Buffy and Frankenstein

Hills (2004) lists a number of defining characteristics of cult TV that contain
similarities to the defining characteristics of pop genres (e.g. fantasy, science fiction) discussed earlier in the Pop Genres paper. Can you identify these and discuss why you think that these characteristics are repeatedly viewed as underpinning popular genres.


Hills (2004) suggests that two characteristic of cult TV are that it draws on the fantastic world of speculative fiction (fantasy, horror, science fiction), and that it makes the fantastic ordinary. Certainly, if we look at cult TV shows, they could mostly fit into one of the speculative fiction sub-genres. So for example in Science Fiction there is Star Trek and Dr. Who, Game of Thrones is fantasy, and Buffy is horror.

I would go further than Hills (2004). It appears to me that Cult TV not only makes the fantastic ordinary, it is flippant about it. So for example Buffy asks why she should preserve the arms of the monster “In my experience body parts usually start flying around as soon as you start fighting.” Interactions between Buffy and Giles are similarly humorous even when discussing extremely emotional or dangerous events.

Buffy: “Before I knew it, it was raining monsters.”

Giles: “Hallelulia”

References to a popular song seem out of place in a conversation about a such a traumatic experience.

The similarities between Buffy and Gothic literature like Frankenstein has been discussed in lectures, and these are too obvious to be reiterated here. One could also cite the influence of Dracula for the vampire theme, and even non-speculative Gothic horror-type fiction such as Wuthering Heights for its dark brooding landscape and intense and destructive passions.

The difference between these literary classics and Buffy is that the former are wall to wall misery. The Frankenstein monster kills Victor’s entire family. Most characters in Dracula are either killed by vampires, become vampires or are scared out of their wits by vampires. Wuthering Heights characters die young and miserable. In these books, the innocent suffer as much as the guilty.

Buffy could be included in the Black Humour genre. It is influenced by the comedy-horror cartoon Scooby Doo (the name of the gang gives us a clue here), as much as it is by Frankenstein. As has been mentioned in lectures, innocents rarely die in Buffy. Perhaps that is the secret to its appeal. It lets us be frightened, but within the safer space of humour, and it protects us against sadness and a sense of injustice. It also highlights the difference between European and American popular literature.

But that’s the topic for another blog.

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