Buffy Goes Dark: Essays on the Final Two Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Television by Lynne Y. Edwards

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this collection of essays and feel compelled to marathon seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy, which I have always enjoyed. The “dark years” always seemed fitting to me and contain great stories and character arcs. Below is my reaction to each piece in this book.

Martin Noxon: Buffy’s Other Genius by David Perry.

I will bashfully admit I tend only to notice if Joss is the writer.  I know the names of the other writers, but couldn’t identify their episodes.  I’m fascinated by this look at Noxon’s work and now am sure she is utterly brilliant.

“Buffy is not a show that its fan simply watch; it inspires obsession. Fans fall in love with the show, and they fall in love with the characters.”

Top Noxon episode (by my standards): “Surprise.”  She then was a co-executive producer and later executive producer on many other great episodes, including “Helpless,” “Hush,” “The Body,” “The Gift,” “Conversations with Dead People,” and “Chosen.”  She went on to be a consulting producer on 66 episodes of Angel.

Understanding the Espensode by David Kociemba.

Great insight into Jane Espenson.  I didn’t realize she wrote for Tru Calling!  (And Dinosaurs and Ellen, favorite shows in my youth).  I was aware of her blog (http://www.janeespenson.com/) and now I’m going to start investing some time there.

“Reminding the audience of the essential humanity of tough protagonists only raises the stakes in the long run; as it did on BtVS, the comic and the deadly serious build off one another and the distinctions between comedic and dramatic characters begin to collapse.  That is an important step towards creating characters that evolve into being more than fictions even as they remain fictional.”

By coincidence, after reading this essay, Matt and I sat down to watch the pilot episode of “Warehouse 13.”  I jumped online to look up one of the actors and soon realized Espenson is a co-creator and writer for the series!  How fortuitous.  And no wonder it was so good and clever!!

Espenson was the executive story editor on many of my Buffy faves: “Helpless,” “Hush,” “This Year’s Girl,” “Who Are You?” “The Gift,” “Bargaining,” “Selfless,” “Touched,” “Chosen.”

Evil, Skany, and Kinda Gay: Lesbian Images and Issues by Alissa Wilts.

Wilts asserts that, ultimately, Buffy “perpetuates the harmful stereotype of predatory lesbians,” as it gives way to the label of the “Dead-Evil Lesbian Cliché.”  She recognizes that “television is a social educational tool” and thinks Whedon ultimately falls short on breaking barriers for the beloved lesbian couple, Tara and Willow.  Wilts discusses the two years of a beautiful, loving relationship that Tara and Willow share, but believes it is undermined by the death and destruction that meet it in the end.  She argues that, “the audience at home [will think] that lesbians are manipulative and obsessive.”  In all my years as a Buffy viewer, I never came to that conclusion.  In fact, I think the relationship between Willow and Tara was one of the most beautiful on the series.  Furthermore, Wilts believes that since “Tara’s death comes immediately after a scene of heavy sexual flirtation [it indicates that] lesbian relationships end in misery and death.”  I have two responses.  First of all, the sexual overtone of the episode helps to show the intense bond between Willow and Tara, therefore demonstrating the deep pain of Willow’s loss when Tara dies.  Secondly, to be fair, NO romance on Buffy survives, lesbian or straight.  And, well, in actuality, the only couple that is still together in the season finale is a lesbian relationship (Willow and Kennedy).  Wilts then says that “Buffy’s straight characters do not suffer in the same way [as Willow].”  I think Giles and Buffy would beg to differ: remember how Giles finds Jenny’s dead body in his bed and how Buffy has to kill Angel to save the world?  Finally, Wilts discusses problems she has with the lesbians being portrayed as “feminine” and “attractive to straight men.”  But, c’mon, isn’t everyone on Buffy pretty and appealing?  Wilts writes her arguments well, but I think they fail to stand.

“It’s Complicated … Because of Tara”: History, Identity Politics, and the Straight White Male Author by Brandy Ryan.

This essay is a perfect rebuttal to the aforementioned “Evil-Dead Lesbian Cliché.” Ryan reasonably argues that, “Buffy’s history of pain and torment for its primary characters suggests that rather than positing Willow and Tara as a site of difference to be punished in ways unlike its other characters, this storyline cements their equality.”  Who cares if Joss is a white, male writer?  He’s writing about the human experience, something we all have in common regardless of race or sexual orientation.  Wilts ultimately praises season six: “This is Buffy at its best: exploring how people deal with loss, struggle with weakness, and attempt to fight their internal darkness.”

