Television

I don't actually have TV at my apartment, and Hulu's been a bit disappointing lately, so I went with TV shows I own on DVD for this assignment. I own mostly BBC shows so to fit the criteria of American television, I had the choice of either Firefly or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I chose Buffy as Firefly is set in an alternate future of an evil alliance of planets and rogue space cowboys; so Buffy it was.

I am willing to bet that most of you have a pretty good idea of the premise of the show, a girl (Buffy Summers) is chosen to "fight vampire, demons and the forces of darkness" (opening of seasons one and two). I decided to focus on season seven as what it is to be American good and bad is really well represented in the clash between the rest of the group and the character of Andrew Wells.

All of the characters, except for Giles who is British, are very young and attractive. They dress very stylishly and most of them have died hair. This holds true for Andrew as well, he is always dressed very hip, except when he's wearing an apron and oven mitts. Most of them wear leather coats at some point in the series. Basically, the message is that Americans are beautiful and cool. However, not all of the characters are "beautiful," the character Jonathan for instance is very normal looking and he is given a few moments of true heroism. Though he gets quiet heroism of doing the right thing with no reward. This is one of the show's main themes actually, the "hero" does big dramatic things and saves the day, but the quiet person who does the right thing and helps out is ignored except for small moments when their contributions are celebrated, because they are selfless in them. Andrew doesn't really fit into that category either, he is more the face of what people imagining impeding dealing with reality.

While most of the character are very pragmatic and goal oriented, Andrew lives in his own little fantasy world where he imagines his life as a super-villain, or relives the past in highly unrealistic ways; he also never stops talking. He tries to help and connect, but his own construction of reality is so far off from everyone else that it is all but impossible.

The rest of the characters are rather tight knit and by this season very pragmatic, to the point of being incredibly harsh and cold. The results are what matters and in another main point of the show to be a nice/good person means sacrificing your ability to be effective. To survive in America means to shut off your heart and be hard, isolated and alone. However, despite this they are heroes because they do the hard thing and not the kind thing.

The show is set in a small college town in California, definitely playing into the American glamor aspect with California. However, the small town setting--while chosen to parody horror movie settings--gives it a down to earth feel. Most of the characters have some sort of superpower, Buffy is a slayer, Willow is a witch, Dawn (Buffy's sister) used to be a dimensional key, Anya used to be a vengeance demon, at the same time a different kind of power is highlighted in the character Xander who "sees more than anyone knows because no one is watching him. [He's] the guy who fixes the windows." Highlighting, that while being hard is sometimes necessary for doing what is needed, there is an unappreciated power in just caring and doing what you can without reward or even acknowledgment.

I know that Joss Whedon's [the creator] take on American culture is at once typical and atypical. He enjoys highlighting what is expected and at the same time addressing what is under the surface being just as important. His shows tend not to depict a straightforward view of Americans, but instead creates a complex image that often gives more questions than answers.

Do you think that any TV show no matter how ambitious can create a truly accurate portrayal of a society?

What do you think that the image of American's is abroad? Do you think that it is accurate? What would you like it to be?