Buffy vs Adama
Today I’m going to compare That ’70s Show to Firefly, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Battlestar Galactica. If at this point you’re not convinced I am crazy, then you have really missed out on a lot of very good television: These series are all worthy of your time.
Therein however lies the problem. Watching all these series will take an awful lot of time. And by an awful lot I mean approximately 240 hours. That’s two weeks of watching television, where you can either take the weekends of or get 5 hours of sleep a day. I understand that most people don’t have that much time on their hands. Taking a week of might be possible, but two weeks is really pushing it.
So that confronts us with the following question: In the company of which moving pictures should you spend your time? That’s where I come in. After approximately 240 hours of industrious researching I’m now able to decide for you! In two rounds, I’m going to bring the amount of series you have to watch down from four to two. Your homework for the next entry: Watch two television series.
Round 1: That ’70s Show versus Firefly
It’s the first round and we’re starting strong. In one corner of the ring we have the popular That ’70s Show. A show centered on a group of teenagers living in, you would never have guessed, the ’70s. These teenagers are constantly making jokes, presumably for the entertainment of the large group of people that follow them around and laugh at these jokes. By what can only be called a miraculous coincidence, this group of people, supposedly a significant part of the cast, continuously manages to stay just out of frame.
In the other corner of ring we have the mighty Firefly, an entry in the Science-Fiction-Western genre. Staying close to the roots of the genre it features the usual ‘people being thrown out of holographic bar windows’, ‘levitating train robberies by spaceships’ and ‘horse-hovercraft chases’. The cast of this series too, spends a lot of time being funny. However, unlike That ’70s Show, there is no group of out-of-frame-people providing visual or audible cues to mark the points where a joke is made. Recognizing these points in an episode is thus left an exercise for the viewer.
These two series have a couple of things in common. Both series have a lot of humor and both series consist of small episode-long stories playing in front of their aforementioned backdrops. There isn’t a lot of season-arching storytelling going on, no big picture unless you’re referring to the logo.
The logo’s of both shows. The Firefly logo has the clear advantage, being sharp and flamey, whereas the That ’70s Show logo has rounded corners and no apparent special powers.
So who wins? I admit that it’s a difficult choice. Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly captains a spaceship, which is of course cool. But Eric, the main character in That ’70s Show, has his own car, which is pretty awesome too. Captain Reynolds and his crew don’t back away from the occasional shady jobs, like smuggling or stealing. Then again Eric and his friends drink beer. Furthermore both Firefly and That ’70s Show feature alien monsters (called ‘Reavers’ and ‘Parents’ respectively), so no help there either.
My advice: divide your time between the series and watch a season each. If afterwards you want to see more Firefly you’re out of luck: The series only lasted a single season. A follow-up movie called Serenity was made though, which gives some closure to the series. If you’re interested in a higher dose of That ’70s Show, then there is no less than 7 more seasons left; enough to feed a long and probably not so healthy addiction.
Round 2: Buffy the Vampire Slayer versus Battlestar Galactica
To our left: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The title is a pretty succinct description of the show: It’s about a girl, called Buffy, who slays vampires. Closer inspection reveals that there are more characters involved with the slaying, most prominent among them a computer-geek-witch, a British librarian and an ordinary boy who mostly provides moral support. On the ‘being slayed’ side we can also add some elements. Although a colourful collection of vampires does provide most of the evil Buffy and her friends have to fight, the audience learns early on that vampires are merely one type of demon, many others exist. The show features some ‘apocalyptic drama’, mixed with ‘teenage high school drama’.
To our right: Battlestar Galactica! In short: Evil robots wipe out all of humanity. One small fleet of refugees under the command of Commander William Adama manages to escape. This fleet sets course for the mythical planet Earth, hoping to finally find some rest, nice weather and, one supposes, favourable immigration policies. Both the lack of sunshine on board the fleet’s ships and the plot give this piece of television a very dark tone. Furthermore, in contrast to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show features only ‘apocalyptic drama’, no ‘teenage high school drama’. It is however constantly supported by Taiko drums.
Battlestar Galactica, the ship that gave the series it’s name. The ship is able to cover huge distances quickly by making faster than light jumps. In between those jumps it can use those huge engines to cover comparatively minuscule distances. This movement is necessary to make the ship appear cooler on television.
Both these series have names that make a lot of people want to run the other way. The title Buffy the Vampire Slayer can only be appreciated with a strong dose of irony, irony you should keep within arm’s reach whenever you watch an episode. Battlestar Galactica inherited its title from its predecessor, a series that quite unlike this new Battlestar Galactica does provide the cheesy science fiction one would expect from the title. Furthermore both series offer storylines unfolding over several episodes or even seasons; in this respect Battlestar Galactica in particular delivers some dramatic origami.
As for the winner? Well, in the ring Buffy would beat the crap out of Adama I’m afraid. But the odds are that after the fight is over, a crippled Adama would step forward to address the masses with a cool speech. It’s your choice.