Near the end of March, in the midst of overall bad news, social distancing, and yikes! virus reports, I had a sudden urge to do something I had been thinking about doing for a few months: I began binge watching my favorite, old shows. Or binge re-watching, I'd say. I already a free year on Hulu so, I started there and settled in and began a-streaming.
I, like many others, started watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the late nineties/early aughts. Early aughts for yours truly because in March 1997, when the show premiered, I was an oblivious soon-to-be eight year old who's only TV obsession was the Disney Channel (but, that's a discussion for another time).
So, I was late to the birthday party as it were.
I got to see the show thanks to the wonderful syndication powers of live television and it was a revelation. Well, at least to a 12-year-old, it was. The combination of the supernatural, teen/young adult drama, and action/adventure just did it for my pre-teen self. And thanks to reruns, I was able to quickly catch up to older episodes and the current seasons all the way to the end and by the series finale, felt like I had been watching it for the whole of all seven years it had aired.
That was in May 2003.
It is - and this is pure coincidence, I swear - May 2020.
Crazy, right?
Not only because yay, look how for far the internet has come and look at me now writing to you about it but, it's been literal years since that finale. I am no longer an odd kid with a growing love of pop culture references and vampire shows. I am now an odd adult, thank you very much, with a fully grown love of pop culture references and vampire shows. Somewhat. The vampire love ebbs and flows, really.
Watching it now is quite an experience. I have just started in on season six out of seven and it has been fun and interesting to see how viewing it now is quite a change from what it was before. The supernatural parts? Still fun, if a little cheesy (sorry, Joss) in the beginning of the show. But, that's also some of the best parts, I find. I get to watch the tone and style of this show I loved so much change, settle, and grow with the characters all over again. The plot and storylines I know most of from distant memory become new and clear again.
Okay, the teen angst I could have done without but, that's hardly the show's fault because I'm a full grown adult watching a largely, initially teen-centric television series and the high school setting of the character's early years, while still very entertaining, was something I couldn't have hardly given a crap about otherwise.
The action, though? Yes. So, soo much yes. I love it all in it's early cheese glory. Because like the tone of it, the action matures and steadies along side everything else. Grows from slightly over the top and stunty to more personal and at times, jarringly violent.
The consensus is that it's fun, at times, when the world seems like a negative and awful place to revisit old favorites that made you happy once to see if they can again.
So, re-read that book you loved years ago or try, like I am, having a marathon of a show you obsessed over to your friends way back when.
It'll be great either way, believe me.
I am also rewatching the spinoff show, Angel, and I wanted to ask if you guys would be interested in me jotting down my thoughts about that, too. Comment below and let me know. Have a great marathon!