I'd never heard of Empire before I moved here; it's quite a popular popcult magazine in the U.K., though (I often borrow issues from my British coworker and fellow geek). As several commenters have stated/inferred, it skews heavily toward fantasy and science fiction. It also skews much more heavily, if I may generalize about gender, toward stereotypically masculine tastes in genre and tone.

As for Buffy, I have a lot of affection for it; used to loooooove the show, but now it's simply like a friendly ex. I do think it's wildly uneven, and that it requires a large long-term buy-in to really pay off. (I had the same problem with Babylon 5, which I kinda enjoyed but still don't see what all the fuss was about.) That said, Buffy is a wonderful evocation of adolescence, with a really savvy use of metaphor and horror archetype; and it's got some really zippy dialogue. It also took some nifty narrative risks.

But each to her own taste, as the old woman said while kissing the cow.