On That Buffy Reboot

Yeah. This is happening. And, well, I'm a little disappointed in the reactions of Buffy fans if I'm honest.

Considering the pedigree of the show I expected a lot more maturity from this fanbase. But post after post I kind of felt my heart sink a little. We're better than this, aren't we? I mean, I'm seeing people reacting to this news with the same vitriol as one would if they were told someone took their grandmother's pensioner's cheque and last I heard, that kind of reaction to a reboot announcement was reserved for only the deepest basement dwellers of the Star Wars fandom. Usually you judge the merits of a work once it's released, don't you?

The connecting through-line seems to be that most fans want a new show about a different slayer, preferably a woman of colour and for it to further established the world and lore set by the preceding show, with cameo appearances from whoever is still around and needs the money. While I personally got sick of Buffy spin-offs around Angel season 4, I can understand the desire for something in that vein.

However, from the Network's point of view, I can understand why that isn't a super appealing option.

Hear me out on this one, how many of you have tried to show your friends Buffy or explain to your friends why Buffy is a worthwhile watch, and then gotten a staunch rejection? I'm guessing at least a few of you also haven't given Buffy a recent rewatch, outside of Passion Of The Nerd's nicely condensed and digestable guide.

If that sounds like you, I want you to really think about what it would be like to watch Buffy for the first time now.

Okay, picture you're not a Buffy fan, and your options are having to sit through all of season 1 of Buffy just coming out of a golden age of television (like, I mean, god, I'm glad I'm alive and of the age to appreciate Game Of Thrones) or watching this new thing set deep within the lore of that show with the huge price of entry. You might have a friend who told you there was a guy who did a video guide of the first four seasons to help get you going, but this is still a niche community. And even with a guide, just fuck anyone who tells me to watch a show and also have my hand held by some stranger on the net so I can make it through the worst bits. There are plenty of shows I can just, you know, sit down and watch. I find Buffy is still a hard sell.

So you might catch some new fans with a continuation and soft reboot but I doubt it's going to draw a new generation of fans, so now you're left with anyone who has already watched Buffy, and is willing to sit through more of it.

If you've watched all of Buffy and Angel, you've probably watched the seven Buffy seasons plus five seasons of Angel, which means you're at a staggering 12 seasons of this shit. So Johnny and Jenny Layman who gave up on Supernatural at season 5 aren't going to care, even if they have watched Buffy before. Literally nothing sounds worse to them then continuing that convoluted mess.

Now you're left with the superfans. The people who watched it all, or at least enough to be invested in a continuation/spin-off, and are still willing to watch more.

But take a look at any reboot pitch thread, and oh boy. That's a fustercluck. Whatever comes out isn't going to appeal to everyone. Some want the OG cast back to reprise and continue, older now. I mean, Will and Grace and Roseanne are compelling cases for why that isn't always the best option but I won't go too deep into that. Some want a new slayer. Some want a spin-off about the Rippers. For all the talk of continuation, it doesn't seem like there's anyway to do it without alienating some large part of the fanbase. And everyone is a backseat showrunner, myself included. It's a fun thing to daydream about.

But If I was a network exec, I'd probably think to myself, that 16 to 25 year old demographic is prime real estate and a lot easier to market towards than the rabid older fans. And it's been enough time that there's a whole generation of people who don't even know what a Buffy is. A reboot isn't such a bad idea. Get a young cast of up and comers, get Whedon to consult and go on without him if he's too busy counting Avengers money, see if there aren't old cast members who want to cameo as someone's mom or a dean or a president, throw in some popular songs, maybe there's a home for it on a streaming service, rerun the best hits of the older show every so often for a nice whiff of nostalgia, sounds like good money.

But as fanbases tend to do, this one reacted... Unproductively, to say the least.

Which has me disappointed because my experience with the fanbase has generally been positive. Sure, this stuff has been there but it's generally been the exception, not the norm.

Keeping all this in mind, really think about how par for the course a Buffy reboot is at this point in time and how this vitriol is actually a little irrational. You're acting like someone is coming to challenge your pet dog to a fist fight, and I can't help but think instead of just being mad someone wants to deck your favourite puppy in the teeth, you're actually more afraid your dog might lose and show that it was actually kind of scruffy and not that great a dog.

Awful metaphor aside, it's not a competition guys. If the reboot is well received, the earth keeps spinning. If it's mediocre, the earth keeps spinning. If it's bad, have a laugh and then let it go, the earth will keep spinning.

Change and reinterpretation are the bread and butter of innovation, and if Buffy really is a superhero then she deserves to go through multiple incarnations and play with as many ideas as the given medium affords her. I mean, how many of you had a definitive Batman or Joker until someone proved they could do it just as well if not better. Hell, how many of you were about Hamill or Nicholson until Heath Ledger picked up the mantle? Like, you understand Sarah Michelle Gellar and Buffy are different people, right? Buffy is just a character on a script that someone has to act out. Hell, she can still be your Buffy, but to say literally no one is allowed to try be Buffy does the work more harm than good. That's literally saying the work is not worth revisiting in a different context, which is how things fade into obscurity.

You aren't making Buffy more timeless, you're preventing future generations from understanding why the story, themes and writing are timeless on their terms.

But I don't want to say you have to be for the reboot. It's your time and your life and if you want to not watch it because you have sufficient evidence that it won't appeal to your sensibilities, that's valid. But if you're channeling Marge Simpson and think that just because a reboot isn't to your taste that no one else should get to enjoy it, we don't need that kind of negativity in this group, take it elsewhere. I've told people to fuck off for less and I haven't missed them. So fuck off.

So finally, don't take this whole thing so damn seriously and remember it's just a TV show and not every fucking 17 year old wants to slog through the bullshit of Buffy season 1 but every 17 year old deserves a show like Buffy to teach them the lessons it taught us.

So maybe let people have things and be okay when those things aren't for you.

That's all for now. I swear I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.