In 2003, I was devastated when my favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, came to its inevitable end. And I was on board for all the various rumors circulating about potential spin-off movies and not-so-secretly wished that the animated series would be made, even though it went back to the beginning of the series. Eventually when the shock had worn off, I got over it and moved on to bigger and better things. 1 Now, over five years later, you’ll still hear a “rumor” that someone is finally going to get around to making that Spike/Faith spinoff that we were all so excited about. I don’t actually know how this keeps happening even though the fact that Buffy’s God himself, has said “Uh-uh, no more. No Spikey, no Faithy, no Cartoony,” and really I think that that should be that, but my fellow geeks just can’t let it go. In fact, I think this very mentioning of the Animated Series is enough to get a small flutter of internet Geek-Goss.
Unfortunately, this undying hope doesn’t seem to be limited to Buffy, in fact, it turns out that all Geeks are apparently just satisfied, ecstatic even, by whatever the creator deems to release of a long finished franchise. Recently, I ranted about the low-stooping of producers who would dare release yet another Terminator movie just for a quick buck, but as it turns out, it might not be entirely their fault. Geek groupies want more and they don’t care about the quality they get it in. The people in hollywood with the power are more than willing to oblige if it means that they can make a quick buck without the extensive ad campaign.
Geeks have no urge to branch out from their comfort zones, so why would filmmakers and TV series creators feel the need to branch out themselves? If they keep churning out more of the same, they are still guaranteed the audience, and nothing feels better than blind worship. Why take a risk on something new that could possibly flop? Several weeks ago, I read an article that said just this very thing about Star Wars God, George Lucas.
These days Lucas sounds like a museum curator, fussing with dusty memorabilia… If he has any inspiration left, he shouldn’t waste it on exploiting something old when he could put it to use dreaming up something new.
I tend to agree. Come on, Georgie, you don’t think six movies and a few ill-fated 80’s series were enough to satisfy ALL the story lines that Star Wars legitamently had to offer? Turns out, he didn’t have think that. There was still enough buzz circulating the animated Star Wars movie that just came out (that tells the story that we have already seen the ending for!2) and the upcoming live action TV series that he doesn’t even have to remotely consider making something fresh.
George Lucas has created two thrilling franchises – Star Wars and Indiana Jones – so surely if he put his mind to it, he could come up with another good trilogy before his time is up, instead of beating up one of his other dead horses. He isn’t that old. George, use your powers for good not evil!
And if the so-called god of cult classics3 can do it, why can’t the little guys? Now there is talk of a Veronica Mars movie appearing on the “to-do list.” Veronica Mars was one those few shows that somehow sprung up a devoted cult audience — whether that had anything to do with the endorsement of one Joss Whedon is debatable — which is somewhat surprising considering it only lasted three seasons and by the end of which, kind of sucked, in my opinion. My guess would be that this movie would try to wrap up the so-called cliffhanger of the last episode. You know what would have done that? Not having a cliff hanger. Creator Rob Thomas’s theory was “if we leave them with some half answered questions, surely they will have to renew us to find out.” Some good that did, now the questions will always go unanswered.4 The movie is not the answer folks, the world has moved on from Veronica, and nostalgia and sugar dreams can’t change that.
I am the first to admit that finding a show that is worth devoting your heart-and-soul to is few and far between, but have some dignity. Squeezing the life out of a franchise until it is nothing but recycled and recasted waste is not going to bring back the feeling you had seven years ago. Shows (and movies) have a limited story potential, it’s inevitable. The reason some shows (and movies) are so great is that they know how to exploit this potential and then make it come together in a nice, well-deserved ending that provides us closure. A show ending is not the worst thing that can happen, in fact, it’s generally the best. Spinoffs and comic books and movies only muddle the ending and what the show was trying to accomplish in the finale.
When a show ends, there will be another one day. It might not be tomorrow and I know that that hurts your little internet-raised, instant-gratification soul, but it will happen. Buffy ended in 2003. It was great, and it has been untainted5 since then and therefore it will live on as something awesome forever. A few years later I have discovered Battlestar Galactica, albeit a couple years late, and that fills the gap just fine. Great shows don’t come around too often – and really, would they be just as great if they did? – but they do come around. So be patient and don’t fool yourself into believing lame rumors or watching tired spinoffs. It will all work out in the end. The worlds of TV and film aren’t going anywhere, if anything, they’re just growing.
