JOSS RULES THE 'VERSE!!!

Here's why I dig Joss Whedon so much:

He creates either the most artistic entertainment around, or he creates the most entertaining art around.

And if you're debating the point intelligently, it really could go EITHER way.

I was about to say he's kind of the KISS of storytelling, but that's not quite right.

I LOVE KISS, but I can't argue with, say, Zeplin fans or Beatles fans that KISS has contributed more to music and music's evolution. George Lucas is more like KISS. GREAT showman whose movies DO sometimes just reach the uppermost stratosphere of storytelling... And some of his work falls a bit short. And you love him because you love him, and it doesn't matter if your snooty coffeehouse friends mock you 'cause screw them! Besides, they like him too, they just won't admit it in mixed company.

No, Joss is more like the Alice Cooper of storytelling! Most people go to the show for the makeup and spectacle, and they buy the cds for the guitars and the hooks. But when you get around your artsy buddies, if they should start ragging on Cooper as all showmanship and no substance, you actually CAN defend the artistry. Alice Cooper actually DID help shape music as we know it now!

Same with Joss.

In an interview he'll blithely quip about how explosions are cool, but he'll also let you glimpse his intense intelligence he applies to his craft. He can chat with fan-boys or with artists with equal ease. He embraces ALL aspects of what he does -- he tells stories that are successful when they're entertaining... and even MORE successful wehn they're GOOD.

I would say that Joss Whedon is VERY successful at what he does!

He hooked me with the pilot episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. I was disappointed by the film, but intrigued by the possibility that the TV show might ACTUALLY have some real horror elements in it. (Horror on TV, like when I used to watch black-and-white reruns of THE TWILIGHT ZONE ever so often as a kid!)

Turns out I was right!

I could not have guessed how right I was, either!!! Not only was it genuinely scary, but it was LOADED with comedy THAT DIDN'T DISTRACT FROM THE HORROR OR THE DRAMA! In fact, the comedy was character-driven, GROWING OUT OF the horror and drama!!! The humor actually made the horror/drama MORE "REAL"!!!

This was a revelation to me!

Forget about the pop-y cute theatrical version of the material, I grew up with the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise, and I watched the series morph from really good low-budget horror into self-mocking, dumbed-down crap!

[For young students of horror cinema, there was a long period from the late '80s until the very late '90s when good horror writers ceased to exist -- sucked into an alternate dimension wherein Jason never took Manhattan or went to hell -- and fumbling children pretended to be writers and shat upon blank script pages until a studio paid them to stop it and agreed to turn their defication into movies. (Some of them had British accents and pulled random quotes from the Bible and were therefore revered as artistic geniuses.) Then very, very, VERY young directors had to come up with the stories AND DIRECTORS -- by and large -- ARE NOT WRITERS! Except for when they ARE writers, which is rare. This isn't ENTIRELY true... But it's close enough.]

But then Joss shows us, with BUFFY -- the TV series -- that you can have the most outrageous sense of humor, and still tell genuinely scary stories!!!

Largely because he made us genuinely CARE about these people he created!!!

I've learned SO much about writing from watching Joss do his thang over the last 8 years!

And I think the reason he can keep knocking them out of the park is that he always seem to approach each new project with "What would be cool to see?" And then he follows it up with intelligence and skill and boldness... and a slightly twisted excitement about making us -- his audience -- gasp in shock and horror.

This is the guy, remember, who killed Jenny Calander in the 2nd season of BUFFY. He also killed Doyle in the 9TH EPISODE of ANGEL!!! (That season ran for 22 episodes! Doyle was in the OPENING CREDITS for goodness sake!!!) And in FIREFLY he continually shocked you with swift and violent death.

(Kind of makes me nervous about what he might do in the movie...)

Now, some "fans" bicthed and complained about Joss's seeming disreguard for the lives of these characters.

I didn't!

I friggin' LOVED the fact that this cat loved me so much! Think about it: He loves his audience enough to ensure that we never get complacent in his worlds, and never forget just how high the stakes are! That creates true tension! That creates REAL horror and drama!!! Stuff REALLY matters in this 'verse where you never know just how much time you have left with some beloved friend! Real death equals REAL VALUE TO LIFE.

Anyway, I'm straight-up gushing now, so I'll stop it. (Time to stop talking about his work and go WATCH the stuff!!!)

I'm all Joss-ed-up right now because I've spent a great deal of my evening reading interviews with him. Here are 2 that I read tonight:

[WARNING: These interviews DO contain some SPOILERS for the upcoming movie SERINITY!!!]

The Toronto Star
Gimongous

And here are 2 that I haven't read yet, but will be returning to soon.

NY Times
The Age

(I largely put these last 2 links in here for myself, so I can get to them more quickly...)