- #WATCH THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 6 EPISODE 16 SKIN#
- #WATCH THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 6 EPISODE 16 TV#
To set the scene: Sunnydale’s most unhinged will-they-or-won’t-they couple are locked in a typically brutal physical altercation.
#WATCH THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 6 EPISODE 16 TV#
This meeting of the bodies had been teased out for the better part of two seasons and was game-changing in the teen TV universe. Greenberg remarked on the season 6 DVD commentary, “ outsiders, and neither one really fit into the world anymore.” And that connection was what made the pairing so compelling. But at the same time, they understood each other in a way that no other character ever quite could.
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![watch the vampire diaries season 6 episode 16 watch the vampire diaries season 6 episode 16](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P8OdippDIO4/hqdefault.jpg)
Spike, by design, embodied everything Buffy hated, which was confusing and thrilling for fans and slayers alike. I am, of course, referring to the feral hookup between Buffy and black nail polish fanboy/occasional makeout partner/nemesis-cum-ally Spike in the episode’s final act. This trajectory, from the promise of happily ever after to a more progressive portrayal of sexuality, can be mapped from Smashed and a certain unholy union between vampire and slayer. The episode of Reign that was so controversial that two of its sex scenes were cut from broadcast and were instead included in the online version, much to the chagrin of The Parents Television Council. The Vampire Diaries’ famous take on hate sex. The Riverdale gang’s penchant for hot showers and blindfolds. See also: Gossip Girl living up to it’s unique selling proposition-as promised in the iconic promotional posters from 2008 which featured quotes from scandalized reviewers-via dorm room threesomes and uninhibited hookups in limos, elevators, and on top of bars in expensive hotels. Today, the steaminess of on-screen sex in the modern teen drama is pretty high across the board and only seems to be ramping up in carnal explicitness with series’ like HBO’s brutal but brilliant Euphoria. As a Buffy-less teenager, this was what I had to work with. Perhaps the only post-coitus clue would be a glimpse of disheveled bed sheets, like the aftermath of Rory and Dean’s ill-fated hookup in Gilmore Girls, because it was essential that the location be a bed. Perhaps there would be a few beats of horizontal kissing while a cutesy pop ballad warbled away.
#WATCH THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 6 EPISODE 16 SKIN#
Concerning the action in the scene itself, perhaps a spaghetti strap would be tenderly removed from a shoulder to reveal a slip of bare skin à la Joey and Pacey’s first time on Dawson’s Creek.
![watch the vampire diaries season 6 episode 16 watch the vampire diaries season 6 episode 16](https://tvline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/vampire-diaries-612-2.jpg)
But the TV shows I was obsessed with during my formative years in the late ‘90s and early aughts presented it with a short and sweet formula: In order for a couple to do the deed, we-the devoted audience-had to believe their relationship was based on love (or something like it) following a multi-episode romantic arc. In particular, the notion of a female character losing her virginity, and to whom, has historically provided great narrative mileage, from Donna Martin in Beverly Hills 90210 to Blair Waldorf in the original Gossip Girl. Teen and young-adult television has had a preoccupation with sex for as long as the genre has existed. In it, we got to see what sex with the bad boy actually looked like after being merely titillated with the archetype by our favorite teen dramas for so long. ” This infamous episode aired 20 years ago today, during Buffy’s sixth and most divisive season. No episode captured the potency of this trifecta more than “ Smashed. It was about the kind of anxious, teenaged naivety that made me a little bit scared of Buffy because of its proximity to violence, death, and sex. I was in high school for the majority of its original run-from 1997 to 2003-and would tell myself the show wasn’t for me because the girl my 9th grade boyfriend had not-so-secretly hooked up with adored it (she even wore a replica of Buffy’s crucifix necklace to class.) Looking back, I realize that it wasn’t about my heartbroken vitriol at all. I’ll admit it: I didn’t watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until I was in my twenties.