Help Putting together a viewing list for school...

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rhapsodomancy

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Hi all,

I teach high school English, and I've been trying to find a way to incorporate Buffy for years. The main issue I have is that it often takes more than one episode to get a person fully invested.

This year I am using the novel Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld, and it seems like the perfect opportunity to mesh the series with the overreaching topic of vampires in popular culture, as the novel is a different take on vampires.

I want my students to consider how the show uses the classic/mythological portrayal of vampires (both traditionally and non-traditionally), while also getting them to use valuable analytical skills during the viewing and discussion of other content in the series. I am trying to put together a list of episodes to show, and my conundrum is this: How do I make a path to season 5, episode 1 (Buffy vs. Dracula) that allows them to become invested enough in the show's mythology and characters without showing an episode of Buffy every day for the entire semester (I wish I could, but I simply don't have that kind of time!).

Ideally I'd like them to do two things at the end of their viewing experience--discuss the show's use of vampire mythology (specifically, though not isolated to, Buffy vs. Dracula) and focus on the symbolism and exploration of character in Restless.

Here's my current list of episodes, which is still too long. Please keep in mind that I do have time to briefly review important background info (i.e do my own "previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer") that they may have missed out on due to an episode being omitted. I'm trying to follow two threads here--characterization and the use of vampire mythology. I plan to omit season 1, as I don't find the episodes as compelling, and I can give them a general intro to the series before delving in to season 2.

Episode list:
2.3: School Hard
2.6: Halloween
2.10: What's My Line? (part 2)
2.13: Surprise
2.14: Innocence
2.17: Passion
2.21: Becoming (part 1)
2.22: Becoming (part 2)

3.3: Faith, Hope, and Trick
3.9: The Wish
3.11: Gingerbread
3.14: Bad Girls
3.16: Doppelgangland
3.18: Earshot
3.21: Graduation Day (part 1)
3.22: Graduation Day (part 2)

4.4: Fear Itself
4.7: The Initiative
4.8: Pangs
4.10: Hush
4.11: Doomed
4.15: This Year's Girl
4.16: Who Are You?
4.17: Superstar
4.20: The Yoko Factor
4.21: Primeval
4.22: Restless

5.1: Buffy vs. Dracula

Thoughts? Suggestions? Rants? I hate having to cut anything from this list, but I really should. Thank you so much in advance for your ideas! I'm in need of more input from Buffy enthusiasts!
 
All I can see (since I don't like S4 enough to know which episode you could cut) is maybe Gingerbread.

May I ask why you put it? Maybe it's just from my POV, but it could go since it is not essential in the developpement of the season (apart from Amy becoming a rat) and it is not specifically related to vampires?
 
I know you want to leave out Season 1, but I would drop School Hard in place of Angel from season 1, Angel sets up the romantic notion of a Vampire being in love with a Slayer, that is played pretty hard throughout literature (the romance side of Vampires)

I would think with
Angel
2.6: Halloween
2.10: What's My Line? (part 2)
2.13: Surprise
2.14: Innocence
2.17: Passion
2.21: Becoming (part 1)
2.22: Becoming (part 2)

You'd get a good arc of the Slayer/Vampire Romance, and if you had to cut one from this list I'd cut Halloween, That has some good stuff about Vampire Mythology and staying in on Halloween, I can't remember if that's mentioned in the other episodes, if it is, then I'd drop it.

3.3: Faith, Hope, and Trick
3.9: The Wish
3.11: Gingerbread
3.14: Bad Girls
3.16: Doppelgangland
3.18: Earshot
3.21: Graduation Day (part 1)
3.22: Graduation Day (part 2)

I think I would swap out Gingerbread, Bad Girls and Earshot, and put in either Amends or Lovers Walk, you see the desperation of love between two vampires in Lovers walk, and you see the consequences of a soul on a vampire with Amends.
Off the top of my head I can't remember much major Vampire Story in Gingerbread, Bad Girls and Earshot.
I'd also add in Helpless, cuz you've got that Slayer/Vampire set up, with the Test - Unless the Slayer side of the story doesn't really apply to your class?

4.4: Fear Itself
4.7: The Initiative
4.8: Pangs
4.10: Hush
4.11: Doomed
4.15: This Year's Girl
4.16: Who Are You?
4.17: Superstar
4.20: The Yoko Factor
4.21: Primeval
4.22: Restless

Id swap Fear Itself with Harsh Light of Day, for the Ring of Amara and it's part in Vampire Mythology for Buffy,
I'd also swap Superstar for The I in Team, Superstar is only really funny when you know you've seen Jonathan in the background throughout the series, the I in Team, shows the more Traditional side of Mythology (slayer) clashing with the Modern take on Fighting evil.

I'd drop Doomed, This Years Girl and Who are you, if you have to cut down on something, from this section.


It's quite hard to cut it back and still navigate a story to hook their interest and explore the mythology, lol
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Well, since you've asked for a rant...

