Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Weekly rewatch
Lowri
Posts: 3,094 Forum Member
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Hi all,
There was some discussion in this sub-forum about doing a Buffy rewatch (or "watch" in my case) so I thought I'd actually bite the bullet and start a thread
The difference between this thread and the other existing one is that this one will be more structured on a weekly basis and spoilers should be limited. I feel that it will be very difficult to all watch on one night so if we all watch the week's episode at some point in 7 days (beginning on a Monday) then write our reviews whenever we want to.
Major plot and serious spoilers should be behind tags for the week of the episode in case people are behind, after that they can be freely written.
Hope that all makes sense! Please feel free to make changes on a consensus basis.
So, to kick off, for the next week (until Mon 30th March), the episode is Season 1, episode 1: Welcome to the Hellmouth
I'll write my review later tonight, when I'm not supposed to be working!
There was some discussion in this sub-forum about doing a Buffy rewatch (or "watch" in my case) so I thought I'd actually bite the bullet and start a thread
The difference between this thread and the other existing one is that this one will be more structured on a weekly basis and spoilers should be limited. I feel that it will be very difficult to all watch on one night so if we all watch the week's episode at some point in 7 days (beginning on a Monday) then write our reviews whenever we want to.
Major plot and serious spoilers should be behind tags for the week of the episode in case people are behind, after that they can be freely written.
Hope that all makes sense! Please feel free to make changes on a consensus basis.
So, to kick off, for the next week (until Mon 30th March), the episode is Season 1, episode 1: Welcome to the Hellmouth
I'll write my review later tonight, when I'm not supposed to be working!
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Comments
I was quite impressed with the first episode, it immediately felt different to all the numerous American high school shows that are about. The characters are immediately likeable, especially Giles
Funnily enough, Angel doesn't intrigue me that much because they gave us so little info that I can't really be bothered to think about it!
Watched this episode a couple of weeks ago so can't really remember any more comments, even with the wiki synopsis!
The pilot for me is just a brilliant two part pilot. It sets the show's world and format so easy and does throw mumbo-jumbo crap for us to remember. All the character's traits are instantly shown. I have lost count how may times i have seen the pilot.
One of my fav lines has to be from Cordelia, who is gossiping about Buffy to someone and Willow buts in and defends her. Cordelia is so nasty to her but it's the delivery of the line that is brilliant.
Cordelia: Excuse me? Who gave you permission to exist? Do I horn in on your private discussions? No. Why? Because you're boring.
I love the opening scene. I think as a new viewer, you immediatley think Darla is the damsel in distress and the guy she is with will kill her but it's vice versa, and that was really one of the main aims Joss wanted. He was sick of blonde defensless women running after a killer, screaming. He wanted someone to fight back and that was really the origin of Buffy.
Hi
I like the way Joss has taken stereotypes and turned them; Buffy looks every bit the blonde bimbo cheerleader so to have her arguing with the "cool" students and not becoming a cheerleader is a nice twist.
I too like the opening scene, it fooled me completely
As for the monster of the week story lines, I think that is incredibly common amongst this kind of show, Merlin did it a lot, and Smallville took it to a whole new level! I'm a few episodes into Buffy season 1 and it hasn't bothered me yet; although some of the monsters are a little too weird, they're all interesting and there are enough teasers of a plot arc to hold it all together.
I love standalone episodes. Sci-fi shows these days are too serialized. The X files and Stargate are two other shows who did a mix of standalone and story arcs as well. It's nice having episodes where you forget about the storylines for a while and just see the characters being put into different situations. The standalone episodes are ok for Season 1, but Season 2 for me has some of the best from the show's entire run. If you haven't see them yet, look out for Witch and The Puppet Show. They are my fav episodes from season 1 and never get boring every time i do my yearly Buffy re-watch.
I am looking forward to our discussions as you delve into what I believe is not only one of the best sci-fi shows ever, but one of the best shows to have ever be created and written.
Watched the Puppet show last night so I've seen both the episodes you've mentioned. They're both similar in direction the plot takes and I agree that they're very good.
Hopefully some others will join in at the right pace to stop me getting too far ahead, stupid box sets!
Amazing show i could talk about for hours
Yay, thanks for starting the thread Lowri.
Glad you liked them. When your on season 2, let me know and I'll give you a heads up on some of my favs from season 2 as well.
When I first bought the complete Buffy and Angel sets, I rationed myself to one episode per day. With about 250 episodes in total, the experience still lasted the best part of a year. That was great year!
I think you're right, I'm most of the way through season 1 at the moment, but it's not fair to assume that other people will have that much time. I could increase the number to two per week as a compromise.
In that case, this week's episodes are: S01E02: The Harvest and S01E03: Witch
Reviews to follow later.
I watch my boxsets very quick. I managed 10 seasons of stargate and 5 seasons of stargate atlantis in less than three months.
The harvest scene in the Bronze was also well done in my opinion, it was genuinely creepy without being over the top scary. Nice to find out more about Angel as well.
Episode 3 was typical monster-of-the-week but I did not see the twist coming. I felt sorry for Giles missing all the excitement at the end although he looked impressive when performing his magic. Although Buffy couldn't possibly die in episode 3 of a series called Buffy, there was a lot of tension in those last scenes.
An equally surprising twist was Buffy not being on the cheerleading squad, she must be the only attractive blonde lead character in an American high school setting to not be on the team! I like this direction though because it makes the character of Buffy more relatable to most people.
The twist I did see coming was where Amy's Mum had ended up, where Buffy and Amy were stood was the giveaway.