Tag: buffy

#oneaday, Day 266: Shiny!

Yeah. I know. Don’t look at the timestamp. But technically I haven’t broken the rules as I haven’t gone to sleep yet. Therefore it’s still yesterday.

Again, don’t look at the timestamp.

The reason I’m awake at this ridiculous hour and not sleeping the night away? Firefly.

I am super-late to the party on Firefly but a selection of Whedonite acquaintances have been bugging me to watch it for ages. One in particular tipped me over the edge and convinced me to grab the DVDs from Amazon. (They were cheap.) So I have. And now I’m hooked, particularly as I’ve spent the last several hours virtually watching Firefly with said person and commenting via IM.

I’ve always loved Joss Whedon’s work (well, Buffy, Angel and Dr Horrible) as he is a masterful character creator. Firefly is no exception. There is not one single person in that cast who is “filler”. They all have a role to play and all are unique, entertaining people who bring a great deal to the series. The tone is kept quite light-hearted throughout, despite the serious scrapes they find themselves in at times, and that, too, is a hallmark of Whedon.

What I wasn’t expecting was the tone and feel of the series in general. Firefly is a Western! In space. And not even a little bit. There are times when it doesn’t even try and hide it. Cattle ranching. Weaponry that looks mysteriously like revolvers, rifles and shotguns. A slightly bastardised form of Wild West American English. And some cracking saloon fights.

There’s also an element of Chinese in there, too, with the “Galactic Language” (which seems to be reserved for swearing) being Chinese, apparently. Quite what that’s all about, I’m not sure yet.

The best thing by far, though, is the writing. Every character gets some magnificent lines and Whedon’s trademark quick-fire exchanges are present, correct and frequent. Nathan Fillion’s wonderful performance as Mal is delivered with such wonderfully deadpan gusto that it immediately makes him a wonderful character. But his supporting cast are incredible too, with tough guy Jayne being a particular highlight.

One of my favourite things about the series, though, is the slang used throughout. It actually brings to mind classic RPG Planescape Torment in that, to begin with, it’s sometimes difficult to work out what these characters are talking about. But after spending a bit of time with them, you soon start getting wise to their idiosyncratic way of speaking. And you too will start using the word “shiny” in conversation.

At this stage (nearly two discs in) I’m wondering why on Earth this show ever got cancelled. It’s magnificent. It’s well-written, tightly-scripted, beautifully acted and tells an excellent story. But someone, somewhere at Fox didn’t like it, it seems, and didn’t feel it was worthy of renewing. Which is a crying shame when you see tripe like The X-Factor gracing our screens for year after year. I know X-Factor isn’t Fox. But it is shit, unlike Firefly.

So, if you (yes, you) have never had the pleasure of watching Firefly, drop everything you’re doing, watching, playing and pick up the series on DVD from Amazon.

#oneaday, Day 208: Keeping Buff

I started re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer a few weeks ago. I’m just up to the start of season four now, which means I’ve also started re-watching Angel, too. Both shows remain absolutely fantastic examples of how to get television right. Spoilarz ahead, naturally.

The main thing both shows get right is in having strong characters. Given that they’re both named after their protagonists, this is an important factor. Buffy herself is a pretty multifaceted character with a good line in one-liners, quips as well as pouty American teen-ness. But it’s the supporting cast that steal the show. Xander’s deadpan-ness. Willow’s meekness, often at odds with the important things she is trying to say. Oz’s taciturn nature. And Giles. Dear old Giles, one of the greatest characters of any show ever.

In fact, ironically for Angel, the weakest link in Buffy’s cast is probably Angel himself. When he’s broody, soul-having Angel, he’s pretty, well, boring a lot of the time. When he’s Angelus he’s genuinely threatening. But for the majority of the time he’s brooding over Buffy, he’s not really that interesting. But as soon as he takes centre stage in Angel, he comes into his own. He gets much more in the way of a personality. He quips and verbally spars with the bad guys more. And he’s just a much more interesting character. Presumably the reason he was written out of Buffy in the first place was the fact that he had a ton of untapped potential which was never going to be explored while the doomed romance between him and the Slayer was dragged out.

That’s not to say I don’t like the Buffy/Angel romance plotline. Far from it. In fact, Season Two remains one of my favourite pieces of television simply because of the utterly tragic nature of much of it. The finale to that season is magnificently emotional.

I remember when I first watched Buffy. It was derided by a lot of my friends who hadn’t seen it as being a stupid show with no depth. And with a title like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its 6pm dinnertime slot on BBC2, it’s easy to see why people assumed that. In fact, even in its early seasons (arguably slightly less so in the first season), it demonstrated an emotional maturity and a sense of “telling it like it is” that few shows have managed to replicate. I think I also found some emotional resonance with at least some of the characters, too, since I was the same age as them at the time of its original broadcast. I was going through the same stages of life at the same time they did. Admittedly, with less frequent apocalypses. But I recognised myself in many of the situations they encountered.

The reason I like Buffy is the same reason I enjoy the Persona series. The juxtaposition between the fantastic and the mundane. The knowledge that even if you’re a superhero with special powers who can save the world, you’ll still have “life stuff” to deal with. The demonstration that we’re all human, whatever our abilities. I can relate to that. Everyone has demons to fight, struggles to face, whether those things are real, physical things, or personal things locked inside.