I said I was going to post again a day after my last one, I didn't and I thought I missed one day but it's been three, this virus is already making me lose track of time. I may also not post this today, depending on how long it takes to write it plus it's late, it maybe be tomorrow by the time I finish this. I also have a lot to talk about and it normally takes me a long time to write but I don't want to spend too much time on this right now.
I looked back at my reminder, I was going to write about how I want to cut back on social media and YouTube (some may consider YouTube as social media too) but I don't feel like doing that right now. Also I'm not quite as stressed about that as I was then, that's perhaps not exactly a good thing because I'm already watching quite a lot of YouTube after just one day of cutting down. Even then, I still did watch a fair amount on that day. Also I want to point out that my writing may not be very good in this post, I can't be bothered to spend much time on it so it'll probably come out formulaic because I'm writing in a stream of consciousness kind of way. Not that I'm particularly good at writing anyway.
I'm going to write about the TV series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, yes, that's how shallow I am. I'm not thinking about important things or writing about deeper things at the age of 38, I'm writing about 90's TV shows about vampires. Whatever, it's what I need to do write now, physiologically, that is. I've already forgotten why I decided to re-watch it even though it hasn't been that long, a week maybe, maybe less. I may have been a way to take my mind of the Covid-19 virus which has effected me greatly in a very sudden way. It remains to be seen if it suddenly goes away and life for myself and the world goes back to normal. It's certainly making me think a lot about my life and may actually change it for the good. Well, unless it it ruins me outside of the realms of my mental state.
Anyway, I don't want to talk about the bloody virus right now, it's difficult for me not to think about it though! Where do I start? I've been watching Buffy on a fat old CRT TV to get that full nostalgia feeling, anyone who doesn't know me will most likely now instantly think of me in a very different light, and that's fair enough. I have a small collection of CRT TV's which, up until now, were primarily for video games. I guess you could call me a collector but the collecting stopped pretty fast, I got them pretty cheap but they are quickly getting difficult to get plus I don't really need many at all. Oh also it's not like I have much space. Oh.... also I mostly only for Bang & Olufsen ones, even within that brand, I've gradually learnt that there are models which I may as well avoid because, well, there a better ones they've made. Wow I really could have thought out a better way to explain that. So yeah you're probably painting a picture of a sad, nerdy person or in some way a kinda strange person, because even in the world of nerds, who bothers with old TV's anymore? Well I'm not alone and most of them are a lot more hardcore than me. Also why am I writing like this again, my brain keeps going into "what if others read this" mode which completely changes what I think I should be writing. It makes me get the need to explain everything about my life and I keeping going off topic, this is supposed to be about a TV show!
Right... I'm also using an original Xbox to watch Buffy, really just because it's the easiest way, I transfer video files to it and then watch them using a scart cable. I could play actual DVDs on it but I only have season 1 and it's sealed so I don't want to open it. I'm pretty sure it's not worth much at all, I just feel like keeping it that way for some stupid reason. If I find any box-sets in charity stores that would be cool but I had a bit of a look the other week (before everything got shut down due to the virus) and didn't find any. I even went into Cash Generator which has loads of DVDs and they had none, I asked and it sounded like they don't often get them. I think they may actually be kinda rare now, well, offline that is. I think you can get them online at OK prices, I really should just look now, it wouldn't take long but I can't be bothered.
I really like the CRT I'm using, it hasn't got the best image quality out of the ones I own but it's the biggest and I think it may have the best sound quality... at least, it did at first. Recently the sound seems to be dying, I'm not totally sure what's happening, it's not that noticeable until the sound actually pops back into fully working. It's as if one of the speakers, maybe the left one, is gradually fading away and then it comes back. I actually managed to get it back by hitting the side a bit, but that only worked once or twice. At first I thought that literally the left speaker is dying, but then when I put my eyes to it, it is still working, it hasn't gone completely off. Also like I said, it's actually kinda not noticeable, it's not like sound is clearly only coming out of the right speaker. Anyway, wow, I will get to the actual show eventually.
I'm realising that this is the most boring stuff to read ever but it's OK, I'm doing this for me. Specifically this post feels like something I couldn't share anywhere else; Not even my mum or closest friends would be interested in this. I mean sometimes it's OK to share things with people which you know they aren't into, but not to this extreme, this is however just stuff I needed to get off my mind by writing here. It may partly just be because I haven't had many people to talk to since the virus got serious.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still a good program, it was extremely popular at the time and I loved it back then just like a lot of people. I'd often see it considered to be the best TV show ever (I feel like I'm repeating myself, I may have said that the other day on here already). This virus hitting us has made me think about the past but I was already doing that obsessively before we even knew about Covid-19, so I don't know why I just said that. Time passes, tastes change and shows are forgotten, I'm pretty sure not many care about Buffy anymore and why should they? One could argue why it's unimportant or why it's important but ultimately it's not important compared to most things simply because it's just a TV show. However, for me, I needed a break from reality and a (possibly unhealthy) deep dive into the past in-which I kind of pretend I'm younger and re-live my past watching Buffy.
