Oh Joss, My Joss
Despite being an avid sci-fi and fantasy fan for as long as I can remember I got to the Joss Whedon party way late. Like, 18 years late. But I’m here now and happy as a pig in shit.
My first Joss experience would have been in 1989 with the four episodes of Roseanne that he wrote. But I was 8 at the time and wasn’t really thinking about who wrote the TV shows I watched.
Our next run-in came with the Buffy movie. But once again, I was young and didn’t pay attention to who created my entertainment. However, I loved that movie. For an 11 year old boy who would turn out to be gay life doesn’t get much better than a Valley girl killing vampires. And dating Luke Perry. But as I said, I had no idea who Joss was at the time (or how much of a homo I would turn out to be). Included in this list are Toy Story and Alien: Resurrection. Loved both, had no idea who Joss was when I first saw them.
I still didn’t know who Joss was when Buffy first aired. But I did know that the cheesy opening sequence was the most annoying thing I had ever seen and I refused to watch the show. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that at the time I also felt like this TV show was ruining the movie I loved. Little did I know that Joss not only produced both but thought the movie was weak. And so my only real memory of Buffy when it originally aired was my race to change the channel after whatever I was watching before Buffy ended and that fucking organ music came on. Still no Joss love in my heart.
Next for Joss came Angel, Firefly, and Serenity. I have no recollection of any of those. And this is pretty bizarre to me because I was online from a very early age and as I said, a sci fi fan from the beginning. And yet I somehow missed the boat on all of these wonderful creations. However, it was right around this time that I finally heard the words ‘Joss Whedon’. In college I worked with a woman who was a huge Joss Whedon fan. But she took it to a place I wasn’t prepared to go (Who names their Chihuhua Joss?) and so I never paid any attention.
And so it wasn’t until last year, nearly two decades after my first encounter with Joss’ work that I finally became a fan. It all began with Firefly. I was starting to notice a lot of references to Firefly and Buffy describing them both as critically acclaimed cult hits. By this time I had fully embraced my own geekiness (and homosexuality) and figured that if a bunch of other geeks liked them then so would I.
Being a big sci fi fan (rather than monster/fantasy… and still apprehensive about Buffy’s cheese factor), I started with Firefly and Serenity. Next was Buffy, a somewhat grander undertaking, what with the 7 seasons and all. And finally Angel. Brilliant shows all of them and (without being too cheesy) all fairly life-changing for me. And now I have Dollhouse, which unlike my beloved Sarah Connor Chronicles, was saved from Friday night cancellation doom and will be back for another season.
So what? When I started writing this post I didn’t have an answer to that question. I just figured that I’ve been watching a lot of Joss TV lately and could come up with a few paragraphs on the topic and since my main goal right now is to just write as much as I can, it seemed as good a topic as any. But as I’ve been writing this I’ve been thinking about TV in general and what I love about it. And Joss’ work captures so many of those things.
I love TV’s ability to draw you in and make you feel like you’re part of something bigger, even if it’s just in watching the action. I love how I can watch a TV show about a vampire slayer who lives on a gateway to Hell, and still feel like I am watching one of the most realistic shows created. I love how seeing a character become a better person makes me want to be a better person. I love that just by including an actor of a particular race or sexuality or hairstyle, I feel like I’m represented in society. I love that the underdog always wins. And when they don’t, it’s so we can all learn an important lesson. But most of all? I love Jayne.
Bonus Joss! His moving speech from an Equality Now benefit:
