10 Reasons Why a Buffy Movie Will Never Be as Good as the TV Series (with or without Joss)

I enjoy aspects of the Buffyverse that will never be appropriately translated on the big screen, no matter who is creating, writing or directing it.In reality, movies are really just glorified three part episodes with a big special effects budget and expensive casting. Television as a medium can do so much more than a movie ever could, because of the serialized nature of TV. The entire Buffy world is more than just her killing vampires; it is much too complex to be a two hour movie.

There are spoilers ahead, for those who have not seen the entire series.

Here are 10 important things a “big damn movie” will miss.

1. Too Buffy Focused - The problem is that Buffy will be the center of the project. While I do enjoy her character, the ensemble nature of the show allows it to standout as a television masterpiece. The Buffy universe isn’t just about Buffy. Will she be the only major television character to be featured in the movie? Or will they could go down the Twilight road and include Angel? Anyway working in great and iconic characters like Anya, Spike, Tara, and Faith may be a bit problematic. And what about the whole Dawn thing, will she have a little sister in the movie? I can see how they can work Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Giles into it, but not much of the supporting cast.
   



2. Repeat Much? – I guess a movie would have to start as an origin story. Isn’t that what the original 1992 movie does? Will it be Welcome to the Hellmouth Redux? Will it go another direction? Do we need another origin story?
   



3. Evolution – The characters all have made major changes over time. Willow becomes a confident witch, comes out of the closet, and goes dark; this couldn’t be conveyed in a film version. How about Angel losing his soul, by having sex with Buffy? The Angel/Buffy thing couldn’t have a payoff in a two hour adaption. A movie Giles will be a stiff serious librarian guy, without any signs of Ripper or any type of complexity.
   



4. Relationships – I love how relationships grew throughout the series. Not only in romantic ways, but platonic friendships as well. A large part of the Buffy story is how she has family and friends to support her in her duties as slayer. The concept of a “chosen family” was a major theme of the series. This type of group dynamic could not be appropriately formed and solidified within a single movie.
   



5. Little Room for Experimentation – We couldn’t have a Hush, Restless, the Body, Once More with Feeling or anything that transcends the teen horror genre.
   



6. No Angel the Series – A big Buffy movie will miss the great things that happened in tandem with the Angel spinoff. The crossovers were interesting additions that expanded the world and yet both shows developed their own vibe. The character arcs that span both series, such as Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Spike, and Faith will never get full coverage in a movie.
   



7. Intertexuality – One of my favorite things about Buffy is how it rewarded you for being a fan, by often referring to itself. Although it wasn’t perfectly done, Xander being caught in a lie 5 years later on Willow telling Buffy to “kick his (Angel) ass.” Or the way dreams depicted in episodes such as Restless plays on past and future events in meaningful ways. I also like the way that “crazy in the basement Spike” was visited with visions of all of the former season long villains in season 7. A movie could never make these type of things payoff.
   



8. No High School – The little bit I read about the reboot, said it wouldn’t take place in high school. The “high school as hell” metaphor made the first three seasons spectacular.
   



9. Big Bad? –The villains won’t be at the same level with the “Big Bads” that the series introduced. Dealing with them throughout the season brings more emotional investment than killing a nemesis in two hours.
   



10. New Cast- No matter how great the new cast is, they will always be compared to the people that played the same parts on television. No matter who is the Buffy, we will be disappointed, unless Sarah Michelle Gellar gets a time machine and plays the part herself.

Buffy Fan Faves - Top 30 Countdown

For all of my Whedon-y friends: LOGO played the "Buffy Fan Faves - Top 30 Countdown. My TIVO recorded them all and as a geek, I complied the list. Some things were a surprise (no Restless) and others were expected (Once More With Feeling and Hush at the top). No episodes from Season 1 made the list. Season 5 has the most number of top episodes. We also have lots of Spike love!

