Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Sunnydale, Buffy The Vampire Slayer

When Joss Whedon’s TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer launched, the main characters were all still in high school and didn’t get out of town much, so the week-to-week battles with vampires, demons, and other threats demanded a supernaturally charged, target-rich environment. Whedon’s story style mandated that the protagonists should be isolated, dealing with all these threats with little help from adult agencies like police or the government. And the series’ sense of humor suggested that all this potential heaviness should be balanced with a dose of levity. The result of these narrative demands was Sunnydale, California, an incongruously upbeat community built over a hellmouth, a demonic portal that periodically spawns or attracts evil forces. The particulars of Sunnydale heavily affected the tone of the show: It’s a place where people die horrifically all the time, but none of the weird murders ever make the news, or linger in witnesses’ memories. It’s a place where murderous monsters and hordes of hapless, cheerful victims eternally exist side by side, with those victims focused on petty day-to-day concerns like making the eponymous heroine attend classes, pass tests, and pay rent while still perpetually trying to keep more than 30,000 people safe from the impending armageddon of the week. In other words, it’s Hell with a chipper California outlook and a “Have a nice day!” attitude that does as much to shape Buffy as the rat-a-tat dialogue and nonstop surprise reveals.