Avatar: The Way of Water

2170. Sixteen years have passed since Jake Sully aided the Na'vi in repelling the human incursion on Pandora, forcing most of them to return home to Earth. With the resource situation on Earth deteriorating, humankind returns to Pandora with a vengeance, establishing a major presence and using specially-grown Na'vi clones inhabited by personality downloads of Colonel Quaritch and his men to hunt down and kill Sully. Sully and his family relocate to the coastal Metikayina clan to seek refuge, but it's not long before the war comes to this new tribe.

Avatar was the most financially successful movie of 2009 and, indeed, all time (despite briefly losing the title to Avengers: Endgame, before a canny re-release saw it reclaim the crown). Remarkably, despite having voluminous notes for a sequel, director-writer James Cameron chose not to proceed immediately with more films. Instead, he spent a lot of time in pre-production, developing scripts and ideas. He eventually came up with plans for four sequels, beginning shooting in 2017 and filming all of the second and third films back-to-back, along with some material from the fourth film.

In the meantime, Avatar's legacy seemed to almost immediately dim. With no sequels, prequels or ill-advised spin-offs featuring minor side-characters, the movie fell out of the popular consciousness and the Marvel Cinematic Universe became the biggest thing at the box office. For many years Avatar has existed as a meme, its very name being mentioned inevitably resulting in immediate chortling references to Dances with Wolves and Ferngully, and how the sequels would inevitably crash and burn.

The Way of Water, the first up of this sequel series, perhaps inevitably crushed such predictions with ease, becoming the third highest-grossing movie of all time (and three of the top four are all James Cameron joints). "Never bet against James Cameron," became its own, rebutting meme instead.

Enough of the context, what of the film? Avatar: The Way of Water is very much "moar Avatar." If you hated the first film, there will be little here to change your mind. If you loved it, you'll probably love this one even more. For those who were middling on it, The Way of Water improves a lot of things about the first film to make it a somewhat stronger prospect. The visuals of the first film were incredible but advances in CG technology have just about managed to start taking the shine off some of them (even if 99% of movies still look worse, thanks to rushed production schedules). The Way of Water is effortlessly superior, the CG is photo-realistic in almost every shot, the visual design is sumptuous and Cameron uses excellent direction to make sure we read and comprehend what's going on in every frame. Cameron is also still the master of action, bringing his Aliens and Terminator 2-honed skills to bear in epic battle sequences which outshine anything in the first film and where everything from the geography of an undersea chase sequences to the choreography of a single combat scene are well-handled.

When it comes to story and character - things the first film was only adequate at - the movie is a bit more of a mixed bag. For the most part, it's fine. There's a lot of new characters to meet here, with Sully and Neytiri producing three children and adopting two more, and that's before we even meet the massive new water tribe. Cameron establishes character and emotion with brisk efficiency, although a few characters do get more development, particularly rebellious son Lo'ak and walking mystery box Kiri. The characters are solid enough to get the job done, and the performances are all pretty good. Neytiri is the one character sold a little short, with relatively little to do other than cry, hiss and occasionally do that jumping through the air firing her bow in slow motion thing. Even Stephen Lang's splendid scenery-chewing villain spiel is let down a little by his performance almost entirely being restrained to CG.

As a piece of storytelling art, The Way of Water will not be winning any major awards, but as a sheer visual spectacle and feast, it's highly compelling. The worldbuilding of Pandora takes a big step up here with the introduction of a second sentient species, and the underwater scenery whets the appetite for someone to make a movie version of subsurface video game masterpiece Subnautica.

Where the film enters shaky ground is its pacing. For most of its first two-thirds, this is pretty good, with the film rotating between action setpieces, character-building moments and worldbuilding vignettes in a fairly compelling manner (and better than the first movie, which had to slow down for its long-winded romance plot). What lets it down is longest, most drawn-out grand finale since Peter Jackson turned the concluding two-page battle from The Hobbit into an entire two-and-a-half hour movie by itself. This finale is divided into two parts, a massive battle sequence which segues into a tense disaster movie sequence. Both of these are brilliantly-directed and either would have made a great finale, but by putting them both sequentially into the film, Cameron over-eggs the pudding. Over a third of the movie's already-stupendous length is dedicated to this finale, which is definitely too much.

There is still a lot to enjoy here. James Cameron has built a career on building incredible worlds, delivering mind-blowing visuals, and orchestrating action setpieces you will remember for decades, and he delivers on all of that here. The story could be a little stronger and a little more original, and the ending could have been truncated by a good twenty minutes without losing much, and as Cameron sequels go, the placings of Aliens and T2 in the pantheon are not exactly being troubled by this movie, but it's still an enjoyable slice of epic cinema of the kind we don't see enough of these days.

Avatar: The Way of Water (****) is available to watch worldwide on physical media and streaming services. A third film is already in the can and will be released in December 2024.

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New ALIEN movie starts shooting next week

A new Alien movie starts shooting next week, which is kind of surprising given how little fuss has been made about it.

The new Alien film is being produced by Ridley Scott, but it will actually be directed by Fede Alvarez (the reasonably well-received 2013 Evil Dead remake) from a script by his usual collaborator Rodo Sayagues. The two also worked on the 2016 horror movie Don't Breathe and last year's Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot.

The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising, Mare of Easttown) and Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), with David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu also on board.

Remarkably, we know almost nothing about the film, such as where it fits in the Alien timeline. The plot synopsis is decidedly vague:

"In this ninth entry in the immensely popular and enduring film series, a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe."

That does seemingly confirm the film has no crossover with Noah Hawley's incoming Alien TV show, which is set on Earth, possibly after the events of Prometheus but before Alien itself.

The synopsis is also interesting for listing eight prior Alien films: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Aliens vs. Predator (2004), Aliens vs. Predator 2: Requiem (2007), Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). In its recent licensing and canon announcements, the two Aliens vs. Predator films were omitted from the Aliens canon (as suggested by Prometheus, which seemingly contradicts the events of the AvP movies) and Fox have indicated that regard the Aliens, Predator and AvP franchises as three distinct timelines and continuities.

The synopsis does sound a little disposable as a story concept, but it will be interesting to see what comes of it. The film is presumably targeting a 2024 release window.

THE SIMPSONS renewed for two more seasons, to bring it over 800 episodes aired

Fox Television has renewed The Simpsons for two more seasons, bringing the total number of episodes to 801. The move extends The Simpsons' place as the longest-running, scripted non-soap in American television history.

