Entertainment
Buffy Cancellation Saved Franchise, Nobody Wants To Admit It
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Recently, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans received devastating news: Hulu killed the upcoming reboot of the popular supernatural series. The fandom reaction to this news has generally been very grim, and many are sharpening their stakes and wondering who to blame. Buffy legend Sarah Michelle Gellar helped aim their ire at one unnamed executive, someone who never cared for the original show and allegedly took great delight in killing the reboot.
However, news of the cancellation made me let out a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding. The blunt truth is that we’ve gotten tons of awful television revivals in recent years, including The X-Files, Charmed, and Star Trek: Picard. Buffy’s own reboot getting canceled means our memories of a nearly perfect television show will remain unstained by what looked to be an awful revival. Plus, the cancellation means fans won’t have to face a very sobering truth: a reboot would be nothing without the involvement of canceled Buffy creator Joss Whedon.
Another One Bites The Dust
A year ago, the future seemed uncharacteristically sunny for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hulu had ordered a pilot for a revival with the name Buffy: New Sunnydale, and it had some serious talent behind it. The script came courtesy of Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, who are best known for writing episodes of Poker Face, one of the greatest female-led series in modern television. The pilot was directed by Best Picture Oscar winner Chloé Zhao. Most importantly, original Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar was returning to reprise her iconic role.
While Hulu ordered some changes to the pilot, everyone involved was generally confident that the show would proceed, resulting in an order for a full season. At the eleventh hour, the streamer canceled the show, and Gellar later blamed an unnamed executive for this decision. The executive seems to be Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich, a man who oversees the Hulu Originals division. Right now, Buffy fans want to drive a stake into his heart. But I can’t help but feel that Erwich just helped all of us dodge a bullet (or maybe it was a crossbow bolt).
Not Getting The Gang Back Together
The first reason I think a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot was doomed to failure is that Sarah Michelle Gellar was the only member of the original cast to return for the pilot. That might have changed if the show had gotten ordered to series, but right now, she was the only connection to the original show. The connection also wasn’t very strong: reportedly, one of the changes Hulu requested for the pilot is giving Sarah Michelle Gellar a beefier role.
As great as Gellar is, the original Buffy succeeded because it was an ensemble show, and any genuine attempt to revive the original series would need to revive most (ideally, all) of the ensemble. Otherwise, you’re just watching a single popular actor going through the motions in a completely different television show. Weirdly enough, I think the best analog for how bad a Buffy reboot would be is the short-lived Frasier revival at Paramount. It brought back Kelsey Grammar, but he was surrounded by new characters, a new setting, a new job, etc. The network learned the hard way that fans want the whole ensemble back, not just the title character.
Personally, I wouldn’t want a Buffy reboot that is comprised almost entirely of new characters. It’s really the worst of both worlds. There would be a bunch of new people that old fans don’t really care about because they want to see more of Xander, Willow, and Giles. Meanwhile, the reboot would dangle Sarah Michelle Gellar in front of us without giving her much in the way of purpose or even screentime.
Hulu Was Right: The Buffy Reboot Was Really, Really Bad
According to the leaked script reviewed by Variety, the Buffy reboot pilot originally only had Sarah Michelle Gellar get a one-line cameo at the very end. After rewrites, she got more screentime, but her role will definitely upset the fandom. You see, Buffy now works for a major insurance company, and she has to return to Sunnydale because of a sudden high number of claims. On one hand, this new job proves that the Slayer was able to move on and finally live a normal life. On the other hand, it’s kind of depressing imagining the woman who repeatedly saved the world ending up as just another cubicle drone.
Most of the pilot focused on the new character Nova, a recently called Slayer who has to fight vampires with the help of her own Scooby Gang. She lives in Sunnydale, and modern residents know about the city’s shady supernatural history. But that knowledge won’t protect anyone because all the vampires Buffy seemingly defeated in the series finale have been reawakened, and they have all come back hungry.
Personally, I think this pilot sounds like a very lame retread of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer concept. Specifically, it sounds like a retread of Season 7, which teased that Dawn would be getting her own Scoobies before dropping that plotline like a hot potato. Speaking of Season 7, this pilot picks up decades later, but it does so in the worst possible way. There seems to be no solid explanation for why the vampires are back, nor is there any explanation for where all the other Slayers are since Buffy awakened them. In this way, the reboot makes all of Buffy’s actions and sacrifices in her own series finale completely meaningless!
Lost Without Joss
We’ve established most of the reasons why the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot would have sucked: a major lack of Buffy, a complete absence of other cast members, and a plot that ruins the earlier show’s lore. However, the reboot was also doomed for a reason that most fans aren’t really ready to admit. Namely, the new show was being made without controversial Buffy creator Joss Whedon. Without his unique voice, the reboot was doomed from the very beginning.
