I never feel so old as when I try to explain to my teenage students about my favorite television show when I was a teenager. Very few of them have heard of it, and when I had one try to watch it last year, he gave up within three episodes (“no, you have to get to Season Two!” I plead as he gives me the “yeah, right, boomer” pity glare). To be fair, the concept of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was kind of a hard sell at times even when it aired 27 years ago. A TV show about a teenage girl killing vampires while also navigating high school?
As fate would have it, my husband decided to embark on a rewatch of Buffy and its spin-off Angel a few months ago and while I haven’t rewatched every episode with him, I have watched a good chunk of them, and made sure to revisit my favorite episodes. He’s now in season 5 of Buffy and season 2 of Angel, and I’ve only been confirmed that I love this show every bit as much as I ever did, and also that at its best, it holds its own with any TV show ever made.
“In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.”
With these words, Buffy Summers is introduced as the chosen one, the one girl called to fight the forces of evil (a new one is called each time the previous one dies). She is a diminutive teenager granted supernatural strength for this purpose, and she gets a British librarian named Giles as her Watcher to support and help her. She’s brought to Sunnydale, CA because the forces of evil are particularly strong there, due to the presence of a hellmouth. Is this whole premise kinda goofy? Yes. Is it sincere? Also yes. Through the course of the show, we discover that most slayers throughout the ages have been loners, but Buffy quickly surrounds herself with a tight-knit group of friends, especially Willow, a nerdy and shy girl who grows into her own power as a witch, and Xander, a guy typically seen as a loser by his classmates, but whose tenacity and love for his friends makes him a rock to depend on. Eventually many others join the ensemble, from vampire-with-a-soul Angel to former mean girl Cordelia to goth-adjacent bassist Oz and beyond.
The show is renowned for its combination of fantasy/horror, coming-of-age high school drama, and snarky comedy. Sometimes it plays its “high school is hell” subtext a little too on the nose, and yet its sincerity makes its sometimes obvious metaphors endearing rather than cloying. The fight against monsters is frequently a literalization of how humans navigate the world of interacting with other humans and the joy, trials, temptations, and emotional harm that can bring, and yet the show almost always balances the real-world and fantastic elements with charm and thoughtfulness. It generally does not take itself seriously, which paradoxically makes its serious parts much more meaningful.
One constant topic of conversation my husband and I have had during this rewatch is that they truly don’t make shows like this anymore, and this is not just curmudgeonly nostalgia speaking. Like most other American shows of its era, Buffy is structured in 22-episode seasons. Each season has a main “big bad” enemy that builds strength throughout the season leading up to a final showdown between Buffy and the big bad in the season finale. In between episodes that feature this main enemy are “monster of the week” episodes where Buffy and Co. have to face some smaller enemy that is dispatched in a single episode. In addition, a few episodes per season are highly focused on relationships or emotional development, which are usually mirrored or crystalized in the episode’s main plot.
This creates an excellent rhythm and pace of the entire season, which is something that current TV really lacks, and that I really miss. Most shows now are about 10 episodes per season and don’t really have the time to breathe or develop; they are basically all plot all the time and have no space to spare for monster-of-the-week type episodes, for character development, or for the world to feel lived-in. Buffy is masterful at this. Not to mention even the monster of the week episodes are frequently stand-outs, and even when they’re not, they have a goofy and endearing charm.
I didn’t rewatch any of season 1 with my husband, and that’s okay because really, S1 is the show finding its legs. It has some great moments and sets up the lore, characters and relationship, but the show doesn’t really become great until season 2.
This is probably going to be pretty spoilery for the seasons at large, though I won’t say how everything resolves, and maybe these comments won’t make much sense if you haven’t watched the show, but if you have, maybe they’ll remind you of some great moments.
School Hard (2x3) - Spike and Drusilla arrive in Sunnydale, adding a level of cool and weird to the vampire population that has previously been only ugly and evil (aside from Angel) - now we have beautiful and evil. I’m convinced that the arrival of Drusilla marks a major growth point in the show, where it begins to take its gothic roots seriously and gets some genuinely creepy moments.
Halloween (2x6) - A great example of how an episode can be super goofy and fun (everyone buys their costumes at the new costume shop in town, which turns out to be legit magical and turns them all into whatever their costume is) and also character-centric. Willow especially gets to go out of her comfort zone, taking charge as the only one who’s kind of herself, and we get to see a powerless princess Buffy and a no-nonsense commando Xander.
