I've finished BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
POSTED BY: reginaroadie
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 21:19
VIEWED: 8383
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Well folks, this is it.
I have now watched all 144 episodes of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Took me about half a year, but I managed to get through all of it before the year was out. I was refraining myself from posting on this specific section of the community until I've seen everything of it so that I'm not going "Huh??" and "Whaaa?" What follows is my season by season breakdown of the series. What I liked, disliked and general thoughts and highlights.
#1: Even thought at times it was a bit cheesy (TEACHER'S PET in my opinion was the worst episode of the whole series) and they were still finding their way, the had a surprising number of good ideas and episodes and had a clear idea of what they wanted to be. I thought The Master was a great Big Bad and Jenny Calendar was a good contrast for Giles. I liked how with eps like "Puppet Show", they went down one way with a supposedly predictable storyline and then subverted it to make it something unique and very funny. I wish they didn't kill her in the finale, even if it was for a few seconds so that the whole second Slayer issue would come up. By the time they brought her back from the dead again, it was stretching it a bit that she would have Lazarus beat by one. But all in all, a promising start.
#2: Like the first season, they were still finding their step, but the good eps outweighed the bad, and there were a few. "Inca Mummy Girl", "Bad Eggs" and "Go Fish" were some dumbass ones, but "Halloween", "Lie To Me", "Ted" and the three two parters were all very well done. I wish Kiara lasted longer than she did. I'm a sucker for rastafarian accent. Coredlia became less annoying and more enjoyable. I liked Spike and Dru as villains, although I'm still out on the jury about Angelus. I know Angel was supposed to be an integral part of the show, but the whole dark and broody act got to be a bit boring, so it didn't really hit me or affect me when Angel became Angelus and then him becoming Angel in the few moments before Buffy killed him to keep the Apocalypse from happening. I always thought Angel became a better character once he left and got his own show.
#3: This season is what I call the SGT. PEPPERS year. This is when the show hit it's stride and didn't look back. Not a single weak episode of the whole bunch. The Mayor was a really odd but very compelling villain and Faith was an interesting addition. The intro to Anya was incredibly well done and it's fun to see the paralle verse of evil Xander and Willow and then evil Willows displacement into our verse. Spikes only ep in this season, I think, is his best episode, if only just seeing him mope with Joyce and ask her if she has any of those little bitty marshmallows. And the ending was pretty kick ass.
#4: Continues the stride that they hit in 3, with exception of "Pangs", "Beer Bad" and the annoying roomate at the beginning, which you could see her being a demon coming a mile away. The Initiative and Riley added an interesting dimension in that there are non-magic people fighting demons and how their involvement, which well meaning, ultimately doesn't work since they can't see the shades of grey that comes with the job. Adam was a unique villain in that he was basically the Frankenstein monster with the brain of a philosopher. "Fear Itself" was my personal favorite episode in that you had a really good haunted house, Giles with a sombrero and a chainsaw and the payoff of the "actual size" demon. One bit that I disagreed with is the disintegration of Oz and Willow. I liked them more than Buffy/Angel. And even though Tara and Willow made a great couple, like Xander said later on the series "I miss Oz". One thing that I liked overall was how Joss became more experimental with his narratives and made more what I like to call "avant garde" episodes. "Hush" comes to everyones mind, and while it was an incredibly well done ep, I lean towards "Restless", the season finale. One could analyze that ep in a film class and find lots to work with. And how could you not like The Cheese Guy.
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I don't think Joss hates normal families, I think it's more that he finds the created family much more interesting from a story perspective. It's much messier than a normal family because there's no easy way to tell who's in and who's out and it's easy to change places.
Please do get around to finishing Angel, some of the best stuff comes near the end. (Season Five is my personal favorite)
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Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
"Inca Mummy Girl", "Bad Eggs" and "Go Fish" were some dumbass ones,
I liked "Bad Eggs." It was funny. Especially Willow & Giles' exchange about boiling one's young (It's just the way Will says "you boiled your young?" like Xander's just lost his "human" status).Quote:Kendra
Kiara
Quote:Actually the original Creature (as written by Shelley) also had a philosophical bent. He was more of a Tragic Socratic figure than the slow-witted Boris Karloff movie version.
Adam was a unique villain in that he was basically the Frankenstein monster with the brain of a philosopher.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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personally season 4 is my all time favorite,
and I think if you drag out 'Pangs' to watch around Thanksgiving day you'll find it is a riot...
SMG has never been funnier (IMO) as when she is channeling Martha Stewart and forgetting about her responsibilities.
