TV shows you should own on DVD: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I am currently in the midst of watching Seasons 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for what I think is probably the 4th or 5th time. At least. It’s one of my favourite shows and I never ever get tired of watching it.

Buffy was the first TV show I bought on DVD. In fact, I bought all six seasons at once (Season 7 hadn’t come out yet) and most people laughed at me when I told them. In turn, I told them they did not know what they were missing.


If you are like my silly friends, please read on and I hope I can persuade you to check out the series. For all of you who already know how awesome BTVS is: Do you own all seasons on DVD yet?

If not, why not? Go buy them now! I promise you won’t regret it.

Here’s part of a review I wrote about Buffy a while back for Helium:

Buffy the vampire slayer is the greatest TV show of all time, or at least it is my all-time favourite show. It is an American cult television series created by Joss Whedon, who is also responsible for other great TV series like Angel and Firefly.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was based on the 1992 movie of the same name and aired from 1997 until 2003, lasting an impressive seven seasons. During those seven seasons, we followed the life and adventures of Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), a vampire slayer who is chosen by fate to battle against vampires, demons and the forces of darkness.


She battles the demons and vampires with the aid of her Watcher Rupert Giles (played by the awesome Anthony Steward Head), who trains and guides her, and her friends, who are also known as the Scooby gang.


The Scooby gang consists of Buffy’s best friends Xander and Willow. Xander is a funny guy, and also a bit of a loser. Willow is a big but lovely geek, who over the course of the seasons turns into a very powerful lesbian Witch.

In the first few seasons, the Scooby gang also includes Cordelia, one of those superficial popular girls, and Oz, Willow’s boyfriend, who also happens to be a werewolf. In later seasons, these characters are replaced by Anya, a former Vengeance demon and Xander’s girlfriend, and Tara, Willow’s girlfriend and also a powerful Witch.

Other recurring characters in the show include Faith, a second vampire slayer who was brought forth when vampire slayer Kendra was killed. Faith quickly turns into a bad slayer, goes rogue and ends up in jail.

Even though Buffy is supposed to kill all the vampires, she also has a thing for them. Over the course of the series, she first falls for Angel, a tortured vampire with a soul, who is trying to make up for all the bad things he has done.

A few seasons later, she becomes strangely attached to Spike, a not so nice vampire, who eventually also gets his soul back in order to prove to Buffy how much he loves her.

The series’ stories revolve around Buffy and her friends and their struggle against supernatural evil. More so than about fighting evil, however, the show focuses on all the characters and their complicated social lives.


Over the course of seven seasons, everyone goes through quite a few crushes, some happy times, but especially a lot of misery. Characters get their hearts broken, discover that the world is not a happy place after all, and some people even die.

The first three seasons are all about high school, starting of with a very clear high school is hell concept in the first season. Quickly the focus moves away from the Beastie of the week, to all the emotional ties and developments between the lead characters.

The remainder of high school is spend on an emotional rollercoaster, with the occasional dooming apocalypse. The following four seasons focus on the college years, where things start to change a little bit, and our main characters slowly learn how to live as grown ups in the adult world.

Like I said, I love Buffy and it is definitely my favourite show. I am not alone in this, as Buffy was a very popular show, and still remains so to this day, with fans all over the world, and many websites, merchandise, comic books and so forth.

The show is not for everyone, but if you enjoy sci-fi, mystery or just good stories with well-written characters, you are going to love Buffy the vampire slayer.

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