I just finished watching the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since I got started with the 7 season series about 4 years late, I'm pretty pleased to have finally finished it. I'm only a year behind. Not too bad.
What's funny about me watching this series is that I had absolutely no interest in it. In fact I had pre-judged it as a stupid show as I had deemed anyone who watched it. I recorded an episode for Beth and decided I'd watch it to see why she liked it (since she generally doesn't like trash). I wasn't blown away by the episode (from the first season), but I was intrigued so I started watching more. Pretty soon I was completely drawn into the lives of Buffy, Willow, and Xander. I quickly grew to love the quirky dialogue and the characters that didn't take themselves seriously. After season one I was really impressed with the excellent writers on the show and the larger storylines that weaved throughout the seasons. I really feel that the writers, via Joss Whedon's direction, demonstrated a higher quality of writing than I've ever seen on television.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a character show. Sure it's a character show about humor and the supernatural, but it's still completely about the characters and their relationships together. It's the awesome character development that hooked me on this series and held me through 7 seasons.
I had been curious to see how the final season ended. I was very impressed with the overall story that dominated the last season, but was left wanting when it came to actually saying goodbye. The last episode essentially frees Buffy from the immense burden of having to protect the entire world. A very good reason for saying that the show needed to end: she's not the slayer anymore. She's just one of many. What made me sad is that there were no sappy "you've meant so much to me" or "I'm sorry I've been a diva slayer" type of stuff between the characters. For being a show so much about it's characters, I had hoped that the last few scenes would give us more of a closure between them. There wasn't even a mourning for those characters that were killed in the final battle. I guess, as a faithful audience member, I wanted more of a chance to say goodbye and to grieve the show's passing.
Overall I have to say that Joss Whedon is an amazing writer, one of my favorites. I will definitely read/watch anything that's he's created or written. I guess that means that I now have to get caught up on my Angel episodes. Only two and a half seasons to go...
| March 4, 2004 06:52am | 
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