Supernatural is finally back on the small screen, and after fifteen years, there are only a few episodes left before the series wrap up. For many, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Buffy is significantly older than Supernatural, running from 1997 to 2003, but the two shows have a surprising amount in common. They feature a monster-hunting lead (Buffy herself and the Winchester brothers), who has an important gang to back them up. The main characters battle vampires and demons, save the world a lot, and have a tendency to come back from the dead. As the shows progress, the leads go from solo-hunters to discovering entire organizations devoted to the same cause, they lose family , and they blend horror, drama, and comedy seamlessly. But if you had to pick just one, which is the better series?
Buffy: Female-Fronted
Both Buffy and Supernatural have been roundly (and deservedly) criticized for a lack of diversity, with BIPOC characters frustratingly rare in both. However, despite being the older show, Buffy does significantly better when it comes to gender balance and LGBTQ representation. Of the main gang in Buffy, there are often more female than male characters (although the original crew of Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are split exactly down the middle), and the core fighters are women. Buffy also features the first 'official' lesbian sex scene on network TV (between Willow and Kennedy). Supernatural, however, has an almost exclusively male cast, with female characters usually only appearing in ing roles or for shorter runs.
Supernatural: Family-Fronted
The heart and soul of Supernatural is the 'family business', and one of the best things about the series is how family-focused it is. Sam and Dean are brothers, of course, and both of their parents are central characters for a few seasons, but that's far from the only way that the show focuses on family. From the current dynamic with Cas and Jack (who has, in his own words 'more Dads than most') to the father figure of Bobby and the way that the angels/demons/god dynamic is family based, Supernatural puts family front and center in a way that many genre shows don't. Buffy, meanwhile, is all about chosen family - and while that's its own kind of wonderful, it doesn't have quite the same impact.
Buffy: Better Romances
One of the downsides of Supernatural's focus on family is that there isn't a whole lot of romance in the show. For some, this may be a positive (and it certainly makes sense, given the boys' lifestyle!), but for others, romance is an important part of the show that just isn't given enough attention. While Buffy fans have her with Angel, Spike (and sure, Riley), as well as Willow and Tara, Xander and Anya, and more, the Supernatural crew focuses mainly on shipping pairs that aren't the odd short-term romance, but there aren't the kind of love stories to compare to Buffy.
Supernatural: Better Monsters
The monsters that Buffy fights are right there in the title - vampires. And while a few other monstrous creatures do appear throughout the series (including various demons, the Frankenstein-inspired Adam, and the truly terrifying Gentlemen), the show tends to stick to the vamps it does best. Supernatural, however, deals with a huge range of monsters, witches, ghosts, angels, demons, and gods from all over the globe. It gives the boys far more scope for their cases, and keeps things fresh (although we could have all done without the Leviathans).
Buffy: More Relatable
One of the best things about Buffy was that it was essentially a high school show, with all the usual insecurities, friendships, drama, and romance that comes with a teen drama - and then there was some vampire-hunting, monster-butt-kicking as the cherry on top. As such, Buffy was a hugely relatable genre series, and fans could really see themselves in the characters.
For Supernatural, however, things are far less average-dude. The boys live in motels (and then a bunker), they are constantly on the move, and they have been since childhood. While it's still possible to relate to a lot of the emotional moments, it's just not on the same level as Buffy.
Supernatural: More Grown-Up
Of course, the problem with Buffy being a teen show is that it may not be so appealing to viewers who aren't teens! It also tends to be a lot lighter than Supernatural, as a whole. There are definitely some heavy-hitting emotional episodes, of course ('The Body' is famous for being an absolute gut-punch of an episode), but Supernatural has a more adult, serious feel to it. There's plenty of humor in both, but Supernatural is a larger, darker, and more adult take on the genre.
Buffy: Musical Episode
One of the best episodes of Buffy is 'Once More With Feeling', a musical episode (that happens thanks to a 'dancing demon' summoned by Xander). Fans absolutely love a well-done musical episode, and this is one of the best. Supernatural, however, has refused to give fans a musical - although they've had a couple of musical numbers, and even an episode where fans of the Supernatural books put on a school musical about the boys (how's that for meta?), but a true musical number just isn't on the cards for the show, and that's a shame.
Supernatural: Fourth-Wall Breaking
Supernatural might not do a musical episode, but as a series, it is certainly more self-aware than Buffy, and chooses to break the fourth wall and get meta in a wonderful way. From the stunning 'The French Mistake', where they are sent to a parallel universe in which they are actors on a show called Supernatural, to the way that they deal with Carver Edlund and his Supernatural novels, to regular nods to the audience, Supernatural knows how to break the fourth wall, and do it right.
Buffy: Paved The Way
One thing that Supernatural can never take from Buffy is the simple fact that Buffy essentially paved the way for monster-hunting shows to come. At this point in time, there are multiple series that have focused on a semi-super-type hunting dangerous beasts in a way that combines comedy and horror, but Buffy was essentially the first. It changed the way that teen TV was viewed, set up bigger bad season arcs and freak-of-the-week fights, and Supernatural would arguably not exist without it.
Supernatural: Modern Monster-Hunting
Buffy may be the monster-hunting show that sparked a genre, but Supernatural has all the benefits of being a more modern show. From technology that is actually up to date, to significantly better effects and monsters, a bigger budget, and more, Supernatural comes out on top. Overall, though, it's hard to declare just one winner - each show has it's own pros and cons, and all fans can hope for is that when Supernatural is done, a new show will be created that blows both of these series out of the water.
