#1Number of Seasons: 7
Years Active: 1997 - 2003
Network: The WB, UPN
Come on. Could it have been anything else? My complete adoration for the works of Joss Whedon is referenced throughout The Other Worlds, so how could any show besides his magnum opus have filled the #1 spot on this list? As I said in the last post, the quality of the two shows that are set in the "Buffyverse" are pretty much equal. I chose Buffy the Vampire Slayer to occupy the #1 spot alone because it is a more important show than its spin-off.
Buffy the series is itself spun off from a pretty awful movie (I could only watch the first 30 minutes before turning it off in disgust). The film Buffy was Whedon's first solo project, but due to a scared studio and difficult director, the movie became the exact opposite of what Whedon wanted. A few years later, Whedon was offered the option to make his failed film into a series. He agreed on the condition that he'd have full creative control, and the rest is geeky history.
Over the course of seven years, the story of the Slayer and her friends captivated critics, intellectuals, geeks and teenage girls alike. Although most mainstream audiences wrote the show off as teenage girl-power fluff (like they would later do again with Veronica Mars), the people who took the time to actually watch the show were rewarded with stories about great characters and full of incredible metaphoric lessons.
Don't get me wrong, this show is not perfect (but what is; I could probably find 5 negative things to say about each series on this list) but it is damn close. The writing and acting were consistently superb, and the serialized storytelling still allowed for excellent stand-alone elements. Buffy the Vampire Slayer struck a near-perfect balance between serial and episode, and Whedon's incredible gift for storytelling is responsible. Furthermore, big events could happen in any episode. While most series wait for episodes before big breaks (season and mid-season finales) to reveal information or kill off a character, anything can happen at any time on Buffy, and believe me, it does.
Joss Whedon once compared this show to a symphony (he was referring to the nature of the Angel series final compared to Buffy's final episode), and I can't think of a more appropriate description.
Up next: Broken chronologies...
4 comments:
Love your blog, Andrew! If you don't mind, I'm going to link to it on our television blog "The Flaming Nose" http://flamingnose.blogspot.com/
in our favorites section. Looking forward to reading so much more from you!
Thanks, Lisa! I always love to hear that people are enjoying what I have to say.
I'm pretty sure that the difference is that the more expensive sets are the original releases, which use a fold-out design for the disc holders. The cheaper sets are most likely the newer "slim pack" releases, which are about half the width of the original releases, and uses individual slim cases for the discs.
The Chosen Collection includes the exact discs from the original releases, as well as a 40th disc with new bonus features (I've heard mixed reviews of the features), and a letter from Joss Whedon. Personally, I would buy the complete collection because it is more than likely cheaper than buying the seven individual sets (you can easily add up the cost of the seven by themselves if you are getting your info from a site that's not Amazon).
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