Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)

A teenager expected to fight supernatural threats also has to decide whom to trust with the rest of her life. The 1997 original supplies a longer, more emotionally expansive version of the outsider-and-friends structure, with jokes that do not remove the cost of a frightening encounter. Its seven seasons grow considerably darker. Treat it as a substantial character journey, with some conspicuously dated effects and attitudes along the way.