#100 - So Close, With Feeling

Buffy the Sing-Along Musical stage show is airing at midnight tonight in Ann Arbor, an hour away. I just found out yesterday, and it is just too short of a notice to make it. The only person I know that would enjoy going with me to a Sing-Along showing of "Once More, With Feeling" the musical episode from the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is my wife. But we've got no one that can watch the kids at midnight on short notice.
Yes, I'm a 36 year old physician and father of 2 sons, lamenting that I can't get out to a Buffy musical.
I watch way more TV than I should, but I am a big fan of well done narratives that have a supernatural twist. I guess it started with the X-Files, then Buffy and its spin-off Angel, now Lost. When these are well-written and shot in a style that looks like a big-budget movie, there's nothing else like it. I am a Star Wars fan, but that story was told over 20+ years, in 12 hours of screen time. It was enough to build a rich world, but it felt like we barely explored it. In the 7 years that Buffy was on the air, we explored that world in over 107 hours of story-telling. It lets you get deep into story and character and keeps you coming back for more. Buffy used the metaphor of "high school as hell" to explore how horrible life can be and that it takes bravery, sacrifice, and some good friends to overcome it all. The musical episode took 5 1/2 seasons of build-up and splayed out the characters' souls in song (a demon made them do it, naturally). The songs were actually pretty good and I quickly memorized them. They weren't all appropriate for our young children, so I couldn't belt them out at home. When the soundtrack came out, I sang them in my car. A fan in New York started airing the episode at late night theaters in the vein of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show". I like the camaraderie of Rocky Horror, but I've never really cared for the movie - so this Sing-Along version seen with other fans of the show who like to sing along with this episode seemed perfect. But not tonight. Maybe they'll be back. Maybe I can get them to come to Toledo.