Why a ‘buffy the vampire slayer’ reboot is a good and bad idea

At one level is the return of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with Sarah Michelle Gellar – the news of which they news Black Bread today – is the most 2020s that could happen. Updating a beloved TV series from the past four decades with at least some of the original role crews (often known as a legacy successor, revival or “requel”) has become a central pillar in our current popular culture. From “and like that” on Max to “That ’90s Show” on Netflix to “Star Trek: Picard,” “Frasier” and no matter what new version of “Dexter” streams on Paramount+, we are usually invited now to live in Updated versions of our TV positions.

However, a new “buffy” feels more totemically. Of course, there are all TV history years: dismissed when it premiered on the beginning network WB in 1997 as a mid-season replacement, “Buffy” quickly Roundhouse kicked itself into the vault in both TV form and content. By transforming horror Movie Final Girl into the Kick-Ass hero, who literally kills his demons, and structures his story over seasonal arches culminating in a climatic last showdown, “Buffy”, presumed the next 25 years of genre bend entertainment. “Supernatural”, “True Blood”, “Alias”, “Once Upon A Time”, “The Vampire Diaries,” “Veronica Mars,” “Teen Wolf,” “The Magicians,” “Jessica Jones,” “Orphan Black, “” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” “Wynonna Earp,” “Riverdale,” “Wednesday”, “Game of Thrones” – none of these shows, and many more would also be what they are without “buffy. ”

In addition to its place in TV -Pantheon, “Buffy” formed, where many of its fans see themselves and the world, from the show’s complicated sense of moral justice to its matchless teenage linguistic. It was funny and scary and sad, often in the same scene that usually involved a kind of slithery monster – but that meant Something because they, like the best TV, became so alive that they felt like our closest friends. Their joy, their terror and their pain were also ours.

I think that’s why the idea of ​​”Buffy” that returns to our screens fills me with equal amounts of excitement and fear. I have missing This show and its characters with an intensity that I did not quite realize until the word about the revival stumbled into Black‘s relaxed rooms. Judging from how many of my colleagues ended up dissolving in the intervention of all boxes, I think it is safe to assume that I am far from alone. The ads involved – Showrunners Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman from “Poker Face” and Oscar -winning director Chloé Zhao from “Nomadland” – have superlative creative chops. The prerequisite – focusing on a new Slayer guided by Gellars Buffy Summers – has been tried and true. And if we ever needed a saga about a woman who sent the harmful, intervention of the forces of evil, it would be now!

But fear, good God, fear. Let’s start with the nerdest concerns. When “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” concluded her seven-season in 2003, it raised its underlying mythology-to every generation, a slayer is born until she dies, and a new potential murder replaces her-by to transform all Potential kills to facts. Will this still be the state of the world when the new show begins? If so, how can we follow a new Slayer if there are also a whole bunch of those who set up fogs? If not, how can the resuscitation satisfactory retcon one of the best series final turns in the last 25 years? For that matter, the revival will incorporate the “Buffy” comics that continued the story over five more “seasons” where Buffy destroys the seed to all magic on earth and things get even skirtans from there?

These subsequent comics were, by the way, largely monitored and often written by Joss Whedon, who first created Buffy when he wrote 1992 play film with the same title, starring Kristy Swanson. Whedon’s voice and storytelling are inevitably central to the sustained success of “Buffy” as a TV show, but his absence from the revival is a necessity. His career imploded after allegations of wrongdoing on the set of “Buffy” and its spin-off series “Angel” by actor Charisma Carpenter (as well as on the set of “Justice League” by actor Ray Fisher). Whedon eventually responded to Carpenter’s claims by saying that he had been “not way” with carpenter, but “most of my experiences with charisma were lovely and charming”; At that time, many “Buffy” players had expressed their support to Carpenter. Gellar’s statement was particularly damned: “While I am proud to have my name affiliated with Buffy Summers, I will not be forever connected with the name Joss Whedon.”

But without Whedon, can “Buffy” still feel like “Buffy”? Well, yes, Obviously. Lots of other authors were instrumental in the success of the show. The character and the wider world she inhabits has been so robustly established that talented storytellers should be able to conjure up her spirit without producing a kind of terrible, restart-y-demon-things. (At least they should be able to do a better job with it than my own weak attempt right now.)

Really, the question should not be if “buffy” can return without Whedon; It is whether it can return without all The other people who made it so clear. Will this resuscitation include BUFFYS BFF, the powerful Witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) or Buffy’s lovely students former Watcher, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head)? Will Buffy’s sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) or her other BFF, Xander (Nicholas Brendon), be in it? Will Buffy’s vampire ex-boyfriend Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Masters) show up, especially given the difficult fact that vampires are timeless, but human actors are not? Will anyone earlier “Buffy” writers – like Marti Noxon, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson or Steven S. Deknight – Penn an episode or two? Will Nerf Herder write the theme music?

None of these questions are invincible, nor would the absence of some or even all of these people from Revival prevent fans from wanting to see it. But it’s useful to remember that whatever this new “buffy” wins to be, it can’t – it can’t – be the old show. This generation gets its new “Buffy.” I really hope she kills.