20 Years of BtVS
Mar. 11th, 2017 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI was not able to get online yesterday (or the day before) for various reasons, and as a consequence missed being able to post on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 20th anniversary.
Terrible really, given that this TV show changed my life in so many ways. I met all of you lovely people for a start, and if that were the only thing to be grateful to Joss, the writers, the actors, and everyone else involved in the show for, it would still be a huge thing.
But BtVS is more than just a TV show that people get fannish about, chat with each other online about, make art and fic about. Lots of TV shows do that, and who is going to remember many of them in twenty years' time?
No, BtVS was (and still is) a seminal cultural document, if you like. It did exactly what Joss set out to do when he thought of the original idea - influence the cultural zeitgeist. Before BtVS, there were great female characters on TV, of course, but I honestly don't remember a TV show before BtVS - certainly not a fantasy/sci-fi one - with a female character like Buffy as lead- strong, brave, empowered, but also very relatable.
Okay, Xena, but I think it's a lot more difficult to relate to an angry leather-clad amazon with a big sword
Well, I could witter on pompously for quite some time, but I'm going to have to get offline again soon, so anyway, wish I had not missed the anniversary, and let's hope that by the time BtVS's thirtieth anniversary rolls around, we're all still here talking about it.
And not because we're complaining that no one has managed (still!) to create a female TV character with even half of Buffy's greatness in the meantime.
You know, the more I think about it, the more it bugs me that I wasn't able to post this yesterday and that I won't be able to catch up with all your lovely posts until Monday evening at the earliest, but better late than never, I guess, and from my very superficial scan of everyone's posts, you've all done BtVS proud
Terrible really, given that this TV show changed my life in so many ways. I met all of you lovely people for a start, and if that were the only thing to be grateful to Joss, the writers, the actors, and everyone else involved in the show for, it would still be a huge thing.
But BtVS is more than just a TV show that people get fannish about, chat with each other online about, make art and fic about. Lots of TV shows do that, and who is going to remember many of them in twenty years' time?
No, BtVS was (and still is) a seminal cultural document, if you like. It did exactly what Joss set out to do when he thought of the original idea - influence the cultural zeitgeist. Before BtVS, there were great female characters on TV, of course, but I honestly don't remember a TV show before BtVS - certainly not a fantasy/sci-fi one - with a female character like Buffy as lead- strong, brave, empowered, but also very relatable.
Okay, Xena, but I think it's a lot more difficult to relate to an angry leather-clad amazon with a big sword
Well, I could witter on pompously for quite some time, but I'm going to have to get offline again soon, so anyway, wish I had not missed the anniversary, and let's hope that by the time BtVS's thirtieth anniversary rolls around, we're all still here talking about it.
And not because we're complaining that no one has managed (still!) to create a female TV character with even half of Buffy's greatness in the meantime.
You know, the more I think about it, the more it bugs me that I wasn't able to post this yesterday and that I won't be able to catch up with all your lovely posts until Monday evening at the earliest, but better late than never, I guess, and from my very superficial scan of everyone's posts, you've all done BtVS proud