live-action anime. What could possibly be geekier than that?

  • Vest Best (Score:4, Funny)

    by jayhawk88 ( 160512 ) <jayhawk88@gmail.com> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:26AM (#5393066)
    Yes, I couldn't agree more. No show has done more for vest wearing in the past 50 years than Buffy the Vestpire..er, Vampire Slayer.
  • I hope Gellar's salary for seven years of Buffy was pretty good, because, truth be told, I can't see her movie career lasting her very long. I mean, crossing over to a movie career from TV is hard enough as it is. Doing it when, frankly, one of your main assets is that you're young and sexy just doesn't seem like a long-term career move. It's not as though she isn't already typecast. And I just can't see her movie career hitting it in the handful of years she has left as a really bankable star. Quite frankly, I think she'd have made more money with two or three more seasons of Buffy. Then again, one doesn't have to read too many interviews with her to get the idea that she's not the brightest crayon in the box.

  • Perspective (Score:5, Funny)

    by KFury ( 19522 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:33AM (#5393127) Homepage
    The only reason the show is going to be 'respun' after Sarah leaves is because she's the title character and a Buffyless Buffy has to be called something else.

    Sarah's leaving, it doesn't mean the franchise is closing down, though it's hardly surprising that she'd want to spin it that way.

    Me, I'm secretly hoping for a crossover spinoff from Buffy and Enterprise, where a new slayer named Gargravarr rises up in The Fray's post-slayer universe, and travels by starship from world to world to (and this part's key) alphabetically insult, and then slay, every demon in the known universe.

    Things get interesting in the series's two-hour pilot (which happens to also be it's season finale) when she crosses paths with, and consequently teams up with, Malcolm Reynolds and crew. The finale (aired in week two) centers around a final confrontation with the Big Bad: the mysterious yet ugly Reavers.

    If only TiVo made new shows based on the ones I like...

  • More successful? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EverDense ( 575518 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:34AM (#5393130) Homepage
    "It however points to the fact that a spin-off will emerge, hopefully one that is more successful than Angel."

    More "successful" does not mean "better".
    Hell, Survivor was a "sucessful" show, but it was basically mindless voyeurism.
  • ... will be back from the dead
  • Just got hold of the first season for this, as well as Farscape, and now that I'm starting to really get into them (believe it or not,ye doubters, Buffy is actually a very decent show), they go and @#$@#$@! cancel them. Argh, i say, ARGH!

    As long as they don't cancel Toonami, I should be able to keep from going on a killing spree. But if that puppy goes......Hulk Smash!!!!!

  • Half Life of television shows (Score:5, Interesting)

    by snitty ( 308387 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:42AM (#5393166) Homepage
    It would be interesting to do a study on how long shows last. I can guarantee that some shows aren't terminated based on falling ratings, but rather the actors stopping (Seinfeld, ST:TNG, Buffy?) While some shows seem to keep on going, like the day time dramas. Is the length of time a good show is on inversely proportional to the ratings? Does the same hold for game shows like Price is Right, or Family Feud?

    • 7 Years is the magical number (Score:5, Interesting)

      by alexhmit01 ( 104757 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:33AM (#5393465)
      From what I've read, a show really needs 5 years to go into syndication, with improvements up to 7 years. As a rule, the studios don't make much money on the first-run of the show, the profits are in syndicating it afterwards. So while Fox wasn't making money off WB/UPN (probably were with UPN, who overpaid to get a hot franchise), it is making money licensing it to its FX subsidiary and the weekend syndication rights.

      Once 7 years are complete, the studio has no incentive to "subsidize" the production of the show, which is why most successful shows die at that point. The actors get over compensated for 7 years, which they wouldn't past that. As a result, the actors leave, because it stops being worth it.

      No specialized knowledge, just parroting what I've read... feel free to correct if you're "in the industry" and can correct where I'm wrong.

      Alex

      • No, no, it all makes sense... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Grendel Drago ( 41496 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @03:20AM (#5393966) Homepage
        Wow, seven *is* the magic number. Star Trek: TNG had seven seasons. DS9 had seven seasons. Even Voyager had seven seasons. Now Buffy. That's kind of frightening.

        There are always exceptions, of course. Star Trek: TOS is in syndication still, despite only having three seasons. Of course, those were 29/26/24 episodes, unlike the twenty-ep seasons we're stuck with now. It's almost like four seasons of modern TV... not even counting the fact that each ep was fifty-two or fifty-five minutes long instead of forty-two.