Whedon isn’t involved with the reboot because he got canceled, seemingly for very good reasons. Ray Fisher claimed that Whedon was verbally abusive on the Justice League set, and costar Gal Gadot alleges that Whedon threatened her career so she would comply with his demands. Buffy and Angel star Charisma Carpenter also claimed Whedon was abusive, saying that her pregnancy made her fat and callously asking if she planned on keeping the baby. Her statements were supported by other Buffy actors who agreed that Whedon created a hostile work environment, including David Boreanaz, Amber Benson, James Marsters, and Eliza Dushku.
Hovering over all of this was the bombshell revelation from Joss Whedon’s ex-wife (Kai Cole) that, despite Whedon being such an avowed feminist, he had cheated on her with multiple women, including fans and Hollywood colleagues. He even had at least one affair with an unnamed actor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Cole’s letter came out amid the #MeToo movement, which went a long way towards canceling Whedon. His cancellation was complete once Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot made their allegations, and even though no charges were ever formally filed, his career had a stake driven right into its heart.
All of this is to say that Joss Whedon was exposed as a hypocrite, and even though it took decades, it was rewarding to see him face justice for his alleged actions. However, nobody can deny that Whedon’s quirky humor and particular style of writing were the secret sauce that transformed Buffy the Vampire Slayer into such a cultural phenomenon. The reboot ultimately found itself in a terrible position: if they brought Whedon back, Hulu would be accused of condoning his alleged abuse. But by refusing to bring him on board, the streamer ended up with a script that fell so far short of the original show they killed the reboot altogether.
Here Lies Buffy Summers
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is dead, and that’s a good thing. Instead of getting another crappy reboot, this franchise will remain an artifact of the late ‘90s and early aughts. We can enjoy streaming old episodes, dusting off our DVDs (remember those cool menu animations?), or even reading the surprisingly great comic books. In this way, Buffy will live as long as fans have nostalgia for its powerful pop culture impact.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and others are hoping to shop this reboot pilot around to other networks or streamers, but I’m hoping this thing stays dusted. Everything we know about the reboot makes it look like it would have been a sloppy, shoddy parody of everything fans loved about the original show. Plus, if there’s anything we’ve learned about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s that nothing good happens when something comes back from the dead!
Entertainment
I tested the best MacBook alternatives and found 7 worthy rivals
The 2025 Acer Aspire 16 AI is a stellar pick for casual users with limited budgets and simple workloads, particularly those who like a larger screen. (Younger students would make great use of it.) It’s portable for its size and long-lasting, so big ups if you frequently work on the go. We can’t say that it’s better than the Neo, but we can say it’s the best MacBook Neo alternative right now.
The Aspire 16 AI is my reigning favorite cheap Windows laptop. It offers great multi-core performance for the money, a healthy amount of RAM and storage, plus a smooth display and all the ports you could need. You mainly feel its “budget-ness” in its build quality.
Performance: The Aspire 16 AI’s Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip is about 40 percent slower than the Neo’s A18 Pro chip in single-core scenarios, so it doesn’t feel as responsive when you’re surfing the web or working in Word docs. That said, it’s just as good as running multi-core tasks like light video editing. (Our benchmarking showed that it’s 12 percent faster than the Neo in that regard. It’s a trivial bump, but it’s something.) At the time of writing, the Aspire 16 AI was the fastest sub-$900 laptop we’ve tested for multi-core workloads.
Note that the Snapdragon X CPU is a Windows on ARM chip, so it’s not compatible with as many games or specialty apps as Intel or AMD chips (which have x86 architecture — see above, in the Zenbook A14’s section). But a budget laptop isn’t really made for that kind of usage, anyway, so that’s not a huge concern here. I’d be more worried about it not working with an older scanner or printer.
Battery life: The Aspire 16 AI plowed past the Neo in our battery life benchmark, a video rundown test, lasting 17 hours and 22 minutes to Apple’s 14 hours and 50 minutes. Stamina-wise, it’s more on par with the M5 MacBook Air, which lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes. You can easily squeeze two full workdays out of this thing without needing to charge it in between.
Design: The Aspire 16 AI is pretty trim for a 16-incher. At 3.42 pounds, it’s only a little bit heavier than a 15-inch MacBook Air. (There are even slimmer, lighter 16-inch options — see the Asus Zenbook A16, below — but they’re way more expensive.) Its display is a bit dim and not as crisp as the Neo’s, but I appreciated its buttery 120Hz refresh rate and touchscreen capabilities. Its port setup is also great: While the Neo has just two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, this laptop tacks on two extra USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a microSD card slot. That’s some MacBook Pro-level connectivity.
