Fangs for the memories, Buffy, now let’s make more

There are plenty of reasons not to resurrect the cult vampire series, but television is crying out for it, writes Louis Chilton

- Louis Chilton

Remember when Buffy the Vampire Slayer died? It was back in May 2001 that Sarah Michelle Gellar's teenage demon-slayer sacrificed her life in Buffy's fifth season finale. By October, she was back her grief-stricken friends having, through magic incantation, wrenched her from heaven and back down to the sterile promontory of life. In Buffy, death is often far from permanent.

There’s some fittingness, then, in the reports that Buffy is itself being revived – not by witchcraft, but by Hulu. The series has, until now, been enjoying a pretty unique afterlife. Creatively, its reputation has only grown – the show’s innovations in form, structure and tone have altered both the medium of television, and pop culture at large. But its legacy has been complicated by unhappy tales of its making: grim allegations of on-set wrongdoing levied against creator Joss Whedon.

A revival series would have to navigate a hell of a lot of baggage, on top of a creative landscape that has been radically overhauled by the age of streaming. It is, in other words, almost doomed to disappoint. Despite this, though, it’s hard not to be excited: television is crying out for another show like Buffy.