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High School Confidential

Buffy's real-world peer--a 17-year-old girl--explains its anti-Dawson charms.

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I can never speak about Buffy the Vampire Slayer so passionately as when confronted with a skeptic. There are about four Buffy fans at my high school, as far as I can tell. So, by ''skeptic'' I mean a large percentage of my peers. Typical response from a boy, eyes rolling: ''C'mon, she's a blond chick in a Wonderbra who fights vampires.''

''Oh, you must watch Dawson's Creek'' is my usual retort. Occasionally, I will defend Buffy more elaborately. First and foremost, it has a sense of humor. So many teen shows have a nasty habit of taking themselves way too seriously, and for a chronologically young but emotionally mature viewer, the result is often embarrassingly corny dialogue: Teenagers snicker instead of empathizing. Buffy, on the other hand, revels in camp and young-love melodrama, taking its high-school-is-hell metaphor to realistic yet fantastic levels. Scoff at Xander's adolescent pinings for a mysterious young woman, but remember: She's a resurrected Incan mummy who really just wants to suck his life force out. Ah, the trials of youth.

Furthermore, once a week in my very own home, two teenage girls and their father sit in front of the TV for the purpose of watching (get this) the same show. We cheer the mix of sarcasm and sincerity (tipped to the sarcasm side, just the way we like it), pratfall and subtlety, sex appeal and cautionary tale (virginity is generally relinquished to either a vampire, a werewolf, or an evil slayer). And Buffy is so savvy in its range of emotions and jokes that the viewer never becomes too emotionally distraught (see Incan-mummy example). Essentially, we are entertained. Any Buffy-related conversation I have never sounds like the excruciating reenactments of Dawson-and-Joey-whining I become privy to on Thursday mornings.

For some, Buffy's appeal is its brutal portrayal of high school. For others, it's the pop-culture references (''Does anybody else feel like they've been Keyser Sozed?''). And for some, the lure is a Wonderbra'd blond chick fighting vampires, and that's fine by me. Because the basic truth about Buffy herself is known to all who appreciate her: She is the intelligent, youthful hope that anyone, when confronted with life's little ghouls (metaphorical or otherwise), will be able to -- as Willow put it -- kick some serious demon ass.

Hannah is the daughter of EW TV critic Ken Tucker.