Sunnydale, California: RIP
From what I’ve seen on the internet, Australia appears to be the last country to play the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which means it’s probably safe to write about the closing episode of the season without spoiling anyone’s fun. It was a lot of fun, too, although as it turns out, Buffy was really about Title IX all along. O.k., that’s a reference only Americans will understand straight off, but Buffy is a very American show. Title IX is a provision in federal civil rights legislation that requires that schools and universities fund men’s and women’s extra-curricular activities – e.g., and to the point, sports – equally. Basically, if a college is going to have a men’s soccer team, it has to ensure the women’s team gets the same level of funding and opportunity. Sounds fair enough, but the impact of Title IX has been huge since it was enacted, and it continues to have an evolutionary effect on education and society in general. The US didn’t have a World Cup-winning women’s team in soccer out of nowhere, you know. So last night Buffy enacted her own Title IX, which made for a perfect end to the season and to the series overall. Buffy has always been about giving women power, and it’s always been the female characters that have grown the most from show to show, season to season. Although most people will have seen kung fu and vampires, these were bait, hiding the real hook waiting to draw you in: the exploration of growing up and learning to be an adult, interacting with other adults. Well-written overall, if not terribly subtle (but never without humor), Buffy was one of the best shows on television.