Lie to Me (2x07) - This is one of the most notable early episodes built around a specific theme that occurs in both main plot and subplots, which is people lying to each other - especially but not exclusively men lying to women. At the end, as Buffy and Giles await the rising of a newly turned vampire, she asks him if life ever gets easier. “What do you want me to say,” he asks. “Lie to me.” “Yes, it's terribly simple,” he says. “The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats. And we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and... everybody lives happily ever after.” She stakes the rising vampire. “Liar.”
Surprise/Innocence (2x13/14) - I actually did not rewatch these this time, but they are essential - the major turning point in season 2, as Angel loses his soul and reverts to being Angelus, one of the most vicious and cruel vampires in the world. This raises the stakes significantly as Buffy now has to fight the evil version of her true love.
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (2x16) - Xander gets a witch to cast a spell to make Cordelia love him again, but it kinda backfires and every other girl in town starts chasing him - including Buffy, Buffy’s MOM, and evil vampire Drusilla. This is a really hilarious and old-fashioned horror-trope-gone-wrong episode, and it is so deliciously schlocky that I love it.
Passion/I Only Have Eyes for You (2x17 and 2x19) - Two more I didn’t rewatch but are really good. I intentionally didn’t rewatch Passion because it has one of the most emotionally devastating moments in the show and I opted to just remember it and not relive it. I Only Have Eyes For You, though, I wish I had rewatched - it has a pair of ghosts who loved each other in life possessing students, and at one point they possess Buffy and Angelus, which is just a knife-twist kind of moment.
Becoming Parts 1 & 2 (2x21/22) - Yes, I cried. Again. Angelus is raising a demon to destroy the world and Buffy’s preparing to destroy him but Willow thinks she’s found a spell to restore his soul. This all comes to a head in one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever witnessed on TV. You can predict it a mile ahead of time, but that doesn’t make it any less devastating. The pacing, the music choices, everything just works perfectly. I would imagine some cynics think there’s some goofiness in the special effects at a certain serious moment, but I don’t care what they think. This show, despite its snark, is not for cynics.
Band Candy (3x6) - I’d forgotten how fun this goofy, charming episode is! Xander starts selling candy bars that turn out to make everybody act like teenagers - this doesn’t affect our actual teenagers, but all their parents and teachers revert to what they were like in high school. Buffy’s mom, Giles, the principal - it’s pretty hilarious, and also really fun to see the actors play recognizably the same characters, but younger and wilder.
The Wish (3x9) - This is the first episode of Buffy I ever watched, back in the day (yes, I can’t claim to be a fan from the beginning of the show, I’m a latecomer). It’s the first introduction of Anya, who becomes a regular later in S4 and one of my favorite characters. Here she’s a vengeance demon who grants the wishes of women in revenge upon the men who spurned them - in this case, Cordelia against Xander. But what Cordy actually wishes is for Buffy not have come to Sunnydale - when that wish is granted, we’re transported into a dystopian Sunnydale where the Master (S1’s big bad) is in charge, Xander and Willow are vampires, Angel is their prisoner, and everything is pretty super bad. I love alternate universe stories and this one is great.
Bad Girls (3x14) - I’ll throw this one in as one of my favorite S3 Faith-centric episodes. Faith is also a slayer (long story as to how that happened) but she and Buffy are totally different personalities and in this one, Faith tempts Buffy to the dark side, using their powers for their own pleasure and gain rather than for good. This begins Faith’s descent, and she ends up joining the evil Mayor for the rest of the season against Buffy - but for me her most important arc is in S4, this just sets it up.
Dopplegangland (3x16) - The return of the Wish-verse! Anya and Willow accidentally summon the Vampire Willow from the Wish’s alternate universe, and all kinds of hijinks ensue. This is one of my favorite episodes of all time, if only to see Willow and Vamp!Willow face off against each other. A tour de force for Alyson Hannigan acting both of them.
The Prom (3x20) - This episode also makes me cry. At this point the show, Angel has decided to back off from Buffy, because he recognizes it’s not really great for a high school girl to be in love with a vampire. She’s not at ALL happy about it, and this very angsty relationship stuff fills a lot of the episode, but at the same time there’s this super goofy B plot of a guy planning to set some nasty beasties loose on the prom. Having both of these types of plot in the same episode is exactly what a show like Buffy is all about, and I love it. Also, at the prom, the school recognizes Buffy for “saving the world…a lot” and it’s such an amazing moment, that everything she’s been doing the past three years hasn’t gone unnoticed. Tears.
