Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy (16 page)

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I know, he’s come a long way. But in his heart of hearts, he still doesn’t quite know the difference wrong.
—Marti Noxon
 
In a classic Whedon move, the nerd troika turn out to be a fake, while Willow winds up as the season’s “big bad.” “Her magic gets out of control,” says Hannigan. “Things go awry and it’s frightening.” Sighing, she adds, “I don’t want to be bad! Nobody will like me. That’s the hardest thing to get over as an actress. What if they don’t like me?”
But Hannigan has fun with Willow’s evil side as well. “You know, there’s this power that comes to you when you just sort of let loose and play the bad girl,” says Hannigan. “During that time Willow was doing what she thought was best for everyone, and she didn’t see it as evil in any way. She brought Buffy back from the dead, not to punish her, but to free her from some weird alternate dimension she thought Buffy was in. Things did get a bit out of hand and the power went to her head, but she’s paid for her crimes.
“I was grateful that Joss and the gang gave me a chance to show a different side of Willow. Now we know she always has that lurking underneath and it gives her a little more depth.”
In the last scene of the season, it’s revealed that Spike’s soul is restored. It’s not clear whether Spike knew this would happen, but it’s abundantly clear that Whedon has interesting things planned for season seven.
Season seven
 
At the time this writing, season seven is not yet complete, but Joss has promised a lighter tone, and, so far, has delivered. “[Season six] has been fantastic, but it has had a darker tone. To be honest, some of the episodes depressed the hell out of me. This is where we wanted to go ... into the dark of the woods. But next year is going to be very different. We’re going back to our original mission statement. Back to the joy of female empowerment. This year was about adult life and relationships—and making really, really bad decisions. Next year will still be scary and different and strange, but it will be more of a positive outlook. People will stop abandoning Dawn. Willow won’t be a junky anymore. Buffy won’t be dead.”
Season seven promises to be something of a reunion, with Whedon promising the return of Faith, Tara, Harmony, Glory and Drusilla. Giles will be in ten of the episodes, some of which were shot in England. It rained the entire time the crew was in England, but shooting proceeded nevertheless. “We got the footage. Tony and Ally are great and that’s England in the background so I’m happy,” Joss says.
Joss was thrilled to get back to England, this time not as a shy high school student, but as a major Hollywood producer. “I just always wanted to go back over there. Because I only had to fly one person out they let me do it. I already had Tony there and it just made sense for Willow’s character to have spent her time under Giles’ watch and guidance.”
As for the storyline for season seven, Whedon remained coy. “I can only tell you a little bit,” he said. “This is something I’ve been sort of gearing towards since the very beginning of the show. It’s a question of bringing it onto a much larger scale and at the same time making it much more personal and much more personal to Buffy herself. This year [season six] was a chance to let the other characters [shine.]
“... The big climactic scene [was] between Xander and Willow, and that was because, as characters and as actors, they’d earned that opportunity. And I thought it was right for them to sort of be the spokespeople for what was going on at the end there. But next year Buffy will be much less peripheral to the climax. The climax will be the biggest thing we’ve ever done.”
The big climactic scene [was] between Xander and Willow, and that was because, as characters as actors, they’d earned that opportunity. Joss
 
Whedon added, “You know, every year it might be the end. Except, actually, this year [season six]. This year I really did sort of leave it up in the air. You could have said this could have been an end, but the [cliffhanger] with Spike and the thing on Angel [leaving Angel at the bottom of the ocean], this was sort of the exception to the rule. But I am looking for closure next year...because we’re making a more positive statement. This year was just about surviving the year. Sometimes the audience felt that actually it’s their chore too. What? You don’t want to be depressed all the time like me? I don’t understand. But next year is something that’s a lot more positive and definitive. And in that it has to end with an exclamation point, not a question mark.”
 
Joss with real-life couple Hannigan and Alexis Denisof. Can it be only coincidence that both Willow and Wesley have flirted with the dark side?
Joss has also hinted that there may be a
Buffy
—
Angel
crossover episode, if the networks (the WB particularly) overcome their animosity. It’s not clear yet whether this will happen.
What? You don’t want to be depressed all the time like me?—Joss
 