As for Wii Fit… I’m still on the incline… and you would think that burned more calories.
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- Like blogging. ↩
- Talk about your clone wars ↩
- I guess this term is relative these days, considering the mainstream success of his once snubbed trilogy ↩
- If I were Rob Thomas, I would have pulled out all the guns, done anything and everything that I could with the characters and story — kill people off, explode things — do the unexpected and figure out how to fix it ONCE the show was renewed. And if it never was? Well, at least my show can go down in history as something that went out with a bang. Too bad for you that I’m not Rob Thomas, it would have been awesome. ↩
- No matter what anybody ever says, I will not acknowledge the Buffy Season 8 comic as canon. It is a fun little read but it is nothing more than any of the other Buffy comics put out over the years. Sorry guys, it’s just not the same thing. ↩
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I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tom Stanley
Welcome Tom.
I am inclined to agree with you on this one, oh Blogmaster. I feel like I alone, often, dissapprove the continual devotion of the world’s geeks to waning television standards. I was once part of an online fan community for a show that was very much in the peak of it’s fanness. It was 2004, Buffy had ended, Angel was worth looking forward to and we were all very much on a high provided to us from one of the most masterfully crafted television series’ in all the Verse. A wise leader once said, “The time has come for us to move on from this place of fandom and carry on with our lives the best way we know how”. He may not have said anything of the sort, but whatever it was that Libosis said on that fateful day that BCA was to be closed down remains the most accurate insight into the life cycle of a good TV show. That not only does the show end, but at some point, a fan’s blind devotion must also move on, reincarnate into the appreciation of another artform (if possible), and continue to build and develop, taking on themes from the better shows to inform viewers on ways to read the intricacies of new shows.
I’m all about giving new shows a chance, none of them, even the good ones, have ever been as good as Buffy was, and they may never be, but I’m not going to be seen out and about spending my hard earned Centrelink pension on a VIP ticket to a convention full of T grade actors that no one knows about.
Welcome Tom, I hope that I don’t scare and/or bore you too much and you decide to stick around.
My problem with geeks in general, that you touch on Aneeta, is that they seem to be blind to the fact that a show is losing steam. I can’t blame shows for this, I would imagine six or seven years into writing the same characters/storylines it would get very difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas for an audience. A lot of the time, the best thing a showrunner can do is end it before it gets out of hand, and when they don’t the show’s quality drops considerably. Though, a lot of the “devoted” fans don’t seem to mind, they are just soaking up anything that their professed god-du-jour will give them, and personally I think that is too the shows detriment. Not only is the show losing steam, but the fans are looneys… no wonder trekkies are so looked down on in the mainstream world.
At least they got their own documentary made about them. I’ll start to respect the Buffy fans once other people recognise them as a legitimate subculture. Currently their mooching under the guise of the general Sci Fi fan population.
Why is it everytime I express my opinion on the pertpetuation of blind Buffy fandom, I feel like I am betraying my own, am, in some way, being hypocritical?
“The world has moved on from Veronica Mars.” Aw, and I never even knew it had stopped there in the first place. I would have got off, and asked her out (or the other way around would be better even). Where was I when this happened to the world? Lousy world, always screwing me. Lousy Veronica Mars, never screwing me.
Fans are some scary bastards, that’s for sure. There is a reason that the word is a truncation of “fanatic”. When their show is not so good, they come off looking stupid for making poor choices. And when their show IS good, they get drunk on their own sense of smugness and go “full ‘tard” I believe is the expression. Do fans even know what they look like to non-fans?
