What was that moment in television, for you, when TV became more than just something to do while you ate dinner? Or when you had nothing better to do? That moment in which you fell in love with a TV show. When a mild interest turned into a flew-blown obsession. It may have been something that made you laugh hysterically. Or cry uncontrollably. Or it may have been an unexpected plot twist. Or the first time instead of just watching TV, what you were watching actually made you stop for a second and think. I think all hardcore television fans, whether they solely adore one single show, or many, has had one of these moments. Today I’m going to share mine with you, and how this moment shaped my love affair with television.
The scene in question I’m going to be discussing is from the season two episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled ‘Passion’. It also involves the death of a character and therefore spoilers. Anyway, Buffy was the first (adult) television show I religiously watched (sorry, Scooby-Doo!). I was very very young at the time, eight or nine if I recall correctly. My parents watched it occasionally, but it was when my Dad brought me home the first season on VHS (oh, those were the days) when I really started to get into it. Once season two started I was taping it every week. I don’t really know what would inspire an eight-year old to be enthralled by a show like Buffy, but all I can think of is that it was genre defying. It had something for everyone. It was science-fiction/ fantasy, but it was also action, horror, comedy, drama and romance as well, plenty of things to keep me entertained.
Angel, Buffy’s vampire boyfriend, has lost his soul after having a moment of pure happiness with her, and reverted to his true vampire self, Angelus. Jenny Calendar, an IT teacher at Sunnydale high, has been revealed as a descendant of the gypsy tribe that cursed Angel initially. As a member of that tribe she was advised to impede Buffy and Angel’s relationship to ensure Angel didn’t lose his soul. Obviously, she fails, and when her role in the events is revealed to Buffy and the others she becomes estranged from their close-knit group. Desperate to undo her wrongs, Jenny tries to translate the ancient curse using her computer to re-install Angel’s soul. As she completes this one night late at school Angel reveals himself in the shadows destroys the translation and then her computer.
Although I young I remember thinking that because Jenny was a main character on Buffy, that she couldn’t die. As she was running for her life through the deserted halls of Sunnydale high, throwing cleaning carts in front of a rabid Angelus in an attempt to stop him, I was thinking: she’s going to get away, somehow she’ll escape. Oh, how wrong I was. It’s strange how even at such a young age I had become unconsciously aware of basic storytelling rules and conventions. I had read enough books, and watched enough television and movies, to understand that good is supposed to triumph over evil, and that generally doesn’t involve heroes dying. Not that I thought no one died at all. I was aware that plenty of nameless faces often lost their lives in good versus evil tales. In fact Angelus had already killed innocent women who happened to be hanging out in dark alleys or walking home by themselves at the wrong time. It wasn’t that I thought on one would died, just not Jenny. Because Jenny wasn’t a nameless face. She was an important character who had been in Buffy since its first season. She had helped Buffy fight against the forces of darkness; she had had a relationship with Giles. She was someone audiences knew, which is probably why it had such an impact on me when Angelus snapped her neck.
So that was the moment watching television changed for me, because I had to stop and think: wait a second, they can’t do that! But Joss Whedon and Co. did. They defied a standard rule and convention of ‘traditional’ television and snapped its neck, and didn’t care what anyone thought of it. One may argue that there are a lot of far superior ways in which Whedon has disregarded and broken standard storytelling rules and conventions over his career, but this will always be the defining one for me. The one that made me realise the good storytelling, good television, is daring, shocking and defies logic.
So now it’s fair to say I love unpredictable television. Procedurals bore me because they follow a strict set of rules and conventions, I live for television that pushes to break these rules and take audiences out of their comfort zones. So here’s to Whedon and Co. for this moment in television.
What does everyone else think? Have you seen this episode? Think it’s worth mentioning? Feel free to tell me your defining television moment, I would very much love to hear them.
