The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word 'postmodern' as "Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes." We can find examples of postmodern cinema dating back into the 60's and 70's, but television was slightly slower to embrace this concept. In fact, most of the postmodern risks that Buffy takes can be traced directly back to another groundbreaking program that we watched in class - Twin Peaks.
Genre blending? Buffy has it. Its main thematic basis lies directly in the world of horror, of course, and the show often takes on the "Monster of the Week" format that The Outer Limits and The X Files, (among other programs) have popularized. Structurally, the show varies throughout the years, often switching back and forth between an almost procedural, detective drama and a soap operaesque coming-of-age dramedy.
Buffy also plays with the idea of the mundane seeming supernatural and the supernatural seeming mundane. Often, Buffy and Willow can have no problem slaying a vampire or banishing a demon, but hit a brick wall when having to deal with a relationship problem. In one famous episode from season 3, The Zeppo, Xander loses his virginity in a manner that feels far more surreal than any of the apocalyptic monsters that Buffy is fighting at the same time. Later on in the series, nostalgia also plays an incredibly large thematic role. In seasons 4 and 5, every character on the show questions their trajectory in life as their tight-knit group from high school begins to dissolve.
The show also deals a lot with cultural references, especially to other forms of media. Buffy, Willow, and Xander call their monster fighting group "the Scooby gang", in reference to the mystery machine crew in the old cartoon show Scooby Doo. They will often make reference to other famous fictional sleuths (The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew) and refer to monsters in relation to monsters they (and we) have seen in the movies. In fact, the entire vernacular that is used by the primary characters on the show is rife with postmodern references and a unique take on language twisting that empowers our young protagonists.
Many of the gothic tropes we saw in Twin Peaks are present here, too. The victim/tormentor dichotomy is seen here (especially in the Buffy/Spike relationship), as well as the presence of doppelgangers. The idea of a locus of evil is present in the Buffyverse with the existence of the hellmouth, and the importance of dreams and nightmares is always clear: there are even a few episodes that take place entirely in the subconscious. While the identity dyads don't permeate quite as far in Buffy as they do in Twin Peaks, they are still present - especially in the characters of Angel and Spike, who constantly fluctuate between their good and bad selves.
Still, there are probably even more instances of postmodernity as well as similarities to Twin Peaks, but how related are the two shows, exactly? Do you think that Whedon borrowed heavily from Lynch, or did the earlier series simply pave the way for 90's television at large? Feel free to comment so we can discuss this further!
2 comments:
I have a very limited knowledge of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so most of my references are from the episodes that we watched from class and a few outside, so at the outset, I can see the similarities between Twin Peaks and this show, but I'm not really sure that I can go with that upon further examination.
The thing about David Lynch is that he never really looks at things from a very intellectual stand-point, or at least he didn't when he was making Twin Peaks (everything about his approach seems to have changed since he got into transcendental meditation). He even said that he tries to never think about where ideas come from in the liner notes for the Blue Velvet DVD, so I'm not sure that there are anywhere near as many references within any of his films as there seem to be in this.
Furthermore, I think both of these are approaching irony in a very different way. While there are jokey moments in Buffy, I think at the core of it, we're still supposed to like and care about these characters. Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, I don't feel that way. There's just this sort of overwhelming obliqueness to his work of this period that adamantly denies any sort of emotional entry. Whereas Buffy seems to have jokes within it, or at least have awkard moments played for laughs, Twin Peaks seems to have that approach to the entire narrative arc.
It is certainly true that Lynch's work on Twin Peaks paved the way for more creative maverick television. I don't think the postmodernism connection necessarily links these shows together--they really are so different in tone and aesthetic (then again, very few shows approach Twin Peaks in tone or aesthetic).
I agree with Anders, that the use of irony is a big part of both shows but it is utilized in very different ways.
Post a Comment