First things first:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer — the movie with Luke Perry and Kristy Swanson — had its moments, but ultimately sucked.  When Buffy the Vampire Slayer made its debut as a TV series in 1997, it was the best thing to happen to TV until, well, Ronald Moore and David Eick’s “reimagined” version of Battlestar Galactica in 2003. It’s not hard to see why. Both series took stock fantasy/sci-fi narratives (i.e., vampires wreaking havoc on a community or humans trying to escape a relentless robotic enemy in space) and turned them on their heads to spotlight characters and stories where identity, morality, sexuality, gender, race and class were in flux. In the case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the growth of the main characters was often spurred by the introduction of someone new.  For the bookish Willow Rosenberg (as played by Alyson Hannigan), her character really started getting interesting when Joss Whedon — the show’s creator — paired her with Tara Maclay (Amber Benson), who, at first, was just a member of a Wicca group that Willow joined in college.  Later, it becomes clear that Willow and Tara were pretty much soulmates and the two become a couple until Tara’s death by a stray bullet.

While the character Benson played on Buffy was mostly relegated to walk-ons in future episodes after her untimely death, Amber Benson went on to direct films, create an animated drama for the BBC, co-authored two novels, and now flies solo as the author of a new novel, Death’s Daughter. (more…)