Angel was dang good too, despite a very dark last season, the humor is back and it’s seriously some of the best writing ever on television.
Some of the episodes (Angel turned into a puppet!) are simply genius.
Uh-oh, I see the effects of Tim on the Hendricks household.
I don’t find Buffy to be that entertaining, but it can be fun, and I’m glad you’re getting more out of it than just face value entertainment.
I actually have a Buffy poster on my door. It’s from the Door. They named her Theologian of the Year. Actually a fairly interesting article in which they walked a tight line between comedy and seriousness. Can’t remember the issue, but it’s maybe a year old.
So I don’t know what to think about this. On one hand Buffy is an excellent show.The 10 or 15 episodes I’ve seen were, for the most part, original and well-written. C’mon what other teen drama deals with parents living vicariously through their children by making the Mom a witch and actually taking the place of her daughter or dealing with star-crossed relationships by having the slayer fall in love with a vampire. I want to encourage the excellence (something that is sorely lacking in culture as a whole) but at the same time I have reservations about supporting Buffy wholeheartedly. Each of these examples(e.g. Buffy, LOTR, Star Wars, the Matrix etc.) are at best a dim reflection of reality (1 Cor 13:12). In fact even the true reality on this side of heaven is but a dim reflection of the real thing. How much muck are we supposed to push aside to get a dim reflection instead of the true story of redemption? I agree, we often trivialize God’s story and forget the majesty and mystery but maybe that is because of too many reflections not too few. Like a fun house with dirty mirrors, we see distorted images of redemption all around us. Neo saved the Matrix with his own choices, the Hobbits destroyed the rings in their own power, Vader had good in him yet. All remarkably close, but not the real story. Maybe the story has become too familiar? With 100s of channels, how can anyone find the true story among all the other lesser stories competing for airtime?
Andy, I’d agree that you have to weigh any book or movie’s level of “junk” that you have to get through to percieve the truth they’re hitting at. While Fight Club has interesting things to say for example, and some of them are very true, the rest of junk you put up with isn’t worth it.
Humanity, however, gets used to things. If you only hear the same story over and over, you get bored with it and leave it behind. Or you don’t look into it as deeply as it should. Good stories, the one’s that really get at the truth of things, illuminate parts of the truth we hadn’t seen before, or refresh them for us so we can see them with new eyes.
I’m not sure if Buffy is really one of those stories, but if that’s what some people are getting out of it, and it’s not their sole justification for watching, more power to them.
I’ve never particularly understood the whole conservative anti-fantasy trip: stories in fantasty worlds can be as good or bad as anything else. The fact that they use the “force” or something doesn’t matter.
The Passion of Youth (part 2)
It’s that time once again to grow out the beard and put on the annual Passion play. Last year the youth group needed a Jesus, and I obliged. This year I’m doing it again. But what’s so funky about this…
Should Christians Watch Horror Movies?
Having never cared much for slasher films, I’ve never worried much about whether or not Christians should watch horror movies. But the world’s bigger than me, isn’t it? A few weeks ago my wife and I had lunch with several…
Riess, Jana – What Would Buffy Do?
What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide by Jana Riess 2004 At the beginning of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander Harris tells Buffy, “When it’s dark and I’m all alone and I’m scared…
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A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.
Buffy rocks!
Angel was dang good too, despite a very dark last season, the humor is back and it’s seriously some of the best writing ever on television.
Some of the episodes (Angel turned into a puppet!) are simply genius.
Uh-oh, I see the effects of Tim on the Hendricks household.
I don’t find Buffy to be that entertaining, but it can be fun, and I’m glad you’re getting more out of it than just face value entertainment.
I actually have a Buffy poster on my door. It’s from the Door. They named her Theologian of the Year. Actually a fairly interesting article in which they walked a tight line between comedy and seriousness. Can’t remember the issue, but it’s maybe a year old.
So I don’t know what to think about this. On one hand Buffy is an excellent show.The 10 or 15 episodes I’ve seen were, for the most part, original and well-written. C’mon what other teen drama deals with parents living vicariously through their children by making the Mom a witch and actually taking the place of her daughter or dealing with star-crossed relationships by having the slayer fall in love with a vampire. I want to encourage the excellence (something that is sorely lacking in culture as a whole) but at the same time I have reservations about supporting Buffy wholeheartedly. Each of these examples(e.g. Buffy, LOTR, Star Wars, the Matrix etc.) are at best a dim reflection of reality (1 Cor 13:12). In fact even the true reality on this side of heaven is but a dim reflection of the real thing. How much muck are we supposed to push aside to get a dim reflection instead of the true story of redemption? I agree, we often trivialize God’s story and forget the majesty and mystery but maybe that is because of too many reflections not too few. Like a fun house with dirty mirrors, we see distorted images of redemption all around us. Neo saved the Matrix with his own choices, the Hobbits destroyed the rings in their own power, Vader had good in him yet. All remarkably close, but not the real story. Maybe the story has become too familiar? With 100s of channels, how can anyone find the true story among all the other lesser stories competing for airtime?
Andy, I’d agree that you have to weigh any book or movie’s level of “junk” that you have to get through to percieve the truth they’re hitting at. While Fight Club has interesting things to say for example, and some of them are very true, the rest of junk you put up with isn’t worth it.
Humanity, however, gets used to things. If you only hear the same story over and over, you get bored with it and leave it behind. Or you don’t look into it as deeply as it should. Good stories, the one’s that really get at the truth of things, illuminate parts of the truth we hadn’t seen before, or refresh them for us so we can see them with new eyes.
I’m not sure if Buffy is really one of those stories, but if that’s what some people are getting out of it, and it’s not their sole justification for watching, more power to them.
I’ve never particularly understood the whole conservative anti-fantasy trip: stories in fantasty worlds can be as good or bad as anything else. The fact that they use the “force” or something doesn’t matter.
The Passion of Youth (part 2)
It’s that time once again to grow out the beard and put on the annual Passion play. Last year the youth group needed a Jesus, and I obliged. This year I’m doing it again. But what’s so funky about this…
Should Christians Watch Horror Movies?
Having never cared much for slasher films, I’ve never worried much about whether or not Christians should watch horror movies. But the world’s bigger than me, isn’t it? A few weeks ago my wife and I had lunch with several…
Riess, Jana – What Would Buffy Do?
What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide by Jana Riess 2004 At the beginning of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander Harris tells Buffy, “When it’s dark and I’m all alone and I’m scared…