1. Once More with Feeling
2. Hush
3. Something Blue
4. Fool for Love
5. Chosen
6. Lovers Walk
7. The Wish
8. Crush
9. Beneath You
10. The Gift
11. Intervention
12. Gone
13. The Body
14. The Initiative
15. Doppelgangland
16. Out of My Mind
17. Becoming Part II
18. Innocence
19. Touched
20. Tabula Rasa
21. Band Candy
22. Surprise
23. Halloween
24. Grave
25. The Yoko Factor
26. Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered
27. Graduation Day Part II
28. Who Are You?
29. The Prom
30. Buffy Vs. Dracula

Season 1 = 0
Season 2 = 5
Season 3 = 6
Season 4 = 5
Season 5 = 7
Season 6 = 4
Season 7 = 3

Any thoughts?

A Question of Values: The Media, Mayor Wilkins and Me

Last week, I was reminded of the third season “big bad” story arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy wants Sunnydale to be a good place to live. Mayor Wilkins wants Sunnydale to be a good place to live. Yet, different value systems and worldviews lead to most of the conflict. The way the season progresses, it is a narrative about an evil Mayor and a heroic Slayer. If the story was told from the Mayor’s point of view it would be an entirely different story.

The Mayor wants Sunnydale to be a clean and nice community. If you examine his public rhetoric and basic policy decisions (except for the part about worshiping demons, murdering enemies and questing to turn into a giant snake monster), you see a political figure who “keeps his campaign promises.” He also creates a loving father/daughter relationship with a young girl who is in need of guidance and unconditional affection and fancies himself as a “family man.” Buffy even can’t detect a “bad guy vibe off of him.”

Several episodes (Homecoming, Lovers Walk) show him trying to manage or mitigate some evil occurrences in the town, by monitoring some of the “colorful characters” that come into town. In the episode Gingerbread, he gives a speech to a community group after the bodies of two young children are found murdered. “Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people.” He also talks about Sunnydale as a great town in Enemies. In that same episode, Faith admits that the reason he built this town is for demons to feed,” but in the meantime it is clean and well organized. He may have warped priorities, but it may not seem so strange to someone with his belief system. The Mayor sees himself as a hero and Buffy as a villain, who doesn’t work in the best interest of Sunnydale.

Mayor Wilkins isn’t fond of Buffy and her group. She is the “little girl that's been causing me all this trouble.” When things escalate he calls her a “murderous little fiend” and a “whore.” But Buffy’s presence in Sunnydale makes it better, although she questions her mission in Gingerbread, the alternate reality without Buffy in The Wish proves that she is one reason Sunnydale is thriving.

Professionally, I’ve been dealing with a public controversy. I don’t want to go into details or make this post about that. Anyway, my organization is being portrayed in some of the media as villains. From my point of view we are doing the right thing, but others vehemently disagree. This made me question the concepts of heroes and villains and the people that tell their stories. Some who believe everything they read in the paper may view me as a Mayor Wilkins or one of his minions. I really am not the Mayor of this controversy, more like Deputy Mayor Allan Finch, Mr. Trick or better yet Faith. I think I am the Faith, doing the dirty work, yet without the new apartment, Playstation and fancy knife. Plus, I don’t get milk and cookies when I do a good job.

Of course we don’t worship evil things, kill people and want to turn into giant snake monsters. Without going into details, the heart of this controversy is a divergence in beliefs. We want one thing, they want another, but these positions are rooted in core values.

I deal with a lot of reporters. Some are excellent and deserve milk and cookies. Others have the story written, before they look at the facts or even speak to the parties involved. These articles are not true and unbiased journalism, but narratives to promote an ideological agenda. The heroes and villains of the story are already cast and the traditional archetypes are utilized to the ultimate extent to provide a particular result to sway public opinion in a certain direction.

