10 Best Monsters Of The Week In Buffy The Vampire Slayer
It's not all Big Bads...
There have been many antagonists that have appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Be it The Master, Angelus, Spike, Glory, the Trio or The First Evil, Buffy is a show which knows how to make a great bad guy (excluding maybe Adam). But amongst the Big Bads and the Little Bads - Mr Trick, Caleb, Drusilla, and Darla - there also a great number of villains that appear in only one episode of the show.
Commonly referred to as the "Monster of the Week", these bad guys are fleeting, but many leave a mark. Silent demons, fear demons, vampires, ghosts and more, Buffy, over 144 episodes, has got a great number of brief antagonists. Some have failed ("Doublemeat Palace" was a weak one; so was the demon in "Shadow"), but others were fully realised and in many cases underused.
The following list will focus on these one time bad guys. Be it for fear factor, appearance, importance to the arc of other characters or sheer entertainment value, all the entries are well deserving of their place and all pack a punch.
Warning, though, MAJOR SPOILERS follow.
10. Dracula
Buffy's version of the biggest, baddest vampire in pop culture is surprisingly well crafted. Though on paper a Buffy vs Dracula theme might sound bizarre and cartoon-ish (especially when you consider that the episode ran as the premier to Season Five), it pays off in spades.
Keeping the various Dracula tropes we know and love alive, actor Rudolf Martin portrays the Prince of Darkness as charming, deeply mysterious and yet completely threatening. The way he talks, the way he moves, the way he stalks the Scooby Gang; everything fits together in a nice neat package which stops the infamous bloodsucker from seeming too cliched and out of place.
Pair that with his ability to entice Buffy herself to listen to his commands, and the fact that he tries to come back at the end only to be slain again (a cool meta nod to the pop culture icon he is), this is one solid version of Dracula who is beautifully placed to remind us just how badass Buffy is.
It's entertaining stuff, and respectful to both the source material and Buffy as a show.