Critics And Emmys
 
Critics, like fans, have embraced
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
.
“
Buffy
sounds like goofy kids’ show to most people, but it has depth, layers and texture that some alleged ‘adult’ series could only hope for,” says Rob Owen, a TV editor for the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Joss is a master of everything, by which I mean he’s equally adept at emotional drama and character comedy, action sequences and quiet romantic moments. The show has suffered this season [six] from his lack of day-to-day involvement. The show no longer has the balance it once had.
“That being said, this season’s ‘Once More with Feeling’ musical episode is one of my favorites. ‘Hush,’ which has 20 minutes with no dialogue, is probably my all-time favorite episode, which he wrote and directed.
Joss is a master of everything, by which I mean he’s equally adept at emotional drama and character comedy, action sequences and quiet romantic moments.—Rob Owen
 
“Joss is just a very creative guy. He’s created a unique group of characters and allowed them to grow and mature and evolve throughout the course of the show. He has the sensibility of a fan, something not often found in TV producers, which is what endears him to the fan community. He’s a sci-fi geek at heart making shows for other sci-fi geeks.”
Tom Walter, the television critic for the Memphis paper, concurs. “Whedon is a great example of getting a second chance and running at it, and a great example of how television is much friendlier to writers than the movies are,” Walters explains. “He was able to take a lackluster movie (whose fault was that—studio interference or whatever—prob—ably doesn’t matter anymore) and turn it into a gem of a series.
 
Marti Noxon,
Buffy
executive producer and “parking ticket lady,” clutches her Saturn.
“... Early on,
Buffy
was simply amazing. It took teen alienation and angst about as far as it could go—name me a bigger outsider than a vampire killer—but did it with rare humor and panache. This was a sophisticated, witty, well-written, well-cast, well-acted show from the start, one that didn’t hit you over the head with its metaphors.”
This was a sophisticated witty, well-written, well-cast, well-acted show from the start, one that didn’t hit you over the head with its metaphors.
—Tom Walter
 
So why is it that the show gets so little respect when it comes the big awards shows? Is it the genre or the teen orientation? Is it the quirky name?
“I don’t mean to be rude but, sometimes people look at a title and make a decision. I know when Joss first was creating the show people didn’t want it named
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
because they were afraid it would turn people off,” says star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
“This show is the most wonderful mix of brilliant, witty writing and phenomenal performances and evolving stories. And if people turn their head to it and say they won’t watch it like they would watch the
Power Rangers,
to me that really is just ignorance,” says Gellar.
“There are some people who never take genre shows seriously,” says Whedon. “It’s a prejudice that I’ll never understand. But because anything to do with fantasy just turns them off and anything that’s humorous must not be meaningful. So this year they are all going to be doctors so we can get some Emmys.”
Oh, there’s that Emmy word. The show has been nominated but it’s still a sore subject among the cast and crew.
“But we specifically—we don’t make the show to win awards. The reason we stayed on the air in our first 13 was because we had this incredibly strong fan base, this Internet fan base, and fans that would write into magazines. They’re the reason we make the show, and that’s the accolades that I think we all, as a group, look for,” Gellar says.
“We have received nominations in the past and that was rewarding, and so you sort of go ‘maybe that will happen again.’ But the fact of the matter is with a name like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
you’re never going to be Emmy bait. So it’s sort of—it doesn’t really affect the way we do the show. It’s not like were are going to say ‘let’s make a very special episode, let’s figure out an Emmy theme, what do they like, what do they go for?’ It’s not relevant to us,” says Whedon.
“Also, I said this before, but I think that the voting population for the Emmys are not the people who watch our show,” says Noxon. “And so much of it is the shows you watch and talk about with your friends and peers about. I think in general, the newer people to the WGA (Writers Guild Association) and the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and all of these different organizations don’t know they can join the academy. So until there’s a younger constituent...”
I think the show should be nominated, so there. I don’t care.
—Emma Caulfield
 
Emma Caulfield (Anya) steps in, “I don’t think it’s very political to say it, but I’m going to say it. I think the show should be nominated, so there. I don’t care. We have the best writers working for us. We have an amazing creator, show-runner, I mean all the way around. We have an amazing cast, one of the most talented ensemble casts put together, and it would be nice to be nominated. I think the show should be nominated. So there.”
“What bothers me the most is that the cast isn’t nominated,” says Whedon. “We are a genre show, but I think they are ignored because they are young and they don’t get the recognition they deserve. I defy you to show me a better ensemble than these guys,” he says pointing to all of his cast members.
Whedon even paid for a campaign designed to help the show win an Emmy, but to no avail. “I feel like I just spent a lot of money trolling for a compliment that I didn’t get,” Joss now says with regret.
What’
s
Next?
 
There are some indications that season seven will be the last. Gellar’s contract is up at the end of season seven, and she has been unwilling to commit beyond this point. Joss has signed an eight-figure production deal with Fox and is increasingly pulled in multiple directions.

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