Earlier in the t.v. season I predicted Buffy and Spike would be the new hot couple on
television. She’s a vampire slayer; he’s supposedly her nemesis, but he’s gone fangless
and developed scruples after falling in love with Buffy. For a demon-possessed monster,
he seems to have more common sense, sensitivity and a better understanding of the human
condition than Buffy or any of her friends. Then again, he’s a 220 year old vampire and
Buffy and her friends are in their early twenties. It’s quite the artistic statement to
theorize that being in your early twenties is a more chronic condition than being a blood
sucking, soulless vampire.
So we’ve had the season of the soulless twenties, where every foible one can have at this
age is painfully explored on the small screen. And it runs the gamut from the Scooby
Gang’s selfishness in tearing Buffy out of heaven so they don’t have to deal with her
death, Buffy using Spike as her sex toy without professing any feelings for him, Buffy
ignoring her parenting responsibility for Dawn now that her mother is dead, and Willow
wanting to avoid herself altogether by descending into magical addiction. Maybe being an
evil bloodsucker is not so bad after all? I guess nothing can compare to the misery of
the early twenties.
I visited the alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer newsgroup recently where fans were discussing the
recent episode, "Doublemeat Palace," and found many people pondering the horror of being a
twenty-something.
Hlk writes, “Buffy is miserable, and even though she is ashamed of her relationship with
Spike, she can't stop using sex with him as an escape. And that detached look on her face
in this episode was interesting. Even sex with Spike doesn't seem to be doing it for her
anymore."
Cyclone counters, “I don't think Buffy is, in general, as miserable as you might think.
Yes, she is the Chosen One, who saved the world "a lot", and went to heaven; and now in
this scene, she's joylessly humping a vampire in an alley by a dumpster in her greasy
uniform on break from her job flipping burgers."
“But on the plus side, although she's not "doing back-flips" about her life, she does want
to live now. She's facing her financially responsibilities by working, even if it is
menial labor. (Plus, her joblessness was one of the big black marks against her by the
social services people.) She still has her friends. And, yes, she's humping a vampire, but
at least it's a vampire who loves and understands her."
EGK writes, “I think the sex scenes with Spike are meant to show that Buffy is having
trouble getting on with her life every bit as much as the string of dead end jobs. Spike
represents a dead-end affair with no place for it to go. I think this probably is what
the writers want him to represent, but they chose the wrong character. Spike is simply
too interesting in his own right to serve this function."
Ivytree agrees, “It bothers me that part of what's bothering Buffy so much about the
relationship is that she fears her friends'disapproval. All the more so since the same
friends seem to be completely out of touch with what's really happening to her, while
Spike is the only one who seems to have a clue and is genuinely worried."
Again, being a soulless vampire pales to the self-centered early twenties? No offense to
the twenty-something readers out there. However, the Buffy writers are mining territory
they know so well. Nothing compares to the horror of everyday life. Although if you can
throw a monster into the mix, it can serve as a metaphor for what’s really going on under
the surface.
Sine has a hilarious perspective on this, “I thought the giant, evil Penis-monster was
hilarious. I laughed a lot. My take on it was that even though Buffy has issues with her
job, her biggest issue right now is her attraction to Spike! Hence the big, evil,
paralyzing Penis-monster with lots of sharp teeth. She's powerless to escape it, can't
run, can't hide."
Could be why so many of us love this show?
|
"Buffy and the Paralyzing-Penis Monster"