The Simpsons began airing as its own series on 17 December 1989, having previously run as a series of animated shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show from April 1987. An almost immediate smash hit, The Simpsons rapidly became an American and then a global phenomenon, with "Bartmania" sweeping the world in 1991 and 1992. The show enjoyed remarkable critical and commercial success for approximately a decade, but was criticised for a critical decline beginning in the early 2000s. The franchise's success was reinvigorated with the release of The Simpsons Movie in 2007 (which saw the return of many classic writers), but since then the show has again been accused of a decline. However, the last two seasons (Seasons 33 and 34) have had significantly better reviews than those before them for many years.

The renewal will extend The Simpsons' run to 36 seasons and 801 episodes, confirming the show as the longest-running American animated series, the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American primetime scripted series (which excludes soap operas), both in number of episodes and seasons.

It should be noted that internationally The Simpsons isn't quite top of the tree. The British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf began airing in February 1988 and continues to (intermittently) produce new episodes, although its number of seasons (12) and episodes (74) is vastly more modest. Still, it is (technically) a longer-running sitcom. Fellow British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine also chalked up more years by running for 37 years from 1973 to 2010, although the vagaries of British television production saw it chalk up only 31 seasons and 295 episodes.

More notably, British SF drama series Doctor Who has aired 39 seasons across 60 years (1963-89, 1996, 2005-present), totalling 871 episodes. With only 4 episodes expected to air in 2023 and 9 in 2024, whilst The Simpsons will air at least 22 episodes per year, The Simpsons will require several more seasons beyond this renewal to overtake Doctor Who.

How long The Simpsons can continue is unclear. Castmember Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson) is now in her 70s and Dan Castellaneta (Homer) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) are both in their mid-60s. Although the show has replaced several actors who have sadly passed away or left over the years, it has never tried to replace one of the "big five" in the cast, which also includes Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Hank Azaria (Chief Wiggum, Moe and many smaller roles), who are both 58.

The Simpsons has also seen a linear decline in ratings over the years, but this is not out of keeping with overall downward trends in first broadcast network shows. The show has also become a perennial strong performer on streaming service Disney+, although with so many episodes available, it does not require new episodes to be continuously produced to maintain that appeal.

Fox relies heavily on its relatively cheap animated sitcoms to maintain audiences at a time when it is finding it harder to invest in more expensive, live-action material. It has also renewed fellow animated sitcom powerhouses Family Guy and Bob's Burgers for two seasons apiece, taking the former to 23 seasons and the latter to 15 seasons.

Other networks are also extending their animated output: FXX is producing a 14th season of Archer, whilst Comedy Central has renewed South Park as far as a 30th season due to air in 2027.

The Orville: Season 2

The USS Orville remains on the frontier, investigating threats to the Planetary Union and defending against the encroachment of the Krill. However, a much greater threat is lurking in deep space, one which the Union alone cannot stop.

The first season of The Orville was an interesting, if variable, show which saw "Seth MacFarlane do Star Trek." The results were initially unappealing, with non-sequitur toilet humour intruding into dramatic scenes, but the show gradually improved over its length until it became surprisingly effective in its role as a Star Trek: The Next Generation cover band.

Season 2 takes the solid growth shown in the first season and dramatically improves upon it. The characters all get better, stronger arcs, the writing is definitely a step above what it was in the first season and the show is both dynamic and more ambitious, driven by some fantastic visual effects (the space battles near the end of the season leave all the over-stylised and barely-discernible battles in Star Trek: Discovery and Picard comfortably in the dust). Apparently cheesy storylines - like Dr. Finn's relationship with the android Isaac - are surprisingly played to the hilt by their talented actors and play a key role in the season's over-arcing plot.

The show even takes the biggest misstep in the first season - the very clumsy handling of the issues raised in the episode About a Girl - and uses that mistake to drive the plots of several episodes, exploring the relationship between Bortus, his mate Klyden and their child, Topa and expanding more on the worldbuilding of the Moclan culture. It's great when a show realises it's made a mistake and course-corrects in a constructive way that leads to better stories.

There is a regrettable departure early in the season: Halston Sage's character, Alara, was not given a lot to do in the first season but by the end of the season and in the first few episodes of this, she gets some great material. Her showcase comes in Home where she has to investigate a mystery and overcome disabilities imposed by her homeworld's cripplingly high gravity, which she rises to with aplomb (with excellent performances by Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo and Enterprise's John Billingsley). Unfortunately, she had to leave the show in this episode for scheduling reasons, which is a shame. Her replacement, Jessica Szohr as Lt. Talla Keyali, is a great character as well, fortunately.

The show also continues doing it's thing of finding Star Trek-ish episodes and making good stories about them: All the World is Birthday Cake is a surprisingly effective take on old-school Star Trek warnings about superstition trumping reason. Lasting Impressions takes on the old issue of people getting addicted to the holodeck but comes at it from a completely different angle, and finally gives the underused Scott Grimes a really good acting showcase.

In fact, there isn't really a bad episode in the batch. Deflectors and Blood of Patriots are both a bit predictable, but not too bad. The season does offer up two formidable two-part stories: Identity is The Orville trying to do a story with the epic scope and gravitas of The Next Generation's The Best of Both Worlds and if it can't quite match that, it gets surprisingly close. The two-part finale, which riffs on the original series' City on the Edge of Forever and TNG's Yesterday's Enterprise, remixes standard SF tropes into a fairly gripping new mixture.

A few problems persist even in the better episodes. MacFarlane is better this season, but still arguably the weakest link in a very strong cast. The reduction of comedy in favour of character drama is welcome, but occasionally it feels like the team felt they had to remind everyone they are something of a comedy show, resulting in the odd non-sequitur gag (usually falling completely flat) slipping through the lines and feeling even more out of place than in Season 1. But these are relatively few and far between.

Season 2 of The Orville (****½) is a hugely impressive step up from the much more variable first season, establishing real stakes, evolving the characters well and telling an over-arcing story with considerable aplomb. It may be the best project Seth MacFarlane has ever been involved with. The season is airing on Disney+ worldwide and Hulu in the United States. The much, much-delayed Season 3 is due to start airing in June this year.

The Orville: Season 1

2419. The Planetary Union is exploring the galaxy, but it has three thousand ships and not enough experienced captains. Despite some doubts over his fitness for command, the admiralty place Captain Ed Mercer in command of the mid-size exploration and scientific cruiser Orville. Mercer's idiosyncratic crew slowly gel and turn into an effective team as they take on various threats, including being trapped in two-dimensional space and repeated confrontations with the villainous Krill.