The Candide of Sunnydale: Andrew Wells as Satire of Pop Culture and Marketing Trends by Ira Shull and Anne Shull.

First, I must say that I adore Andrew.  Of course he is terribly flawed, but he is also very entertaining.  I’ve always been able to laugh with him as I get his pop-culture references.  (My favorite line of Andrew’s is in Angel’s season five to the resurrected Spike: “You’re like… you’re like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever.  Oh, he’s alive, Frodo.”)

In this essay, the Shulls compare Andrew to Candide.  While I’ve never read Voltaire, a quick peek an online summary assured me that this essay makes a great comparison.

“Andrew may largely function as comic relief during Seasons Six and Seven of BtVS, but the evolution of his character contains satirical commentary by the show’s writers on how products are pitched to certain audiences, along with the dangers of critical thinking skills being ignored, under-developed, or dialed down.  Ultimately, Andrew may be seen as a modern-day Candide … torn between both good and evil and individual thought vs. mindless following.”

Buffy and the Death of Style by Michael Adams.

Great look at the dialogue (“lexical innovation”) of Buffy, smartly intertwining lyrics from “Once More with Feeling.”  Adams pulls together form, passion and pain to remind us this world isn’t pretty, but you need to dance in it anyways.  This is something Buffy reminds of us, and something which Joseph Campbell discussed often.  “All life stinks and you must embrace that with compassion” (Campbell, Pathways to Bliss).  As Adams says, “The show argues … that there is unexpected power in accepting life for what it is, and for locating one’s purpose in it.”

“Set on This Earth Like a Bubble”: Word as Flesh in the Dark Seasons by Rhonda V. Wilcox.

Beautiful look at word (the characters are “world-wielders”) and flesh, pointing specifically to Buffy’s resurrection, Willow’s down-spiral, and various parts of Spike and Buffy’s relationship.  Like Adam’s essay before, Wilcox reminds us of the joined horrors and beauties of this world, like Campbell reminds us that life eats on life and can be a monstrous thing.  We have to learn to live in the joyful sorrows and the sorrowful joys.

Wilcox touches on many ideas that reflect the thoughts of Campbell and Jung.  For example, in her discussion on the final battle in “Chosen,” Wilcox indicates that Willow “acts physically and symbolically upstairs while Buffy, Spike, and the other champions battle demons below, uniting the conscious and the subconscious.”  Also, “by the end of the series, the majority of the central characters are liminal, and that in terms of the monstrosity of their bodies, as well: they are liminally monstrous.”

I always enjoy Wilcox’s analyses of Buffy.  She is a great leader of Buffy scholarship.

Bodies and Narrative in Crisis: Figures of Rupture and Chaos in Seasons Six and Seven by Gregory Erickson and Jennifer Lemberg.

I don’t think these authors are entirely sure if they like or disliked seasons six and seven.  There are many points they make that I disagree with, though they did provide some good insight.

My main contentions:

Claim: “Buffy’s idea of her heavenly state if a form of negative theology, as she describes a divine experience by what it is not.”  My thought: I think this is an erroneous attack.  Whatever Buffy’s experience was, I doubt she would be able to fully comprehend it after her resurrection, and it sure sounds peaceful enough to me!

Claim: Buffy has a “suicide attempt in the musical episode.”  My thought: Her dance sequence was not a suicide.  It was a result of the magical power of Sweet.

Claim: In reference to Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy: “By depicting tramatic events, especially rape … disrupt the individual’s connection organizing daily life.”  My thought: it’s important to remember that it is an attempted rape.  Yes, it is horrifying and changes the way we and Buffy view Spike, but it is NOT an act of rape.  The series would have changed drastically had Buffy been a rape victim/survivor.

Claim: Buffy is the big bad of season seven.  My thought: Can I just say NO and have everyone nod in agreement?

Claim: “The Trio accidentally kills Warren’s ex-girlfriend.”  My thought: While the Trio is responsible for many things, it is so clear and I think so important that is explicitly Warren that kills Katrina.