Nostalgia isn't new to me (there's a joke there somewhere) but it's always been video games nostalgia for me, even though that's mostly involved read, writing and watching stuff on them rather than actually playing them. This is however something I've been trying to remedy, just before the virus I did start playing games again, mostly old ones, after I realised one day that I barely actually played games anymore. Even now, getting back into playing them, I've found that I can't play them for that long but that's OK, people change and it's certainly not a bad thing not being addicted to a consumer hobby. I still adore them so that's what's important. When I said read and write earlier, I was mostly referring to the fact that I run a games quiz once a month in a kind of pub quiz style locally, I've been doing it for about three and a half years. It has of course been cancelled lately due to the virus, I don't think I've ever cancelled it before. Hopefully it'll return soon.
That was ANOTHER tangent! I'll get to the point - Watching Buffy is the next level of nostalgia hit for me, oh god I make it sound like a drug. In my life, I rarely bother to re-watch even my favourite films and TV shows. I'm not sure why that's the case but that may be changing because it's quite a nice feeling. I just remembered I have done it a tiny bit before - I re-watched all of Seinfeld, I love that show and have seen every episode at least twice, some three times. However I do have to remind myself not to accidentally revise my old history, I think I didn't actually watch Seinfeld until way after the entire series had finished and I'm actually struggling to remember when that was, but it was definitely way after I'd finished Buffy. Seinfeld was partly one of those weird cases where it was nostalgic to watch it even though I didn't experience it when it was new. I'm not sure if there's a word for it but it's that feeling you get if you watch something from a year you liked, say 1994 but you didn't actually watch it back then. So you're experiencing something you missed out on, plus that thing of course has elements from 1994. Actually even though it's not important, I want to point out that Seinfeld isn't a good example of this when it comes to me, because I don't think I actually was in that frame of mind when I watched it. I don't think I was all that obsessed with nostalgia at the time, I just found it really funny. Actually come to think of it, watching that first season may have been the first time I had that "new-nostalgia" (for a lack of a better word) feeling. I didn't get it after that but that first, short season was so incredibly 90's (even though it was '89) to me that it struck me pretty hard. Perhaps because then and even know, I rarely watch old stuff, whether or not I'd seen it before didn't matter. That's a shame because even not including nostalgia or new-nostalgia, it can be fascinating to watch old TV and films, they're a glimpse into the past and also I sometimes find it amazing how differently stories are often told.
I honestly really do like Buffy even though it looks like I don't because I keep ending up talking about something else! Also it's almost midnight and I wanted to watch some more of it before bed! By the way I'm currently only half-way through season 2 so I have a long way to go, I also, unsurprisingly, will watch Angel as well. Oh I wanted to say a few more things about my history with the show - I might be forgetting some things but I'm pretty sure I didn't watch all of it on TV, I only watched it in it's entirety when I friend of mine called John lent me the box-sets. I'm temped to say DVD's but actually I think they were those big chunky VHS ones. Wow I might be wrong but I suddenly remembered that I may have borrowed them before the series actually ended, so I watched them to catch up and then finished the series on actual TV. It finished on May 20, 2003 so that would mine up with me working in CeX with John... I think?
It was about a week ago when I started season 1, I watched 2 episodes and then I thought it would be a good idea to find a podcast where they go through reviewing each episode. I haven't found any that tickle my fancy yet but one of them (I think) said that season 1 is considered bad, and then I started watching a video by a fan and he said it IS bad. I think he did anyway, I was tired so my memory isn't good for that night. Anyway the important thing is that I hadn't considered this new before, it reminded me that shows, even good shows, often have bad first episodes or even first seasons. I'm pretty easy going though, for example I think season 1 of Star Trek: TNG is good even though it's widely considered bad. Perhaps it often happens with mega popular shows because, well, they get popular through being good and being good means it got better and became more popular. So in retrospect a lot of people view earlier episodes negatively. Did that even make sense? Anyway I usually don't feel this way, I often like early episodes and take them on their own merits.
Season 1 is already hazy to me which is not a good sign, haha. I DO take it all in though, I don't just mindlessly watch things, I promise. I'm half-way through season 2 though and I'm finding that I remember its episodes from back in the day a lot better than season 1 episodes. As soon as say, a couple new characters appear on-screen in '2x07 - Lie to Me', I remember them and then soon after I clearly remember the story for the episode. Might not sound like a big deal but I didn't get that much in season 1. Don't get me wrong, like I said, season 1 is good but the story doesn't really get rolling until season 2. I mean Spike, who becomes a very important character in both this and Angel isn't even in it until the cliff hanger at the end of the entire season.