Season 4 has kind of a bad rap among fans, and admittedly its big bad plot, involving a para-military organization called The Initiative and the Frankenstein’s monster-type amalgam they create, is not particularly compelling, especially after the really good big bads of S2 and S3. That said, I think there are as many individual great eps in S4 as there are in any other season, and more than some (looking at you, S5). Meanwhile, Angel starts its run as Angel leaves Sunnydale to set up his own paranormal-focused detective agency in Los Angeles.
Pangs/Something Blue (Buffy 4x08/09) - Two great one-off episodes; both among the funniest Buffy episodes of all. In Pangs, the gang tries to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner at home (despite the fact none of them can cook, and at least half of them are anti-Thanksgiving on principle), while being attacked by the ghosts of Chumash Indians. They’re also holding Spike prisoner, which just adds to the hilarity. In Something Blue, Willow’s spell gone wrong has Giles going blind, Xander becoming a demon magnet, and Buffy…engaged to Spike? This is Buffy’s style of goofy done right, twice in a row.
I Will Remember You (Angel 1x08) - In between two funny Buffy episodes, a heartbreaker of an Angel one. Angel had visited Sunnydale to check up on Buffy in Pangs, and she was none too happy about it when she found out, so she goes to LA to confront him. Meanwhile, he has come into contact with a demon that turned him human again. For one day, they experience the bliss of a true human relationship - until Angel realizes he can’t fulfill his purpose saving the world as a human and asks the Powers That Be to turn back time, with the caveat that he’s the only one who will remember this day.
Hush (Buffy 4x10) - At the time, criticisms were flying around that Buffy was only getting writing accolades because of its snappy dialogue, so the writers were like, challenge accepted, and wrote this episode that’s more than half dialogue-free, and guess what, it’s one of the best episodes for the whole series. A set of demons called The Gentlemen come to town and steal everyone’s voices. It’s full of great moments, and the Gentlemen and their hunchbacked henchmen are among the most terrifying monsters-of-the-week ever on the show. It’s also very fairy tale-esque in design and music, and I love it.
This Year’s Girl / Who Are You? (Buffy 4x15/16) - After Buffy put her into a coma at the end of Season Three, Faith has been out of commission ever since. Until now, when she wakes up and returns to Sunnydale. Buffy immediately makes it her task to stop Faith from doing whatever, but Faith has a secret weapon - a talisman that makes her swap bodies with Buffy, which becomes the main plot point in “Who Are You?” This is one of my fave episodes, as I really enjoy body-swap stories, and I love seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar play Faith and Eliza Dushku play Buffy. It’s so fun, and yet in this episode, also anxiety-inducing because almost NO ONE can see they aren’t themselves.
Five by Five / Sanctuary (Angel 4x18/19) - Once the body swap is reversed on Buffy, Faith escapes to Los Angeles, where she quickly runs afoul of Angel (and the police), but Angel is determined to offer her a second chance, no matter how much she fights against it. This arc was really my introduction to Faith because I started watching week to week in Season 4, which I think explains my love for her, since I saw her redemption arc first - I don’t like her all that much in S3. But she is the reason my longtime screen name has been faithx5 - her name mashed up with her catchphrase “five by five”. Also some really great fight choreography in these two.
Superstar (Buffy 4x17) - Another alternate reality type episode, this time where long term recurring nerdy character Jonathan is somehow the hero of the town. Tons of fun for him until a mysterious monster starts chasing him that has the same occult mark as he does.
Restless (Buffy 4x22) - In an unusual move, Buffy and gang defeated the season’s big bad in Episode 21, leaving one episode left. As they’re all relaxing in victory, they fall asleep and find themselves wandering through nightmares all haunted by a similar entity. It’s the spirit of the first slayer, and I have to admit, I think they could’ve done something more interesting with this idea, but the episode itself is so creative and imaginative that I love it even if I don’t love the outcome.
Season Five is probably my least favorite overall season (well, maybe Season Seven, we’ll see when we get there), and I don’t even remember enough of Angel Season Two to decide what to rewatch, so I’m letting my husband do most of this on his own. The only must-watch for me is really “The Body” (5x16) which is a top ten ep of the whole series in an otherwise very lackluster season. I did watch Angel 2x02, “Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been” because for some reason I never had seen it, even though I had heard a lot about it and it’s a partial flashback to Angel’s time in 1950s L.A., which is right up my alley. That was great, although with the themes of racism in the 1950s, I wished the biracial woman from the ‘50s (a very old woman when they free her in the 2000s) had been able to see Gunn fighting along with them as an equal. That would’ve been an even more fit ending, I think.
I’ll pick back up with Season Six of Buffy, which is a favorite of mine. I don’t remember a lot of Angel at this point, so I’ll just tag along when it’s convenient.
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