The television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which appeared for seven seasons, is a mix of California sunshine and old B movies. Buffy manages to bypass the stereotypical gothic atmosphere with a modern, realistic setting and plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor. Each episode starts with the beginning of the story and explodes into music by the band Nerf Herders, accompanied by a slide show of pictures from current seasons. Sara Michelle Gellar as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” leads the Scooby Gang, as they refer to themselves, through a nonstop combination of karate, street fighting, and explosives.
Two of my favorite episodes were in seasons 2 and 4. A Valentine’s Day-themed episode, (Season 2, episode 10), is called, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. This episode features Xander Harris, played by Nicholas Brendon. With the help of a witch friend and a magic spell, he accidentally beguiles all the females he comes in contact with, except the one he wants. It was quite funny.
“Hush”, (Season 4, episode 10), was an Emmy nominee. In this episode, a small group of evil doers called “The Gentlemen” needs seven human hearts. Through magic, they take the power of speech from the entire city of Sunnydale. Buffy’s trainer, Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Head), brings the Scooby Gang together to plan their defense strategies to get their voices back. To communicate with the Scooby Gang, Giles puts together a silent film-like presentation, accompanied by classical background music. After watching him, Buffy and the Scooby Gang‘s plan is formed to fight back against “The Gentlemen”.
The Buffy series became a worldwide cult while the series was running, and still has a large following. The story line covers every possible horror story that could happen in high school and college. I found this series “bloody- fluffy” with just enough humor to make it work for me.