The Orville is something of an odd show. It's a very, very earnest retread of early Star Trek: The Next Generation, getting as physically close to that show as it can without being sued into oblivion by CBS/Paramount. Concepts, characters, worldbuilding elements, technology and even individual story and character arcs feel so close to Star Trek that at times it gets a bit bemusing, and the presence of former Star Trek writers (Brannon Braga), directors (Jonathan Frakes, James L. Conway, Robert Duncan McNeill) and actors (DS9's Penny Johnson Jerald as a regular, Voyager's Robert Picardo in a recurring role) makes it clear that showrunner Seth MacFarlane is less playing homage to Star Trek then pretty much just remaking it.

This makes The Orville often feel like Star Trek: The Next Generation circa Season 2, with earnest moralising, sticky ethical conundrums and character interplay that sometimes works very well and sometimes is pretty poor. The show has to overcome several key weaknesses, including creator-writer-producer-star Seth MacFarlane's limited range (he is the weakest link in the cast) and the decision to front-line the show's most morally complex, issue-led episode About a Girl and then make a major hash of it. After the first three episodes, viewers would be forgiven for checking out.

However, the show then begins a long improvement drive. The fourth episode, If the Stars Should Appear, features the Orville encountering a massive generation ship and getting into the kind of interesting, high-concept based stories that TNG would have excelled at if it had the budget. Majority Rule overcomes a key weakness of the show - many of these stories or at least premises have been tackled before on 700-ish episodes of Star Trek - with an enthusiastic cast and just the right dose of humour. New Dimensions, in which the ship visits a two-dimensional universe, is a particularly good example of how the show can tackle Star Trek ideas with modern production values at a point when the actual Star Trek shows seem more interesting in tackling epic, darker storylines which the franchise is arguably not well-suited for.

The cast gels together quite nicely, Adrianne Palicki delivering on the underused potential she showed on Agents of SHIELD, and Deep Space Nine veteran Penny Johnson Jerald brings all her experience of dealing with weird aliens into play. Halston Sage is more enthusiastic than skilled as Lt. Alara Kitan, but develops into a much stronger player over the course of the first season and gets an excellent showcase episode near the end of the season. J. Lee is severely underused as Lt. LaMarr, but does get a better, more interesting role towards the end of the season (in a bemusing retread - intended or not - of what happened to La Forge on TNG). The show's MVP emerges as Isaac, the ship's alien mechanoid science officer who considers all other species inferior; Mark Jackson embodies Isaac with a terrific vocal performance and the character overcomes cliches by not wanting to become human, although he is fascinated by biological organisms' chaotic behaviour. 

The show also makes good use of MacFarlane's industry connections to deliver a very high class of guest star, with a brief appearance by Liam Neeson and proper, full-length guest roles for Charlize Theron and Rob Lowe, who all do terrific work. Rob Lowe's performance as a sexually voracious alien in truly ridiculous makeup is particularly entertaining.

The first season of The Orville (***½) never entirely overcomes its problems with tonal dissonance, non-sequitur toilet humour exploding through the wall of a dramatic scene with real stakes, and MacFarlane's somewhat clunky performance. But, after an initial burst of poor writing, it evolves into a reliably entertaining series which feels very comfortable in its role as a Next Generation cover band. It is available to watch worldwide on Disney+, and on Hulu in the United States.

ALIEN to get its first TV series from the showrunner of FARGO and LEGION

Fargo and Legion writer-director Noah Hawley is bringing Ridley Scott's xenomorph back to Earth.

Hawley is developing a TV series for FX which will bring the alien to Earth in the "not-too-distant future." It's unclear what this means, since the original Alien movies were set in 2122 and 2179, not too far in the future at all. Given Fox's ambivalent regard for the canonical status of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, and pretty much confirming that they do not consider the Alien vs. Predator films canon any more, it may be that the new film will be set after the events of Aliens and could see the return of the Sulaco survivors to Earth, possibly bringing xenos with them.

The alternative, a story bringing xenos to Earth in the much nearer future (perhaps tying in to Scott's Prometheus and Covenant films), would struggle with the continuity that no one has heard of the xenomorphs before in the original film.

The project is in development for a likely 2022 debut, with Hawley to write and direct and Ridley Scott in talks to produce. Scott is also developing a third film to connect Prometheus and Covenant to the original Alien, but this project has so far not been greenlit.

Bob Iger steps down as Disney CEO

The CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, has stepped down after fifteen years in the role. He will continue in the role of executive chairman until the end of 2021 as part of a transition period.

Bob Iger (right) with Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Iger, often described as the "most powerful man in Hollywood," became Disney CEO in 2005 and spearheaded the most startling expansion of the company in its history. Iger led the way in the acquisition of Pixar in 2006; Marvel in 2009; Lucasfilm in 2012; and 21st Century Fox in 2019. He also encouraged a renaissance in both Disney's parks division (which expanded significantly under his tenure) and also in Disney's own animation studio, the original core of the business.

These deals combined many of the most popular franchises in film and television history under the Disney banner. Iger was also instrumental in the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, granting MCU head producer Kevin Feige the power he needed to execute his vision as he saw fit with a minimum of interference from above.

Iger's period in charge of Disney has seen unprecedented financial and critical success, with very few stumbling blocks (apart from the somewhat variable performance of the Star Wars franchise in recent years, although it has remained broadly profitable). In particular, his leadership has been praised for steering the company through massive transitions in the home media market, the introduction of streaming and an increasingly uncertain future for film. He's also shown shrewd judgement in what brands and franchises fit the Disney banner and which do not; he famously turned down an opportunity to buy Twitter when he realised the platform's more negative aspects would be had to reconcile with the Disney brand. He recently led the way in launching Disney+, the company's new streaming service, which has already racked up 30 million subscribers (roughly a quarter of Netflix's numbers) in less than three months and with the service still to roll out in many overseas markets.

Iger will be succeeded by Bob Chapek, who currently runs the company's parks and products division.

Archer: Seasons 7-10

Sterling Archer and his team of former anti-terrorist secret agents are now jobless, both their private security firm and attempts to work for the CIA having ended in failure. Relocating to Los Angeles, they set up a private detective agency and are soon embroiled in a complex mystery involving a Hollywood starlet and a movie set hiding a lot of secrets. However, Archer finds himself in over his head and a shocking reversal leads him to three very strange places indeed...

