So far this year, TV fans have lost their closest "Friends," the good doctor "Frasier" and those gals who had all that "Sex and the City."
Now, the Buffyverse as we know it is gone.
The last episode of "Angel" on May 19 didn't garner the gallons of ink and fawning farewells of the other shows.
Many folks probably have no idea what the Buffyverse is, or why it should be mourned.
Let me be the one to inform the uninitiated. The Buffyverse comes from the inspired mind of one Joss Whedon, TV writer-director-producer extraordinaire.
Whedon is the man responsible for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," its spinoff, "Angel," and last season's failed series "Firefly" (which isn't officially in the Buffyverse).
He also is the man responsible for keeping Modesto native James Marsters employed for the past seven years, not to mention making him a cult icon and pinup.
In the series finale, Marsters (more specifically, his vampire character, Spike) went out swinging, but not before a little poetry. Fans of "Buffy" appreciated the continuity of Spike's story line, especially the encore poem for Cecily.
In the end, Angel and company left with the good fight still very much in them. Which is just like Whedon.
His shows, and the Buffyverse he created, always have been an artful mix of drama, comedy, pathos and heroism. His clever, pop-culture-infused dialogue may have gotten the most press, but it was the message behind the banter that counted.
In Whedon's world, champions are not without flaws. Redemption comes riddled with pain. And love means never having to say you're sorry for staking your boyfriend through the heart.
He gave television a precedent-setting heroine in Buffy, who kicked butt in kicky boots. Twisting traditional horror clichés, Buffy was cute, blond and lethal. No whimpering damsel in distress here -- just a smart, capable, funny, fierce young woman who saved the world -- a lot.
And Angel's tragic vampire with a soul was the stuff great melodrama is made of. He was Buffy's first love -- perhaps her true love -- but in a Whedonesque twist of fate, a moment of perfect happiness (ahem) would take away his soul and make him evil again. And you thought your relationship had problems.
What was truly brilliant about Whedon's work is that you were able to look past the vampires and demons, the magic and mayhem, to see the human stories underneath. The universal themes we all struggle with -- love, loss, loneliness, lust -- came across more real than almost anything on "reality" television.
Next TV season, it will be with a distinctive pang that I pick up the remote. The Buffyverse, inevitably, was about stopping the end of the world. For some of us, it is the end of the Whedon world.
Grrr argg to that.
Courtesy of Marijke Rowland at The Modesto Bee |
