The teenage series that marked a before and after in history… And Disney+ is showing it poorly

In 2025, nothing gets a second chance. You only have one season to make an impact on people, and if not, you will fall into the eternal audiovisual sleep, buried among reality shows, series, movies, and all kinds of catalog background. However, in the 90s, it wasn’t so unusual for a failed series or movie concept to be given a couple of tweaks and resurrected in another form. That was the case with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which began its life in 1992 as a film written by Joss Whedon and directed – or massacred, depending on how you look at it – by Fran Rubel Kuzui. It was an absolute failure both critically and at the box office (well, more or less, it made a small profit) and many believed that was the end of this teenage vampire’s adventures.

Once more, with feeling

However, five years later, in 1997, The WB premiered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a television series, this time created and directed by Whedon, whose concept was as simple as it was fantastic: “High school, but it’s a horror movie.” In other words, high school. We all know what happened with Buffy: it aired until 2003 for 7 seasons and 144 episodes, and had its corresponding spin-off with Angel, which had 5 seasons and 110 more episodes.

What’s more: its success was such that it led to a series of comics that continued the seasons, video games, novels, role-playing games, and all kinds of merchandise. So much so that in 2026 a sequel will be released with Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her role as the Slayer, with a rookie under her charge. However, and even if you think you are the biggest fan in the world… Do you know that it is possible you have been watching Buffy wrong from the beginning? Don’t worry, though: the blame is not yours, but Disney+ and the restorers.

In 1997, when Buffy first aired, televisions around the world displayed series and movies in 4:3 (to put it simply, in a square format). If a movie was broadcast, either it was adapted to fit the screen, or two black bars were added at the top and bottom to broadcast it in 16:9. However, gradually television adapted to the new format and high definition, revealing parts of the frames that only owners of large televisions could see (in My Name is Earl, for example, they used those corners to greet HD users). Each series changed in its own time. Whedon decided that Buffy was not going to be like that, at least in intention: it would remain in 4:3 until its end.

Narrow Night

However, if you put the first episode of Buffy on Disney+ right now, you will notice something quite curious: all the episodes are displayed in 16:9. You might think it’s perfect for watching on your current television, but the truth is that this remastering removes information from each shot, because instead of adding to the left and right, it stretches and cuts off from the top and bottom. This leads to poorly cropped shots and references to things that are barely visible. A disaster, really.

Whedon himself stated that the only episode really intended to be viewed in WideScreen (that is, in 16:9) was the musical, Once More with Feeling, while the others were meant to be watched, from start to finish, in the original 4:3 format. It is true that starting from season 4, and although it was fitted into this format, it was filmed in 16:9, like the rest of the series of the time, and this is how it is found on DVDs and in the rest of the home formats that have been released so far (at least, the DVD did respect the 4:3 of the first three seasons).

You may think it doesn’t matter, but the truth is that this isn’t the first time Disney+ has played with old seasons and their aspect ratio. For example, The Simpsons was first shown in 16:9, cutting visual gags and making the image look excessively grainy. In response to public complaints, Disney provided an option to disable the stretching, something they, for some reason, haven’t done with Buffy. Will we ever be able to see the Slayer as it was originally aired? Let’s keep our fingers crossed. And just in case, let’s grab the stakes. You never know.