Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Paperback]

This is a superb though sometimes opinionated summation of why BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is one of the most important television shows in the history of the medium and a very helpful survey of each individual season. I think that all in all the book probably does a better job than any other of highlighting the main themes of the show and placing the show in the context of television history. It isn't a perfect book, but until a better one comes alone it will stand as the best introduction to the show.

One thing I enjoyed a great deal was the very personal nature of the book. Anne Billson is a native of Britain (now living in France) who grew up watching fifties and sixties television and who consciously yearned for a female hero. Apart from the remarkable Emma Peel in THE AVENGERS (a favorite of mine as well), she found no one. As a single dad I can relate that my daughter as a small girl was constantly asking me to get her videos that featured girls as the heroes and was always upset that the boys got all the good parts. Luckily we discovered the bowdlerized version of Miyazaki's great classic NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (now available uncut under that title, but butchered in the eighties as WARRIORS OF THE WIND), featuring an unflappable teenaged heroine, but as my daughter was constantly reminding me, there just weren't a lot of great girl heroes. Billson does a great job of bringing home just how profoundly BUFFY has helped changed things in this regard (though I think director Luc Besson has not received sufficient recognition for his contribution through films like LE FEMME NIKITA, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, THE PROFESSIONAL, and THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC, all of which feature strong female action characters). The account is marred somewhat by a simple fallacy: simply because the film BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER came out in 1992 you can't claim that XENA was made possible by Buffy's prior appearance. You can only state influence if there is actual independent influence. Such evidence does clearly exist not merely for DARK ANGEL, ALIAS, DEAD LIKE ME, VERONICA MARS, and other shows featuring female heroes, but also shows with other formats such as FARSCAPE, SMALLVILLE, 24, and LOST. Nonetheless, this fallacy aside, Billson does a marvelous job of providing the context for why BUFFY's appearance was so important. The truth is that XENA, which was not obviously influenced by the BUFFY movie, had little or no influence on television programming or formats. The show had very low production values and was too campy to influence other shows. But after Buffy there was an explosion of shows centered on strong female action heroes or shows, like FARSCAPE with Aeryn Sun, with strong female characters as part of an ensemble cast. Before BUFFY a woman kicking butt was a startling exception to the rule; after BUFFY a female hero is almost unremarkable.

Most of the chapters of the book consist of succinct summaries of the events of each season of the show followed by a discussion of some of the more significant aspects of that year. I think Billson does a great job of hitting all the highpoints. In discussing a character in one season she often feels free to skip ahead to future seasons, and I think this willingness to stretch her discussion is great. It is artificial to discuss Willow only in context of Season One or Spike in Season Two. I was delighted--with one exception--to see her call attention to all the important aspects of the show. She has a lot of insight into the way the various characters work and I think someone with only a slight knowledge of the show will benefit enormously from her discussions. Those with an extensive knowledge of the show can benefit with either agreeing with her or taking issue with her. On substantive issues, however, I rarely find myself in disagreement, with two exceptions (more on this below). The book closes with a good discussion of how the show has influenced subsequent television, though it omits some of the most important influence, which has to do not with content but with formal aspects (which is why it has influenced both 24 and LOST).

I have two complaints with the book. First, Billson is a person with strong prejudices, but she doesn't present them as prejudices, but as almost factual pronouncements. I've read every serious book on BUFFY that is in print (except Pateman's new book on the aesthetics of culture in BUFFY, which I'll read sometime very soon) and I've probably spent as much time posting on forums as most very serious fans, so I have a pretty good sense of fan opinion on characters. Briefly, here is a summation of general fan opinion on several characters. Riley Finn, Buffy's Season Four and Five boyfriend is almost universally loathed, as is Willow's Season Seven girlfriend Kennedy. Tara, Willow's Season Four to Six girlfriend, has many who do not like her, but she also has a large and devoted fan base, especially among women who like her "normal" physical build. Buffy's sister Dawn both has many who like and many who detest her. Billson has a tendency to pontificate on these characters, Riley, Dawn, and, surprisingly, Tara being absolutely dreadful characters, while she actually likes the almost universally despised Kennedy (for the record, I don't dislike Kennedy, but there is no denying she is profoundly hated by most fans). My problem with Billson here is that she doesn't even hint that some of her judgments are widely contested.

