Looking back now I think what made Buffy the Vampire Slayer...so fucking good for me is the character doubling: every single character contains their opposite within them. It is a show about having the sense that you have a strange other lurking inside.
[...] Buffy is a cheerleader and a vampire slayer. Sweet, shy Willow contains the vengeful Dark Willow. Gleeful killer Spike used to be soppy poet William. Steadfast, heartsick Angel is holding the vicious Angelus inside. Anya the business owner is Anyanka the revenge demon. Intellectual librarian Giles still has the terrifying Ripper’s friends and enemies. Ben is Glory, Glory is Ben.
Naomi Alderman, 'The Slow-Burn Legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (Esquire)
"𝐕𝐨𝐝𝐤𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲." -𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞
Betty White as Elka Ostrovsky in moments from Hot in Cleveland (TV Land, 2010-2015). Betty often attributed her own remarkable longevity in her 90s to "vodka and hotdogs. Probably in that order."
so CNN has these documentary miniseries about each decade that deals with different topics in each episode and I just finished watching the 2000s one about television shows and holy shit? what a time to be alive. out of all the shows they talked about or even briefly mentioned, I’ve probably watched 2/3rds of them and the ones that I didn’t were already on my list to watch. those shows were it. I really think that was the golden age of television.