I have to be really nit picky to find faults with season 1 so here goes - By mid-season 2 Xander isn't important story-wise and I don't remember him ever getting that important in the entire show (though I may stand corrected later). But he is important to the flow of script because even though all the characters are sometimes comical, Xander is usually the only one intentionally trying to be funny within the actual universe of the show. I'm sure some hate him but he's often got some good jokes and I do find myself doing a little chuckle now and again. That episode 1 of season 1 though, oh boy, his lines are bad. He just kinda says stuff, reactions to what the others are saying and they don't make sense. At first I was like oh god is this what this entire show is like, and my memories of this being good are going to be shattered? It was OK though, he improves quickly after the first episode. The character are only just meeting each other anyway, so you should give them some slack... I guess. The thing is I remember when this show was contemporary, a mate of mine called Paul D. didn't like the show and commented on the script. I can't quite remember but he said something along the lines of it being cocky, American teen jokes that were annoying. We usually had similar tastes so that stuck with me to this day for some reason.
More on season 1 - This is definitely something I'd never thought of before and it's really minor but Alyson Hannigan as Willow is kinda acting badly... maybe? I'm no expert. Basically the character is so one note, her profile must have been "Nerdy, Computer nerd, Shy, Nerdy" which translates into her simply being self-deprecating and lightly spoken all the time. That's literally all she does, the tone of her voice is to softly speak and that's it, nothing else. It kind of hides most of her emotions in the season. She does get better in season 2 though and Oz is slowly being introduced. You can tell the writers had to doing something with her character by bringing in a dramatic love interest, I say dramatic because Oz is a werewolf and I look forward to the stories about him because I can't remember them, all I remember for now is him being locked in cages a lot. That's all I can think of when it comes to bad things in season 1, the rest is fine.
Stepping back a bit, I want to comment on the show in general and what it's like to watch it in 2020. I'm still in its first year of existence, 1997, that's 23 years ago! I'm so old, sad face. It's not widescreen, that's a thing. I don't mind this and it's probably a nostalgia thing again but I like it, it's a different experience. One thing I can imagine that's lost to time is how different this show was, it broke so many narrative conventions. I'm not going to do the right thing and list them all, I'm too tired for that, instead I'm going to say the cliche one that everyone used to say - It subverts your expectations. It probably isn't appreciated now because so many films and shows did it after Buffy, that we've possibly gone through a couple of trope generations since then. However I reckon Buffy started the trend in the first place. The first scene in episode 1 is a simple but perfect example of this - A couple break into a school at night and are gonna make-out or bang or something, the dude acts tough and his girlfriend is scared and acts vulnerable. What was expected in TV and film at the time, especially horror themed ones, was that a monster or killer of some sort would appear, kill the guy and run after the girl. The girl would run around screaming, possibly get away if this was the end of the story (this is known as the Final Girl, it's a classic trope, look it up) or get killed if it's the start. Then someone else would investigate. Or, knowing this is about vampires, it would be revealed that the boyfriend is a vampire and he'd drink her blood. But instead, the girl turns around and it turns out she was pretending the whole time, shes the vampire and she kills him.
From then on, the show often uses stereotypical scenarios to surprise you with twists. For example there's an episode which seems like it's going to be about your typical evil ventriloquist dummy but it turns out he's a good guy demon hunter, who got trapped in the dummy by a curse. The only problem is we live in the year 2020 now and I when I wrote the word 'twist' I felt like it was a negative thing. We are perhaps now in an era where many are sick of twists, do we currently just want well told, solid stories that don't relay on twists? Perhaps but I'm no storytelling expert, it was just a thought and I still find this Buffy stories great. I even forgot the ventriloquist one so the twist worked on me.
It's being very picky but I guess the only slightly dated thing in Buffy is other story telling elements, besides the cool original ones like the subversion of expectations. Perhaps something that didn't stick out then but does now is the episodic feeling of the entire show. Now I want to say that I'm totally fine with it, in fact it's kind of refreshing after seeing how so many modern shows do it. Let me explain - It can be more complicated than this but basically the A story and the B story are often reversed nowadays. Take Game of Thrones (which finally ended some months ago), There's an overarching story for a season, this is the focus of every episode, this is the A story and it takes up most of the time in that episode. Then the B story could be say, 30% of it and it's a short story which only happens in that one episode. It could give depth to a character and add to the main A story, but it essentially ends in that episode. I first noticed this structure years ago in the TV show called Lost, yeah, remember how popular that was?
Shows didn't used to be like this, the self-contained story which is only for one episode in Buffy is actually the A story, then the over arching story which is gradually told over the season and ends at the end of that season is the short B story. In fact the B story could be as short at 10% of that episode. It's probably because tastes change plus show we accessed TV was different back then. It's easier to access now and we don't mind long stories which span an entire season, or even entire show in Game of Thrones case. But in the old days you'd often just turn on the TV and watch whatever was on, you couldn't choose to watch something anytime like on Netflix. So if you went to a channel and Buffy season 3 episode 9 was on and you didn't have a clue what was going on because you hadn't watched the first 8 episodes, you'd not like it and turn it off.
I'm going to have to continue this another day because I've been writing this for hours. I didn't even get to my point in the last paragraph and for all I know it's not making any sense because I'm now burnt out. Byeeeeee.
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