I want my students to consider how the show uses the classic/mythological portrayal of vampires
Click to expand...

But it does not.

Say, you want to do this the proper way? Start with the actual myths first and then explore the pop-culture garbage.

Obviously there are hundreds of myths but I think it's a good idea to at least mention those from ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece, as "Buffy" uses a lot of motives from the Greek mythology. Then skip straight to European Middle Ages. Again, there are many myths but essentially a vampire was perceived as a blood-drinking, viscous, reanimated cadaver. This is your mythological portrayal of vampires ( yeah, BtVS does not use it ) Also, mention vampire hysteria as it's pretty fascinating and explore Christian tradition ( crosses, mirrors, holy water etc. ) when you're at it. Now it's time to watch "Vampyr" by Carl Theodor Dreyer or at least parts of it. Why? Because its portrayal of vampire is very close to that from the myths and besides, you can't do anything vampire related without this film. I mean, seriously, it's that important.

OK, you're done with the mythology, now it's time to use BtVS and the old pop culture garbage it is derived from. Start with Polidori's "The Vampyre" and connect it to the episodes that explore Angel's history ( those with Darla and especially those with Drusilla) Now do Stocker's "Dracula" and follow with Dracula everything: Murnau's "Nosferatu"/Master centered episodes from season 1 and Bela Lugosi's crap/"Buffy vs. Dracula".

But wait, there's more. Vampirism was also used as a metaphor. Rape metaphor and vampire as a rapist, that's obvious, plenty of examples in BtVS. Vampirism as a homosexuality metaphor - Le Fanu's "Carmilla" which you then connect to "Doppelgangland" and "The Wish".

OK, that's from the top of my head.

I plan to omit season 1, as I don't find the episodes as compelling, and I can give them a general intro to the series before delving in to season 2.
Click to expand...

I think that's a mistake. Season 1 has more vampire lore and vampire metaphors than any other and its portrayal of vampires is much more derived from the so called classic 1920s/1930s cinema than in the rest of the show.
 
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I realize this is a difficult (impossible?) task, so I appreciate everyone's suggestions.

Regarding Gingerbread, I think I was hanging on to it because of my love for/interest in fairy tales and their cultural significance--not as close a fit to this focus, so thank you for confirming that.

Evil UU, I appreciate your feedback--you've certainly given me a lot to consider. I didn't think anyone wanted to hear a long-winded discussion of unit and lesson planning, but yes, I would be remiss if I skipped entirely over early mythology and the depiction of vampires in early tales. I hope I didn't give the impression that I planned to simply show a whole bunch of Buffy episodes and declare my class "vampire" literate. 🙂 Obviously early mythology, cinematic portrayals, vampire as metaphor, etc, are necessary here, and I appreciate your specific suggestions in regards to those materials.

You raise a good point with Season 1--I'll have to revisit it.
 
I feel like too many episodes in a high school class can be a bad idea. I'd cut to the chase:
1.12 Prophecy Girl
2.17 Passion (since you're talking about vampires)
4.10 Hush
4.22 Restless
5.1 Buffy vs. Dracula

If that... Maybe just Prophecy Girl, Passion, and Buffy vs. Dracula.
 
Building a bit on what EVIL UU said, you should touch on the psychological origins of the vampire and werewolf myths. It was an attempt to build a story around the concept of contagion and during the four years of the Black Death, the concept that a person could be changed into something different by the bite (a parallel to infection) from an infected person who then passed it on to others, became a parallel to morality stories of the good being contamnated by the bad whether through vampirism or lycanthropy. We have not passed the age of pandemics but we are approaching the end of the age of antibiotics, so I expect pandemics to resume within my lifetime. There are still people alive who remember the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the millions dead from it.

The vampire/werewolf story is also consistent with the concept of cancer and tumor growth which occurs by cells going from a state of living to undead - similar to a virus which is inert until it finds the appropriate host (and in the case of the Sarcoma virus, it causes cancer). Cancer was well known in Biblical times with the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines and the subsequent plague of tumors portrayed in 1 Sa 5:6. Normal cells are transmuted into cells which often proceed from abnormal to pre-malignant to malignant to metastatic. This follows the Bram Stoker story of Dracula where successive vampire bites are required to transform a person into a vampire. It is also consistent with the episode of "The Puppet SHow" where a person becomes an undead thing (in this case Sid the puppet) and when he kills off the last of the demons who cast the spell on him, Sid dies.

I concur with the Ferg in that you do not need more than a few episodes of Buffy to get the complete picture of Buffy's contribution to the culture.
 
Black Eye Guy said:
I know you want to leave out Season 1, but I would drop School Hard in place of Angel from season 1, Angel sets up the romantic notion of a Vampire being in love with a Slayer, that is played pretty hard throughout literature (the romance side of Vampires)
Click to expand...

I COMPLETELY agree. Especially in today's Anne Rice/Twilight world.
 
The Ferg
The Ferg
Totally. I think Surprise/Innocence might do a better job at that though.
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