Vampire Slayer: Buffy the Conservative

Big Hollywood ^ | Evan Pokroy

[Perdogg]

admit I came a bit late to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” I had seen the rather silly cinematic version on VHS at a friend’s house, but didn’t feel compelled to watch the television show. Meanwhile, I had gone through an extended period of not watching television at all. It wasn’t until a friend at work mentioned that she was a “Slayer” that I took notice. I did a double take and asked her what she was talking about. This was 1998, when Buffy was in her second year as a series and was just starting to take off. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I ran across an episode of the teen drama and finally understood what all the buzz was about. I was officially hooked and went back looking for all the previous episodes as well as watching each new one as it came out.

[mnehring]

Interesting analogy for the show, but they should also mention that Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) is an outspoken Conservative as well...and with that, we have rules:

_{..and no "Laz would stake it" jokes...}

[Mercat]

I loved that show. I think I need to get them on Netflix.

[Mercat]

You have to watch Buffy, the Musical.

[wally_bert]

Nice selling point, I had no idea. Figured typical hollywood liberal.

[cripplecreek]

I kinda fell into the show and got caught up in the story.

I was disappointed when Willow turned out to be a rug bumper.

[mnehring]

Nope, at that, from what I understand, she was raised as a big gun rights person and was a youth competitive shooter before she went into acting.

[Perdogg]

ping

[Snickering Hound]

[fieldmarshaldj]

In that outfit... yes, I would hit it.

[x]

Don't quite see it. Okay, Buffy as protector fighting off the forces of evil could be considered conservative, but that gay witch Willow stuff was piled on pretty heavily, and when Buffy's great love is the good vampire Angel, it does provide a greater degree of ambiguity than some people would like.

If Buffy is conservative it's a very 21st century, post-feminist conservatism.

[catfish1957]

SMG is gorgeous. Hittable at any angle.

[catfish1957]

SMG is gorgeous. Hittable at any angle.

[catfish1957]

Hmm bears mentioning twice. :)

[calex59]

They are on instant play on Netflix, as well as Angel, the spin off from Buffy.

[fr_freak]

I got into Buffy for the first few seasons back when it was first aired. It was an enjoyable show, filled with humor and always reinforcing the value of friends and family. However, Joss Whedon is a flaming left-winger, and ultimately, that philosophy ruined his show as it crept more and more into the script.

In fact, what happened with BtVS is a perfect metaphor for what happens in society in general once left-wing ideas gain prominence. The show started out as your basic good vs. evil, meat and potatoes kind of story, but once it gained popularity, the writers started thinking "Hey, we have this popular show, we should use it to make statements about social issues that we feel strongly about." Of course, given that they are all left-wing Hollywood nutjobs, the issues they felt strongly about were all left-wing. So what you ended up with, starting in the fourth season, were episodes where Willow turns into a lesbian, a couple of the gang don't want to celebrate Thanksgiving because it represents the evil white man killing all the Indians, hating demons is called "bigotry", etc. In short, the left-wing writers took a good show, decided to use it to promote their way of thinking, and consequently bled that show dry until it became mediocre and then unwatchable as all of the characters, rather than growing into better people, descended into selfishness, bitterness, and nihilism.

I think Ol' Joss has had a couple of good shows that had seemingly conservative themes, not because he is in any way conservative, but because conservative themes are the only themes that ever resonate as true, and thus are the only themes that have any real power. Even while writing them, people like Joss probably don't recognize the ideological bent of their themes - they're just looking for real meaning and power. Once they make the conscious decision to insert left-wing themes, the shows inevitably fall apart.

[stansblugrassgrl]

Always wondered how a flaming liberal (Joss Weidon) could communicate the conservative message so well. He did it in Firefly. Maybe it’s a good thing it got canceled before he could mess it up.

[y6162]

Buffy is on Netflix...
We been watching. Gellar is tres cute.

[ansel12]

Buffy is excellent, normally I despise the super woman stuff, but in Buffy, it works and is well done.

The Angel spin off is the more advanced version of the theme of the struggle between good and evil, and it is more epic and heroic.