How do you think Buffy has influenced the contemporary vampire drama “True Blood” and the “Twilight” series of novels and films?Honestly, I am not really interest in vampire drama, so I have not seen the Buffy dramas before the class; the only vampire drama I have seen is Twilight, therefore I did some research before I wrote this blog. As far as I see, I think the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a great influence in the contemporary vampire drama and movies, such like True Blood and Twilight series of novels and films. The influence is demonstrated in several aspects.
Firstly, they are the vampire drama with a continuation series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be treat as bellwether of vampire series. Before it there were not many films mainly focused on the theme of vampire. Buffy the Vampire Slayer aroused Audience’ enthusiastic reaction to the vampire drama, thus a new pop culture turns up, such like the Twilight and True blood. Secondly, the idea of that Vampire is not necessarily bad; take the Twilight and True Blood as examples. The vampire - Cullen family is vegetarians rather than blood-suckers. Edward’s father - Carlisle Cullen is a genial and friendly teacher. In True Blood, if it is not Sookie`s timely help, Bill nearly is killed by other human. So these series of vampire films overturned the first impression of the vampire. Thirdly, the romantic relationship between human and vampire is an indispensible factor in the vampire drama. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the love line between Buffy and Angel gives rise to the main contradiction in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It happened in Twilight, Isabella and Cullen as well as Sookie and Bill in True Blood. Finally, the mysterious atmosphere is created to attract audience`s attention, who want to enjoy the sense of adventure in the film.
In the conclusion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays an important role and influence in the development of latter vampire plays.
Firstly, they are the vampire drama with a continuation series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be treat as bellwether of vampire series. Before it there were not many films mainly focused on the theme of vampire. Buffy the Vampire Slayer aroused Audience’ enthusiastic reaction to the vampire drama, thus a new pop culture turns up, such like the Twilight and True blood. Secondly, the idea of that Vampire is not necessarily bad; take the Twilight and True Blood as examples. The vampire - Cullen family is vegetarians rather than blood-suckers. Edward’s father - Carlisle Cullen is a genial and friendly teacher. In True Blood, if it is not Sookie`s timely help, Bill nearly is killed by other human. So these series of vampire films overturned the first impression of the vampire. Thirdly, the romantic relationship between human and vampire is an indispensible factor in the vampire drama. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the love line between Buffy and Angel gives rise to the main contradiction in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It happened in Twilight, Isabella and Cullen as well as Sookie and Bill in True Blood. Finally, the mysterious atmosphere is created to attract audience`s attention, who want to enjoy the sense of adventure in the film.
In the conclusion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays an important role and influence in the development of latter vampire plays.
Reference
Rose, A (2002) Of creatures and creators: Buffy does Frankenstein, in R. Wilcox & D. Lavery (eds) Fighting the forces: what’s at stake in Buffy the vampire slayer. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Vicky an interesting start - but rather than just rely on personal thoughts - it is always useful to see what others have said on the subject(including the creators of other programmes)and use this to support / extend your own discussion. The web is a good place to start and a search for "Buffy influence" will bring in lots of useful hits!
ReplyDeleteFor example from the creator of 'Grey's Anatomy"
ReplyDelete"I spent a lot of evenings with my daughter lying on my chest catching up with DVDs on a lot of television shows I had never seen before like "Buffy" and "The West Wing." I admired all this great long-term character development that was happening on television. It doesn't happen in the movies because you only have two hours. I also saw a lot of strong female characters on television."
Which is interesting because there is really only one 'strong' female character in Greys Anatomy - but this is just my personal view, as i have only seen S1.
ReplyDeleteBuffy certainly did bring fantasy television to the mainstream, and she certainly is the strongest female character. Other shows with a female protaganist often rely heavily on the male characters to the do the saving. What is interesting in Buffy is that Buffy does all the rescuing. Xander is hopeless. Oz is a nerd. Angel is too busy lurking in dark corners (really hopeless if the fight takes place in the sunshine!) and turning all evil. Spike is never sure if he is good or bad. The strongest male character would be Giles, but he is an old man - and a literary one at that! Buffy definately paved the way for other fantasy shows, my personal favourite is Roswell but none of their characters are as strong as the ones in Buffy.