After Buffy

[paulofilmo]

Speculative thread for the gnawing Buffy shaped void in my life. Expect heavy editing. Thoughts welcome!

Some tropes I look out for:

Unlikely accomplices / Surrogate family / Found Family / Motleys
British daddy (patrician surrogate father)
Cartoonish/flamboyant baddies
Anglophilia/ cringely pseudo-Shakespearean
Irreverent/immature immortals
Powers/supernatural abilities as symbolism for growing pains/coming of age/trauma
Reluctant purpose (the weight of the world on their shoulders)
I guess it's us against the world
Girls kicking arse
Witty/Serious | Snarky/Traumatic
Supernatural detectives
A home base (i.e. the library initially)
Secondary characters as good as (or better than) protag
morally ambiguous, likeable despite problematic, shifting allegiances
Lone Wolf learns to get along with others
Parallel Worlds/Mental dungeons/Fugue states
Past/Future/Premonition/Prophecy fucking with the present, interrupting normality. Determinism/FW, etc.
Broad chocolate score, but overall dark, ~70-75%
Underneath it all, it's all about love/friendship/romance

I would put in
Misfits
Arcane
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Penny Dreadful
Angel
Killing Eve
The Expanse

I like how Penny Dreadful is Buffyish but with the parameters all thrown out of whack. Twin Peaks, The Leftovers, could be put in a similar bracket.


Promising/Maybe
The End of the F***ing World
I Am Not Okay with This
The Leftovers
Twin Peaks
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
There's a Belgian crime thing that I quite like called Public Enemy. Rare to see someone so determined/fearless.

Close, but no cigar, but entertaining enough
My Name
Ghost in the Shell
Shadow and Bone
Sherlock
The Boys (gets shark-jumpy by S3, but it's a good effort)
Ooh, I'm liking GenV, is less .. superherocostumey.
Hanna (TV)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Devs
Stranger Things
SAS Rogue Heroes
Invincible


Maybe (I haven't seen them):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ifyoulikeblank ... yer_wewil/

Jane the Virgin
russian doll
Veronica Mars
Dollhouse
The Last Airbender followed by Legend of Korra (I tried this, but couldn't sit through it)
Dark Angel
Sarah Connor Chronicles
La Femme Nikita
Dead Like Me
Wonderfalls
Jekyll
Torchwood
Reaper
Brimstone
Tru Calling
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil
The Magicians

Supernatural
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
Sweet/Vicious
Nancy Drew
The Vampire Diaries
Agent Carter
Wynonna Earp

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifyoulikeblank ... yer_grimm/


Umbrella Academy
Locke and key
warehouse 13
Midnight Mass
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
The Originals
Carnival Row
Witches Of East End
Moonlight
Millennium
Les Revenants
iZombie
Brand New Cherry Flavor


Psycho-Pass

Maybe (but probably not. I've seen at least some of it):
Orphan Black
Alias
True Blood
Being Human (U.K. version)
Dead Like Me
Grimm
Lost Girl
Haven
The OA - I mean, OK, but it goes all Irvingy. ugh.
The Fades - Too tweeny, but good effort.

I don't think so:
The Nevers
Hex
Crazyhead
Firefly
Lockwood and Co.
A Discovery Of Witches
Ninja Scroll
Class
Got bored of Jessica Jones (annoyingly), and Umbrella Academy (yawn).

Not sure about these: https://www.vulture.com/2017/03/buffy-v ... watch.html

I feel like The End of the F***ing World and I Am Not Okay with This should fit in somewhere too. I'd like to be able to better articulate as to why.

7th August edit: I watched a bit of Haven and Lost Girl. They're . . . hmm.. it's like the 'After' in After Buffy is the operative, because these are Buffyish things that I don't really want/need after experiencing Buffy.

Anime? Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Durarara!! (not that I can remember it)?

Black Summer?

I can't remember Lady Vengeance

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I was thinking how Buffy (and her fate) provides the narrative thrust, but she's overshadowed ito charisma by many of the other characters. ofc part of it is just through constraint from her responsibilities (fate), her role as competent protector (ditto Angel, until Wesley steps up).
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Arcane + Penny Dreadful reddit searches:
https://www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comment ... ed_arcane/

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (netflix)
Infinity Train
I want to eat your pancreas
Vinland Saga
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The Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell tv series
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/commen ... ws_movies/
Kingdom
Kimetsu no Yaiba
Jujutsu Kaisen
Akame ga Kil!
Steins;Gate
Altered Carbon (only S1)
Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss
PRIMAL

Fantasy Shows That Are Not Well Known But Deserve a Watch? (from Misfits & Penny Dreadful search)

Galavant
Killjoys
Legion
The Dragon Prince
The Owl House
The Almighty Johnsons
Merlin
The Legend Of The Seeker
Into the Badlands
Eureka!
Sense8
Fringe
Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
Forever
Roar (1997)
The Fades
In The Flesh
The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself
Kaamelott

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/commen ... hows_that/
The 10th Kingdom
The Lost Room
Travelers

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOA/comments ... _loved_as/
Lodge 49
Black Spot
Severance
Station Eleven

August 20th edit: Aside from planning the thread in my head for a couple of years, and the new 'similar titles' functionality, I think it was watching Euphoria that was the impetus. That sort of intensity.

Not sure about these: https://www.vulture.com/2017/03/buffy-v ... watch.html

Suggestions from the comments:

Agents of SHIELD (I watched the first ep. It's funny! - alcohol would help)
Teen Wolf
Person of Interest

August 21st edit:
Watched one ep of The OA. OOoooohh.
And after season 2 of Hanna went to fuck (Covid maybe), S3 is seeming quite stylish.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments ... ong_buffy/

Fringe, and this one isn’t supernatural but I love Bones! It’s the only show imo that even compares to Buffy! It stars David Boreanaz (Angel) he’s an FBI agent! And his partner is a forensic anthropologist, so when there’s a murder and the victim is bones they solve the murder! It’s hilarious and awesome!

