‘Jane the Virgin’ Is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ For Millennials

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has become one of the most beloved series of the last twenty years. Its central focus on a teenage girl with extraordinary ass-kicking abilities trying to navigate her way through high school and the rest of the world is accessible and honest – despite all of the supernatural elements at play. It’s rare that a series ever delivers a plucky, dynamic heroine with supportive friends, a non-nuclear family, and a healthy, non-shamed sexual appetite – even these days. Fortunately, however, there is one show playing out to the same tunes as Buffy – and it’s Jane the Virgin.

Yes, this is not the most obvious Buffy comparison. Jane is certainly not chasing vampires down and saving the world on a weekly basis (though the evil actions of Sin Rostro and constant near-destruction of The Marbella could certainly be compared) – but all of that doesn’t matter. The reason Buffy has remained such a popular show and inspired fields of academia is because of its soul, and Jane possesses the same spirit. There’s a sort of magic to Jane and the way her wildest dreams come to life – as well as the most endearing of fantasy sequences involving mock debates, period costumes, and wrestling matches, to name a few. The weight of both these series is carried by a heroine with a lot of heart, and it’s hard not to root for these ladies when they’re both so incredibly relatable. They are not picture perfect representations of any one ideal woman – they are messy, dynamic, strong, vulnerable, determined, short-tempered, sexual, stressed. They don’t handle every situation that comes their way with ease – and that’s the kind of protagonist rarely seen these days. Jane and Buffy are both women thrust into unusual circumstances that they didn’t ask for; Jane is accidentally artificially inseminated by her emotional gynecologist and becomes pregnant, while Buffy is tasked with fighting the forces of evil as a young teenager. While the situations may differ, the courage that both women display even in the most precarious of positions are strikingly similar. With all of the sexism and misogyny at play in the world, young women and girls need ladies like Jane and Buffy to look up to. The construction of both characters to be reflective of their audiences is also incredibly impactful, and lends in telling a story that is universal and accessible – and will hold up for years to come, just as Buffy has already.

Lovers of Buffy will also find that Jane utilizes genre conventions and tropes in the same nuanced manner. With their seemingly goofy titles and premises, it’s easy to write them both off as juvenile shows for teenage girls – but they’re anything but. It took me years to be goaded into finally giving Buffy a chance. What kind of a title was that for a show? I had absolutely no interest in engaging in this kind of trivial series. Obviously, I ate my words, because the series is now one of my favorite of all-time. The same happened with Jane – why would a free-thinking, sexually-liberated lady like me want to watch a show about a virgin? Well, it turns out that her abstinence is not colored by political leanings, or completely dominated by her Catholic faith. Jane is a virgin because she wants to be. And it’s rad. But we’ll get to the sexy stuff later.

While Buffy takes advantage of its teen horror genre by making monsters into metaphors, Jane leans completely into its telenovela roots and embraces them head-on, using the conventions of the genre to access emotional depth, experiences, and profound messages in a way that few other series are able to. The employment of a cheeky narrator on Jane grants us a meta-perspective of all of the ridiculous happenings and plot lines, and lets us know that he too understands just how silly and cliched things are getting – but that it’s purposeful. Buffy may show us the ugliest, most eye-roll worthy monsters, but they are inevitably stand-ins for much larger issues and experiences. High school is hell, motherhood is not a one-track path, and relationships are messy. The tongue-in-cheek utilization of telenovela components and horror tropes tell these stories in unique, nuanced ways, and allow them to send big messages while remaining fun and suspenseful.

When it comes to the sexy stuff, the way the shows deal with the consequences of sex is complex and realistic. On Buffy, our leading lady has sex for the first time with her passionate, caring vampire boyfriend Angel (David Boreanaz), and he loses his soul and becomes evil, a literal manifestation of all of the massive fears that come with losing one’s virginity and becoming intimate with someone. While Jane’s experience is a little less scary – her first time with new husband Michael (Brett Dier) doesn’t result in him becoming a monster, but it’s also not entirely what she envisions. Pop culture, movies, television, and Jane’s beloved romance novels lead us to believe that the first time is supposed to be perfect – and this is not what happens. In addition to the sex just not being that great yet, she feels as though she’s lost a part of herself because she saved her virginity for so long, and now she’s seemingly “just like everybody else”. She eventually comes to terms with her existence as a sexual being and completely embraces it, just like Buffy does with Spike, Riley, and her other partners. There’s no shame in being intimate with whoever you damn well please. This perpetuation of the idea that women can seek out sex – and enjoy it – without being shamed is something of an anomaly when it comes to television series, and Jane and Buffy embrace it fully.

What’s beautiful about shows like Buffy and Jane are that they both show there is no one way to be a woman. There’s no problem with Buffy losing her virginity as a teenager – and there’s no shame in Jane saving hers into her mid-twenties. One of the main criticisms of Buffy lies in its lack of people of color, but that is obviously a non-issue for a show as diverse as Jane. While Buffy certainly carries its own feminist legacy, the one Jane will inevitably leave behind will be more layered, polished, and dynamic – a feminism reflective of its time. 

The accessible storytelling utilized in both shows is what helps them resonate on the plethora of levels that they do. Yes, there may be basic similarities – extraordinarily compelling, vulnerable performances from leading ladies Sarah Michelle Gellar and Gina Rodriguez – as well as narrative ones – love triangles, the single mom, the tumultuous education and career choices – but that’s not what connects these two soul sister series. Jane the Virgin has become Buffy the Vampire Slayer for millennials – but that doesn’t mean millennials shouldn’t be watching Buffy. They’re marvelous companion pieces. Joss Whedon and Jennie Snyder Urman understand what it means to create a world and the people (not just characters) in it, and allow them to live, love, lose, and be as beautifully messy as we all are in full view.