As first seasons for a new show goes, “Buffy”’s Opening season was unsurpassed.
Most new programmes shows will spend the entire first season making sure that the viewer knows exactly the premise of the show is about, who everybody is and what their relationship to the other characters is.
The writers on ”Buffy” however, did none of these. By the third episode, (the second being a continuation of the first), they had presumed that the audience
had been paying attention and set about turning the show on its head.
The undercurrent for this season would set the boundaries for the next three years, with the basic notion all High School students know.
High School can be Hell.
Series creator Joss Whedon has himself always claimed that he had a horrible time in High School, so all he and his staff did was take that thought and turn it into a literal interpretation. Every situation that you see the gang get
into is simply a pumped up version of the type of things that we all experience during our adolescence. From falling into the wrong crowd (“The Pack”) to falling for someone you don’t really know (“I, Robot, You Jane”)
But the real hidden metaphor behind this season is change. Buffy will spend a good portion of this season coming to terms with the major changes in her life. She is now an only child in a single parent family, she has moved town and
school because she was thrown out her previous school and has to make new friends. To do all this she has to come to terms with being the Slayer and learn to say “This is me.take it or leave it.”
Fortunately, she has a strong support base to help her.
