TMC
12-14-2015, 06:20 PM
http://www.avclub.com/article/buffy-vampire-slayer-staked-its-claim-twist-christ-229445
The 1946 Frank Capra classic It’s A Wonderful Life has endured, and not just as a holiday favorite that still gets yearly sold-out showings in December revival screenings across the country. The narrative itself is remarkably fungible—the tale of an unhappy man finding redemption through being shown the true value of his life has been done and re-done in numerous forms, especially on television. TV shows as varied as Married...With Children and Dallas have done glosses on this tale, in more or less direct parodies of the original. (And the film itself was actually an adaptation of the short story “The Greatest Gift,” by Philip Van Doren Stern.)
But perhaps its most lasting impact has been not through the direct homages, but rather the way its influence has been filtered into new stories. Much has been made of its “alternate timeline” twist, in which George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is shown what life would be like if he had never been born. Less remarked upon, however, is the bleak and dispiriting worldview of its lead character, a depression that leads to his intended suicide. And in this way, it has few followers as devout in tone as Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s season-three episode “Amends.”
The 1946 Frank Capra classic It’s A Wonderful Life has endured, and not just as a holiday favorite that still gets yearly sold-out showings in December revival screenings across the country. The narrative itself is remarkably fungible—the tale of an unhappy man finding redemption through being shown the true value of his life has been done and re-done in numerous forms, especially on television. TV shows as varied as Married...With Children and Dallas have done glosses on this tale, in more or less direct parodies of the original. (And the film itself was actually an adaptation of the short story “The Greatest Gift,” by Philip Van Doren Stern.)
But perhaps its most lasting impact has been not through the direct homages, but rather the way its influence has been filtered into new stories. Much has been made of its “alternate timeline” twist, in which George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is shown what life would be like if he had never been born. Less remarked upon, however, is the bleak and dispiriting worldview of its lead character, a depression that leads to his intended suicide. And in this way, it has few followers as devout in tone as Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s season-three episode “Amends.”