From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3487866/21-reasons-buff   
   -vampire-slayer-still-slays-21-years-later/   
      
   21 Reasons “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Still Slays 21 Years Later!   
      
   1. Buffy      Duh. What would the series be without Buffy? The wise-cracking   
   valley girl type that just wanted to be normal but with a fate that demanded   
   the weight of the world rest upon her shoulders meant a high school teen   
   that dealt with a tremendous amount of pain and suffering both internally   
   and externally. Sarah Michelle Gellar brought the right amount of   
   vulnerability and sass that made Buffy an instant icon, even 21 years later.   
   Throughout all of the major emotional moments in the series, and there are   
   many, Gellar handled them with seemingly effortless ease. She saved the   
   world. A lot.   
      
   2. The Scooby Gang      Buffy’s group of friends brought together to help   
   her on her daunting quest to save the world weren’t just relegated to the   
   sidelines while the heroine got all the glory, they actually became an   
   integral part of the show that soon felt more ensemble than one woman show.   
   Xander, Willow, Giles, and eventually Cordelia and Anya would all evolve   
   into layered characters with their own evolved journeys. From Willow’s   
   transformation from mousy girl to Big Bad to empowered witch, and a   
   groundbreaking depiction of her sexuality, Willow became a pillar of the   
   show. Cordelia’s growth from shallow mean girl to maturity, Anya’s stuggle   
   with humanity, and Xander’s plucky sidekick turned emotional center, Buffy   
   the Vampire Slayer wasn’t just her journey, but her chosen family’s journey   
   as well.   
      
   3. The Big Bads         Very few shows could deliver Big Bads like Buffy.   
   That probably has a lot to do with the fact that this series was the one   
   responsible for coining the term in the first place. From season 1’s The   
   Master to the final season’s First Evil, each major adversary was not only   
   formidable, but had distinct personalities that made them memorable. The   
   charismatic Hell god Glory to the quintessential polite Mayor Wilkins III,   
   the Big Bads became just as memorable as the heroes we rooted for. Perhaps   
   no other major adversary is as well regarded as anti-Buffy slayer Faith, a   
   tragic take on what Buffy could have been without her friends and family.   
      
   4. The Monsters of the Week         It says a lot that even with the complex   
   Big Bads, the week to week monsters that appeared could still hold their   
   own. Some humorous, but mostly terrifying, the monsters that Buffy had to   
   battle could be skin-crawling and creepy. John Ritter is downright sinister   
   as the suitor of Buffy’s mom in season 2, and the Der Kindestod of season 2   
   seems like a chilling precursor to The Gentlemen. Ghosts, demons, man-eating   
   substitute teachers, and every weird creature in between, the Hellmouth   
   attracted every possible monster conceivable, with excellent creature   
   designs behind them, which meant even if you didn’t care about the   
   characters (you monster), you still wanted to tune in every week.   
      
   5.  The Relationships       Sure, the love triangle between Buffy, good   
   vampire Angel, and bad boy vampire Spike often stole the conversation, but   
   the series offered so much more than that. The father-daughter bond between   
   Buffy and her appointed watcher, Giles, was one of the most compelling   
   relationships of the show, as he transcended beyond a dutiful watched and   
   became emotionally invested in his slayer’s life. The show even managed to   
   be convincing in its introduction to a brand new teen sister, Dawn, in   
   season 5, giving a surprising emotional through line in Buffy’s   
   determination to save her sister when she’d never even had one before. In   
   other words, Buffy was a character more enriched by her relationships with   
   her friends and family, instead of being shaped by her latest boyfriend.   
      
   6.The Impact on Horror TV     Though there were horror series before Buffy,   
   the long-running success of the series proved to networks there was loyal   
   audience for horror on the small screen. It also provided a modern template   
   for genre series that followed. After Buffy concluded in 2003, The CW   
   (formerly The WB of which Buffy played a major role in its success)   
   continued to ensure genre-bending shows would feature in its line-up.   
   Long-running shows like Supernatural or The Vampire Diaries that would in   
   some way draw comparisons to Buffy, even paying homage on occasion.   
      
   7. Shocking Deaths    Whedon has a reputation for killing his darlings, and   
   that started with Buffy. Whedon maniacally makes his audience emotionally   
   invested in characters, causing their unexpected deaths to sting. When TV   
   series that came before made us feel secure in the safety of important   
   characters that sided in good, Whedon ripped the rug out from under us time   
   and time again. Whedon didn’t wait long to set that tone, either, with   
   season 2’s most brutal death of Giles’ love interest and peripheral Scooby   
   member Jenny Calendar. That it was at the hands of Angelus? Ouch. The show   
   didn’t stop there, either, tearing our hearts out again and again with   
   shocking deaths of many important characters. Not even the leads were safe.   
      
   8. A Reminder of the Terrors of High School    High school and adolescence   
   suck, and Sunnydale’s demonic Hellmouth meant cleverly conveying the horrors   
   of high school with monster metaphors. Early season one episodes that   
   featured creatures like man-eating Mantis monster Miss French that was a   
   perfect symbol for the terrors of horny adolescence or the safe sex allegory   
   of the Bezoar of season 2, but it was also the dynamics between the outsider   
   Scooby gang and the mean popular kids like Cordelia that illustrated the   
   frustrations of what actual high school life could be like.   
      
   9. The Cultural Impact   Buffy’s wise-cracking, butt-kicking sass became the   
   blueprint of many heroines that would follow. Shows like Veronica Mars,   
   Doctor Who, True Blood owe a debt of gratitude to the tough Valley Girl that   
   came before. More than that, the series-long story arcs and monster of the   
   week type episodes were mirrored in later series like Grimm, Sleepy Hollow,   
   Fringe, and more. Its ability to mash genres is still emulated today. Beyond   
   that, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a social relevance that still holds hefty   
   meaning today. The lessons learned in the show are timeless. As are the   
   references.   
      
      
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