Towards the end of a very positive review of the film Serenity ( http://www.geocities.com/OutlawVern/ReviewsS.html#serenity ), internet critic Vern said the following:
“I could’ve seen it with a safe group of critics you never heard of before. But no, I had to … see it … on opening night. With nerds… I ain’t seen a collection of nerds like this in years, and that includes Star Wars 3 and the time the International Math, Chess, Video Game, Role Playing, Rennaissance Fair, Lord of the Rings, Robots, Virginity and Matrix Convention came to town. To be fair there were no sword fights, but there were many costumes, pins, novelty hats, suspenders, home made t-shirts. They say if you’re going to see Skynyrd or whoever, you don’t wear the band’s t-shirt to the show. Not the case with SERENITY. You want people to know you fucking know. Alot of people were talking about how many times they’d seen it already and whether or not there were enough people in the line. I got a sense they were doing their part for humanity, voting with their dollars by seeing the movie as many times as they could take. I’m sure they’re nice people (they passed around pizza) but I can’t quite comprehend these evangelist types. They have a dream for their children and grandchildren, and that dream is SERENITY PART 2… Inside the theater was worse. There was a singalong of a folk song about the characters. There was people trying to talk in space cowboy talk… When the movie started it was troubling too because everybody would laugh HARD at every god damn thing anybody said, often before they said it. It was like a movie with a laugh track. And no matter how good a movie is it’s hard to watch with a group of people that are clearly enjoying it WAY more than you are. I guess they love these characters and want to show their support. It’s an image projected onto a flat surface using light, though. I don’t think they can hear you. I could be wrong.
The director of this movie, who must get around because they all seem to be on a first name basis with him, I think he hates these people too. Because he makes sure some of their favorite characters get it bad. But he does appreciate them enough to make a decent movie for them. That is a sure sign of respect because I’m sure he could’ve just done a movie of himself taking a crap (in space) and they would’ve still gone to see it more than once. To support him.
Anyway I’m not trying to belittle these freakos… They are obviously happy. Very, very, happy. All I’m trying to say is, those ads are no joke. I didn’t pick up on it until it was too late, but those ads are a warning to non-members. See this movie, but for God’s sake not on the opening weekend. Believe me, you don’t want to be a part of this science fiction phenomenon/cult/beloved etc. You just want to see the movie and then go home.”
I don’t think the movie bombed at the box office because of the fans. The fans bought more tickets than anyone. But in acting like complete idiots and even attempting to coax random strangers to come see it with them, I am fairly sure that for every two tickets they bought for themselves, they scared ONE casual viewer away. And it bothers me that sometimes people can’t see how downright crazy they look to other people.
We’ll never get over our first love, our home town, our first car or any of the other things that have captured our heart. Much like Firefly, Buffy, and other TV shows, music, art and books that have captured our imagination. We want more of the people and characters we’ve come to know and love. We want to experience that feeling again. When you see the familiar landmarks of your favorite TV show, or read a new adventure from your favorite hero – you’re happy.
So yes, should people move on? Maybe. But, we also love these worlds. They’ve shaped who we are – we care about them. Maybe I’m crazy, but I like creating new stories in old universes – that’s why we started Buffy Between the Lines, it’s audio drama set between the TV series – because we need to live with these folks again.
Oh, and – I don’t just like one TV show. I like a lot, I do experience other things. But nothing has captured my imagination like Buffy. It’s special.
Very interesting topic. For full disclosure, I began my foray into internet audio with Star Wars Audio Parodies. I tried to make the SW fans, like myself, chuckle. As the SW films ended, I wanted to venture into Audio drama. I started to craft a SW Fan Audio drama, and my wife told me to take my talent and love for a good story out of the familiar (SW worlds), and build my own world. I love my wife, because she supports me, but also knows when to get out the 2X4. It was jarring, but the best thing anyone could ever said to me. I have learned so much creating a fresh, original story (New World Army), worlds, characters, story arc, mini arcs, etc, etc. As I walked out farther into the unknown and brought stories like, “The Stalker” and “Unlucky in Love” from the recesses of my mind, out to the world to see and hear, it gave me more courage to go farther. It is scary writing without a familiar “net” of an established story “world,” but I found the water in the totally creative pool is just fine.
I tend to agree about letting the series go. I’ve let go of any hope of a Spike movie, or the Buffy cartoon. Both of which would have been very cool. The James Marsters fans are hardcore. I mean I bought the Jim Butcher audio books initially because JM was narrating. How’s that for fangirl freakout?