Of course Buffy is a fictional story and it doesn’t have to be impartial. Whedon and his staff of talented writers write most plots from Buffy’s perspective. The series is called, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is not, Faith the Vampire Slayer and Her Daddy Figure Mayor Wilkins. The show isn’t called, Sunnydale, in that scenario—the narrative might strive to be more balanced. It doesn’t claim to be unbiased, since it is a fantasy and not a real life report of events. The show and other Whedonvers stuff (Angel, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Firefly) do give occasional nods to the complex gray area between hero and villain. On Buffy, is especially true in the Mayor Wilkins storyline. He is a polite germ phobic guy that enjoys the Family Circus comic strip and does photo ops with the Boy Scouts. He can’t be 100% evil.

I also saw clashing values in the news last week. The health care debate has clear sides and passionate rhetoric. All involved want Americans to have the best possible health care, but each see how to accomplish these goals very differently. This conflict boils down to life and death. This drives down to the core of emotions and basic value systems. I’m shocked that politicians and pundits are surprised that the public is so vocal and aggressive on this issue. It is as if they are fighting for survival, just like the people at the graduation/ascension when the Mayor accomplishes his goal and becomes a giant snake demon.

You can see conflicting values in every relationship. The communication theory, relational dialectics states that communication is produced by dialectical tensions (the negotiation of values). When conflicting values escalate, the rift is huge and the delineation between people can illuminate the discussion and make it epic through stories. The media plays this up for ratings and increased ad revenue.

Determining the point of view of a storyteller or journalist is important to understand the story. A narrator can be trustworthy or untrustworthy, involved or uninvolved. It is essential to recognize the standpoint of a writer before determining the truth in a story or article. Fantasies and fiction are biased and that is acceptable and encouraged. Documenting reality should be different. Although I understand that journalists do have opinions, they should strive to be objective.

The moral of my story is to be skeptical of stories; you never know who is telling it. They may want to ascend and become a giant snake monster. You never know.

Guilt, Redemption, and Sex: Buffy’s First Times

The world of the Buffyverse is full of guilt and redemption. The character arcs of Angel, Spike and Faith are forwarded through the force of guilt and redemption. Buffy also has issues with guilt, but her feelings of shame are mostly focused on sexual issues. The narrative surrounding her carnal activities often depict her dealing with remorse afterwards. This isn’t necessarily focused on traditional or puritanical notions of sex, but out of these situations she becomes a better person and an empathetic hero who isn’t perfect.

Within Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism, the concept of the Guilt and Redemption Cycle was developed. Burke viewed the ultimate motivation of rhetoric is to purge feelings of guilt. According to Burke, redemption is gained through two forms of victimage, mortification and scapegoating. Mortification is the act of blaming oneself and scapegoating is blaming external forces for problems.

During the run of the series, Buffy has sex with four different men. When she has sex for the first time with three of these partners, guilt is brought out within her and she must find ways to alleviate herself of the guilt. Buffy uses both forms of victimage in all three situations to release her of her guilt, but she never becomes a victim in the traditional sense of the word.

Buffy’s sexual relationships with Angel, Parker and Spike bring on feelings of guilt. In all three instances, she faces sexual guilt for many different reasons. Buffy deals with her remorse through mortification and scapegoating in both physical and psychological ways. I will cover each of these relationships in future posts.

The Guilt and Redemption Cycle is a recurring theme regarding Buffy’s sex life. Through the progression of the story Buffy finds redemption and purges herself of guilt in each instance. Her resolution of guilt is not easy, redemption is eventually earned, and she comes out with strength and maturity. Sex and guilt have been linked throughout history and the metaphoric telling of the narrative doesn’t allow her sexual activity to devalue her as a woman and a hero. Buffy’s ability to rise above these emotions under extraordinary circumstances is admirable and in itself heroic. These experiences, at times, make Buffy seem weak, but the instances of sex and guilt are opportunities to show flaws as well as bravery in character, superpowers not withstanding.

It’s About Power: Dollhouse Follows a Whedon Tradition

The new series Dollhouse is off to a slow start. Many have complained that this really isn’t the Joss Whedon quality we are accustomed to. I wasn’t hot about the first episode, but with each week the show is getting progressively more interesting. Press reports and reviews are hinting that the March 20 (written by Whedon) and other near future episodes are awesome and shouldn’t be missed. If you weren’t watching the show before, now is the time to start.

