Revisiting Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 23 years after its debut, there's nothing like Joss Whedon's pioneering TV series

From our #RewindToUnwind series, an ode to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: a look at what made it special when it released in 1997, and why it remains relevant, nearly two-and-a-half decades later. They’re clearly not the “cool kids” of Sunnydale High, but Buffy seems to prefer their company to that of Cordelia — the school’s Queen Bee, who tries to take the new girl under her wing. Like its featured “arch-nemesises…ses”, Buffy’s personality was shifting too: it became more sophisticated, less goofy; less prone to “make it all better” at the end of its 45-minute run. But the turning point for me, the one that marked Buffy’s return into my consciousness, was sometime in early 2016, when after experiencing another Thelma and Louise schism, the lyrics for a song from Buffy’s iconic season 6 musical episode, ‘Once More With Feeling’, popped into my head — the climactic track where Buffy asks the demon du jour to give her “something to sing about”. *** Ten unmissable Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes: ‘Once More With Feeling’, S6 — A new demon comes to Sunnydale and the Scoobies can’t seem to stop singing some very painful truths ‘The Body’, S5 — Buffy deals with the loss of Joyce in a sombre, stripped down episode of television that is among the most nerve-wracking depictions of grief you’re likely to see ‘Hush’, S4 — Sunnydale’s residents lose their voices; Buffy must stop the monsters who’re now cutting the hearts out of their mute victims ‘Fool for Love’, S5 — The spotlight is on Spike’s past, and a truth he gets Buffy to confront, with some of the best action sequences of the series’ seven-season run ‘Passion’, S2 — Angel, now returned to his evil/soulless form Angelus, targets the Scoobies, and Giles ‘Becoming’ parts 1 and 2, S2 — The two-part finale that captured Buffy’s Angel-sized world-ending dilemma ‘The Gift’, S5 — Buffy faces off against the hell god Glory, and takes a drastic measure to save her sister Dawn ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth’, S1 — Where it all begins ‘Something Blue’, S4 — Willow, nursing her heartbreak over Oz, casts a spell that has consequences ’Bad Girls’/’Consequences’, S3 — A story arc that brought out the ways in which Buffy and Faith were alike and different