Joss Whedon – The Genius Behind Buffy Reviewed
Candace Havens Authors Biography About Modern Horror Writing Legend
Jan 12, 2009
Joss Whedon, writer and director and the man behind the phenomenon that was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has led a roller-coaster of a life, documented here by Candace Havens, writer of the provocative and sexy Charmed and Dangerous series, in a slim but entertaining biography entitled Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy.
An Overview of Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy
Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy didn’t need much help to sell itself. The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer was enough to have fans begging for information about the show’s creator, and Joss Whedon’s charismatic and entertaining website has seen him garner a substantial following for his work.
However, all that aside, Joss Whedon’s life-story is what true fans will want to know about, and, to an extent, Candace Havens manages to provide that in Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy.
Havens takes the reader back to a time when Whedon was an awkward child sent away to boarding school in England, a child that mostly stepped back from real life and instead allowed himself to get lost in a world of comic books and fantasy.
Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy then moves on to Joss’ first screenwriting job on the Roseanne show, a notoriously difficult place to work, but one in which, as Candace Havens documents, Joss flourished where others crumbled.
The Genius Behind Buffy also illustrates that, in the world of screen-writing, no one’s place is secure, as Joss found out writing for the films Toy Story, Waterworld and Alien Resurrection, screenplays that were largely re-written after his attempts at polishing them.
Candace Havens then guides us through Whedon’s time creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer, his trouble in getting it commissioned and then, travels, season by season, through the project with an insightful focus. Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy also covers Whedon’s subsequent projects, Angel, Firefly and the Fray comic series.
The Genius Behind Buffy is also filled with fun trivia, blurbs from people Joss Whedon has worked with all telling how fantastic he is, possibly because they were all still employed by him at the time, as well as personal anecdotes from the man himself, making this biography into a light-hearted, interesting and entertaining read.
Joss Whedon as a Subject for Candace Havens
What Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy lacks, unfortunately, is any real grit. This book would have been a wonderful opportunity to clear up some of the criticisms levelled at Whedon, for instance, for season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which many claimed damaged the entire show, or to confront issues like his reported falling out with several cast members on Buffy and Angel.
Instead, Havens merely glosses over them, allowing Joss Whedon to explain them away by saying that he thought the show was fine, or that there were never any tensions to begin with. Of his failure with several major projects, including Waterworld? Again, the blame is very much put on other people.
Candace Havens also really fails to get into the heart of Whedon’s strong feminist themes, mentioning it only as a trend in his work rather than exploring the psychology of both Joss Whedon’s writing, and the man himself.
Whilst Joss Whedon is clearly very talented, an emerging pattern presents itself that he is also very demanding to work with, and yet there is barely a mention of this in the biography, and nor does it even touch on his home-life in any great detail, when, in reality, Whedon is a known workaholic, something that must be, if not a strain on his marriage, then certainly something that had to be dealt with.
Concluding Thoughts On Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy
Any fan of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer will want Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy in their collection, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t. It is fun, has some intriguing points about Joss’s life, and does talk a lot about how he made the show that would, in turn, make him famous.
What Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy is not, really, is a biography of incredible substance. It’s likely it wasn’t meant to be though. Yet, what Candace Havens does, and does very well, is make a story engaging, and if nothing else, this biography is certainly that.
(170 pages Publisher: Benbella Books; Original Publication: May 2003; ISBN-10: 1932100008; ISBN-13: 978-1932100006.)
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