From Slayer to post-Gossip Girl?

By now, devoted Whedonistas are aware that Sarah Michelle Gellar is about to return to TV, but not to fight vampires, zombies or assorted hellspawn. Instead, she'll be fighting demons, the internal kind that are smaller than Gachnar but much, much worse.

Variety broke the news that she's in a pilot for HBO called The Wonderful Maladys. It's about three adult twenty-something (I'm guessing) siblings who lost their parents when they were young, and are still grappling with that problem. She plays someone with "agressive immaturity". That sounds like what happens to anyone from Gossip Girl five years after college.

I remember interviews when Sarah was asked if she could be type-cast, since she's always known as Buffy most often. Well, judging from her list of movies, she's never fighting vampires. The only action heroine she's been was April in the CGI revival of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was Daphne in two Scooby-Doo movies, but I don't consider that "action hero". She's been in two Grudge movies, been a bad girl a couple of times, and even a romantic lead. Still, many of us still wish she'd be Buffy just one more time on TV, possibly bringing enough of the current comic book series to life. That could be done, if you had $700 billion dollars to cover the special effects budget rather than give it to incompetent banks. Besides, a mini-series is still tbe best bet to give Buffy her last hurrah...and still live...then hand the stake over to a new generation. If Heroes tanks after this season, that should provide three Slayers and five Watchers right there. Imagine Summer Glau battling vampires, only because Eliza Dushku could be busy next year.

Still, Sarah's new role could give her career a boost. It's worked for Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgewick and Holly Hunter, even though they played strong women. Sarah will play someone who is still struggling with her future because of a past tragedy. This could work well for her. We shall see if she winds up being the girl who gives HBO its comeback after losing The Sopranos.