With this pick, I know I am dating myself. The fact that there will be some out there who don’t know about this ground breaking, progressive series, doesn’t come as a shock. Many shows today – their comedy, their pop culture references, their episode story lines and character developments – exist today because Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) the series started it. Not to mention there are feminist theory courses and sociology course that have deconstructed and praise the series.
As a socially awkward black boy, who found escape in horror, Buffy was a beacon. It helped deconstruct gender roles and love as I navigated high school as if it were filled with things out there to suck the life out of me.
So when I thought of horror reviews to share, it wasn’t hard to point to what many believe is the best episode of the entire series.
The Story: In world where vampires, demons, and apocalypses are as common place as teenage acne, there’s one girl born in every generation tasked to save us all. She only must do battle with the things in the night. In the town of Sunnydale, that girl is Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Along with her Watcher, her friends know she is a slayer and help her save the world from time to time. In this episode, she is in college day-dream prophetically (as the slayer is prone to do) and trying to pass the class and maybe find love. But she still has a job to do when suddenly the whole town has lost their voice, and evil comes to collect some hearts.
What I Love: It’s been a while since I watched Buffy and this episode. You have to appreciate the sheer gall of having an episode where no one is talking for more than half the episode. It gives other elements of this groundbreaking series a chance to shine. The costume designs of the monsters in this episode is considered some of the series scariest (and they’ve had plenty of monsters).
“Hush” is so packed with comedy and scares, that it only can stand with any movie blockbuster.
My Verdict: If you can watch the whole series, at least give this episode a view.
Stay Ghoulish.
“Grrr argh” – BtVS fans will understand.