Despite premiering almost three decades ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayerstill endures. This beloved supernatural show didn’t just lay the foundation for a strong, well-rounded female lead in Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Buffy also subverted established horror tropes and consistently mastered the “monster-of-the-week” format in a way few shows could in the late ’90s. Stigma and stereotypes were broken all the time. Buffy never treated femininity and world-altering strength as mutually exclusive.