        I suppose it makes sense, though it puts a mean limitation on the medium. Then again, what shows haven't sucked after seven years? I haven't gotten to the last two seasons of X-Files, but I heard it got pretty dismal in the last two years...

        --grendel drago

  • Angel Rules (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:42AM (#5393168) Homepage
    Angel is a great show that really came into its own once BTVS moved to UPN. Its probably not doing well because the WB doesn't advertise it(alla firefly) and no one knows when its on, or it gets bumped for crap like tonight(the lone ranger). But IMO Charisma Carpenter [fhm.com] is way hotter than SMG. I've caught the last few episodes only because someone on /. said it wasn't canned after i made some comment about great shows like firefly, farscape and angel gettign canned. I really thought it was gone. As for Buffy, its jumped the shark, this whole training school for potential slayers just bugs me, but the past few seasons, Glorie, ADAM, have been great, I'm sad to see it go.

    • Re:Angel Rules (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bnenning ( 58349 )
      Agreed on all counts, except that IMO this season of Buffy is significantly better than the last. Some of the stuff with the potential slayers is a bit silly, but I like the arc of a final confrontation between the Scoobies and the First.


      I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that Stephanie Romanov [populli.net] is right up there with Charisma. (Okay, so she's evil and wants to enslave the world to her demon masters, but who's perfect?)

  • I'm a "switcher". (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bdrago ( 42295 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:42AM (#5393172)
    I mocked BtVS (and the fans) for years - partially because of the show, plus some misplaced derision of the pseudo-Goths I knew from high school and college.

    Then FX started showing all the episodes in order - two a day. Let's just say "thank God for Tivo."

    About three months later I'd seen almost every episode from the first five seasons. And I loved it. The writing was often excellent, and the casting was perfect. The first three seasons did a great job capturing the real essence of high school, instead of the Utopia often portrayed in network shows about those awkward years.

    It's certainly not perfect, but even the worst episodes were often way above average, which is more than we can expect from the boob tube these days. And when BtVS was at its best, it held it's own with anything on TV - Buffy was nominated for an Emmy for Best Writing in a Drama, and the other nominees were two episodes each of "West Wing" and "The Sopranos". Not too shabby.

    Anyway - before you make fun of it too much, it's worth checking. I'm pretty sure FX is still rerunning the series in order. It's definately worth waiting to start with the first season, as the show has a great mythos that later episodes rely on.

    • Me too! (Score:3, Informative)

      by Grendel Drago ( 41496 )
      I was merciless to my sister back during the first two seasons. Oh, I was a mean, mean brother, refusing to watch any episodes and complaining that it was crap when I saw thirty seconds of a single ep.

      Then came #buffy-unlimited on EFNet and the year or so it took me to watch all of it. Wow. My sister still reminds me that I was always a naysayer, but my doubts have seriously been put to rest at this point.

      "Acting isn't about behaving, it's about hiding. The audience wants to find you, strip you naked and eat you alive---so hide."

      Let's hope the series finale gives us everything we wish for from these characters. Although, seriously, it'll be damned hard to beat 4x22, "Restless". We'll see.

      --grendel drago

    • Re:I'm a "switcher". (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Bodrius ( 191265 )
      Hmmm... I partially agree with you. I liked the show from the start, but I also mocked the show frequently, and particularly some of the misplaced fans who took it far more seriously than the show took itself. Sometimes good-heartedly, sometimes not so.

      The thing is I think both the publicity and the more vocal fans gave the wrong impression of the show to typical viewers.

      The publicity made it seem like the "next big thing in fantasy/B-movie-inspired/overambitious-cheap-sci-f i in the age of Hercules and Xena".

      This was the wrong approach. Buffy is proudly B-moveish, but eminently aware of its B-movieshness and is covered by a deep layer of irony and sarcasm. The characters were just as aware of the absurdities as the viewer, and dealt with it with a mixture of cynicism and naivete that resonated with the intended demographic.

      It's not the high-production values that redeemed it (just like it never redeemed Xena et al), it's the fact these enrich the irony.