The first six seasons of Archer saw the titular agent and his back-up team at private security firm ISIS (hurriedly renamed and then removed from references for fairly obvious real-world reasons) getting into scrapes and hijinks against an ambiguous historical background. Season 6 was the final one for the "classic" Archer set-up, with the crew working for the CIA directly against hostile foreign powers whilst getting into their standard inter-team banter. Season 7 moves the team to Los Angeles and a private detective agency setting, which works well but also feels a little too reminiscent of Season 5's Miami-set "Vice" season.

At the end of Season 7, however, the show takes an abrupt turn for the surreal. Archer is shot and falls into a coma; the subsequent three seasons unfold entirely in his mind (shades of classic British genre shows Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) with the regular cast re-conceptualised each time. Season 8, subtitled Dreamland, sees the team in 1947 LA and riffing off classic film noir tropes. Season 9, Danger Island, puts the team on a tropical island. Season 10, Archer 1999, is set in the future with the regular team now crewmembers on a starship.

For a show to completely rejig its premise like this and for so long is remarkable, perhaps even unprecedented. Archer was so firmly immersed in the world of spies, espionage and modern pop culture references that yanking the show completely out of it and forcing it into areas away from its comfort zone feels unsettling, but also extremely brave and, when it works, quite inventive. For any show, six seasons and 75 episodes in one milieu is more than enough, so to switch to a new approach helps in keeping the show fresh.

Or at least it should. Truth be told, these latter four seasons of Archer are a mixed bag. Season 7 feels very much like a reheated version of Season 5 and very little of the season's storylines or characters have remained memorable. Fun to watch in the moment, but a little too reliant on running gags. The three "concept" seasons are all better, and there's a lot of fun seeing the characters reimagined in new situations. However, the characters quickly fall back into their more familiar roles and a lot of the running gags and repetitive character tics from earlier seasons return. There's no denying that the "high concept" idea does inject fresh energy to the show at a moment when it was running out, but it doesn't solve all of the problems.

Of the three high concept seasons, Archer 1999 is by far the best. Putting the team on a spaceship is a brilliant idea and allows the writers to bring in a lot of new concepts that they couldn't touch previously. It features some of the best laughs since the show's early seasons, with Mr. Deadly Goes to Town (starring the incomparable Matt Berry as the titular Mr. Deadly, a sentient bomb who just wants someone to detonate him) being a stand-out moment. Danger Island is okay, but it feels like we visited a lot of these ideas in previous seasons when Archer had to go to exotic locations to undertake one-off missions. Dreamland has a lot of promise but the noir setting isn't really compatible with Archer's usually cynical and biting humour, so it does go to waste a little.

If the three high concept seasons don't entirely work as intended, they still help keep Archer (***½) fresh, and it's good to see that at the end of Season 10 the idea is put to bed permanently. Season 11 should see the return of the "real" world and Archer catching up with everyone over what has happened in the past three years should hopefully result in a more interesting show. The series airs on Netflix in the UK and FXX in the United States.

New ALIENS short movies released to celebrate franchise's 40th anniversary

The Aliens franchise is turning 40 this year and Fox (and new corporate overlords Disney) are celebrating that fact to the hilt, although it's fair to say that the last few movies in the franchise have not exactly set the world on fire.

In an interesting and commendable movie, Fox have allowed several film-makers to shoot some new, live-action short films set in the Aliens setting. The first two, Containment and Specimen, have already been released and four more are on the way.

They are surprisingly quite good, probably the best additions to the live-action Aliens mythos since at least Alien 3 was released in 1992. The short length suits the creeping horror of the franchise a lot better, and allows them to experiment with tone a bit.

With Fox having been gobbled up by Disney, it appears that plans to make further movies in the Prometheus/Covenant sub-series are on hold. It'll be interesting to see if there are plans to take the franchise somewhere fresher in the future, but these short films indicate that maybe there's life in the old facehugger yet.

Fox TV developing a new DRESDEN FILES TV series

Fox 21 Television Studios is developing a new TV series based on The Dresden Files novels.

Previously, Lionsgate Television produced 12 episodes of a TV version of the books for the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy). The TV series was (very) loosely based on the opening books of the series, but were widely criticised for taking significant liberties with the background, lore and characters, as well as not faithfully adapting the novels. Particularly criticised was the decision to adapt the first novel in the series, Storm Front, as a movie-length pilot and then cutting it down to 45 minutes and placing it eighth in the running order, which rendered some of the plotting nonsensical.

Butcher has produced fifteen (of a planned twenty-three) novels in the book series since 2000, along with numerous short stories and comics. It's likely that any TV adaptation would adapt multiple books per season.

Fox 21 produces comments primarily for the FX Channel, although some of their shows have ended up on Showtime, Netflix and the USA Network. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this project.

New BUFFY showrunner acknowledges fan concerns

The producer of the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, which is in development at 20th Century Fox, has issued a statement confirming she is aware of fan concerns about a planned reboot or remake of the show with a new actress playing the role of Buffy.

However, rather contrary to some media sites which are reaching some very strange conclusions about what the message says, the message fails to confirm that the new show will not be a remake of the original series.

To recap, news broke last week that Monica Owusu-Breen was developing a new version of Buffy with an African-American actress planned to take over the lead role made famous by first Kristy Swanson and then - much more prominently - Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 1990s. Joss Whedon was on board to produce and possibly co-write the first episode, but his commitment to a new HBO project (The Nevers) prevented him from taking on a more prominent role on the project.

The fan reaction was hostile, not to the idea of a black Slayer - no less than six black actresses played different Slayers on the original show - but over the idea of recasting Buffy (who, in both the original 1992 movie and the TV series was meant to be the archetypal California blonde Valley Girl) instead of developing a brand-new character that wasn't riding on the coat-tails of the original.

Owusu-Breen's statement is somewhat ambiguous, saying there can only be one Buffy Summers (ignoring the fact we've had two already), but then adding a "but" before pointing out that twenty years have passed and it's time to meet a new Slayer, which could be taken as either a new character (which seems unlikely as Fox will want to keep the Buffy the Vampire Slayer brand recognition) or a new reinterpretation of the Buffy character or even a Buffy: The Next Generation project which fans seem keen on, but seems unrealistic for practical reasons (notably, original cast availability).

This will likely be clarified in the coming months if Fox decide to move forwards with the project or not.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER reboot series in the works

20th Century Fox are developing a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, which will be set in the modern day and feature a fresh take on the story.