The program’s protagonist is Echo, who works as and Active (also called a Doll). An Active is a person that can have their personalities wiped and can be imprinted with a new persona and skill set. These Dolls can be hostage negotiators, backup singing bodyguards, master thieves or blind cult members. People come to the Dollhouse if they have a problem and the Active is given the personality and skills to complete some objective. The Actives have voluntarily chosen this lot in life, although there is an element of slavery here, it has a more pronounced prostitution vibe. Echo and the other Dolls are slowly becoming self-aware and start to inch their way out of this mandated conformity.

Dollhouse works on many levels, on the surface you can view the program as procedural—Echo is needed for X, therefore she is programmed for Y to solve X and wackiness ensues. But when you examine it at a more critical angle, you find that it is a story of domination and a powerful institution that can turn you into anything they want you to be.

Other works of Whedon are stories that are often framed from a critical theory perspective. Critical theory is the study of oppressive practices that need to be changed. The examination of power in many forms is just one theme that is evident throughout the Whedonverse.

Many scholars and critics see Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a feminist narrative, as a young woman is underestimated by society and many patriarchal institutions (school, government, military, Watcher’s Council) and yet she is full of inner strength and physical power. Buffy doesn’t fit within these established structures and some of the show’s drama comes from this tension. Although on the surface, she fits the hegemonic notion of what a girl should be (attractive, thin, enjoys shopping and cute boys), Buffy is much more than what is expected. She is not a perfect feminist icon and that is part of what makes her story so compelling.

On Angel, the misuse of legal and corporate power is shown through the institution of Wolfram and Hart. In seasons 1 through 4, Angel fights against the employees and actions of this evil law firm. We learn that Wolfram and Hart is an organization that doesn’t care about people or justice, since they are too busy working on gaining more power. The 5th and final season of Angel, we see him working inside Wolfram and Hart. We see through this storyline that power is seductive and even those with the best intentions can be corrupted through corporations. This is illustrated in surface and metaphorical ways. Characters in the narrative mention that Angel has become a corporate puppet through his role at Wolfram and Hart, later in the season he literally becomes a puppet, with a felt body and a tear away nose. The character of Fred is also a victim to the corporation, as she is hollowed out and becomes a “shell” of the person she once was as she is transformed into the demon, Illyria. The Angel series finale is about battling a big bad institutionally based power structure, even though chances of winning are small. The goal isn’t to win; it is to show the powerful that heroes don’t back down-- they fight.

The series Firefly and the movie Serenity also share this critical theory theme. The Alliance is the most oppressive power in the ‘verse. There was a war and the Browncoats fought against the Alliance, the characters of Mal and Zoe were soldiers fighting for independence. The Browncoats are seen as outsiders and are subjected by the powerful Alliance and are forced out into outer planets or the margins of society. The character of River was used as a subject by unethical Alliance doctors and scientists to mold her into the ultimate weapon; this was all done without her consent. In the movie Serenity, they find out how Reevers (cannibalistic and animalistic people) were created. The people on the planet Miranda were given a drug to make them peaceful, compliant and non-aggressive. This made most of the population super lazy and they eventually just died because they gave up. A tiny segment of the population had the opposite effect to the medication and turned into the ultra violent Reevers. The Alliance denies all knowledge of this and worked hard to cover it up.

One thematic undercurrent of Dr. Horrible’s Sing a Long Blog is making societal changes. All of the main characters strive to make changes in the world, through computer mediated communication (Dr. Horrible/ Billy’s Blog), community activism (Penny’s work with the homeless) and arrogant heroism (Captain Hammer’s good deeds). Dr. Horrible talks a lot about unequal power structures. In one of his first blog post he makes these goals for social change known, “it’s not about making money. It’s about taking money. Destroying the status quo, because the status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.” He also has a distain for the corporate system. In the first act he sings, “all that matters, taking matters into your own hands. Soon I’ll control everything my wish is your command.” He calls Captain Hammer a “corporate tool” as he represents conformity, militarism and traditional forms of masculinity. In a conversation with Penny, Billy tells her about his worldview, “I’m talking about an overhaul of the system. Putting the power in different hands.”