      The fans could usually be classified in:

      A) 'Hardcore geek fanboys/girls', with pseudo-Goth (and if you think Buffy is goth, the pseudo is necessary), comic-book-or-Trekkie-style, and OMG-characterX-is-so-hot-let's-write-erotica-on-us enet subgroups.
      These people took it so seriously that other people thought the series took itself just as seriously.
      B) Teen-drama geeks.
      These people made such a big deal of the indicental dramatic plots (that any show with character development is bound to have) that it seemed like Dawson's Creek with demons and vampires.

      Perhaps I'm biased because I saw the original movie. Yes, it was bad. Really bad. And it knew it was bad, and strecthed its B-movie-crappiness-in-joke just a bit too far.

      But it set the tone for the series, which did a much better job at telling the same joke.

      It's a story of a typical TEEN CHEERLEADER VAMPIRE SLAYER, for Christ sake. And she's named BUFFY!

  • Buffy and the Angsty Vampire (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bicoid ( 631498 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:43AM (#5393177)
    The worst thing about recent vampire movies/TV shows, and books (basically since Anne Rice) is that they have this tendancy to turn what used to be undead badass demons into angsty wimps. If I see another angsty vampire, I swear, I'm going to scream.
    • Buffy is primarily camp. It pokes fun at itself, and is always keenly aware of it's deficiencies and detachment from reality. Something that's been missing from sci-fi since the original Star Trek and Batman series. If you think they're just a bunch of Gen X, whiners, you're missing the point.

  • B:tVS and Comments by Geeks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ryth ( 129183 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @12:52AM (#5393233)
    I'm a geek and I love this show. I think it's rather sad that everyone feels the need to compare it to typical "geek" fare such as ST or Babylon. It's not in the same vein but that doesn't mean that it doesnt have total geek appeal and asthetic.

    Buffy has consistently been the most topical and best written show on TV for the last 4+ years. Admittedly the show is aimed at a younger and less "hard geek" audience, but in doing so I believe it validates itself. It's brought smart and intelligent writing (of the geek type) to "teenland". And at the same time it provides a rich and well defined fantasy "universe" that hardcore geeks can enjoy.

    The fact that you can have Star Trek, Apocolypse Now!, Comics, Twin Peaks and Shakespeare referenced regularily on a popular show with a core audience of 16 year olds is a grand enough achievement. All that without mentioning the 3-5 season spanning story arcs and incredibly fun writing.

    I could care less about Sarah Michelle Gellar (which seems to be bearing the brunt of the cheers about this show being cancelled) -- people really need to look beyond the fact that she's married to some other Hollywood dope, that the show has a ridiculous (but charming) name -- and really just evaluate the show for what it is. And I think most open-minded individuals who have actually seen the show would say that it is a charming, well written show with great acting and a very engaging mythos.

  • Spinoff Series? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Monthenor ( 42511 ) <`monthenor' `at' `gogeek.org'> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:00AM (#5393283) Homepage
    My Vote: The Fabulous Adventures of Andrew

    Kidding, just kidding...

  • Is it just me or has BtVS more or less become the Willow show? Maybe it's just that all the more intersting parts of the show have revolved around Willow. If they're looking for a more interesting spin off, I say center it on Willow.
  • Yes, admit it, you remember it.

    Ralph Macchio must be some soft of demon immortal like Dick Clark so it's gotta fit. Likely they will work him in at some point.

    Maybe 'Willow loves Kennedy'? sort of a witchy 'Ellen'.

  • Meh. It was going to happen sooner or later (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cyranoVR ( 518628 ) <cyranoVR@gm a i l.com> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:22AM (#5393408) Homepage Journal
    IMHO the show "Jumped the Shark" last season when Willow turned evil. Haven't seen much of this season but the "First Evil" story arc seems a little contrived. :\

    They better not keep the series running without Gellar. Look what happened when Duchovny left X-Files...

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer ][?

    PS - "Ripper" starring Anthony Stewart Head will be on in about a year (their supposed to start filming soon) so just watch re-runs on FX until then.

  • No Faith spinoff (Score:4, Interesting)

    by eatenn ( 572604 ) <ennteeNO@SPAMlocalgod.net> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:25AM (#5393430) Homepage
    It however points to the fact that a spin-off will emerge, hopefully one that is more successful than Angel."

    The spin-off is not going to involve Eliza Dushku (Faith), as some have speculated. She's signed on to do a pilot for FOX in which she "talks to the dead". Hardly a groundbreaking concept.

