Buffy's creator, Joss Whedon, excellently presents this bizarre world of demons and vampires as "normal" and the real world as the bizarre and incomprehensible one. As for defining moments, well, I have a very hard time coming up with those!! Especially when you're talking about a show that has allowed the characters to grow and change consistently throughout the show's lifetime. Each character has separate moments where you can point out advances in their development, leading to the current incarnation of the character. And they have maintained this with a consistency that should be envied by other shows. For example, a cute little throw-away line ("And..... I think I'm kinda gay", said by a character in response to meeting her evil twin from another dimension) in season three becomes a plotline halfway through season four, leading to the only dignified and compassionate presentation of a lesbian relationship I've ever seen on TV.

Whedon has done an excellent job of taking those small individual points in each character's development and taken them one step further, progressing the character along the road towards three-dimensionality, something most shows never attain. So while I can point out the defining moments for each character, it's difficult for me to point out those moments that most define the development of the series, as those moments are scattered out between the characters.

This level of consistency and creativity is a remarkable thing in the current television market, and happily seems to have stayed with the show throughout it's run, even through a switch between networks.

You can watch a show from season one and remark at the changes in the characters, and yet, the "core character" is still there, with many of the same problems and traits that are being pursued in the current season, only they're more advanced now, using different tactics and skills to solve them, at least for a while. Willow always wants to both hide from the limelight and yet star in it, becoming something other, something more than who she is, Xander is always just a little too normal for the rest of them to comprehend, yet a little too weird for their understanding, as well. Buffy is torn between her two lives, the normal one and the Slayer. Giles is always too involved with Buffy's life, making her continued existence and well being a priority, even when he knows he shouldn't, for various reasons that change throughout the series. These are only some of the characters' underlying dilemmas that crop up again and again in the series, but can be seen from season one through the current season.

A mark of an excellent show is this level of character development and consistency, and I find it incredibly enjoyable!