A small, important cameo in I Saw the TV Glow serves as justice for Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Jane Schoenbrun’s new film I saw the TV glow has created a wave of excited buzz and a sharp spike at the indie box office during the slow rollout in limited release. Like Schönbrun’s previous film, We’re all going to the World’s Fair, TV Glow was a sensation at Sundance and a subsequent critical hit. Both films have won fans with their queasy, late-night dreamlike tone and the way they tap into familiar feelings of dread and alienation, compounded by the relief that can come from finding a fandom and sharing an obsession with others people. In World Expothe main character is drawn into an online community that shares creepypasta-type stories. TV Glowon the other hand, focuses on a late-night TV show called The pink opaque oneabout two girls who use their psychic connection (and their magical, matching, glowing tattoos) to save the world from evil.

In a question-and-answer session Wednesday night following a screening of the film, simulcast to viewers of Alamo Drafthouse screenings across the country, Schoenbrun (who identifies as non-binary and trans) discussed how all of these elements emerged from their background as they grew up alienated and disconnected in the world. suburbs. Schoenbrun says they have found a lifeline mainly through television Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

“I really lived and breathed it Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” said Schoenbrun. “It mattered to me Buffy more than I cared about my real life. And just having that consistency – when I was about 10, I watched the first season of that show as it was airing, and was there for seven years. And it was such an instrument of dissociation for me.

“It was, in retrospect, I think, mostly a coping mechanism for not being able to form the kind of deep romantic relationships that other people can form when they’re an adolescent in the right body. I wasn’t in a place where I could open myself up to people, but here was a show that was so emotional that I could relate to.

Schönbrun describes Buffy as a show that “felt very strange”, even if they didn’t know how to describe it that way at the time: “It gave me a place to go that was different from what was allowed elsewhere.” Like many fans at the time, Schoenbrun was shocked when the show killed off Tara (Amber Benson), the girlfriend of Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), the girlfriend of the series’ longtime co-lead. At the time, Willow and Tara were among the only openly gay couples on television. Tara’s unceremonious death caused a storm of outrage among fans, which is still often emphasized retrospectives And Job interviews about the show, and that comes up in regards to any new side work.

It also led to a brief but crucial cameo I saw the TV glow – which Schoenbrun considered an emotionally necessary solution Buffy fans. It is no coincidence that one of the heroes of The pink opaque one name is Tara. And it is also no coincidence that when the film’s protagonist, Pink opaque fan Owen (Justice Smith) looks for comfort at a crucial moment, he finds it in a woman played by Amber Benson, in a brief cameo.

“It just felt like an extraordinary grace to give him a hug, and for us to kind of get a hug, and to see this presence,” Schoenbrun said during the Q&A. “In the context of what happened with Tara, (the cameo) was a bit of a corrective for me. I was like, I want to see her on screen. At one point we didn’t really do this, but I wanted to dress her in the same clothes she was wearing when she was killed. Buffy. It’s just really important to me, personally as a fan, to see that she’s still alive.”

Schoenbrun also listed some other shows that played a role in their writing I saw the TV glow. The cancellation of David Lynch’s surreal drama Twin Peaks had been an interest for some time. That show built a fervent fandom when it debuted in 1990, but was canceled after two seasons and ended on a series of cliffhangers. Fan reaction to the lack of resolution on that series stuck with Schoenbrun – “it’s like, like: violence for the people who loved that show (…) It almost feels like their own pain, or more painful than their own real pain. Twenty-five years later, the series was revived for a third season, known as Twin Peaks: The Return.

Schoenbrun also noted that they grew up watching Nickelodeon shows The adventures of Piet and Piet And Are you afraid of the dark? — “All these media outlets that, in this post-Spielberg way, were like: Trust us: the suburbs are magical. I loved that stuff so much growing up. And I think a lot of my own mythology, from my childhood and adulthood, was created by a lot of those shows (…) It was like a religion that was taught to me.

These elements – the fascination with the end and revival of TV series, and with the theme of ‘magic of the suburbs’ – come together everywhere I saw the TV glow‘s plot. They also led to even more cameos. The titular stars of The adventures of Piet and PietMichael C. Maronna and Danny Tamberelli appear briefly in the film as Owen’s ghostly neighbors.

“If I got scammed Twin Peaks: The Return in the movie it would probably involve the casting of Pete and Pete, and painting them white as ghosts,” Schoenbrun said. “For me it was all about the eerie nature of growing older. It felt really ripe to see child actors together as adults, almost like these ghosts on the same suburban streets (where they used to be kids on television).

Schoenbrun pushes back against the idea that all these cameos could be labeled Easter eggs. “A lot of this can be done poorly in movies I don’t like,” they said. “The ‘Easter egg’, as people would say, it makes me shudder. Because I don’t make a movie that’s like: Cool references, bro! (…) I try to think about things like that less as Easter eggs, and more as fleshing out the film in a way that will deepen the ideas of the film.

I saw the TV glow will expand to more cities on May 10 and expand fully nationwide on May 17.