    Personally, I hope that Joss decides to go with a different angle altogether. He's really done everything he can with the Hellmouth concept. Let's close it up and try something really new. Firefly may have been cancelled, but that doesn't mean Whedon should cling to tried-and-tested ideas. Let's leave Sunnydale behind. (Besides, Firefly was never given a fair chance by Fox)

    And Angel might not be as successful as Buffy, but it's been kicking ass this season, I'm equally compelled by both shows. Check it out if you haven't already.

  • Buffy will NEVER die! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thedbp ( 443047 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:29AM (#5393447)
    I am a latecomer to the Buffy fanbase, but that makes me no less ardent. For years I held disdain for the show, specifically because of SMG. Its the same reason I hated Led Zepplin for so long, because I hated Robert Plant. But I learned to appreciate Led Zep and tune out that godforsaken racket they passed for vocals, and as such I learned to appreciate Buffy. What surprised me however, is that for the first time I didn't hate SMG. In fact, I was quite impressed by her.

    I could go on about the writing, the depth of character and plotline, the deft self-awareness and irony, the throwaway quips that were gems of pop culture gone wrong, but I'd just be rehashing what everyone else has already said. Whoops, I did too.

    But seriously, check out the Buffy listings on TV Guide or TitanTV or something. Buffy is on in full effect, y0, and y00z bitchez b3tta b3 sh0\/\/in' r3sP3ct!

    and the DVDs will keep on coming ... I wish Joss Whedon good in all he does, because I know I can trust that I'll enjoy it. Beyond the great acting and the intensely detailed characters brought to life by the entire cast, Buffy is really more of a vibe. I feel it. Do you feel it? Come on, you know you feel it.

    I've become too long winded. But rest assured that Buffy isn't going away any time soon. Even Knight Rider is back on the air. Even if Buffy goes away, she'll ALWAYS be back! That's the great part about retro. And the retro cycle is getting shorter and shorter. Pretty soon, all of society will have witnessed the drama, comedy, learning, and healing that Buffy brings. And, like Bill and Ted before them, become icons for the future, building generations on sound morals, excellent taste, and a penchant for witty banter to be reckoned with.

    You just wait.

  • Possible Spin Offs (Score:5, Funny)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:41AM (#5393504) Homepage Journal
    Hillary the Copyright Pirate Slayer
    Shrub the English Language Slayer
    Willow in Lesbian Makeout Scene of the Week
    Ethyl the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying

    It should be an interesting season...

  • Glad it's now (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Geekbot ( 641878 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @01:42AM (#5393513)
    I love Buffy the show, although I've never been crazy about SMG. My wife introduced me to the show when we were dating. We watch it every week since, and we've been married almost 5 years now. I'll miss it very, very much. Maybe it's sad that a tv show can be such a big part of your life, but it's a tradition, and it's something that my wife and I loved watching together, gave us things to laugh about together, and talk about together. It's been more than a show to me, it's been special time with the woman I love and I'll always think of those early days dating my wife, watching the 1st season episodes she taped while sitting in her tiny apartment, whenever I think of Buffy.

    That said....No one wants to see a show that runs out of fuel. I also used to watch X-Files with my wife, but I hate that show, that never gave me any good answers despite dozens of promises, that gave forth a bunch of weak plots that didn't go anywhere, why oh why could they not have said, let's go out with a bang instead of slowly bleeding to death in the gutter.

    Buffy could probably pull off another season, but they've already had to import some big new characters, mainly a sister. This just barely skirts around the Jump the Shark law that states that adding a kid kills a show or at least indicates the show is dying. She was kind of a teenager, so they could get away with it, but still...

    So I say, Joss has killed major loved characters before (jonathon, tara, gyspy teacher). I say, Joss, kill the entire cast and keep them dead, just to show you have the balls to do it.

    Firefly, the 2nd best show on TV is already cancelled from what I understand, why oh why can't we get good Sci-Fi on TV at a decent time and keep it on.

  • The show is not dead... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Eggman27 ( 587963 ) <daeggman@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday February 27, 2003 @02:01AM (#5393600) Journal
    ...it's just resting - I think it'll go for a walk!

