Premiering in 1997, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is widely regarded as one of the most influential TV shows ever made. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, the show inspired a generation of young fans to find their inner slayer and face life’s problems head on, while at the same time changing the face of television as we know it. While it’s been available to stream for a while on Hulu, fans who aren’t subscribed to the streaming service will be pleased to know that it will be available for free later this week.
Per Tubi, Buffy the Vampire Slayer will make its way to the free streaming platform beginning Friday, September 27, when all seven seasons of the series will drop simultaneously. You don’t even need to register for an account to watch it, though signing up does have its benefits, like being able to pick back up from where you left off if you need to take a short break.
Buffy joins a list of other horror offerings that are making their way to Tubi just in time for Halloween, including classics such as John Carpenter’s Christine and Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, as well as new favorites like It Follows and Insidious: The Last Key. They join Tubi’s already extensive library of horror that has long been lauded for featuring films you can’t see anywhere else, making it the go-to destination for fans of the weird and macabre.
The Endearing Legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Debuting at a time when the teen drama market was saturated with shows that were grounded in reality, such as My So-Called Life, Party of Five, and Beverly Hills, 90210, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer put a whole new spin on the high school experience by introducing supernatural creatures that acted as metaphors for life’s problems. Unlike the 1992 film that Whedon had written, the small screen version managed to connect with audiences in a way that still resonates today, mainly due to its timeless themes of love, loss, friendship, and empowerment.
It wasn’t just the supernatural elements that made it a success, though, as the series introduced audiences to a new kind of vernacular that hadn’t quite been heard on TV up to that point. At least not to any memorable degree. Writers such as Marti Noxon, Jane Espenson, Douglas Petrie, and Whedon himself can be credited with crafting witty dialogue and slang terms – such as “sitch,” as in, “What’s the situation?” – that managed to seep into pop culture, and got everyone talking about that new show on The WB.
All of that coupled with three-dimensional characters, its willingness to tackle social issues such as same-sex relationships and sexual assault, the fruit of forbidden love, and a unique lore that is still explored to this day in books and essays, helped make Buffy the Vampire Slayer the success it became, and why it’s still considered one of the most influential shows of all time that would go on to inspire the likes of Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight.
You can stream all seven seasons of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
for free on Tubi beginning September 27.