Overview
These days, whenever an old pop culture commodity comes back in a new guise, it's easy to feel complacent. It happens all the time, whether it's a classic franchise receiving its second reboot, a cult 80s movie making the leap to the small screen or a huge TV hit jumping into prequel territory to continue its story. But if you're a fan of a certain undead-killing late 90s and early 00s television show, you'll know that great things can start this way. It's the path that Buffy the Vampire Slayer took, after all.
Based on the 1992 movie of the same name, the Sarah Michelle Gellar-starring series might just be the finest example of a film-turned-TV show — well, it's definitely the best example in the high school-set vampire genre — as the world came to learn across seven seasons that initially aired between 1997–2003. Buffy has remained a cult favourite ever since, and plenty of devotees still have the huge DVD collections to prove it. Now, binging your way through the whole show is as easy as heading to Australian streaming platform Stan.
As part of a deal with Disney that's also brought How I Met Your Mother, Sons of Anarchy, Grey's Anatomy and Family Guy to the service, all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are available to stream. Whether you now know what you're doing this summer, have your after-work viewing planned for the foreseeable future or are planning to devote many a weekend to a rewatch, it's all there — from Buffy's arrival in Sunnydale, to her romantic fondness for brooding vamps Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters), to all the hijinks that the Scooby Gang got up to while living on top of a hellmouth.
Because this is a series that, fittingly, no one wants to die, a Buffy spinoff was announced back in 2018 — however, to date, it's yet to come to fruition.
There's nothing quite like the original Joss Whedon-created show, though, even if it wasn't the very first take on the feisty character. Grab your stakes, line up a range of suitably garlic-flavoured snacks and get ready for a whole world of small-town, high school hell — with vampires, demons, witches, plenty of dark forces, wise watchers like Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Wesley (Alexis Denisof), and, of course, Buffy's besties Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon).
All seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are now available to stream on Stan.