Paru dans TV Zone # 141, (juillet 2001)
Spoilers Buffy saison 5 (dernier épisode compris) + Roswell fin de la saison 2, voire début de la saison 3 + Charmed fin de la saison 3...
The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has never been a nice, cosy, peaceful one, but at the heart of violence and destruction there have been four constants: Buffy herself, Willow, Xander and Giles. You'd think these people - if no one else - would be safe from harm, wouldn't you? But more on that tack later. At the end of the day, the important angle in Buffy was to show the problems of growing up, as per tradition with these shows.
Up to now, Buffy has been on the US WB network, home to the world's largest collection of teen 'Angst' shows, including Roswell and Dawson's Creek. The beauty of Roswell is that it's obvious. Four aliens, four humans, simply mix and match. Next season it looks like it will be back to three aliens and three humans, so expect leftover alien Isabel to hook up with dreamboat sheriff's son Kyle within a matter of weeks. This trend id also true of most current teen dramas. The difference between these series is what the unfortunate young adults have to go through as they grow older.
Buffy, Willow and Xander (Giles already being grown up) provide the centre around which the peripheral character revolve. Observe the title sequence: to get in, you have to be dating one of these people (or very much want to, in Spike's case). It is also these three characters who share out the traditional teen 'issues' between them.
From the outset, Willow is the shy kid (issue number one). Over the course of the series she realizes that being popular is by no means the be-all and end-all, and becomes a contrast to the brash and vapid Cordelia. Of the main cast, it is Willow who is on a quest for her own identity. She is arguably the most useful member of the Scooby Gang from the beginning, picking up where Giles leaves off in technical skills, but she has become the most confident and assured of the group. By the end of season four, she has endured heartbreak from Oz (issue number two) and explored her sexuality (issue number three), coming out as gay and settling down to a cat-loving, fluffy existence with Tara. Before long she was the most powerful of the group, her new-found confidence showing in her devotion to improving her witchcraft skills, her use of dark magic being the ultimate clincher in the season-ending battle with Glory.
Xander was the school joker at Sunnydale High who had trouble making friends (issue number four). Xander is the one with all the relationship problems (issue number five). He fails to realize that Willow has a huge crush on him, gets into a (verbally) abusive relationship with Cordelia more through a mutual and inexplicable mutual attraction than for any nobler motives, then suddenly acts on his feelings for Willow and fractures two of his closest relationships. Moving from bad to worse, Xander then enjoys his opening sexual encounter with Faith, who uses him and loses him (issue number six). It makes sense, then that his current relationship with former vengeance demon Anya was instigated by Anya herself after asking Xander to date her until he gave in.
Now it seems Xander is the most stable of all the friends. After he spends some time having trouble finding a job and lurching from one bad workplace to another (issue number seven), he's got a good well-paid job and he's engaged to Anya. Of all the people likely to become a family guy, he would probably have been our last choice, but he has the common sense which the others sometimes lack, and from his failures he has learn many lessons about relationships, even allowing him to give Buffy advice about her relationship with Riley.
Buffy herself has problems which tend to have their basis in the supernatural rather than the natural. Her first boyfriend (Angel) wasn't as nice as it first seemed, threatening Buffy and her friends and family (issue number eight). Her second lover (Riley) decided to go off with other women (issue number nine), saying Buffy didn't notice he was there. She has trouble reconciling her own life with the life she is destined to lead (issue number ten) and wants to rebel against the authority (issue number eleven) which keeps her trapped in this way, going off the rails when she is first told of her mission, and later when Faith comes along and shows her how to have 'fun'. Buffy is also the person who has to deal with the death of a family member and the inherent responsibilities for her sister afterwards (issue number twelve). As the Slayer, Buffy is also acutely aware that her 'profession' doesn't actually lead to a long life. All it takes is for one battle to go wrong and it will be the end. While you can always create more vampires, a Slayer is a little harder to come by.
Cult television is predictable. Like most forms of visual entertainment, we all know what's going to happen: the good guys will win through, regardless of what terrible disasters may befall them. Occasionally, one character will give their life to save the others, particularly in films when being written out of the action 40 minutes in means you'll still get paid a fair sum of money. You're in about half the movie anyway, and you don't have to come into work while the rest of the cast still do. In TV series - bar soap operas where death invariably awaits 90% of the cast - this form of exit didn't used to be particularly frequent. After all, not only do you run the risk of alienating viewers who might like that particular character, you also have to find a replacement, end the series or come up with a plot contrivance to bring them back.
The X-Files has turned death into an art-form, where at least one regular character seems to die per season. For the record, in season one it was Deep Throat, then with clockwork regularity, William Mulder, Melissa Scully, X, Well Manicured Man - although this was in the movie that followed Season Five - Spender, Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder - although he later came back - and finally, in season eight another individual who for now shall remain nameless. It's a shame that audiences nowadays can't be satisfied with normal human drama that doesn't involve people being killed, although it can lead to a complacency in viewing once you realize none of the main stars are even under threat. This US tv season has been an enormous death-fest, with Charmed forced to write out Shannen Doherty, Roswell dispensing with Colin Hanks services and Earth: Final Conflict going for the record by cutting its roster of regular characters in half. Surprised? Terrified would be a better word. Is anyone safe anymore? And then there is Buffy.
Never overly concerned with writing out regulars, it's unusual for anyone more than a recurring player to pass on. A couple of regulars were lost to spin-off show Angel, but invariably it's a sudden decision to move several thousand miles away to fight demons that does the trick, whether real ones (Riley) or personal ones (Oz). While many of us had hoped Riley would go out in a blaze of glory - or possibly just a blaze, we weren't that bothered - it would have taken the impact away from two of the biggest events of the year: Joyce Summers suddenly leaving this mortal coil at the end of I was made to love you and the loss of Buffy herself at the season's close.
So what's up for the grown up Sunnydale residents? With one year to go at college, long-term plans are liable to wait until the end of the year. Xander has a wedding to plan with Anya, to all intents and purposes Giles is no longer needed, and Willow and Tara have been reunited, faculties intact. With news that Anthony Stewart Head is hoping to spend more time in England during the coming season, possibly embarking on a Giles spin-off named Ripper on the BBC, it seems Giles will be leaving Sunnydale for now. Spike reason to stick around is now gone, but despite suggestions that James Marsters was moving across to Angel, there has been no official confirmation, leaving the vampire without much to do.
But the majority of speculation is centred around Buffy. We know she's dead and buried, we've seen the grave and the body, but we also know there's little point in having a series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the Slayer. With Buffy gone, a place must be found for Dawn. The likeliest guardians must be Willow and Tara, but we've also been assured by writer/creator Joss Whedon that no new Slayer will be called, that position now filled by the jailed Faith. Will she be back?
Sooner or Later, though, a way must be found for Buffy to return. Maybe she's still alive in a Mulder-esque way. Maybe a parallel universe Buffy is coming to Sunnydale. Maybe Buffy's dealing with the First, the original Slayer, will provide a mystical answer to the question of Ms Summers death. Maybe some form of Time travel is about to be introduced into the series. The other question is, will she be brought back at the start of the season or a few episodes in?
Of course, we don't know. And Joss Whedon is not telling. But as he planned out what was going to occur over a year ago, and now has two more years confirmed to finish the tales of the Slayer on new network UPN, we'll have to trust in his vision. It could be disappointing, it could be uplifting, it could be astonishing. But if nothing else, we know it will be interesting.