Closure on Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Anne Billson's short guide to the Buffy TV series is one of a series from the British Film
Institute, providing 'critical readings' of TV series. The series
follows similar and generally excellent guides to important movies. Unfortunately,
the editorial guidelines have encourage the authors to see these series
in the context of their 'personal response', a dangerous licence to
self-indulgence especially as the film-related booklets benefited from
offering in-depth research on their subjects, albeit from different
perspectives, without constant use of the 'I' word.
Anne Billson
is not too bad in her judgements. Given the iconic status of Buffy in
promoting contemporary 'girl power', it is useful to have a woman
outline her responses to the series as it unfolded. She can be tiresome
every now and then (especially in her opinionated position on one or two
of the supporting cast) but it usually reads right if unimaginatively. Unfortunately,
given the amount of space devoted to recapping the series Season by
Season and reminding us of key moments and personalities, the
'experiential' aspect of the book crowds out the information that we
might have had on its cultural context and the broader public response. For
Buffy fans, it is a good value 'aide memoire' with a useful selection
of websites at the back but, in the end, it is not much more than that.
Volume 1 of Season 8 of Joss Whedon's Buffy series is an an unengaging graphic sequel to the TV series - apparently the first 'episodes' in a
notional Season 8. It
misses the point - the Buffy series was fantasy, sure, but it was also
about the psychological development of, and the tensions within, its
Scooby Gang. 'Season 8' (at least based on reading this first
volume) is filled with stereotypes and seems a forced attempt to drive
the 'girl power' message of the last minutes of the final show of Season
7 to ridiculous lengths. Much of this comic is just silly, portentous
and disconnected. It also suggests that the actors were more than a little
important in making Buffy so interesting and enjoyable to watch.
It also gives us a clue as to why Joss Whedon
literally lost the plot with Firefly, less so with Serenity, when he
tried to paint on a much bigger canvas. The point was that Buffy was not
such a big canvas in time and space when you got down to it. It
was a small town living under the shadow of many dimensions and, as HP
Lovecraft and Stephen King have both shown us, a relatively tight 'real'
universe can often be more effective at making us believe in cosmic
horrors than a world of limitless fantasy ... perhaps Whedon should
leave big fantasy to the top graphic design 'auteurs' like Alan Moore
and Mike Mignola who can create characters and situations that are
limitless from the start.
The novel was also ridiculously
expensive for what it is. There is something irritating about a
marketing mentality that hooks kids on a product and then prises too much of their pocket money for something so unstimulating. It feels like
exploitation. Perhaps it gets much better in Volume 2 (and
afterwards) but I am not going to bother to find out. I don't believe in
completism for its own sake. If Whedon cannot continue the
story on the small screen in episodic form, then I, for one, will be
happy to close the mythos with the Scooby Gang (minus Anya) standing by
their commandeered school bus, looking down into the gaping hole that
was Sunnydale and the (presumed) vapourised grave of the redeemed Spike.