Most mornings, to warm up my brain I write & edit 150 words — a TV episode, movie, news item, or whatever. Now that I've got Lady Hotspur watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I've decided to post these exercises so you & she can enjoy them too!
1.5 “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”
broadcast: March 31, 1997
writer: Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali
director: David Semel
broadcast: March 31, 1997
writer: Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali
director: David Semel
As a superhero, Buffy is a riff on Peter Parker, where ethical responsibilities frustrate the hero's normal adolescence. This conflict gets dramatized in the series' best episode so far. Buffy's first date with a hunky bookworm becomes a vampire hunt; though everyone survives (except the vampire, of course), she turns down a second date. The basis for her decision gives an extra twist to the Parker Archetype: the problem isn't her secret identity, it's her beau, who's a thrill-seeker and so a danger to himself and others. The episode's plot plays more as a structure to hang the character conflict on than a key development in the season's arc. The bat-like vampire king recruits an “Anointed One” who, according to prophecy, will kill the Slayer. The fake-out — this Anointed One isn't the scripture-quoting psycho vamp but a little kid — is satisfying mainly because we know the truth but Buffy doesn't.
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