Details are still thin, but Monica Owusu-Breen (Agents of SHIELD) will be the executive producer and showrunner of the project. Joss Whedon is involved as executive producer and may co-write the pilot, but his involvement will be limited due to his commitment to The Nevers, a new genre show for HBO.

Reports suggest that a new African-American actress will be playing the role of Buffy, suggesting a total reboot of the franchise. However, the same reports suggest the show will be "building on the mythology of the original series." Buffy ended with the magical limitation that there could only be one Slayer being lifted, allowing thousands of new Slayers to arise all over the world. For a long time fans have speculated that a "Next Generation" show could launch years later with a team of Slayers as the core cast with maybe a couple of returning actors to work as mentors and parental figures. However, the suggestion seems to be that this will be a contemporary reboot instead with a new Buffy, although this seems to contradict Whedon's statement last year that a new show would feature the same actors.

More news as it comes in.

GOTHAM and AGENTS OF SHIELD reprieved for another year

With cancellation-ageddon scything down shows by the dozen (although Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been saved and The Expanse looks likely for a last-minute move to Amazon), the fates of superhero dramas Gotham on Fox and Agents of SHIELD on ABC had looked dubious. Fortunately, both shows have been saved.

Gotham has been given a fifth season order, which will also be the show's last. The showrunners have confirmed that the series will finally see Bruce Wayne become Batman, with the show loosely adapting the Zero Year comic storyline (having dabbled with both the Killing Joke and No Man's Land storylines in Season 4). An episode count for the final season has yet to be decided, but given the nature of the show's reprieve it may only be 13 episodes.

Agents of SHIELD has also been given a 13-episode order, although this is plot-related: the opening of Season 6 will apparently reflect on events in Infinity War II, which is not due to hit cinemas until May 2019. The half-season order means that Agents of SHIELD will not return until shortly before the movie arrives in cinemas, allowing them to play out the aftermath of the cliffhanger before the sequel comes out and then continue afterwards. This will also be accompanied by the first movement of the Agents of SHIELD cast back to the films: Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Coulson on the show, will reprise the role in the Captain Marvel movie due for release in February 2019.

The long-term fate of Agents of SHIELD and the Netflix Marvel shows are in question: ABC is unhappy with the relatively low ratings of Agents of SHIELD and allegedly both the fifth and sixth season renewals came at the behest of their owners, Disney, to help their Marvel brand. ABC have objected because they could have a new and hopefully better-performing show in the timeslot instead. Disney are also launching a new adult-oriented streaming service at the end of 2019 which will include a Marvel track (including a brand-new live-action show, the details of which have not yet been revealed, and a Star Wars TV show helmed by Jon Favreau), and rumours are circulating that Agents of SHIELD may be moved over to that service. It's also possible that Disney will pull their six Netflix shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher) to transfer to the new service, as they likely don't want to be making shows for the competition.

THE EXPANSE and BROOKLYN NINE-NINE cancelled

Two of the most critically-acclaimed TV shows in their respective genres have been cancelled, including SF darling The Expanse.

The Expanse's cancellation was slightly unexpected, with the show drawing immense critical buzz of the kind that SyFy has not enjoyed since the second and early third season of Battlestar Galactica, well over a decade ago. First-run ratings were not as strong as might be wished given the show's relatively high budget (at between $4 and $5 million per episode, the show cost almost twice to make as BSG), but of course the metrics of how ratings are measured have changed dramatically in the last few years. By all accounts The Expanse also enjoyed healthy streams and sales through Amazon.

A key factor in the decision was the show's overseas performance and how it's finances are calculated. SyFy was not produced inhouse but was instead financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment and sold to SyFy. SyFy only had first-run transmission rights in the United States, with Alcon able to sell streaming rights to Amazon and international rights to Netflix. However, SyFy insisted on a six-month delay before Netflix could stream the show, despite overseas viewers having no other legal way of watching the show and thus there would have been no cannibalising of SyFy's US viewership. This decision seems to have cost the show international viewership, with hardcore international fans of the series downloading and torrenting the show long before it could be seen legally.

As a result, SyFy's deal meant that The Expanse's success was extremely dependent on first-run viewing figures and with these running at around 1 to 1.2 million per episode in Season 3, these figures were insufficient to support the high cost of the show (compared to SyFy's inhouse programming, such as the considerably cheaper - and vastly cheaper-looking - The Magicians).

Alcon Entertainment are shopping the show to other networks, which means that they may be able to find the show a new home elsewhere. Netflix may or may not be interested, given the lukewarm international figures. Amazon, who have recently been picking up almost every single SF and fantasy property of note (including Wheel of Time, Conan the Barbarian, Lord of the Rings, Ringworld, The Three-Body Problem and Snow Crash), may be a safer bet. Amazon in particular would find The Expanse's budget to be relatively cheap by their standards and they would probably prefer to have a show they can get on the air every year rather than waiting 18-24 months between seasons (The Expanse has gone about 14 months between each season). The momentum of just being able to continue production immediately rather than ramping up on a new show may also be attractive.

Meanwhile, Fox have cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, their most critically-acclaimed comedy series. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's cancellation was more widely expected, with the show's viewing figures dropping by over half over its five-season run. Some fans were hoping for a reprieve, as viewing figures held relatively firm from Season 4 to Season 5 and the show enjoys widespread global popularity (in the UK it unusually has both reasonable audiences on Channel 4 and then again on Netflix). However, Fox have decided to swap out one of their TV drama nights for sports, which rendered the point moot. A whole swathe of other shows (such as Last Man on Earth) have also been axed to make room for this change in the schedule.

There has been hope that the show might be saved. Netflix are a possibility based on their success with the show internationally, and compared to most of their shows Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be incredibly cheap to make, as well as easily being able to get on the air every year. However, it's unclear if Fox would be willing to make the show for a company they are increasingly seeing as an adversary in the marketplace.

Possibly more likely is US streaming service Hulu. Hulu are are looking to beef up an original programming lineup strengthened by The Handmaid's Tale. Provisional talks between Hulu and Fox have already apparently taken place, with interest from other parties.

Hopefully both shows are saved, particularly The Expanse which was roughly only a third of the way through adapting James S.A. Corey's novel series.

Disney acquires 20th Century Fox

Disney has agreed to buy out 20^th Century Fox from its parent company, 21^st Century Fox (formerly News International), and chief executive Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch has been looking to offload 20^th Century Fox to focus instead on his sports and news brands in the United States.

The deal is one of the largest entertainment mergers in history, worth over $68 billion (once debts are taken into account). It sees Disney take control of the vast back catalogue, current film slate and future greenlit film projects from Fox and numerous (but not all) TV properties. These include franchises ranging from Alien, Planet of the Apes and Avatar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Simpsons.

Particularly of value to Disney will be the re-merging of properties. As a result of this merger, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (aka “the original one”) is now reunited with the rest of the Star Wars franchise for perpetuity. Previously Fox had permanent ownership of the film (in a deal done with George Lucas to finance budget overruns on The Empire Strikes Back in 1979). More interesting is that the deal also reunites all the characters licensed by Marvel to 20^th Century Fox back in the late 1990s, including the X-Men and Deadpool franchises and the upcoming X-Force and Dark Phoenix movies. It also gives Disney distribution rights to the Fantastic Four franchise, although production rights remain with a third party (although without Disney’s cooperation they wouldn’t be able to release any more movies, so this is likely not a major issue). Whether the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters will now be integrated into the upcoming Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with rumours circling that Phase Four will be a clean-slate reboot, which needs to be confirmed) remains to be seen, but it’s known that Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige has been particularly eager to get his hands on the X-Men and Fantastic Four roster of villains.

One of the big winners out of this will be Disney’s new streaming service, planned to launch in 2019. This streaming service will now, presumably, have access to 20^th Century Fox’s entire back-library of films and TV shows (at least as those licenses with other distributors such Netflix and Amazon expire). In addition, Disney will acquire Fox’s share in online streaming service Hulu, giving them control over the operation. It may even be that Hulu will be transformed into the new Disney streaming service (which will likely have a Disney-branded children’s stream and differently-branded adult service), allowing Disney to build on a successful base rather than starting everything from scratch. Disney’s animation wing will also be strengthened by the addition of The Simpsons, as well as getting an adult-oriented slew of animation programming including Family Guy and Archer.

The deal includes not just 20^th Century Fox but also the FX Network Group, National Geographic and Fox’s stake in Sky TV in the UK. Fox’s total buy-out of Sky is more likely to succeed now, with Disney seen as a less controversial choice by the UK government. The Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Studios, the Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network and Fox Sports are excluded and will form their own new, independent company.

20 Years of Slaying: The Story of Buffy

In 1991 Joss Whedon was a 27-year-old scriptwriter, regularly writing for the American sitcoms Roseanne and Parenthood. He’d gained some attention for his work, enough to get 20^th Century Fox to take a look at a film script he’d been tooling around with for a while.

The script had developed from an image Whedon had been struck by whilst watching yet another clichéd horror movie about a monster that kills girls. In Whedon's idea a monster stalks a young teenage girl into a dark alley, only for the girl to turn around and kill the monster. This idea went through several permutations – one called “Rhonda the Immortal Waitress” gaining some traction before Whedon mercifully ditched it – before it finally hit the page. Whedon sold his script, now immortally called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the autumn of 1991 to Sandollar, Dolly Parton’s development studio.

The film was released on 31 July 1992 with a reasonably good cast. Young up-and-comers Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry starred and old hands Rutger Hauer and Donald Sutherland provided strong support. The film was a very modest success, taking home $13 million from an $8 million budget, and a minor cult hit on home video. Joss Whedon was less than impressed, however: his original script had garnered a lot of good notices in the trade but the rewrites for the film had removed a lot of the darker edges, metaphors and themes, reducing the film to a broad comedy. Whedon had his first (but not last) taste of what it was to be “Hollywoodised”.

Whedon then spent several years working in development hell in Hollywood, mainly as a script doctor and re-writer. It was his work on the hit movies Twister, Speed and especially Toy Story which raised his profile and saw him being eagerly sought out for higher-profile work, including a draft of the in-development fourth Alien movie (which did not end so well). Sandollar decided to come back to Whedon and suggest re-tooling the Buffy character in a new format, for television, and this time Whedon would have complete creative control and final say over the result.

Whedon, surprisingly, agreed. In the mid-1990s it was unusual for someone with a burgeoning career in Hollywood to switch from film to television. But Whedon had become frustrated with the constant rewrites in film and his words being frequently deleted and replaced with someone else's material. In television Whedon realised he could have the final say, the final cut and grow his skills, branching out as a director and producer as well as a writer.

Nicholas Brendon, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Riff Regan as Xander, Buffy and Willow in the unaired Buffy pilot.

Sandollar and Whedon produced a 25-minute non-broadcast pilot. Whedon scored several major casting coups, recruiting Sarah Michelle Gellar - fresh off a popular run on the soap opera All My Children - in the title role of Buffy and Charisma Carpenter from the ill-fated Malibu Shores as her sometimes-nemesis Cordelia. Anthony Stewart Head, famous in both the UK and USA for his long-running stint on a popular series of coffee adverts (Nescafe in the UK, Taster’s Choice in the US), was cast as Rupert Giles, Buffy’s mentor. Relative newcomer Nicholas Brendon was cast as Xander. Mercedes McNab, Danny Strong and Julie Benz was cast in minor, almost background, roles, but all three would not only return for the series proper but go on to become major characters in later years.

Also debuting in the pilot, after some very minor background roles, was David Boreanaz. Boreanaz’s neighbour had penned him as brooding vampire-type and pointed this out to Marti Noxon, a producer on the pilot, who quickly snapped him up.

Completing the cast on the pilot was Riff Regan, who was tapped to play the role of the nerdy Willow Rosenberg. For once Whedon’s casting-fu failed him and Regan turned out to be too inexperienced, fluffing her lines and suffering from a serious case of the nerves.

Still, the pilot did its job. Fox agreed to produce the show and the WB were impressed enough to broadcast it. But only after changes were made and another show was cancelled early to make room for it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer entered production in the summer of 1996. It was initially picked up as a 12-episode mid-season replacement, allowing Whedon to write quite a tight story arc, pitching Buffy into battle against the villainous Master. Surprisingly, almost the entire cast survived from the pilot to the show. The only major change was the character of Willow, with Riff Regan ejected in favour of Alyson Hannigan. Hannigan’s career was already in the ascendant, following her role on the movie My Stepmother is an Alien (with future Buffy co-star Seth Green) and a steady series of guest star gigs on shows such as Roseanne, Touched by an Angel and Picket Fences.

With the classic cast established, Buffy the Vampire Slayer finally debuted on television on 10 March 1997.

Joss Whedon directing David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The Premise

16-year-old Buffy Summers discovers she is “The Slayer”, a chosen one who must stand against the darkness, the demons and especially the vampires that threaten the world by night. She is aided and advised in her mission by the Watchers Council, learned men and women who have accumulated vast amounts of knowledge about the supernatural. Fleeing her destiny, Buffy relocates to Sunnydale, California in the hope of pursuing a normal life at a new school. However, she is soon found by the Watchers who send Rupert Giles to act as her advisor. To her horror, Buffy learns that Sunnydale is built on top of a Hellmouth, a “thin” point between this world and the hell dimensions that lie beyond, and evil is drawn to the town like moths to a flame. Reluctantly, Buffy embraces her new role.

The High School Horror Story

The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer picked up strong reviews almost from the off (although in retrospect the show took most of the first year to find its feet). The cast was given a lot of credit, but the writing was also given a lot of attention for its sharp one-liners and its clever use of the horror elements as metaphors for the often-uncomfortable process of going through high school and growing up. Potential clichés, such as Buffy’s ironic romantic relationship with vampire Angel, were treated with greater seriousness and respect than was first expected. There were also moments of genuine horror, such as Buffy inadvertently sticking her hands in someone’s detached brain and a little boy being turned into a vampire by the evil Master, but also comedy, such as a sentient puppet that is presumed to be evil, but just turns out to be a bit of a pervert.

The show was also praised for its tight serialisation. Whedon wanted each episode to stand alone with its main plot (using the device of the “Hellmouth” to explain why evil creatures were showing up in the fictional town of Sunnydale every week) but to develop ongoing storylines with its subplots, which occasionally moved to the fore (most notably in the episode Angel, which reveals the backstory of David Boreanaz’s tortured vampire character). In the Season 1 finale, Buffy kills the Master but only at the cost of her own life before she is resuscitated. Whedon’s use of serialisation was influenced by his childhood in the UK, watching the likes of Doctor Who and Blake’s 7, but it was also seemingly inspired by the space opera show Babylon 5: Whedon smuggled several references to that show into Buffy, with Xander revealed as a major fan. J. Michael Straczynski, the writer-producer of Babylon 5 (and more recently Sense8 on Netflix), gave Buffy the thumbs-up as one of his own favourite shows.

The first season was left open-ended, although with enough closure so fans wouldn’t suffer too much if it was cancelled. However, the combination of reasonable ratings, critical acclaim and its personable and attractive young cast (who quickly pushed the stars of The X-Files off the front covers of the magazines they’d been dominating for two years) meant it was a no-brainer for the WB to commission a second series, this time a full-season run of 22 episodes.

Juliet Landau and James Marsters as Drusilla and Spike.

Hitting Buffy Where She Lived

The second season of Buffy opens in a similar vein to the first, until just three episodes in when punk-loving British vampire Spike (riffing on Sid Vicious) arrives in town with his crazy-whimsical girlfriend Drusilla. Brutally dispatching the child-vampire known as the Anointed One and debuting in an episode directly based in the movie Die Hard, it was one hell of an entrance and sparked the beginning of a creative burst for the series that would last, arguably, until the end of the third season. It was during this period that Seth Green joined the show as the laconic werewolf Oz. Whedon established a paradigm pitching Spike and Drusilla against Buffy and her friends, the “Scooby Gang”. But Whedon knew it would be impossible to keep that up for a whole year and, halfway through the season, threw things for a loop.

In the episodes Surprise and Innocence, Buffy and Angel finally consummate their relationship…unaware that this will shatter the magic that restored Angel’s human soul to him, condemning him to an eternity of guilt and suffering. This resulted in Angel transforming into his evil, murderous alter ego Angelus. Cutting a bloody swathe through the supporting cast, this was a shocking move and one that Whedon did not hold back on. Events built through the superb latter half of the season until Buffy is forced to hurl Angelus through a dimensional portal into a hell dimension…just at the very second his soul is restored.

Joss Whedon later noted that this sequence of events was impossible to beat. Turning Angel against Buffy in a savage act of betrayal hit her where she lived.

Eliza Dushku joined the cast in Season 3 as rogue Slayer Faith.

Two Slayers, a Lot of Trouble

The third season saw Angel returned to Earth by means unknown, with Buffy’s friends angry with his return, albeit with his soul and conscience restored. However, events quickly overtake them: Sunnydale is attacked by a suave and funky new vampire leader, Mr. Trick, supported by a mysterious backer.

The early one-two punch of Homecoming and Band Candy gave the show two of its best episodes of all time, and later on this was enhanced by episodes such as The Wish (which introduced recurring character Anya, played by Emma Caulfield), The Zeppo and Doppelgangland, along with the controversial Earshot, which featured a planned shooting at Sunnydale High. The episode was delayed following the shooting at Columbine High School shortly before the originally-planned airdate.

The season’s core conceit was that when Buffy had briefly died in the Season 1 finale, a new Slayer had been called. This Slayer, Kendra, had been killed in Season 2. Now a new Slayer had arisen to replace her. Faith, played by Eliza Dushku, was far more reckless than the more disciplined Buffy and far more willing to put her life in danger. Her own Watcher, Wesley (Alexis Denisof, the future Mr. Hannigan) was ineffectual, and tensions began to rise between the two Slayers. When it was revealed that this year’s “Big Bad” was the town’s own mayor (a move cleverly foreshadowed in earlier seasons), Faith decamped to his side.

Season 3 ended with Sunnydale High being blown into a thousand pieces with the evil Mayor inside it. It was the end of an era. Buffy and Willow - now experimenting with magic and witchcraft - were headed for college and Xander into employment and Angel to Los Angeles, and his own spin-off show.

Hush is probably the best episode of the entire series.

Growing Up and Onwards

Season 4 marked a new format for the show. It was revealed that the American government had become aware of the supernatural forces extant in the world and funded a new organisation, the Initiative, to deal with them. Buffy reluctantly joins forces with them to defeat a new series of threats, eventually culminating in a battle against “Adam” a human-demon-cyborg hybrid.

The fourth season was the patchiest of the show to date, something that evident even when it was on the air. Episodes like Beer Bad were wince-inducing and both the Initiative (when they initially appeared in an antagonistic role) and Adam were underwhelming villains. Having had Buffy brutally betrayed by her one true love and later forced to fight a darker version of herself in Faith, later villains could not help but feel underwhelming in comparison.

But there were also highlights. Superstar, which featured supporting character Jonathan (Danny Strong) casting a magic spell to “retcon” himself as the star of the show (and also the lead actor of The Matrix), was hilarious. Far better still, and almost certainly the finest episode of the entire series, was Hush. Almost two-thirds of the episode unfolded with no dialogue at all, pitting Buffy and her friends against the sinister, evil Gentlemen in a tour de force of writing, direction and acting.

Arguably the best move the series made at this time was the introduction of Amber Benson (now a successful YA fantasy author) as Tara, a fellow witch and love interest for Willow. Although not quite unprecedented, the depiction of a healthy, same-sex relationship on a youth-oriented American network show was unusual for 1999 and given a lot of praise for the mature way it was handled.

The season ended with an interesting finale, a bizarre and surreal episode called Restless which saw the characters having heavily symbolic dreams. Often cited as one of the best episodes of the series, it also foreshadowed what happened next.

The cast of Buffy in Season 5, including Amber Benson as Tara (in the back row) and Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn (next to Gellar).

“Be Back Before Dawn”

In the first episode of Season 5, Buffy meets Dracula. This turns out to be a rather underwhelming confrontation. Far more startling is what happens at the end of the episode: Buffy returns home to meet up with her completely hitherto-unseen and unmentioned little sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg, later of Gossip Girl).

Much of the rest of the season revolved around the mystery of Dawn and where she came from, itself rather difficult given that Buffy and co were acting like she’d been there all along. Eventually it was revealed that time had been rewritten so Buffy could become the protector of a magical “key”, made manifest in the form of her sister. An evil goddess named Glory was in hot pursuit of the key, but limited in her ability to locate it. At the end of the season Buffy sacrifices her life to stop Glory and save her friends…and her new sister.

Along the way the fifth season had some interesting moments, such as Spike’s growing integration with the rest of the Scooby Gang and Tara’s family (including a pre-fame Amy Adams) showing up. Most notable is a story arc in which Buffy’s mother, Joyce, develops a brain tumour. After initially responding well to treatment, she abruptly dies in the episode The Body. Directed without music and almost in real-time, this episode is another one of the highlights of the series, as raw and powerful an exploration of grief as any so-called “adult” drama show has attempted.

At the end of the fifth season the show began wrapping up, Whedon preparing to move onto new projects (he had begun developing a science fiction show for Fox). But then the United Paramount Network (UPN) swooped in to save the day and allow the show to continue for another two seasons.

Buffy's musical episode, Once More with Feeling, gave the cast the chance to sing, which suited some actors better than others. Whedon later revisited the concept in his excellent web serial, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair

The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was, depending on how you look at it, the bravest and most experimental or the most depressing and diabolical. The season largely eschewed the traditional “Big Bad” format to instead focus on Buffy’s magical resurrection and the PTSD she suffers as a result (culminating in an ill-advised romantic liaison with Spike). The closest to a recurring villain was a collection of previous, C-list bad guys who had joined forces to take Buffy down, but who were so inept Buffy barely knew they even existed. Meanwhile, long-running relationships (such as Xander and Anya) ended, Giles left California for England (occasionally returning) and the tone of the series remained fairly depressing. Even the much-vaunted musical episode, Once More with Feeling, ended on a massive downer.

At the end of the season Tara is inadvertently shot dead, driving Willow into a homicidal rage. Using magic, Willow tries to bring about the apocalypse and is only halted by Xander invoking their long-term friendship.

The closing moments of the final episode, what remains one of the best-ever endings to an SFF series.

Going Out With a Bang

Joss Whedon decided to end the show with its seventh season, which made it all the more surprising that he also decided to reboot the series with a new paradigm. A group of “potentials”, young girls who could become the next Slayer if Buffy and Faith die, take refuge with Buffy when killers start picking them off, trying to end the Slayer line forever. The investigation of this mystery, along with Dawn starting high school at the newly-rebuilt Sunnydale High, gives the seventh season a much more interesting and original dynamic, with numerous new characters (one of them played by geek girl of the moment Felicia Day) arriving, Willow getting a new romance and everyone having their moment in the sun.

The final season of Buffy also aired in the wake of the premature cancellation of Joss Whedon’s SF show, Firefly. By way of apology for that, Whedon found employment for his actors from that series on the mothership: Nathan Fillion has a memorable turn as the villainous Caleb in the final season of Buffy (whilst Gina Torres and Adam Baldwin would get recurring roles on Angel).

The final season of Buffy is certainly a far cry from the show at its best, but it still served up an all-time classic episode (the Hugo Award-winning Conversations with Dead People) and featured some great character interplay. Most importantly, the series went out with a high. Having blown up Sunnydale High in Season 3, the series finale, Chosen, went one step further and obliterated the entire town of Sunnydale. More interestingly, it also bequeathed the powers of the Slayer on all of the “potentials”, resulting in hundreds of young women all around the world gaining superpowers and the ability to fight evil. The final act of the show is to tell Buffy that she is no longer alone. It’s a remarkable, effective and powerful moment which sees Buffy finally grow up.

But Once More, with Feeling

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a good TV show, although it took a while to find its feet and arguably peaked early (Joss Whedon later admitting that having Angel turn evil and forcing Buffy to “kill” him should have been done later, as it was impossible to top that as a storyline). But it was a show that constantly entertained, constantly innovated and never kept its feet still for long.

On a thematic level Buffy was an exploration of feminism, growing up, teen relationships, sexuality, depression, loneliness and how awesome British guys with glasses are. It was also a kick-ass action series, a comedy and a family saga. At its worst it could be soapy or repetitive. At its best it was sublime, hilarious, touching and tragic.

This can put down to the vision and writing skills of not just Joss Whedon but the excellent team he assembled: Marti Noxon, Jane Espenson, Douglas Petrie, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg, Steven DeKnight, David Fury and David Greenwald, most prominently. This team of writers would become very accomplished in their own rights, working on TV shows such as Spartacus, Daredevil and Battlestar Galactica, and movies including Cloverfield and Cabin in the Woods. The show, of course, improved the lot of Joss Whedon immensely, paving the way for him to make TV shows such as Firefly and Dollhouse and movies including The Avengers, Serenity and his Much Ado About Nothing. There was also the fact that Buffy gave rise to its own, arguably superior spin-off show, Angel, which took a lot of the lessons learned on Buffy and made them even darker and more powerful.

But without Buffy none of that would have happened. The show’s impact on pop culture was immense and it remains a highly entertaining and resonant show today (just avoid the half-arsed HD remaster for now, until they fix it). A lot of modern shows can trace their inspiration to that moment a quarter of a century ago when Joss Whedon realised that a girl killing monsters was a lot of fun.

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