Trigger Warning: Discussions of sexual assault and rape.

In a lot of ways Buffy the Vampire Slayer was more than just a TV show…it was a feeling. 

No. But it did change the way heroines were written and showed the world how awesome and self-aware supernatural comedies could be. In the mid-’90s to early ‘00s, Buffy influenced everything from fashion trends to the way we speak. The linguistic feature of speakers ending declarative sentences in an upward inflection (like everything is a question). This phenomenon, known as ‘upspeak’, became popular in the mid-90s to the horror of many a boomer. 

Buffy was progressive in many ways for its time. A strong (yet at times, admirably vulnerable) relatable heroine. Buffy was cool, independent, and brimming with quippy comebacks. Buffy’s creator, Joss Whedon, may have turned out to be the bad guy but he did create an admirable main character and immerse us in her world. Buffy was one of the first primetime network shows to have a gay main character and a lesbian relationship. Lesbian-identified Willow Rosenberg ushered in a new age of sapphic style that helped generations of queer young people come out.

Throughout the show, Buffy has not one but two hot, badass vampire boyfriends. What’s not to love?

Well, as it turns out; a lot of stuff. Like many shows from that era, Buffy doesn’t always adhere to the morals and values of 2024. I am, and have pretty much always been, a Buffy obsessive (to varying degrees). Even I can admit the main cast wasn’t exactly diverse. There are of course insensitive comments and jokes that wouldn’t fly today, but what I want to focus on is the show’s treatment of sexual assault. 

In Western culture, rape is seen as one of the worst that can happen to a woman, perhaps even worse than death. Throughout the series, Buffy (and her female comrades) is assaulted numerous times and threatened with rape even more.

Season 1 Episode 6 – The Pack

In probably one of the weirdest plots, an early ‘monster of the week’ episode. Buffy’s closest male friend is possessed by the spirit of a hyena on a class zoo trip (it happens).  

To a lot of modern fans; Xander is the archetypal ‘toxic nice guy’. Identifies as a feminist but regularly slut shames his female friends and has different rules of conduct for them than he does for himself. Regularly treats his romantic partners as less than or infantilizes them. Xander’s questionable behavior aside, this is the first episode where his true nature perhaps shines through.

Up until this point he had been attracted to Buffy. The slayer’s disinterest in anything other than friendship had caused him to act petulant and snidey in ways only a teenage boy can. As loathe as I am to compliment Nicholas Brendon (‘Xander’) the complete personality shift he embodies for possessed Xander is laudable. He’s confident, cruel, and highly sexual. Even vampiric some might say. 

Possessed Xander’s newfound animalistic urges lead him to attack Buffy with a strength that matches her own supernatural strength. In an uncomfortable scene, he pins her to a vending machine and tells her: “The more I scare you…(SNIFFS)…the better you smell.”

Buffy escapes by knocking Xander unconscious and remarks to Willow that Xander “tried his hand at felony sexual assault”. It could be argued that Buffy is making light of her trauma by joking about it. However, at the end of the episode, Xander pretends he remembers nothing about his possession but then admits to Giles that he does. 

Other more popular recurring characters are forgiven for their horrific behavior due to their lack of souls (being vampires). However, the show never makes clear exactly what a soul is and how it affects a person’s intrinsic goodness. It is unclear what happened to Xander’s soul during his brief possession but the instance is never brought up again.

Season 2 Episode 20 – Go Fish

Yet another ‘monster of the week’ episode; the school’s swim team gets turned into sea monsters (again, it happens). Buffy goes on a date with a member of the swim team when she turns down his advances he locks his car door stopping her escape. When he tries to touch her she breaks his nose on the steering wheel. Buffy is blamed by the school for the way she dresses, almost every woman has heard that at least once!

The episode culminates with Buffy being thrown into a sewer with the monstrous swim team by the evil coach. The coach remarks that ‘his boys have already eaten “but boys have other needs”. Threatening our 17-year-old heroin with gang rape. Buffy of course jokes about her predicament and is saved in the nick of time. 