A more serious complaint is that Billson doesn't do justice to BUFFY's second great contribution to television. BUFFY is a show that has had (and will continue to have) profound influence on other television shows. Making the world safe for female action heroes is one of the two most important. The other has been its influence on television narrative. It is this aspect that LOST co-creator and show runner Damon Lindelhof refers to when he said in an interview that BUFFY was the model that LOST tries to emulate. There is not much in Billson's book that would make sense of Lindelhof's statement, or much that would explain why it has influenced shows like 24 and SMALLVILLE (apart from the high school setting of the latter). The fact is that one of the most profound changes in television in the 1990s was a dramatic expansion of the possibilities of narrative. Though shows in the 1980s such as HILL STREET BLUES had introduced short story arcs as a feature of television narrative--meaning that not ever conflict was resolved by the end of each episode--there was still pressure to keep the narrative arcs relatively short. All of this changed with TWIN PEAKS, which stretched arcs out further and further without resolution. Three years later THE X-FLIES in its mythology episodes took this even further, taking arcs out over enormous stretches of time, taking years to resolve basic plotlines. Nonetheless, THE X-FILES focused on the stories with (as Billson quotes Joss Whedon on) Scully and Mulder more onlookers who were somewhat peripheral to the main events. BUFFY, however, was structured around very long story arcs in which the central characters were also the subjects of the arc. (This is specifically what Lindelhof was referencing in saying that BUFFY is the narrative model for LOST.) Each season of BUFFY tells a largely self-contained story, but all the seasons together tell a story as well (one that Billson only partially relates), that of a young girl whose life was tragically interrupted when she is told that she had, without her having any vote in the matter, become her generation's Chosen One. Instead of being just a girl, she is forced to become a hero, something that simply didn't figure in her plans for herself. Each season deals with one aspect of her coming to terms with her destiny until the very last five seconds of the show (something that Billson fails completely to refer to), when Buffy realizes that she is no longer the only girl of her generation who has to fight the vampires and demons, and she smiles as she realizes her life has been given back to her (to me, an absolutely perfect and somewhat astonishing end to the series). In other words, BUFFY both matured and pioneered new ways to tell stories on television, and the show has already exerted a huge influence on the way other television shows have told their stories.

Nonetheless, this is for the moment the best overall book on BUFFY in existence and I very highly recommend it for both casual viewers who would like to learn more about the show and seasoned viewers who love to reflect on a show they love. I would like to add in closing that the book is also very attractively produced, somewhat smaller than your standard trade paperback, but nice four-color photographs and a sewn binding. You can't judge a book by its cover, but judging its contents is always a lot more fun if it is physically inviting.

I obviously did not understand what was the purpose of this book when I purchased it, and, as a result, was slightly disappointed. Expecting to read a more analytical criticism of the show, instead, it turned out to be a rather bland recitation of the plotlines for each season (the book is ten chapters long, one dedicated to the history of female leads in the action/fantasy/adventure TV and movie genres "Before Buffy", a second introducing the heroine of the show, then seven chapters are each dedicated to the seven seasons of BtVS, and, finally, a tenth chapter, summing up about the world of TV "After Buffy"). As far as the critical aspect of the show, it isn't particularly earth-shattering or, for that matter, insightful. Ms. Billson's obvious love for the program shines through, and, while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it does make for some rather tepid criticism. And while many books have taken on an analysis of the "deeper meanings" found in this multi-layered television show, this book tends to remain pretty much on the surface. The author's style is light and amusing in places, but not particularly insightful.

The book is illustrated with extremely poor quality photograph, that appear to be bad screencaps taken off the internet. There is also an index of the episodes, listing the director and writer of each episode and the prominent guest cast members.

While the book isn't "bad", it really isn't "good" either. All in all, there is little to offer to anyone who is knowledgable about BtVS, though, I suppose, it is a decent primer to someone new to the show (though, there are spoilers).

Final analysis: 2.5 stars (I gave it three stars, as Amazon doesn't allow "half stars", and I didn't think it deserved only two) -- A decent diversion, but, for someone looking for something a little more challenging and thought-provoking, there are many better and more thoughtful books on the subject.

I have to agree with cannotlogon's review; there's really no point to yet another Buffy book which is essentially 1 short introductory essay and then a season-by-season recap. There are already half a dozen or more titles which have done this before and more thoroughly. I was really looking forward to this one, as BFI's series of film monographs is often excellent & innovative. Someone dropped the ball here, this just feels like a shoddy attempt to cash in on Buffy Studies. The stills, as mentioned, are poor in quality, and the book's physically tiny--and at $19.95, overpriced by at least $5.


If you want a good general intro to Buffy studies, try Roz Kaveney's Reading the Vampire Slayer; it has some faults--both a few factual errors (it's hard not to with such a detailed show) & points of view that are open to dispute--but as a general, reader-friendly overview it's still the place to start. The other option is Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Rhonda Wilcox); you'd think that two books about such similar subject matter would overlap, & the pleasant surprise is, they don't: they complement each other very nicely.

The best academic Buffy anthology by far that I've read is Fighting The Forces: What's At Stake In Buffy The Vampire Slayer? edited again by Wilcox. In fact, it's one of the best anthologies I've read in years, across the board. Almost every essay is clearly-written and genuinely interesting; they're well-focused and wide-ranging. In short, this *is* a book that's worth its (academic) price... while still maintaining a good level of accessibility for a general audience.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars