Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[corianderstem]

Okay, Buffy fans. Come out of the woodwork, and let's gush (or gripe) about Buffy and the Scooby Gang from Sunnydale.

When it first came out, I brushed off all the people who kept telling me how good it was. Whatever, I thought, it's just some stupid high school show with a perky blonde girl. It can't be that good.

Then, some years back, I got laid off just as FX started showing the reruns. I was HOOKED! (And had a lot of people saying "I told you so.")

Yeah, maybe it started to go off the rails a bit in season 4 after high school. Or after Angel left Sunnydale. Or after (insert other event here).

Let's discuss this smart, funny, well-written show that blended monsters with real-life themes.

Discuss the following:

- How sad was the episode "The Body"?
- Is Alyson Hannigan the best crier on TV?
- Faith: hottest character on TV ever?
- How awesome was the musical episode?

 

[Slapnutz]

I love Buffy. One of the very few shows I can watch again and again. Once you get past the silly title, you're in a world of

Hell, even my 50-plus father loved it when he was alive.

Have to say, Whedon made a very wise choice in allowing the show to grow more mature through the years along with its target audience. It never stays in one place, always evolving. Now being 27, I get a lot more enjoyment out of the later seasons than I do the early high school stuff.

Also, season five is the one of the greatest TV seasons of all time, in my very humble opinion.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm torn on season 5. There's a lot of it I love, but parts of it just slogged. I blame Riley, who unfortunately was a good portion of dead weight. I didn't mind the season 4 stuff with the Initiative, but I was happy when he left the next season.

But man, some really great stuff in season 5. I loved Glory as the Big Bad, and the finale kills me every time. I just hear the first notes of that theme, as Buffy realizes what she has to do, and I'm a total wreck.

(Although once Dawn served her purpose in season 5, she got really annoying. And I see why some fans were annoyed with the whole plotline of season 5, bringing in Dawn. It was a pretty big WTF, and involved some suspension of logic even after her appearance was explained.)

The Body was amazing television. And Intervention is awesome, because I loved the BuffyBot. Sarah Michelle Gellar did great comedy.

 

[LMP]

I used to really love Buffy.

Season 3 will always be my favorite. Eliza Dushku ftw.

 

[UberBeaver]

Buffy rocked. "Hush" is one of the greatest hours of TV I've ever seen. "They Body" was very well done.

Has anybody watched Reaper yet? It's Buffy-esque in it's writing and stories from what I've seen. So far, so good. Check it out if you get a chance.

 

[corianderstem]

I was getting a kick out of Reaper until it started becoming the same show each week. It's not going anywhere! But I love the CW promo with Ray Wise and the jack o' lantern, with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" playing.

Hush is indeed awesome. And The Mayor from season 3 is the best Big Bad they ever had on the show (although Angelus gives him a run for his money).

I wish Anthony Stewart Head would show up on another TV series here on this side of the pond. Or a movie or something. He's great.

 

[LMP]

Rupert the Ripper.

 

[corianderstem]

 

[monkeyskin]

The first time I watched Season 2 was during re-runs and Sky TV had the best double bill at one point. The first episode was the one where Cordy dumps Xander and he gets Amy to cast a love potion that backfires (hilarity and Buffy in a short raintcoat + heels). Then the second episode was when Jenny works out the spell to restore Angel's soul but he kills her before he gets a chance (wahey for one of my favourite dramatic episodes).

And I agree with some others here that seasons 1-2 were the peak and Riley sucked.

 

[corianderstem]

I actually don't care for the first season - it had some highlights, but I don't think it had quite gelled yet. I think season 3 was the best season.

 

[Slapnutz]

Yeah, season one ain't that great. It's mostly made up of "monster of the week" type episodes. Still, it's got an innocent charm to it.

To be honest, I didn't enjoy much of season 3. For a start, I loathed the Faith character. Loathed I tell ya! She just really bugged the hell out of me.

And then there was the whole Buffy/Angel reuniting thing, which I found both baffling and ridiculous.

Nothing came close the Buffy/Spike scenes in later seasons and the themes explored . Whedon was really pushing the envelope .

Season 6 is actually my second favourite season behind 5. Some fans complain that the show became a little too dark in 6 and the lead character too depressing. I like to believe the show simply did a lot of growing up. And who wouldn't be depressed after what she'd been through?

 

[corianderstem]

I think that's a good assessment of season 6. My main quibble about season 6 was the heavy-handed "magic = drug addiction" storyline with Willow. Although Evil Willow was AWESOME, the whole "you're using too much magic" thing started to feel like they were bashing our faces in with a frying pan week after week to make sure we got the point.

I never cared for Buffy and Angel. Angel is much more interesting as Angelus. Spike was good as a bad guy, and he was always great for some of the best one-liners (Harmony: "You love that gem more than me!" Spike: "I love SYPHILLIS more than you."), but I never was all that gung-ho about his later relationship with Buffy. Then when they had him try to rape her, it got even weirder. (Yeah, writers, we get it - he's EVIL.)

Did you ever watch the spinoff Angel show? There's a show that started off kind of weak but got really, really good as it went on.

 

[Slapnutz]

Angel was also kind of annoying on Buffy, but he really came into his own on his spinoff series. Could never stand him as the goodie two shoes - all puppy dog eyes, odd heavy breathing during the forced emotional scenes. Pretty damn bland.

 

[Slapnutz]

My main quibble about season 6 was the heavy-handed "magic = drug addiction" storyline with Willow. Although Evil Willow was AWESOME, the whole "you're using too much magic" thing started to feel like they were bashing our faces in with a frying pan week after week to make sure we got the point.

Definitely agree with you there. It felt almost like Paul Haggis wrote the Willow arc.

 

[corianderstem]

!!

Yeah, David Boreanaz never did anything for me. He seems to be less wooden on Bones, from what I've seen. But it took him awhile, and his own show, to get less annoying as Angel.

It never helped in the flashback episodes where he was affecting that horrid excuse for an Irish brogue, either.

 

[Slapnutz]

It never helped in the flashback episodes where he was affecting that horrid excuse for an Irish brogue, either.

I'm now experiencing very painful flashbacks of my own. It took me years of therapy to get over how bad that Irish accent was.

 

[corianderstem]

I won't trouble you further by reminding you of the wig he wore in the flashbacks.

 

[Slapnutz]

Oh dear.

 

[BluRmGrl]

I, too, got hooked on Buffy thanks to Fox reruns. Actually, Mr. Blu & I both got so caught up in it, if we were going to be away from the house during the time the back-to-back episodes would air, we'd make sure to record them so we could come home later & watch our double feature.

Unfortunately, the problem with getting hooked on a show through reruns is that the episodes aren't always shown in chronological order, so it's easy to get lost with the story line(s).

I don't know why I didn't think of it when I was home in September, but that'd have been a great idea: rent all the seasons of Buffy & watch from start to finish. Come to think of it, there's no reason why I couldn't still try to do that. Anyone know if Blockbuster carries those, or would I be better off trying Netflix?

 

[corianderstem]

I haven't used Blockbuster in years, so I don't know if they'd have all the seasons when you wanted them, in the right order. Go Netflix!

 

[BluRmGrl]

<--- Sometimes shows her advanced years & lack of techno savvy.

It's true - I do still occasionally find myself in a Blockbuster but I swear, it's no more than twice every 18 months! :crossesheartswearstodie:

 

[VintagePunk]

Former Buffy addict, here.

We were latecomers, too. Caught up on nightly reruns on the Space Network, and started watching in real time in season 6. I dug out my dvds a couple of weeks ago with the intention of having a marathon. Maybe next weekend.

So many great things about this series. Even in the weaker seasons, there were episodes that were absolutely brilliant. It's definitely in my top 5 favourite shows of all time.

Band Candy.

 

[corianderstem]

Oh man, I love Band Candy!

"Summers, you drive like a spaz!!!"

 

[ShipOfFools]

I was a huge fan of Buffy back when it was first airing. Amazing set of characters, although it started to get really boring towards the end. The first few seasons were the best.

 

[corianderstem]

The last season was kind of a mess, with all the potential Slayers (and GOD, did I want that annoying bitch Kennedy OFF MY SCREEN!!!!).

Aside from the season as a whole, I thought they did a really good job wrapping it up. The final episode was really good.

(Poor Anya! *sniff* )

 

[VintagePunk]

(Poor Anya! *sniff* )

I adored her!

 

[corianderstem]

Anya: "Oh, is she your orgasm friend?"

Giles: "Yes, that's absolutely the most appalling thing you could have said."

Good times.

And can we please talk about the awesome brilliance of "Restless," the season 4 closer? The dream episode? Oh MAN, that episode gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

"You think you know... who you are ... what's to come. You haven't even begun."

and ...

"I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones. "

and of course, for the lolz, the guy with the cheese slices in everybody's dream!

I also loved the part in Giles' dream where he gets up on stage at the Bronze and starts singing. "I've got to warn Buffy! There's every chance she could be next. ... and Xander try not to bleed on my couch, I've just had it steam cleaned..."

 

[Saracene]

God, I used to LOVE Buffy, religiously. I started watching it in its second season and at first I found the constant quips and the overall style of the show a bit irritating. But I think what really made me sit back and go 'whoa' was when Angel lost his soul and turned bad. Initially I thought, yeah right surely everything will get a quick fix by the end of the next episode. But not only it wasn't fixed, they actually had the guts to have a formerly good guy brutally murder Jenny Calendar! I remember being blown away by this development and that season's final left me an emotional wreck for a while.

I think the show went off the rails for me somewhere in the fourth season. I loathed Riley and the whole Initiative storyline and Adam as the villain was lame as heck. There were still some good individual episodes but I could never really keep the same interest as before. And I just felt that the show lost something when the characters left school - maybe it was a sense of connection to the real world. I think that what happened to Buffy - and later to Angel as well - is that both shows pretty much disappeared into their own mythologies and lost that "grounded" feel when Buffy was attending school and Angel & co. were just a small detective agency helping people on a small scale.

 

[Saracene]

About Angel - I agree that David Boreanaz could be embarrassingly wooden at times. But I thought that Angel and Buffy had genuine chemistry that continued to sparkle even in the later crossover episodes. And I always thought that, at his core, Angel was just a big loveable dork,

I'd also like to give some love to the wonderfully creepy, scary and insane Drusilla,

 

[U2Girl416]

I was a latecomer...didn't start watching until after the show was off the air. my fiance got me addicted. I caught up on everythng on dvd, and the 5 seasons of Angel too. I'm a softie so I wanted Buffy and Angel to be together. couldn't help myself. an it occured to me that Joss didn't let anyone be happy relationship-wise by the time Buffy ended. Anya died, Tara died, Riley and Angel left, Spike "died" and reemerged on Angel. the last season with the potential slayers was a bit annoying at times. I absolutely couldn't stand Kennedy hitting on Willow. ugh.