It could be speculated that as Buffy is a metaphor in itself that the writers were trying to make a statement about how female victims of young male sports stars are treated.

Season 6 Episode 1 & 2 – Bargaining 

Season 6 is extremely controversial within the Buffy fandom. Arguably the most polarising of the seasons. Whether you love it or hate it (I love it, just putting that out there) everyone agrees it’s the darkest season. Fittingly the season opens with Buffy being brought back from the dead and digging herself out of her own grave. 

A gang of heavily pierced demons is attacking the town and is torturing the Buffybot (a replacement robot for the erstwhile slayer obviously). The head demon refers to Buffybot as “nothing but a toy, a pretty toy” in a sinister and arguably sexual way before we see her being torn limb from bionic limb. 

If that’s not bad enough the head demon threatens Buffy’s friends (Xander, Anya, Tara, and Willow) by saying; “we’re just gonna hold you down and enjoy ourselves for a few hours”. He also brags about his gang’s “anatomical incompatibilities that tend to tear up little girls”. The blatant and graphic threat of gang rape disturbed a lot of fans. Was this a sign of things to come with the new direction the show was going in?

Season 6 Episode 19 – Seeing Red

And here we are. We couldn’t talk about the most controversial season of Buffy without discussing its most controversial episode. Seeing Red has fan favorite Spike (vampire) attempting to rape Buffy in her own bathroom after she is injured while vampire slaying. 

Throughout most of season 6 Buffy and Spike kindled a sexual relationship. Despite the writers prefacing the two as a metaphor for a toxic relationship, the couple are championed by fans to this day.

The scene itself is horrific. I can recall watching it when it was aired at the age of 12 hesitantly through my mum’s plants it was that awful. On a recent rewatch I committed myself to watching it again thinking it can’t be as bad as I remember, despite always fast-forwarding that bit on my videos (yes, I’m that old). It was as bad as I remembered. 

The scene was heavily choreographed with alternating close-ups of Buffy and Spike (separately) to inspire the audience’s empathy with each character. Along with the being so brightly lit, the scene is extremely disorienting. The choice of lighting makes the actors look all too human.

Encouraging empathy for both victim and perpetrator during a rape scene is an interesting premise. Personally, I liked how multilayered and complex Buffy and Spike’s relationship was for what was billed as a teen drama. But I, like many, was traumatized by this scene. James Marsters, who played Spike, calls shooting the scene; “the darkest professional day of my life” (Marsters J, 2024) and sends him to therapy. Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar (Gellar S, 2024) is quoted as saying that she skips that particular episode while watching with her young family. 

Many conspiracies were discussed after the airing of the episode. Many thought that it was creator Joss Whedon’s way of getting the audience to hate Spike. Whedon made no secret about hating Spike and had to be talked into making the series regular due to his popularity. As tempting as it is to blame Whedon, he was barely involved in the show at the time. 

It is commendable that Marsters (outing myself as a fangirl here) is willing to honestly talk about how the episode affected him personally and the fanbase. Unfortunately, the show failed to properly address Buffy’s trauma. Despite showing her having PTSD-like flashbacks to the attempted rape when seeing Spike again in Season 7. 

To me, Buffy has always embodied everything that is great about being a woman. She’s strong, resilient, and unapologetically feminine. Her story is one of triumph against all odds while still staying true to herself and empowering her friends along the way. As Buffy is a feminine story perhaps it is appropriate that it shows the unfortunate side of being a female presenting person. Women are assaulted regularly and usually by close friends someone they are on a date with or someone they’ve had a sexual relationship with. Many have argued that the handling of these scenes was clumsy or even irresponsible. This may be true but having someone as inspiring as Buffy Summers overcome and thrive after an assault could prove that anyone can and make victims feel less alone.

Buffy is, as always, a source of strength for many.

In the lonely, crowded city of Mumbai, a pair of female Nurse roommates struggle with repressed desires, societal expectations, and the eternal weight of reality that crushes human dreams. 

So Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) are Nurses who work at the same hospital, more often than not having to deal with obstetrics (the baby stuff) and female-centric healthcare in a far-too-large populace that doesn’t seem to care about their women, or children. Prabha is prim and mildly older, admonishing the younger trainee Nurses to get over their complaints about the stink of afterbirth as soon as possible, where younger free-spirited Anu is willing to risk getting arrested for giving birth control pills surreptitiously to a desperate young mother with too many children already. 

Prabha has in theory a husband who, almost immediately after tying the knot, took off to Germany for a job, and of course she hasn’t heard from him in more than a year. When her husband sends her the gift of an expensive rice cooker, Prabha’s apparent numbness to the whole situation cracks open and she finds herself inundated with feelings again – abandonment and sadness of course, but also at the very least resentment in the holding pattern she’s stuck in, and a desire to be free, to decide what Prabha wants, even among the debilitating responsibilities of the day-to-day existence she leads with Anu. It doesn’t help that the hospital boasts a good man, the good Dr. Manoj (Azees Nedumangad) in fact, who’s been gently trying to court Prabha for some time now. 

And then there’s Anu and her sneaking around to try and find good places to be intimate with her boyfriend Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon). Which would be charming and sweet, except that Shiaz happens to be Muslim and even in the cosmopolitan slums of Mumbai, it’s still the Hindu parents who decide whom their children may be with, and marry. Anu knows perfectly well that her parents would never approve of Shiaz and so their need to find hidden doorways, alcoves, and even make-outs in the pouring rain are mildly tinged with the danger of getting caught. Rumors are starting to wing around the hospital too, and Prabha is made aware of the situation by gossiping busybodies, much to her silent disapproval. After trying to help her friend Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), who was being forced out of her tiny apartment by the unfeeling legal system, nothing comes of it and Parvaty decides to leave Mumbai and take a small moving vacation to a beach town nearbyish, Prabha hatches a plan to try and divert Anu from her potentially disastrous actions. 

Ostensibly to help Parvaty with her life-changing move, both Prabha and Anu take a mini-vacation to the beach town, and there is a lovely moment when Prabha discovers some ancient-but-still-good alcohol among Prabha’s things and the three of them get tipply and dance. Immersed in her own loneliness, Prabha fails to realize Anu snuck Shiaz to meet her at the seaside town until she witnesses it with her own eyes, and Anu is far too concerned with finally closing escrow as it were with Shiaz to realize she’s been caught anyway. 

Genre: Action, Comedy, Holiday Adventure

Director: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Chris Evans, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu

Rating: 4/5

“Where to start with Red One? From the rich folklore and wild imagination to the clever reimagining of classic mythology, this movie is packed with surprises.

First, it’s a fresh take on the Santa myth, blending humor, emotion, and action in unexpected ways. This isn’t your typical Santa—gone is the jolly old man squeezing down chimneys. Instead, J.K. Simmons gives us a buff, tech-savvy Santa, equipped with gadgets that let him shrink, grow, and bring objects into reality at will. He’s a Santa ready to take on Christmas with style, and I’m here for it!

Now, on to Dwayne Johnson. I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit weary of seeing “The Rock” play his usual invincible hero persona. But here, paired with Chris Evans, the chemistry is electric and refreshingly different. They’re equals, riffing off each other’s quirks and bringing out a new side in each other. Evans’ character’s sense of humor clicked with me, I would have chosen the Harley Quinn action figure!

Then there’s Lucy Liu, who brings her usual elegance and strength to the screen, kicking butt with style—she’s a standout in every scene. And Kiernan Shipka shines as the antagonist, stepping into her first major movie villain role with confidence and skill. She’s come a long way since Sabrina, and she clearly has serious range.

Red One gets a solid 4 out of 5 from me. It’s a family-friendly adventure with just enough twists to keep it fresh. For anyone looking to see a familiar story told in a new way, this one’s worth the watch.”