In Dollhouse, the corporate machine molds the Actives into personas that have a functional purpose. The first 5 episode shows a world where everything and anything is for sale. The clients of the Dollhouse pay for their services and the more life threatening the task, the more they can charge for it. Ethics and morals are out the window where people are products, the ultimate sign of corporate greed and human comodification. In the real world, it seems like overly capitalist corporate interests are not the least bit humanistic and the Dollhouse echoes this philosophy. Many of the employees at the Dollhouse have no problem with this as they view the Actives not as people, but as tools to accomplish a task. Laurence Dominic is worried that Adelle DeWitt, the manager of the Dollhouse, likes Echo. That is that some part of her acknowledges Echo’s humanity and that is dangerous. Other characters like Boyd Langton, Echo’s handler/mentor has true affectation for her and desperately cares for her well being.

The concept of Dollhouse can be used to play out some existential dilemmas through a television narrative. Dollhouse brings up some thought provoking ideas about what makes a person a person and shows a dystopian universe where people are transformed into human robots. In the Doll’s non-working states, they are childlike and docile and they can never assert any agency or uniqueness. Anything that is unseemly or problematic is taken out as a measure of control. People are dehumanized when freedom of choice and thought are taken away and shows that even in the harshest dictatorships the soul or strength of the human condition can prevail as the Dolls have shown glimpses of individuality even with this level of repression. The mysterious Alpha, a rouge Active, went into a murderous rage (I think we’ll find more about this on Friday’s episode), but others are showing other signs of defiance (Victor’s feelings towards Sierra and Echo’s unpredictableness during missions).

Even though I haven’t been wowed yet, Dollhouse is an interesting concept that can bring up lots of thought provoking scenarios. I’m waiting to see how this season evolves, before I decide if it is worthy of the Whedon cannon.

TV vs. Movies

I’m going to see the X-Files: I Want to Believe tomorrow, because the people I want to see it with can’t go today. Before I see the movie, I’m going to have a rant about TV vs. Movies.

I liked the 1998 X-Files movie, but it was not as good as the series. It is an example of an excellent television series is better than the movie version. The average movie is like 90 to 120 minutes long, but on TV a show like the X-Files had 202 episodes x 45 minutes each that is about 9090ish minutes of narrative. How could 100 minutes ever compare to 9000 minutes?

This is true when also looking at the 1992, Buffy movie and the 1997-2003 television series. The series opened us up to dozens of great characters (other than Buffy) that you care about (Spike, Angel, Xander, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Wesley, Faith, Dawn, Tara and so on).

Also look at Firefly and Serenity. While I enjoyed Serenity the movie, I missed the little moments and character interaction in Firefly the television series.

I did read some recent reviews for the new X-Files movie; some critics said that the movie was like an “extended television episode” and not full length feature quality. This attitude makes television an inferior form of entertainment. This is only true if, you have a hard-on for blockbuster special effects and don’t care about narrative or characters. Another reason you might find this true is if you are a “cinema snob” like a film critic type. You also may not be watching the best shows on the air or the greatest DVD season collections.

One caveat before I give my reasons for television’s superiority, I’m talking about television that fits in the quality television paradigm. View the Wikipedia page for Quality Television for a brief explanation on what that is. I see it as a program that has narrative complexity, which is thought provoking and explores characters and relationships in interesting ways.

Here are five main reasons why storytelling in television is better than movies.

