Episode reviews from a first time watcher
POSTED BY: fredgiblet
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 07:40
VIEWED: 16323
PAGE 2 of 10
Episode 104: Teachers Pet
I'm already finding the mini-intro at the beginning of each ep annoying. I'm glad that they've ditched it (I hope permanently).
The male fantasy scene at the beginning of the ep was hilarious with Xander killing the vamp and playing his guitar.
The first scene with Angel was pretty good, Xander's immediate dislike for Angel (based off of his physical attractiveness) was funny, the interaction between Angel and Buffy was good and shows development of their relationship. "Fork guy" was a pretty stereotypical enemy, and the fight with him was uninteresting. Miss French was an interesting enemy, but the final fight was somewhat lacking (probably due to the low special effects budget).
Buffy and Angel are starting to be attracted to each other (Angel has a head start but I'm getting ahead of myself), and there are some trust issues within the team (a later-season Xander probably wouldn't blow off Buffy's warning). Overall a decent episode but again, nothing spectacular.
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Quote:
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Episode 104: Teachers Pet
I'm already finding the mini-intro at the beginning of each ep annoying. I'm glad that they've ditched it (I hope permanently).
The male fantasy scene at the beginning of the ep was hilarious with Xander killing the vamp and playing his guitar.
The first scene with Angel was pretty good, Xander's immediate dislike for Angel (based off of his physical attractiveness) was funny, the interaction between Angel and Buffy was good and shows development of their relationship. "Fork guy" was a pretty stereotypical enemy, and the fight with him was uninteresting. Miss French was an interesting enemy, but the final fight was somewhat lacking (probably due to the low special effects budget).
Buffy and Angel are starting to be attracted to each other (Angel has a head start but I'm getting ahead of myself), and there are some trust issues within the team (a later-season Xander probably wouldn't blow off Buffy's warning). Overall a decent episode but again, nothing spectacular.
What do you mean by mini-intro? Not music etc.......I love that...head starts bobbing I get all excited.
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What do you mean by mini-intro? Not music etc.......I love that...head starts bobbing I get all excited.
I believe he's referring to the, "In every generation there is a chosen one" or whatever.
HONKS
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EDIT: Curses, WTE has beaten me to it!
Quote:He’s probably referring to the “Into each generation there is born a Chosen One. She alone can stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness” intro montage that appears before each episode in the first two seasons, to introduce the concept of the show to new audiences. It’s especially bad in the first season, when they just have some guy deliver the lines in this cheesy, melodramatic way. I actually rather liked it in Season Two, when Giles was doing it--he really believes it when he says it, and he says it in that Giles kind of way, the manner he uses when describing the phlebotinin* every week so that the preposterous sounds not only plausible but concrete and interesting. The little intro sort of drops off towards the end of Season Two, I think because people had gotten the concept by that point, and yes, Fredgiblet, from Season Three on it is no more.
Originally posted by Kaneman:
What do you mean by mini-intro? Not music etc.......I love that...
And yes, the theme music is awesome. The band that did it, Nerf Herder
, actually plays at the Bronze in at least one episode (and the band that did the Angel theme, Darling Violeta, plays the Bronze twice--I believe the first time is in “Faith, Hope, and Trick”). *If you haven’t watched the commentaries, Fredgiblet, (which you really should, the Joss ones are great--though sometimes there’s spoilers), phlebotinin is the “mystical MacGuffin” they use on Buffy and Angel to propel the plot: the amulet, the spell, the enchanted whatever that they need to find or capture or destroy. An example of “scientific” phlebotinin from Firefly would be the catalyzer from “Out of Gas”--we don’t really know the specifics of how it works, just that the ship needs it to run. So it propels all the action in the episode without being tremendously important in and of itself (it could be any piece of hardware--our attention is on Mal and the crew’s actions and reactions).
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Quote:
Originally posted by WTE:
I believe he's referring to the, "In every generation there is a chosen one" or whatever.
Yeah, after the third episode or so I was already going "OK I got it". It was particularly annoying when I was compressing episodes, since then I had one more thing to cut out.
Quote:
and yes, Fredgiblet, from Season Three on it is no more.
*Happy dance*
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Episode 105: Never Kill A Boy...
The one where Buffy has a crush. I didn't really care for this episode the first time I saw it, and with the knowledge of what happens later with the Anointed One I like it even less. I appreciate that Buffy wants to have a social life while she is slaying, but the whole episode was devoted to a rather flimsy plot device (Owen coming along). I did like near the end where Buffy realizes that her thing with Owen isn't going to work out though.
I liked the fake Anointed One too, he was appropriately crazy and buff, when we found out who the real Anointed One was I was surprised but figured that good things could come of it (how wrong I was).
This is probably my least favorite ep so far (having just watched Enemies)
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Episode 106: The Pack
A strangely fun episode. The whole "Evil Xander" thing was very well done. I liked the interaction between Xander and Willow (though it was painful to watch), the acting of the pack was very funny (though a little overdone). The death of Principal Flutie was unexpected and kinda gross. And last but not least, Xander's little talk with Giles at the end was great. The premise was a little weak but Nicholas Brendan (Xander) was great enough to lift the episode up.
A pretty good ep, but I've been too spoiled by later seasons to think it anything better than good.
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Episode 107: Angel
I'll be up front and honest, I like the Buffy/Angel couple better than any other pairing I've seen on the show so far. Angel is my favorite character and Buffy is a close second. So when I say this episode is really good, I'm biased. This is the only ep that I've re-watched in it's entirety to do these reviews (so far)
I thought that The Three was somthing of a waste, but they were just redshirts so we can move on.
Unfortunately I already knew that Angel was a vampire, so it came as no surprise (the problem with watching nearly a decade after the premiere). But Buffy and Xanders reactions were great (Xander immediately saying "kill him" Buffy not answering when asked if she loves him).
I liked Darla and think it would have been cooler if she had lived longer (I'm aware that she's not gone forever (I've heard things, don't correct me if I'm wrong)). The Master is still cool I think he's a great villan and wish he had lasted longer too.
Personally I think that crossbows are a poor choice for fighting vampires, a regular bow can be fired much quicker than a crossbow, though it does require more practice. But then I think swords are a better idea too (if you cut off their arms they can't hit you, think about it).
The plotline had some holes (Why did Buffy have Angel stay at her house during the day? Why didn't Angel speak up faster at the Bronze?), but overall was quite good and gave us all the background information we needed on Angel (Vampire? Check, Heinous monster? Check, Not a heinous monster anymore? Check.) It also had an excellent end image (Buffy's cross burned onto Angels chest).
My favorite episode of Season 1.
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Quote:
...and the band that did the Angel theme, Darling Violeta, plays the Bronze twice--I believe the first time is in “Faith, Hope, and Trick”
And one of the songs they played was called "Blue Sun". Interesting, no? :)
Remember, Kiddies, you can't spell "QUAGMIRE" without "I", "R", "A", & "Q"!
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Episode 108: I Robot You Jane
A very strange episode. Fritz gives computer nerds a very bad name, you don't have to be jacked in to be alive, it just helps...a lot.
Willow is cool and I thought it was great that she got to be happy about a relationship for a little while. The use of computers was slightly odd, makes me cringe a little when I watch the technical scenes. The introduction of Miss Calender was cool, she proves to be an interesting character, I wonder how much of her was planned beforehand. I liked Willow freaking on "Malcolm" too, it was great to see her hammering away at Malcolm, though the end of that fight was a little unsatisfying.
A very strange and fairly good episode.
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