Value: For the same price as a 512GB Neo, the Aspire 16 AI offers double the RAM, better multi-core performance, more ports, a 120Hz touchscreen, and a backlit keyboard. But it’s not as well-made as the MacBook Neo; it lacks a fingerprint login feature, and it doesn’t feel as fast in everyday productivity scenarios. It also comes in one boring color. Still, it feels very fairly priced in an era when decent, cheap Windows laptops are getting scarce.
FYI: Acer also makes a 14-inch version of this laptop (the Aspire 14 AI), which comes with an Intel processor that alleviates the Windows on ARM compatibility issues. It offers double the storage, slightly better battery life, and slightly better single-core performance for only $500 to $700, depending on the retailer. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t speak for it personally, but our friends at CNET really liked it. You probably can’t go wrong with either size.
Entertainment
Tech keeps getting more expensive. Thats why these 4 cheap laptops are so special.
The elegant and long-lasting Asus Zenbook A14 from 2025 is my favorite laptop for most people with a budget cap of $1,000. Its ultralight yet rigid build makes it especially great for frequent travelers and remote workers. I’ll also note that it’s the only laptop on this list with an OLED display, if that’s a spec high on your wishlist.
Look for the ZenBook A14 on sale at Best Buy, where it’s dipped down to as low as $550 before (a steal). It starts with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
I’ve been hyping this 14-inch laptop since I first saw it at CES 2025. It’s an amazing Windows ultraportable and an awesome value.
Performance: The Zenbook A14 is a solid performer for the money. The MacBook Neo still beats it in single-core workloads (by about 31 percent), but it’s 28 percent faster in multi-core scenarios. In fact, it doesn’t have any multi-core competition among other laptops under $1,000. Compared to the $699.99 Acer Aspire 16 AI (above), which has a lesser Snapdragon X chip, this one’s Snapdragon X Plus chip offers 14 percent better single-core performance and 15 percent better multi-core performance. If you need a cheap-ish laptop that can do some heavier lifting, this one’s up to the task.
As with the Aspire 16 AI, be mindful of ARM-related software compatibility issues here if you’re buying a laptop for college or gaming.
Battery life: The Zenbook A14 ran for 21 hours and 47 minutes in our video rundown test before dying, making it the eighth-longest-lasting laptop we’ve ever reviewed. Our longest-lasting MacBook died exactly 30 minutes sooner.
Design: Picking up the Zenbook A14 for the first time usually elicits a gasp from people. Asus built its chassis out of a lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy called “Ceraluminum” that’s scratch-, smudge- and shock-resistant. The base configuration is only 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the MacBook Neo, yet it doesn’t feel frail. The Ceraluminum makes it super durable without weighing it down. It’s slightly thicker than the Neo, but that’s so it can squeeze in an HDMI port and a USB-A port.
In a market saturated with boring silver laptops, I think the Zenbook A14’s modern-organic look is refreshing. It has a tan “Zabrinskie Beige” finish with a matte, almost ceramic-like texture, and it’s accented with gold reflective logos. It’s different without being too obnoxious for an office. Top that off with a bright, vivid OLED display, and this laptop is quite the looker.
Value: I’d have no qualms about paying full price for the Zenbook A14 — it’s a really solid value (but all the better if you can find it on sale). Raising your budget to the upper end of the “cheap” spectrum eliminates any build quality concerns and nets you a great blend of power and stamina for everyday productivity, even some light creative work. Plus: OLED!
Note that Asus released an updated Zenbook A14 with the Snapdragon X2 Elite chip for 2026. It has much better performance and an even longer battery life than the original model, but it starts at $1,349.99. It might go on sale for under $1,000 eventually, though it only just launched in April, so don’t hold your breath.
Entertainment
How to watch Gauff vs. Potapova online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free on France TV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The 2026 French Open has served up major surprises, particularly in the men’s singles. Both No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Novak Djokovic were stunned by unseeded players, which led them to leave Roland-Garros unexpectedly early.
The women’s field isn’t quite as open, as world No. 4 Coco Gauff will be keenly aware, though No. 2 Elena Rybakina has already been eliminated, so Gauff — the defending women’s French Open champion — may feel confident about claiming the title for a second consecutive year.
Before she gets to the title she’ll have to get past a third-round match against No. 28 seed Anastasia Potapova. Can the 25-year-old Austrian knock out Gauff and cause yet another upset?
If you want to watch Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Gauff vs. Potapova for free
Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open is available to live stream for free on France TV.
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France TV is geo-restricted to France, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in France, meaning you can stream the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream the 2026 French Open for free by following these simple steps:
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Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Watch the 2026 French Open for free from anywhere in the world
$12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee)
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Roland-Garros without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream the 2026 French Open before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for sport?
ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:
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Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
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A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).
Live stream Gauff vs. Potapova in the 2026 French Open for free with ExpressVPN.
I tested the best MacBook alternatives and found 7 worthy rivals
Phillies place RHP Aaron Nola on paternity list, option OF Otto Kemp
