Buffy-verse catch-all

20 years ago this month, Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on television.

This is the place to discuss Buffy, Angel, the shows, the video games, the comics, everything. Well, except the original movie... that sucked.

Since this topic seems to get brought up in other threads from time to time, but had no concentrated thread, here we are.

For those who haven't seen the shows, now is your chance. They're leaving Netflix soon.

For others who watched, recorded, and rewatched every episode as they aired, went to conventions to meet other fans and hung out in late 90s chat rooms talking to other Buffy fans and cast members like I did... welcome home.

Dat last shot in Angels tho

I shall then direct interested parties to the second link in my sig--it ought lead to my sister and I going on about Buffy at great length.

I remember being home on a Tuesday night Sophomore year of High School when the premier happened on the WB. It blew me away.

You should check out The Passion of the Nerd. This guy created five minute recaps and reviews of Buffy as an alternative to watching troubling episodes in Season 1. Teacher's Pet, I, Robot, The Puppet. You know, those episodes. His insights were so interesting that he kept going and plans on doing the whole series. He's up to Season 4 and Angel Season 1.

Also, I firmly believe that astronauts would win even without weapons.

Stele wrote:

This is the place to discuss Buffy, Angel, the shows, the video games, the comics, everything. Well, except the original movie... that sucked. ;)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/lSP04KC.gif)

But seriously, I love LOVE LOVE both of those shows. A lot. Firefly is great, one of my favorite scifi shows, and probably, in some ways, better than Buffy or Angel, but it came after. I love the shows, I like the comics, hell, I even enjoyed the movie.

I caught them all on DVD, I didn't watch much TV, or shows in particular, in the 90s. So my jiujitsu instructor introduced me to them later on. And I binged on everything in a very short time.

I never did make it through S1 when I tried Buffy. How long do I have to make it next time I try before I hit the part that should catch me?

Of course, with it leaving Netflix, I don't know when that 2nd chance would be.

Antichulius wrote:

I never did make it through S1 when I tried Buffy. How long do I have to make it next time I try before I hit the part that should catch me?

Of course, with it leaving Netflix, I don't know when that 2nd chance would be.

Season 1 is dated. Season 2 and 3 are great. Season 4 is not good, that was when Joss went off to do Angel (incidentally, season 4 of Angel is also terrible because that's when Joss went off to do Firefly). Season 5 and on it takes a much different tone and changes quite a bit, but also for the better. It gets more mature.

The thing with those shows is not just that the seasons or episodes are objectively good, it's also that the writers are really good at writing characters. They grow and evolve in well written ways, and you get really attached to them. That's really how the shows get you, and how they developed such a strong following. Not so much on the merits of the episodes, but on the characters and their relationships.

Grenn wrote:

You should check out The Passion of the Nerd. This guy created five minute recaps and reviews of Buffy as an alternative to watching troubling episodes in Season 1. Teacher's Pet, I, Robot, The Puppet. You know, those episodes. His insights were so interesting that he kept going and plans on doing the whole series. He's up to Season 4 and Angel Season 1.

Yeah, I used to have a quick and dirty watch list for S1.

If I remember off the top of my head it's... Welcome to the Hellmouth & Harvest, Witch, Angel, Nightmares, and Prophecy Girl.

There are a handful of other jokes in later seasons that you miss from Hyena people, praying mantis, Robot Internet Dating, or demon hunting dummies, but not necessarily worth it. Yeah you miss the end of principal Flutie and introduction of Principal Snyder, but whatever.

I think I had a list for S2 for a while too. As great as the season was, there were still a couple of big misses... Some Assembly Required and Go Fish for instance.

Still there's some great character development in s2 and beyond where it's probably worth watching everything at least once.

EDIT: And yes those really were from memory. I think for s1-5 I can name every episode title.

And of course my wife suggested we watch some Buffy tonight... she suggested it on Netflix, with 24 hours to go.

Coming up with a top 10-15 episodes to watch is tough.

Starting with Prophecy Girl, probably skipping right to Surprise/Innocence, Passion, and Becoming... we'll see after that.

Stele wrote:

They're leaving Netflix soon.

"Soon" is a funny way of saying "tomorrow"

shoptroll wrote:
Stele wrote:

They're leaving Netflix soon.

"Soon" is a funny way of saying "tomorrow"

Didn't realize until I logged in tonight. People were mentioning it in the Video Game Deals takeover.

Guess I'm not watching seasons six and seven, then.

Ah well.

Been really wanting to rewatch Angel though. So that's a bit of a disappointment.

Buffy going off of Netflix is really inconvenient because now I have to bust out my ancient DVD sets

We're partway through Buffy S5 / Angel S2, no one spoil Shop! (I've seen all of both series.)

That's the other problem... tough to watch both series at once switching discs.

I guess there's only a couple key crossover episodes in s4/1 and s5/2 that you could plan around with long 6-8 episode gaps in between. S6/3 has nothing because of UPN/WB shenanigans. But for S7/4 there are some nice arcs.

FYI it looks like both series are staying on Hulu for a while.

Stele wrote:

That's the other problem... tough to watch both series at once switching discs.

I guess there's only a couple key crossover episodes in s4/1 and s5/2 that you could plan around with long 6-8 episode gaps in between. S6/3 has nothing because of UPN/WB shenanigans. But for S7/4 there are some nice arcs.

