Buffy: The Vampire Slayer is coming back from the dead
ALSO: Inside the Apple Cider Vinegar launch party
In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.
In the mid 90s going into the 00s there was no show more fun or captivating than Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. I say this as a person who was the exact right age for the show. Just as I graduated high school, so did Buffy and co. As they went to college, so to was I starting university.
For a show about the experience of being a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, it was one of the very few times that a TV show ever reflected my real life in a meaningful way (my own dealings with the undead were fewer in number, I’ll admit).
Watching the show now… there’s a lot that doesn’t hold up. And most of that is the fault of creator Joss Whedon. For some reason Joss Whedon got cancelled (apparently he was a bit ornery, picked favorites, and wasn’t very nice to people…? Yeah, ok. Burn the witch), but what hasn’t aged well about the show is the Joss Whedon-style of comedic banter that runs through the show. A novelty at the time, that same style of line delivery has become deeply engrained in American television. But in Buffy it is at its most pure, unfiltered cringe.
Today, there is news that the show is being revived for Hulu.
Joss Whedon will not be involved in the new show. But series star Sarah Michelle Gellar will be, albeit only in some sort of supporting role. The new show will focus on a new slayer. The showrunners behind it are writer sisters Nora and Lilla Zuckerman - the two just came off running season one of Poker Face. Chloe Zhao will be directing the pilot.
Nora and Lilla Zuckerman will executive produce the Buffy reboot with Zhao, Gellar, and the original show’s EPs Gail Berman, Fran and Kaz Kuzui of Suite B, and Dolly Parton via Sandollar. Parton wasn’t a credited executive producer on the original show, which ran from 1997-2003, but her Sandollar Television was one of its producers.
The mythology of Buffy was always conceptually pretty strong and it’s great to see someone is doing something with it. And the teenage experience is so different now in terms of culture and technological impact, that it seems like there’s certainly a strong creative reason why they should take another go at it. The timing all feels right.
Netflix launches Apple Cider Vinegar
Last night at the Hoyts cinema in Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter, Netflix took over the whole venue to launch new show Apple Cider Vinegar. Two episodes were shown to the crowd that seemed to mostly be a lot of agency and influencer types.
A few thoughts:
The show itself is pretty good. There’s some genuine pep and vibrancy to the first episode - I would assume the viewer retention rate will be pretty high on it. Series star Kaitlyn Dever is always good and she’s especially good in this as fraudster wellness blogger Belle Gibson (quasi-based on the true story). Her Australian accent is pretty flawless.
But good as Dever is, it is yet another example of an Australian drama needing an American (or occasionally UK) lead to drive international attention. This really needs to stop if Australia is serious about telling Australian stories and celebrating a local screen culture.
I really like Samantha Strauss as a writer (I’ve seen a shockingly large amount of Dance Academy) and she has again done a great job here. The second episode is looser than the first, but what I like about it is that at no point does Strauss over-egg the idea that Gibson had a rough upbringing. Instead, what we learn about Gibson is that she suffered through a lot of regular, smaller indignities. Abuse by a million papercuts.
This was the first… and probably last time… that a TV show I have seen has ever had a scene in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum. I used to play Wednesday night trivia with a team named ‘Stabbed in Wynnum’. It still makes me laugh.
It was interesting watching the TV show about wellness influencers with a crowd that looked like they were all heading home in the direction of Bondi straight afterwards.
You can’t tell how pink and refreshing the spritz cocktail was in the below photo, but it was. #masculine
In all, the show is good. And I do hope that the audience for the show takes a moment to interrogate some of the ideas they are also being presented when they open up their apps.
On the Internet, anyone can lay claim to knowing what they are talking about.
News Desk
It is 2025 and they are selling new Saved By The Bell merchandise. 2025, you’re alright. Read: TV Insider
Rhys Ifans will lead Apple TV+ drama Star City, the spin-off from For All Mankind. It will not impact his role on House of The Dragon. Read: Deadline
FYI, when Tubi simulcasts the Super Bowl in the US, it will be with the same ad inventory. Read: The Streamable
The legal stoush between CBS and Sony over international sales of game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! has been stepped up, with Sony announcing it would reclaim distribution from CBS starting Feb 10. Read: THR
Meanwhile, ratings for Celebrity Jeopardy! are down. Read: TV Insider
Meanwhile, CBS parent company Paramount has ended it’s ongoing stoush with Nielsen and will again join the rest of the industry in using Nielsen for audience measurement. The new deal covers all Paramount platforms including CBS, cable networks, and streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Read: TV Line
The current incarnation of dumb, fun-to-watch, but-you-really-don’t-need-to-ever-see-more-than-one-episode reality competition show Wipeout has been cancelled at TNT. This version is co-hosted by Nicole Byer and John Cena. Read: TV Line
Trailer Park
Grosse Pointe Garden Society debuts on NBC Feb 23.
When four members of a garden club get entangled in a scandalous murder, they're forced to bury the body - in their own well-manicured flower beds.
It’s the Netflix India 2025 sizzle reel!
Surface returns to Apple TV+ for season 2 Feb 21.
When No One Sees Us debuts on Max March 7.
The eight-episode series explores a series of crimes in the political and cultural frontier of so-called "deep Spain," and one of the largest U.S. military bases abroad, during the celebration of Holy Week in Morón de la Frontera (Seville).
Cobra Kai returns for a last run of five episodes on Netflix starting Feb 13.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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In hindsight there were a few issues with Buffy. The ‘icky’ relationships that Buffy had with centuries old vampires for one. The other one was there was not, not one, happy ending for any of the relationships formed during the show. I get they were kids and they were at war with supernatural but even the adults couldn’t sustain a relationship. Maybe I am sentimental but really?!
Watch them butcher the Buffy reboot 😅 I give it 2 seasons max. SMG will nail it tho.