On the positive side, the authors express: “By depicting her [Buffy’s] return as a traumatic event, the show attaches a conceptual vocabulary to an unimaginable experience.  Psychological trauma represents a rupture or a complete break from the past … it offers an appropriate framework within which to understand Buffy’s having survived an event … it is not Buffy’s death that makes her ‘detached’ or ‘dead inside’, but the trauma of being pulled from another dimension and then left alone underground.”

Reality Bites: Buffy in the UPN Years by Lynne Y. Edwards and Carly Haines

“After five seasons of training in Buffy’s Scoobie dojo, I was ready for the biggest monster of all: real life.”  YES!

This essay supplies good insight and fascinating facts.  Edwards and Haines take a look at the reality faced by the Scoobies in seasons six and seven, and then they look at the realities of the late ‘90’s and the networks.  This essay flushes out the struggles between the WB and UPN and the realities of television networks.

“Just a Family Legend”: The Hidden Logic of Buffy’s “Chosen Family” by Agnes B. Curry and Josef Velazquez.

The authors seemingly don’t want to commit to a definitive stance, though mostly argue that Buffy is the new patriarchy (indicating that it’s not a matriarchy despite the female lead to which I question why physicality and protectiveness is singled to patriarchy only) and that chosen families shouldn’t be the goal.  First of all, I think chosen families are beautiful and CAN include biological members, so it doesn’t have to be an argument against your born family.

Main contentions:

Claim: Buffy makes the ultimate decision to accept Tara as part of the chosen family in season five’s “Family” and fails to take Willow into account.  My thought: It’s precisely because Buffy takes Willow into account that she stands up for Tara.

Claim: “It is Buffy and Buffy alone who judges that Anya must die” in season seven.  True, BUT: Buffy holds herself to the same standards.  Recall she wants to turn herself into the police when she believes she murdered Katrina.  And shouldn’t we also recall that Anya is a demon at this point?

Claim: Willow’s “father may not have been emotionally close or affectionate enough to make her secure in her attractiveness.”  I simply see no evidence for this argument.

Interesting ideas:

Daddy-issues identified throughout, particularly for Willow, Xander, and B.  Makes me think of LOST: “All the best cowboys have daddy issues.”  Interesting continuing commentary on our society.

“It seems, then, that the members of the Scooby Gang are strongly marked by their longing for their fathers.”  Particularly interesting considering Whedon himself was raised by a single mother.

Yeat’s Entropic Gyre and Season Six by Elizabeth L. Rambo.

“In many ways, the entire sixth season seemed like what I like to call ‘the anti-Buffy,’ but in Yeat’s mysterious world of opposing spirals, that is the only way to fully come back from the grave, the only way to win one’s soul, the only way to get past vengeance to forgiveness.”

This essay takes a smart look at the way the Scoobies and the Trio progress, particularly in season six.  Rambo uses Yeat’s pattern of gyres to explain the inevitable development in the characters, particularly the recently resurrected Buffy.

Season Six and the Supreme Ordeal by Paul Hawkins.

Hawkins discusses how season six fits into the monomyth (originally posited by the great mythologist Joseph Campbell).  However, he uses terms from Christopher Vogler to do this “simply because his phraseology is clear and simpler to understand, as well as being more specifically tailored towards the visual medium.”  Perhaps the tele-tailoring is beneficial, but there is no need to replace Campbell’s terms, which are perfectly clear and effective.  Hawkins makes some good comments throughout, but overall I just didn’t see enough myth analysis present given the setup for the piece.  I will admit I think I am being especially hard on this piece since it is so close to my own studies.  It is quite possible I was simply put off by the replacement of Campbell’s terms (this would be my own issue and no flaw of the writer).

Kiss Kiss, Stake Stake: Stroytelling and the Philosophical Pleasure of Season Season by James B. South.

This is a really good analysis, taking into consideration the Andrew-centric episode of season seven, “Storyteller.”  However, for such a short essay, I think South took too much time providing the philosophical background and too little time discussing his analysis of the episode.

All in all, I was satisfied with his conclusion: “BtVS may be, in Andrew’s words ‘educating and entertaining,’ but in ‘Storyteller,’ it is not so in the sense that we can learn from it – instead we learn through it.”

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