I have started a large undertaking in trying to re-watch the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was obsessed with this show when I looked like this:
And I have had the desire lately to reconnect with parts of myself from the past. Partially I just want to see if it is as entertaining of a show now as I thought it was then. So far, it is.
What has really struck me as interesting about the show is remembering how much of an escape it was for me as a kid. I had more of a desire to put things in a box of “good” or “bad” and “right” or “wrong”. In the World of Buffy, bad things don’t just happen, they are caused by unexplainable evils! There is an escapist mentality that makes it easier to deal with hard life situations. For example, an abusive mother that tries to impose her idea of what her child should do turns out to be a witch that has switched bodies with her daughter in order to relive her glory days as a teenager. A girl who can’t deal with her mom dating again doesn’t have to, because the guy her mom is dating turns out to be a killer robot whose ass she gets to kick.
All of the things that were difficult as a teenager are dealt with in fantastical ways that make it easier to understand why life was so confusing then. Sometimes a world with vampires, demons and witches, makes more sense than the one that we actually live in.
Just some food for thought.
