Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2
A series guidebook by Nancy Holder with Jeff Mariotte and Maryelizabeth Hart

After days of barreling through nearly 500 pages of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lore, I'm exhausted. Facts and quotes are spinning through my head. Past angst and future possibilities are blending together in an effects-laden extravaganza not unlike the time-travel sequences in Star Trek IV. I know more about Jonathan, Harmony, and Larry than I ever expected to know about Buffy, Angel, and Willow themselves.

When faced with page 472 of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, I can only lift my weary head to mutter hoarsely: "Is there such a thing as too much information?"

But who am I kidding? If you're a Buffy fan, you know the only real answer to that is "no." Luckily for us, the Guide's writers understand, and in the foreword they cite the goal to include "everything we believe a true fan desires to know."

And did they ever succeed.

A follow-up to the first guide, this volume features information on Seasons Three and Four, Buffy's senior year of high school and freshman year of college. It covers the episodes that introduced Faith and Riley, as well as the ones that dispatched Principal Snyder (yeah!) and Adam (blah!). The guide includes background information on locations and storylines; actor interviews and bios (even for brief guests like Giles' girlfriend Olivia and Dr. Angleman, who helped Professor Walsh build Adam); lists of songs; and unusual entries such as interviews with casting and post-production people.

It is truly a cornucopia.

Setting aside all those goodies, however, we can probably agree that the core of any good TV program guide is the episode descriptions, and this official book does not let the fan down. In addition to detailed and accurate recaps of the two seasons' shows, each entry includes standards such as favorite quotes, but also pleasant surprises such as original teleplay dialogue cut from the final versions of the programs.

I scanned with special interest the entries on three favorite recent episodes -- "Band Candy," "Hush," and "Restless" -- and found them to be accurate and amusing summations with just enough detail that the story could make sense to those who hadn't seen the episode. In the "Hush" description, the quote of the week comes from stage directions of Buffy's unfortunately misinterpreted hand gesture:

"Buffy snorts contemptuously, then circles her fist around an imaginary stake, plunges it down repeatedly. Everybody looks at her, a little thrown: the gesture doesn't read the way she intended. Realizing it, Buffy hurriedly and sheepishly grabs a stake from her purse, repeats the gesture."

In addition to the teleplay edits, the book contains character descriptions from script and casting notes. I laughed out loud at the initial "Bad Girls" script description of Wesley: "Young, not bad looking, but a bit full of himself. Thinks he's Sean Connery when he's pretty much George Lazenby." Ouch!

The book is briskly straightforward and honest about Joss Whedon's vision for the show and how stories are determined and decisions made. I raised both eyebrows, however, at the section on "Graduation Day, Part Two," when the text claims that the following line of Xander's was "cut for length": "Guys, we blew up the school! It's the best day ever!" Since that episode was re-edited post-Columbine -- and aired after a several-month delay because of the controversy -- it seems unbelievable that the writers would claim that this line was cut for "length."

I understood that expecting the passage on "Earshot" to include a mention of its delay -- similarly due to the Columbine tragedy -- may have been too much, but during an interview late in the book, actor Danny Strong (Jonathan) does allude obliquely to the incident. The Powers That Be obviously didn't want to turn this book into social commentary, but a little more context would have been appreciated... especially if the writers truly wanted to tell us what we desire to know.

It's an odd choice to end the book with a chapter on merchandising. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised -- the book is official, after all, and I was expecting things like the "Joss is sooo dreamy" quotes from simply everyone involved in the show's production. For a book that seems to be pretty down-to-earth and affectionate about its subject matter, however, it's jarring to stumble across this sort of sentence: "A fascinating assortment of products from key chains to glassware and ceramics to denim and leather jackets is handled by longtime licensee Creation Entertainment."

"Dude, I already bought the book," I wanted to say. "What more do you want from me?"

But, if you ignore the last couple of pages and are willing to fill in some of your own context, you will find everything you ever wanted to know about Buffy the Vampire Slayer's seasons three and four in this book. And that's a good thing.

RE-READ FACTOR: "Now, in which episode exactly did Faith kill the deputy mayor? ... I know! I can check out Volume 2!"

SEQUEL FACTOR: I can hear the computer keys clacking on Volume 3 right now.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: With Ivanova gone and Nikita and Xena going, I appreciate my time with Buffy all the more.

-- Jennifer Rose Hale

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, published by Pocket Books, is available in trade paperback.

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