Okay, so I realize I am about seven years out of date, but that doesn’t lessen the impact.

I have been watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on DVD. I was an intermittent viewer when it was on TV so, while I had a general sense of the storyline, I had missed lots of the particulars.

Yesterday, I watched the episodes from Season 5 dealing with the death of Buffy’s mom, Joyce. Some of you will remember these episodes — they’re absolutely heartbreaking. What a testament to Joss Whedon’s genius that he was able to take the limited medium of TV, the absurd premise of a young girl who fights vampires, and create such depth of feeling. The episode “The Body” is brilliant — one of the most insightful representations of grief I’ve ever seen.

But, oh, so so sad.