Would I dislike Pushing Daisies if I didn't like The Good Place? Somehow I assume they have a shared tweeness. I tried a couple of episodes of Legion and can smell it there. And yet I didn't get it from Dirk Gently. .

https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments ... you_watch/

https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments ... _favorite/

https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments ... rtainment/

https://www.reddit.com/r/brakebills/com ... endations/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifyoulikeblank ... with_this/

On that note there's an entire genre of those misfit teen/young adult movies unable to fit in ordinary life. The Chumscrubber comes to mind. Wristcutters: A Love Story is another film.

Everything is Illuminated kinda fits the feel.

nowhere boys
Parallax

Happy!
The Americans
The 100

The Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell tv series

Haven't seen this, but I read the book. I liked the funny footnotes, and the sort of bubbling nested mysticism that everyone's forgotten/in denial about. —There was a bit of this in the recent From show. I guess also Adventure Time. Buffy tried it with the ancient evils, and depictions of ancient slayers (and there's a comic about it?), but I don't think it really worked properly. Oh, and Twin Peaks; that sort of ancient burial ground vibe. Good times.

There's a fair bit of Christmas Carol and Macbeth vibes running through a lot of this stuff.

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Invincible is getting better.

X-Files

End game here might involve no mention of Buffy (adulting with misfits, or something)

7 or so eps into Happy!. First ep had the freneticness of Dirk Gently, impressed that imdb has it as a similar title.

Can't get Buffy and Dawn fighting together out of my head. All the weird sibling/protective/fosteredness/otherness falls away, and there's (finally) this symbiosis and trust/acceptance.

--
the ReasonableFantasy sub is cool

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One Piece (2023) is delightful. not that i'm keeping score, but it fareswelltropeswise

I had a good mind-spiel about how Stranger Things didn't cut it (while I was watching the show), but I've entirely forgotten.

SAS Rogue Heroes - I was trying to think of what Amos's (The Expanse) power dynamic reminded me of, and I think it's Paddy, here, with Holden being the Oxbridge types.

penn dread&expanse reddit google search:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CarnivalRow/co ... _day_what/

the lost room
sense8
black sails
Ripper Street
Constantine
Good Omens
Poldark
Broadchurch
Sinners

The Last Kingdom

The Rook

For all mankind, Raised by wolves, Andor,

Lost in Space

---------------------------------

Ahoy. Have been watching much SK dramas, and lapping up the genre smorgasboardery. Moving (Disney), Happiness, and most of all Alchemy of Souls.

Added Chocolate score. find myself comparing things to chocolate. AoC, for e.g., has some complexity, but it's still light, and you don't have to compose yourself before going into it.

Something like Penny Dreadful is dark but narrow. Twin Peaks is bitter and complex, 80+%. If that makes sense. Yeah!

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Also Astrid: Murder in Paris. Tonally between Atty Woo and Sherlock, but I think more charming than both. Not super comparable to Buffy, but some great galmance.

[AFlickering]

ONLY BUFFY IS REAL

[paulofilmo]

Was thinking how Joga supposedly has baroque influences, and is a more interesting suggestion for me than Peter Warlock, Scarlatti, or whatever. hamstrunged by my OP tropery somewhat.

And I think what would Billie Holiday or Christopher Tye or Beethoven be doing if they were born 25 years ago.

Geneticists need to get on that

[CosmicMonkey]

The show that I always felt was thematically and tonally closest to Buffy is Xena: Warrior Princess. Taking a look at your list:

• [X] Unlikely accomplices / Surrogate family
  British daddy (patrician surrogate father)
  [X] Cartoonish/flamboyant baddies
  Anglophilia/ cringely pseudo-Shakespearean
  [X] Irreverent/immature immortals
  [X] Powers/supernatural abilities as symbolism for growing pains/coming of age/trauma
  [X] Reluctant purpose (the weight of the world on their shoulders)
  [X] I guess it's us against the world
  [X] Girls kicking arse
  [X] Witty/Serious | Snarky/Traumatic
  Supernatural detectives
  A home base (i.e. the library initially)
  [X] Secondary characters as good as (or better than) protag
  [X] morally ambiguous, likeable despite problematic, shifting allegiances

On top of that, Xena was produced at around the same time, so it has the same general 90s aesthetic, production value, and special effects as the earlier seasons of Buffy did. Xena also was the first major show to do a musical episode, with Buffy following the year after.

[paulofilmo]

Cheers, CM. I don't know why I didn't have that down anywhere—I guess I was a bit turned off by the aesthetic.

I'll for sure give it a go if I can find it!

edit - i did a similar sort of blanking w/X-Files

[paulofilmo]

Cheers, CM. I don't know why I didn't have that down anywhere—I guess I was a bit turned off by the aesthetic.

Thought about this and wanted to articulate better:- i think a common theme here is how these fantasy/horror(/viscously genre heavy) elements are interrupting/infringing/encroaching on normal life (or ""normal"" as in soap opera unreality I've been raised on. e.g. twin peaks; or costume drama [penny dreadful]).

Obviously I contradict myself. One Piece is ridiculous. The Expanse, however, doesn't have Star Trekky things (Data, Ferengi, etc.). It's like a submarine movie . . til things go awry and unnatural.

(Still haven't seen Xenia—just saying the impression I have of it breaches my threshold of unfamiliarity. or something.).

I don't know if I can entropen this thought. toying with A Motley encounters the otherworldly, which is mostly a complete failure.