I wrote an essay on the cheeseman, from S4's finale 'Restless'
actually not so much about the cheeseman, as the cheese itself:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/embers_log/2005/09/05/
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watch the R. Tam Session vids: http://www.hittarivertam.nu/
and buy the 'Serenity' comics published by Dark Horse,
and have you joined the Browncoats yet?
http://browncoats.serenitymovie.com/serenity/?fuseaction=tools.invlink
&u=embers&linkID=36
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I loved 'Pangs' too. Spike comming to Buffy for help was great. Im suprised that 'Innocence' wasnt mentioned after watching S2, or even 'Passion'. Then again...if ya dont really dig 'Angelus' then I guess you wouldnt dig those epis. Those were the two episodes hooked me and made me say 'holy crap this show is amazing'.
I also thought it was odd that the reviewer said they enjoyed it but wouldnt pay money for it. I dunno how you could watch 144 episodes of something and not be somewhat passionate about it.
"..it is my very favorite gun."
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I have only watched through season 4 of Buffy and through season 2 of Angel. I also agree with a previous poster that Innocence and Passion episodes were the reason I was hooked on Buffy. I'm probably one of the few but I like the first 4 seasons of Buffy in this order:
season 3 I liked season 3 and 2 almost the same.
season 2
season 1
season 4.
I really was a little disappointed in season 4 but I still liked it. I'm just starting season 5. I ended up buying the chosen Buffy collection after watching the first 3 season.
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The reason I said that I wouldn't pay money for it was because I have way too many shows on DVD that I have, and that even though the whole series I can pick up for $250, I have other shows that I want to pick up as well for shows I'm more passionate about, like season 4 of 24.
That, as well as owing $400 to SGI because I got into an accident that happened because I forgot to put on the parking break ("D'oh!")
As to the whole Angelus thing, I understand that some people thought it was a real high point for the series. And even though the metaphor attached to it (girl has sex with boyfriend who turns evil afterwards) was what made it potent, it just seemed like him going evil was too much of a red flag to not notice that something was wrong.
Like I said before, I never really got into the whole Angel/Buffy relationship. People make it sound like they can give Romeo and Juliet a run for their money, but like Spike said in season 7, "Angel's duller than a table lamp." So him tunring into Angelus didn't have the impact that, say, finding out Nina was the mole in the first season of 24.
If you doubt the validity of that statement, rent the first season of 24 and watch it from beginning to end. By the time you get to the final hour, your heart and lungs feel like they're in a vice, you're about an inch from falling off your seat and you are heavily addicted to the whole thing.
BUFFY is like really expensive chocolate. It's sweet and goes down easy, but you can taste the rich subleties to it. 24, on the other hand, is like cocaine. One snort and you're addicted to it and ravenous for more.
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"YES!!!I'm a man posessed by many demons....Polite demons that would open the door for a lady carrying too many parcels...BUT DEMONS NONETHELESS!!!! Yes. I have walked along the path of evil many times, it's a twisting, curving path that..actually leads to a charming plot garden, BUT BEYOND THAT EVIL!!!"
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Well done for getting through it all :)
Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
Willow's grappling with magic as if she were a drug addict was one of the better metaphors for the series.
Personally I thought this was one of the worst metaphors, particularly in terms of execution. The viewer could not have been clubbed over the head with it any more and survived...
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Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
rent the first season of 24 and watch it from beginning to end. By the time you get to the final hour, your heart and lungs feel like they're in a vice, you're about an inch from falling off your seat and you are heavily addicted to the whole thing.
I didn't rent the first season of 24 but watched it when it first aired. I thought it was pretty good but not good enough for me to watch any of the following seasons. I'm not trying to start a agrument about which is better just saying everybody has their favorite shows. IMHO even after only watching the first 4 seasons of Buffy I would rate the series as one of the top ten all time TV series.
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OK. That's cool. But I think that if you were to watch the first 23 hours of it and see the build-up and the conspiracies and how it just builds and builds, you'd think the final hour would have a bigger impact, as opposed to watching it out of the blue without knowing all that had happened beforehand.
Just saying. It would be like me jumping into BUFFY in season 4 or some later season without seeing the build-up and mythology, which is part of why I waited for all 7 seasons to be out on DVD before I jumped into it. If I didn't I'd be really confused and lost.
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"YES!!!I'm a man posessed by many demons....Polite demons that would open the door for a lady carrying too many parcels...BUT DEMONS NONETHELESS!!!! Yes. I have walked along the path of evil many times, it's a twisting, curving path that..actually leads to a charming plot garden, BUT BEYOND THAT EVIL!!!"
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