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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: September 29, 1997
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “School Hard” (Season 2, Episode 3) [Watch it on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The consensus among fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (there are a few of us out here) is that the best season of the show is either season 3 or season 2. Personally, I’m partial to 3 because I’m a massive fan of Faith, and the Mayor storyline was so fun and satisfying. But there’s a great case to be made for season 2. The big moments of that season tend to be more dramatically wrenching — this was the season where Buffy lost her virginity to Angel, unwittingly fulfilling a curse that removed his soul and turned him back into the cruel killer he once was — and its two-part season finale can’t be beat.
But there’s another reason fans might like season 2 best: Spike. The bleach-blond punk vampire would eventually become a fixture on Buffy, and a hugely polarizing character for fans, but pretty much everybody agrees that the version of the character that was introduced in season 2 was the best: sarcastic, amoral, oddly devoted to his spacey paramour Drusilla. Spike was an infusion of energy into the series’ villain ranks, and by the time he was sending the bothersome Anointed One up to the harsh light of morning (not a great place for a vampire to be), the fans were pretty much fully invested in him. And that was all in his first episode!
[You can watch the “School Hard” episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on Netflix]
Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.
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