Ever since you created this thred, I just thought "I have to answer this when I have enough time to sing my Buffy-love!"
As many said, I wouldn't say Buffy is the greatest show, but it's most definitely, without any doubt, my favourite show ever!
I think to be called greatest, a show doesn't have to be just awesome, it also has to be popular amongst a huge amount of people. I'm not talking about, you know trend-fashion-phenomen kind of popular. I mean that if a show is loved by very, very different people and for very different reasons, it has a "greater" value.
What make Btvs great?
Hm, I'll start answering the other question to have an opinion that doesn't go in every directions! 😀
Story?
The story is great. Of course, if you dislike anything fantasist, magic, you won't necessarily like it. Many people just stop to that aspect and say they dislike the show. I think what's genious about Buffy is that the monsters are just all life metaphors. It didn't understood that when I was watching it when I was younger but then I started realizing that hey! If you think about it, it represent well the blablablabla people can encounter in life! So I think the story is really great. To me, it's not the story of some girl who kills demons. It's a story of life.
Dialogue?
Hell yes! I like myself some wit, some good dialogue, and Buffy provides me that. I like that it doesn't feel like they are pushing things to have great quotes all the time. Every single character has his very own idiosyncrastic way of speaking, and I really love how it makes each of them really unique.
Characters?
On the whole, I love the characters. They have their flaws, their good sides, and I can relate to pretty much all of them at some levels. I love that the characters aren't depicted in a manichean way. That's a very, very important point as I think there is too often the good guys and the bad guys. In Buffy, everyone is grey, and that's what I love the most. Also, I love how the characters are...complete. It's hard to explain, but I really feel there is more than an actor playing someone, there is a character that has an important place, they are very...nuanced. I remember the episode in which Xander confesses he slept with Faith. When Willow said "I didn't say oh 'cause I had already figured it out". At that moment, I thought that is was quite rare that I've got the feeling the character have some...pro-activity. They don't just wait for the rest of the story to happen to them. Everyone wasn't like "Oh my god Xander you slept with Faith that is suuuch a revelation", someone has already figured it out. I'm not sure you guys understand what I mean as I myself can't express it right 😀 What I mean is, you really feel the persona behind the character, they are not just pieces of the story, it's more like the story is a piece of them. I also love how much the characters develop. Pretty much every episode brings something to at least one character.
How the actors portray the characters?
That is also just amazing. I'm quite hard to satisfy when it's about acting. I can like a movie, a character, but thinking "It was nice to watch but I wasn't transcended by the acting, it was okay but not amazing". In Buffy, I'm most of the time very satisfied with the acting. It's just so real. Pain, laugh, surprise, anger...It's really well played. Even characters I don't really like are well played. I wasn't always satisfied with Michelle Trachtenberg, but she has had some "WOW, that was brilliant" moment. Sarah Michelle played amazingly every side of Buffy, wether it was teen-Buffy, bitchy Buffy, murderous Buffy, Cave Buffy, depressed Buffy, happy Buffy, post-post-mortem Buffy, catatonic Buffy, robot Buffy...She amazes me every time. And I'm about as satisfied with pretty much every actor. Buffy is excellent for their resumé, it's the show that proves their acting skills. They all delivered a great performance. I mean even character I disliked watching like Warren or Kennedy were played well enough in my opinion. On top of all, I'm overly satisfied with the hurt scenes. Most of the time, I think "Oh, those actors could have played pain better. That's not really well done". In Buffy, it's really well played. There was even a thread for that, for their real tears 😀
The chemistry between the actors?
Yeah, it's pretty good too. Andrew and Spike had a great chemistry, haha. The less chemistry I felt was between Faith and Spike, Faith and Wood and some of the greatest were Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Faith, Willow/Oz.
Special effects?
Well some effects are meh, or bad, and the stunts not always well done, but it improved. When I was sometimes watching Charmed for example I thought "Gosh, the effects are crap compared to Buffy". So, could be better, but I quite like them. I don't want it to be too special either.
The directing?
On the whole, great directing, and I'm not just talking about Joss-directed episodes. I think many episodes are mini-masterpieces. It often happens that I watch an episode and think "That is brilliant! That transition was well-thought. Oh, and this linked to that, awesome! Oh and that point of view, with that music, A-MA-ZING". It's those moments like in Passion that are so well directed that it increases the empathy. Like in Passions, when Giles sees the letter from Jenny saying "upstairs" and he smiles and climbs the stairs and you hear the music and when the music goes dramaticer and louder he sees Jenny and drops the bottle...It's, you know, an increasing tension and it's just brilliant. I also was in awe in I only have eyes for you, when possessed Angel and Buffy had the conversation the ghost needed to have, every time I'm like "It's so tragic and brilliant, what the ghosts say is exactly right for their own situation (like Buffy saying "You don't wake up and stop loving someone" etc...). So yeah, more than once I thought "The directing is just amazingly brilliant".
How hot the actors are?
I don't really pay attention to that. But I have a thing for Spike's unclothed body. And I love when Sarah Michelle Gellars seems to glow, literally (like in the last scene of the gift, she was like...shiny, inside and outside, you know. She looked like an angel).
Consistency in quality?
The quality isn't always on top, but I don't really mind because when it's good, it's really, really effing good!
The settings? The settings are okay!
So! Buffy is definitely my favourite show ever because it's the only one the satisfies me on so many levels. I love lots of show, but I always find something that could be better about it. Buffy is the only show I'm really in love with. It's a show that has a soul. It's about life, it's serious, it's deep, but in the same time, when you watch it, you don't feel like watching some drama. Buffy can make fun of itself. It's witty, funny, beautiful, life-changer in my case, and I'm getting a little teary whenever I talk about how much the shows means to me :tongue3:.
Amongst all the shows I love, Buffy is the only one that is a part of me. It's a part of my life, it shaped me, helped me, made me a better person, made me feel, laugh, cry, relate. It's like a star that will always shine into me.
So for those many reasons, Buffy is my favourite show in the world.
I know, I'm overly dithyrambic and biased. 😀