1. Television can show better character development over time. Watching a character develop over the course of an hour doesn’t have the same payoff as slowly watching a character develop over the course of 5 seasons. One of my favorite examples of this is Wesley on Buffy and Angel. He started out as an ineffective, stuffy, prissy replacement Watcher to Buffy and Faith. When he made the transition to Angel the series, he became competent, heroic, dark and sexy.
   
   
   
2. The serialized nature of television can tell many different interconnected stories. Television creators can develop stories that unfold in 40 minutes or 4 years. TV isn’t a slave to a beginning, middle and end format, episodes do have that element, but things can keep you guessing and wondering, one of the best examples of this is LOST.
   
   
   
3. A good television show can play with genre on an episode by episode basis. The series can be a comedy, drama, teen movie, romance, horror, sci-fi, musical depending on the individual episode or scene. It doesn’t have just one vibe.
   
   
   
4. With the enormous about of television channels, programs can be narrowcasted to fit a niche audience. TV shows can be smarter, because the next channel over can broadcast to the not so smart people. Movies are created to please the international masses.
   
   
   
5. Quality shows can deal with diverse issues and themes. Movies are limited to one main theme. TV shows can comment on a variety of issues in a timely manner. I love how South Park (not quality in everyone’s book) can turn around fast enough to be in sync with current events.
   
   

Of course once in a while a movie comes out that is glorious and transcendent, for example the Lord of the Rings Trilogy blew me away; some things are better on a larger than life screen. But honestly, most of today’s movies are throw-away popcorn entertainment. I’m not compelled to go to the movies very often, because not much influences me to sit in a dark room with a lot of annoying people. I figure I can wait 8 months and watch the damn thing on HBO.


Read more about this:

Gordon, D. (2007, February 27). Why TV Is Better Than The Movies. Newsweek , p. 52.

Mittell, J. (2006). Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television. Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television , 29-40.

Newman, M. Z. (2006). From Beats to Arcs: Toward a Poetics of Television Narrative. Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television , 16-28.

Slayage, Power, Gender Issues. . . .

One of the reasons I started this blog was to “have a chat about TV.” I guess it is going to start out as a monologue, until I get people to start reading it. Last month I attended the Slayage Conference in Arkadelphia Arkansas. This academic conference was about the television programs created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel & Firefly). It was there that I got inspired to start writing about television and popular culture, instead of internalizing all of my thoughts. This blog will also help me curb the desire to have the occasional face-to-face discussion with someone that doesn’t care about the homoerotic subtext in Smallville.

Why I haven’t added to the blog, until recently is that I had an online class that kept me busy writing a lot and I didn’t have the energy to have any additional computer time. The course was titled, Communication and Power. It was a very interesting course and I will use some of that critical theory I learned to add to the discussion here.

Below is an excerpt from a post I made for my online class. It kind of thing fits within my whole, talking about television theme of this blog. The topic of the discussion board post is images of women in the media.

This academic conference was about the television programs Buffy, Angel & Firefly. Many presentations I attended focused on the staging of gender in those TV series. Papers topics included: Girlie Feminism, Violence and the Slayer, the Limitations of Buffy’s Feminism, Hegemony and the Performance of Gender, Buffy & Nancy Drew—Development of Strong Female Role Models in Adolescent Literature, Consumer and Domestic Stereotypes in Buffy, the Damaged Man in Angel, and Gazing at Male Vampires—Bodies as Spectacle.

Here is what I think when using that show as a lens to view media images of women. Power is a huge theme within the Buffy series. Although the Buffy character does fit the little, cute, blonde image that popularized in the media that stereotype is subverted. The character does have extreme physical power and yet she works on keeping her outside appearance girlish and sexualized. Buffy can be strong and yet have power in various aspects of her life. Although that issue is one tiny aspect of the program there are many more issues surrounding gender roles of men and woman on Buffy and its spin-off series Angel. What makes the show especially interesting is that it doesn’t give simple, “afterschool special” life lessons—but forces the audience to think about issues of gender and power in revealing ways. This show creates a dialogue about gender and other societal issues. If you never have seen the show, I suggest you watch it.