This time it's for real. This is going to be the last Buffy essay I write. Because - HAHAHAHA - soon there will be no more Buffy for me to write about.
I'm writing this one in segments, because I'm not yet sure how many segments there will be or how they will be organized. I thought I'd share the various pieces with you as I work on them. You'll probably even give me ideas or interpretations that I hadn't thought of before.
Ready? Okay, here we go with Installment #1:
When it comes to exploring why successful TV shows often fail in their later seasons, the man who wrote the book on the subject - literally - is award-winning author and screenwriter David Gerrold. He devoted the last third of his 1973 book, The World of Star Trek, to an analysis of what went wrong in Gene Roddenberry’s original 1960s series. Today, thirty years later, some of the things he had to say can be applied to Buffy as well.
Consider the following:
“Unfortunately, there were several things that tended to work against Star Trek as time progressed. These elements of decay can happen to any TV show. They can be identified as Format and Formula. Format becomes formula via Hardening of the Arteries and Erosion.”
What does that mean? First, let’s consider what Mr. Gerrold means by “format:”
“A format is a guide for whatever is to come later. It’s a flight plan for a series. But just like any other kind of flight plan, the slightest error will magnify itself over a period of time if it isn’t corrected or compensated for . The errors in a show’s original format will repeat themselves until they become so noticeable as to be annoying...
“Actually, mistake isn’t quite the right word. Let’s say ‘element of conceptualization’ instead. That is, something that seems quite workable in the first two or three stories may turn out to be a very rigorous trap by the thirteenth or fourteenth episode.”
Consider that while Joss Whedon had worked on the staff of Roseanne for a while, most of his work before Buffy - and the work he was best known for - had been in feature films. In various interviews Joss has talked about the story elements he liked to use in his movies, and if you watch Buffy you can see those same story elements appear. But an ongoing TV series and a feature film are very different. A feature film lasts anywhere from ninety minutes to three hours - the audience comes in, meets the characters, watches the story and then leaves. A TV series brings characters and stories into people’s living rooms week after week for years. Over time, something that works very well in a feature film can become one of the “elements of conceptualization” that runs a TV series into the ground.
Take, for example, two of Joss’s favorite “elements of conceptualization” - character deaths and relationships that end badly.
In the early seasons, events like these had the kind of impact Joss aims for. They were shocking. They surprised people. They communicated that - as Joss and his writers have said repeatedly - “nothing is safe.” But as the years wore on, the cumulative effect of these repeated events has been quite different. In later seasons, character deaths were no longer surprising - they were expected. Many fans became so busy trying to figure out the next “Big Scooby Death” that they paid less attention to the actual story or the individual episodes. The fan community fragmented as advocates for different characters began bickering over which character “deserved” to die next. The same goes for relationships, as advocates for different pairings bickered over which one “deserved” to go on and which one “deserved” to be broken up. As these repeated calamities continued, entire segments of the fan community turned away from the show. The ratings dropped.
And now look at Season 7. There are all sorts of new characters on the scene, but the fans show little interest in them. There are new relationships developing, but few people care. Why should they? If “nothing is safe,” then nothing is worth the emotional investment. Why bother getting excited about a character that could be killed off in a few episodes? Why bother getting excited about a relationship when you already know that it’s going to fail? And so here we are in Buffy’s final season, and the most common attitude among viewers - and former viewers - is indifference.
But there’s another “element of conceptualization” that is even more fundamental to the series and has turned out to be even more of a trap. And that’s the very nature of Buffy herself.
When Joss Whedon pitched the concept for Buffy, he went to the networks and said, “I want to tell a story about a girl who beats up the monsters instead of running from them.” And that’s what Buffy does. She beats up the monsters. For seven years, that’s what she’s been doing. Beating up the monsters.
But there are only so many ways she can do that. After you’ve seen Buffy stake fifty vampires, what reason do you have to stick around for number fifty-one? There has to be something else injected into the story - some kind of complication. And that usually means creating a monster that is harder for Buffy to beat up.
The early seasons came up with some creative ways to make Buffy’s life more difficult. At the end of the first season, she had to face her fear of the prophecy that she would die. At the end of the second season, she had to kill her lover. At the end of the third season, she had to become not just a Slayer but also a leader, organizing her fellow students into an makeshift militia.
But after that, things took a downward turn. In the later seasons, the emphasis hasn’t been on finding creative new ways to overcome an enemy. It’s been more on finding ways for Buffy to hit harder. Buffy can’t fight Adam? Fine, we’ll cast this spell so she can pack a mightier punch. Buffy can’t fight Glory? Fine, here’s a troll hammer she can use to beat Glory into submission. In Season 6, she faced an enemy who knew all about her need to hit things, and look what happened. Dark Magic Willow threw Buffy down into a pit and gave her other things to beat up instead, conveniently leaving the world primed for destruction. Fortunately for the world, Xander was there to save the day - but the last time I checked, the show was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not Xander the Yellow Crayon Man. It’s never a good idea to upstage the hero in the season’s climactic moment.
And again, here we are in Season 7, and apparently Buffy doesn’t even need help from anyone to hit harder now. She can’t fight the Ubervamp? Fine, she’ll just make a few speeches and get herself all revved up, and then the monster is no trouble at all. She didn’t even need to get the troll hammer back out. The overall arc of the season has become so predictable that many viewers have come to regard the first seventeen or eighteen episodes as little more than filler - and that’s what the fans are saying. Is it any wonder that the ratings are so low?
Up next - more on "Hardening of the Arteries" and "Erosion." Stay tuned.
"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford
Edited by: BBOvenGuy
at: 2/28/03 12:34:23 pm
at: 3/4/03 5:31:42 am
I look forward to more.
