This is a review I wrote on the third season for my journalism class. Maybe it well help, if not, I'll try to sell it to you some more.
In 1992 a man named Joss Whedon penned a movie called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The film had an interesting idea behind it; a young high school girl has mystical powers to fight the evil in the world. However, the movie itself wasn’t interesting and flopped in the box office.
Fast forward five years later, and Joss Whedon wanted to do a TV show based on the movie. Groans could be heard across the country and people were wondering how could one make a show about this horrible movie? As it turns out the television series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” put the movie to dust, just as Buffy does to a vampire.
If you listen around to the reaction about this series, you’ll hear that it is “gay.” Of course none of these people have seen BTVS, they just assume it’s “gay.” Well they assumed wrong. Ever since the show made its premiere on the WB network, there has been a cult following. If it wasn’t for BTVS, the WB network might have gone down the drain.
It wasn’t until the third season when the series found its groove. Buffy Summers – played by the very talented Sarah Michelle Gellar – once again has to save the world from being taken over by evil and even worse, she has to finish her final year at high school.
Buffy has to fight vampires and demons every night, and then she has to go home and finish her homework. The next night she has to stop ravage dogs from killing students at the prom, and then go to the prom herself. Then she has to let everyone in the school know about her abilities so she can save the school on graduation day. The writers have done such a great job at reflecting these two lives that Buffy has, and what she has to deal with.
Every year Buffy has to face off against a “big bad,” but this year someone has the same strength and abilities that she does; another slayer. Faith (Eliza Dushku) the vampire slayer enters the beginning season fighting the dark side, but eventually joins it. Buffy and Faith have completely different personalities, but with the same abilities. It is almost as if twins are dueling each other, but one being the evil twin and the other good.
Buffy doesn’t just have to fight Faith in the epic battle to save the world, but also Faith’s father figure Mayor Richard Wilkins III (Harry Groener) or better known as the Mayor. The combo of Faith and the Mayor make for two of the best heels in the last 10 years on the small screen.
The Mayor is an interesting heel because it is very hard not to like him. He has great sense of humor and his presence on the screen makes it hard for the audience to boo him. Even though he is such a likeable character, the Mayor is just as evil as any bad guy there is. The Mayor plans to ascend into a giant snake, destroy graduation and eventually take over the world. Yes his plan is to turn into a giant snake, which sounds really cheesy and it is. If it weren’t for the giant snake idea, this season couldn’t be touched by any other storyline there is.
Most shows usually stick to one type of genre, but BTVS mixes more than one together. In one scene there could be a big fight scene, which is followed by a scary one and then ends with a comment that could have a person rolling on the floor with laughter. The mixture of these genres is what makes this show so amazing. There aren’t too many shows that can put all of these different aspects together; it just shows how talented Joss Whedon is.
There are many television shows that aren’t watched by enough people. When BTVS was still on the air, not enough people watched the series. Thank goodness to the technology of this century because people could any season on DVD. Go out and get season three on DVD, I guarantee you’ll like it.