    To sort of refute the henny-penny doom-mongers and nay-sayers, while SMG's tenure on the show is definitely over, the series is by no means on its last legs. A quick look to one of the many spoiler sites (Spoiler Slayer [spoilerslayer.com], Wendy's Spoiler Zone [spoilerzone.net], to name a couple), shows that there are already plans for a spin-off. And while it won't be quite the same without SMG or Eliz Dushku (who has signed on for a Fox pilot for next season), there's still some unexplored territory there.

    I realize there are some for "Buffy" is not their cup of tea, but for those who call the show 'bad', I would wager that they haven't seen any of the scores of decent episodes in the series.

  • Joss Whedon==best writer on TV (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @03:20AM (#5393962)
    This is a bad year for Whedon, with the idiots at FOX cancelling Firefly... and now this. I was not a real Buffy fan, but I did see enough to acknowledge that the writing was first rate.

    Instead of a spinoff, I want Whedon to fight for a new home for Firefly. That was the best first season of any show, ever. But I guess the average viewer is too dumb to recognize a masterpiece.

    • Perhaps there is hope (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Snaller ( 147050 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @09:43AM (#5395172) Journal
      Nathan Fillion who played Captain Mal, returned to the official Fox webboard (which is still very busy) and posted a message the other day. (The cast were originally given login names by the Fox admins, and a little gavel is next to the name to indicate authenticity)

      His message is:


      Just passin' it along for y'all...

      Hello all! Hope your winter/spring has been as productive and busy as mine. I've had my nose to the grindstone looking for work. Been hanging with castmembers and remembering the "good times" as we like to call them. We are all still waiting to hear Joss' news about Firefly. He has been hard at work and keeping us all updated, it looks as though something is close! I can't wait to get those tightpants on again. I've had a little time on my hands, been able to go hiking much more than i used to during crazy Firefly hours. Visited the Fox lot yesterday to see that they have dismantled the ship. Not to worry, I'm told it can be put together in a jiffy, and the crew is anxious to do just that. Meantime, I'm auditioning like crazy, praying for a job I can love as much as Firefly. FAT CHANCE!

      I haven't been lurking for some time, so I'm not up on all the news, but just to dispel rumours, I DO have a computer, I DON'T have internet. So long, all.


      Nathan "Captain Tightpants" Fillion


      Here is the link [prospero.com].

  • Whedon's "The Fray" is a sequel. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sans_A_Cause ( 446229 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @11:34AM (#5396006)
    If you haven't seen it, Whedon wrote a comics series for Dark Horse called "The Fray", which was basically a Slayer in the future. Perhaps that could be on tap for a sequel series?

  • All things must pass... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gorimek ( 61128 ) on Thursday February 27, 2003 @02:21PM (#5398021) Homepage
    It's sad in a way, but all things must come to an end. SMG has been working 80 hour weeks on it for 7 years now, since she was 19. No matter what you do or how much you get paid for it, that's gotta wear you out. Sure, the show made SMG the star she is, but she also made the show the star it is. In the hands of a less talented and hard working actress, who knows what it would have been. I doubt we'd be discussing it here.

    Neil Youngs Law states that "it is better to burn out than to fade away", and I would so much more want to see a grandiose mindboggling finale to top all finales - and I can't see Joss Whedon going for anything less - than the heart breaking Alzheimerish multi year decline of X-Files and Xena.

    Buffy showed that you can make stunningly novel and smart TV, and have it be successful. All you need is a freakishly talented genius. Joss just went ahead and invented a new genre - the horror-comedy-action-drama-soap opera. Anyone would have told you that that is impossible to pull of. Until he proved it.

    I watch TV differently now. I still appreciate a good comedy - but why was there no acrobatic kung fu action? A good heart wrenching drama? Fine, but it could have used some side splitting laughter to spice it up. At it's best, Buffy delivers an hour that is at the same time high quality drama, comedy, action, horror and soap opera.

    Life will go on. And the half full is that all the talented people will still be around to do other work. Alyson Hannigan is very good at saying "pussy" on American Pie. Nothing wrong with that, but it's just 5% of her range. She can do anything, and I'm sure we'll see her prove that. SMG seems determined to make a name in the fart comedy movie world. I can see how she'd need a change of pace... But she'll be back in the serious acting world where she belongs in a while. Eliza Dushku, the one star to come out of Buffy in my book, can be as big as she wants to be. If she wants to spend the effort. And so on.

    And whatever Joss does after this, it will not be nothing. He's incapable of that. And it will not be boring.

    So, don't be sad. This is only the beginning.

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