But there will always be fan fiction. Because we’re not really ever going to completely let it go. The addiction never really goes away, though we do branch out. Reading fanfic got me interested in Paranormal romance (since a lot of that fanfic was fanfic that got buffy and spike together.) I believe absolutely that Paranormal romance has gotten as popular as it has (and within the romance genre, it’s huge), partly because of Buffy. We saw Angel and we saw Spike and we thought YUM. And it went from there.
I’m cracked up by all the paranormal romance writers who are obviously die hard Buffy fans. And the little references they leave in their work as a shout out to Buffy and those fans.
Eh, I’m a rabid fan and always will be. I’m unapologetic. I will spend my hard earned money on D-grade actors at a geeky fan convention because that’s what I want to spend my money on. Personally, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that people fork over hundreds of dollars for one item of clothing but for some reason or another, that’s considered “normal”.
I think fans get carried away (ha!) from time to time and that can be off-putting to newbies and the like but I’m not afraid to associate myself with them because of the stigma. Buffy et al WERE great, why should we be moving on and forgetting? No seriously, why?
The only thing I find disappointing about most fans of cultesque art – and I really had hoped at a time that whedonesquers would be different – is the overall inability to see the flaws, any flaws, in the so-called masterpiece of theirs. I admire Joss greatly but his shows are by no means perfect but you bring that up in a fan forum and you just get shouted down.
I do not believe that we should just move on forever and forget shows that we love. No, no, no, just the opposite. You’re right Shari, it gets to the point in which passion blinds people from seeing imperfection. It’s okay to acknowledge that something has flaws, it doesn’t diminish the love for the show. No, in fact, you seem a tad less like a zealot if you can admit a cliche or plot hole that you noticed.
I feel that shows that are awesome should stand the test of time in the glory of their awesomness. I just sometimes worry that watering down the original series with sequels and spinoffs will inevitably do more harm than good, not to mention accomplish the exact opposite that fans want for shows like Buffy. I would rather Buffy go down in history as a damn near perfect seven season TV show than something that kept being dragged up after it’s been put to rest so many times that it is nothing but a laughing stock and/or industry joke.
hahaha Shari, very true. Buffy is decidedly flawed, and not just the character. I think though that it’s a great testament to what Joss did, that people can become so enmeshed in the world he’s created that they can so easily forget or not even see the flaws in his work. I hope someday to write something gripping enough that I’m offered some of that same forgiveness for being imperfect.
I find suggesting to these fans that they “have some dignity” is mighty condescending. Obviously these shows and their characters occupy a special place in their hearts, and if they wish to believe that any new continuation of that which they love so much will be awesome, then so be it. (Doesn’t mean it’ll happen.) Myself, I like endings. I like things that end, and I like it when they end well (and we all know the best end is a new beginning) so I can look upon it in retrospect and say that, as a piece of work, works and will stay that way. Some people… attach, and I don’t feel like I can tell them what to think or how to feel, even if they do annoy the crap out of me. This is when I point my finger at the artist.
This is your art. You can do with it as you please. But as the artist, you have a responsibility. You should know what you’re trying to say, and you should command your audience.
If the artist has more to say, then there is no person that should stop them, and if that crosses media boundaries, that is their choice and should be respected, for it is ultimately their art. If they bend to pressure from their audience and continue when they have nothing left to say, then they have broken a cardinal rule of art, and that’s their fault and can go suck it.
I don’t know Shari – there’s LOTS of fans I know who also are very quick to critique their beloved show (or movies, books, blah blah). I mean, how many times has someone told you – yeah, Buffy Season 1 wasn’t all that great. The one with scanning the demon into the internet? Lame. Season 7 sucked! (etc. etc.)
And there’s lots of Joss fans who don’t love everything he does. Lots of Firefly fans who hate Buffy (and vice versa).
Are some of us cultish? Yes. We weird people out with our devotion to Joss and his works. But then again, there are people who weird me out with their devotion to their car or to a band or to their work. I don’t think fans and geeks are much different than ‘normals’ – we just choose different things to obsess over.
ehhh, slow down, let me clarify that i, in no way, recognise that spending hundreds of dollars on clothing is normal. but that’s another rant for another type of stupid, potentially for another time.