I've been following airing order, which is going to be inconvenient, yeah

Yeah I've done that through a couple of marathons, finally gave up the last time I watched it all, and just did streaks from crossover to crossover. Better flow for the most part.

I tried that with Season Four and Season One of the shows. Then I just stopped watching Buffy and finished Angel before finally finishing season season four of Buffy.

I feel like I didn't miss anything of significance.

Entertainment Weekly just came out with an issue with cast reunions and behind the scenes stories. Buffy is one of the shows they did.

http://ew.com/tv/buffy-the-vampire-s...

Their main site will have more

Glad this thread got made.
As someone who only started watching Buffy last year and finished it a couple of weeks ago, I'd say it holds up really well, especially if you're someone who has nostalgia for the 90s.
I watched off and on mind you, my girlfriend watching and me half-paying attention while playing games. I did often leave my game to go sit and watch though and things don't tend to pull me away mid-session that often.

I would say just tough it out and go through the first season, but I typically don't like skipping things, which is why I'm considering starting the series over by myself now that I've seen most of it all the way through.

Season 1 is a rough go, no doubt, but there are some highlights that show the promise. Namely: "The Witch," "Nightmares," and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."

Seasons 2 and 3 speak for themselves--there are some stumbles, but nearly all of these seasons are straight-up soaring.

Season 4 is an odd duck. It has some of the best episodes ever, but some parts of the arc of the season are a strange stew of intriguing things and lame sh*t. The overall story isn't very well executed, but it's still watchable enough that you can not notice.

Season 5 has some of my favorite bits and fleshes out some great characters, but it is a drag. It swiftly becomes not watchable enough that you can not notice the overall story sucks a lot.

I might as well throw the bomb--season 6 is a dreary mess of unpleasant and miscalculated ideas with arguably some of the worst episodes of the series, while season 7 looks up at season 6, jealousy raging in its eyes, seething "I wish I had that!"

4 had some issues with the actress that played Dr Walsh not being contracted for enough episodes. She had already taken another theater job or something and they had to write her out abruptly. Definitely a big part of the story and pacing issues with s4.

Most everyone agrees 6 is the worst, despite the spectacular musical and still compared to the uneven first season.

7 is also pretty well regarded, with a nice finish. Never heard anyone claim it's the worst until just now.

Count me in as another who thinks season seven is the worst.

Season six has some high points (the musical, Tabula Rasa) mixed with some ideas that probably looked fine on paper but weren't executed so well. Season seven starts off pretty strong but basically dies around the time they start hauling in the Potentials. S6 was at least somewhat interesting even when it was going off the rails, S7 had what felt like endless episodes of nothing.

I'll defend S5 though. It has some weak spots, and the plot has some holes, but overall it's really great.

It is my favorite series of all time.

Stele wrote:

Well, except the original movie... that sucked. ;)

Nonsense, the movie is brilliant. It's a perfect snapshot of a particular movie sensibility, and without Whedon at the helm it avoids the self seriousness that infects most of the rest of his work.

Y'know what probably made S6 the worst?

Spoiler:

Bunnies! It must be bunnies!

Demyx wrote:

I'll defend S5 though. It has some weak spots, and the plot has some holes, but overall it's really great.

Spoiler:

Giles killing Ben really gets overlooked due to what happens immediately after

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Season 4 is an odd duck. It has some of the best episodes ever, but some parts of the arc of the season are a strange stew of intriguing things and lame sh*t. The overall story isn't very well executed, but it's still watchable enough that you can not notice.

Season 5 has some of my favorite bits and fleshes out some great characters, but it is a drag. It swiftly becomes not watchable enough that you can not notice the overall story sucks a lot.

Maybe it's because I've only watched through these shows the one time, but season four took me months to get through (perhaps a year?) because it was completely uninteresting. Season five, on the other hand, I managed to finish through a few weeks. So I'd have to say I disagree quite a bit.

Then again, I just had to ask myself "Wait, who was the Big Bad in season five? ....Oh! Oh yeah. .......oh....yyyyyeeeeaaaahhhhh....."

I haven't seen season six. My brother defends it, but he also thought the premise of three random Sunnydale kids saying "Yo, let's just, y'know, be villains" was a good change from a stale concept of each season having a specific sort of Big Bad (that they've only really done well twice: Spike/Angel and The Mayor, and even f*cked up in Angel by creating some sh*tty Big Bad in season three), poking fun at the need for a Big Bad, and also creating a lesser threat based on what Buffy's arc.

Of course, this is me remembering what he liked. Still haven't seen it. Might watch it on Hulu. I'm paying for the damn service to be ad free, after all.

I feel that when I rewatch S6 in the hopefully near future it'll have aged well due to the Trio being... very relevant. Not to get all P&C (although this is a pretty political show so it can be hard to avoid).

My season rankings would probably be 3, 2, 5, 4, 6, 7, 1. For Angel it's a lot harder because I consider AtS the more consistent show overall, and I mostly enjoy the maligned S4.

I think I remember hearing that on Netflix the shows were made widescreen even though they weren't intended to be so you'd see stuff on the sides of the screen like mics...

Not a big deal I realize but trying to offer consolation to those who are bummed they missed it being easily available there.

It took me a while to get into Buffy. I started season 1... dropped it. Picked it back up. Took forever to get through season 2. Finally became a huge fan with season 3. This was post-airing, pre-streaming, so thankfully I had a friend with all the DVD collections. Buffy/Angel will always be two of my favorites, so I'm glad my friend encouraged me to stick with it when I wasn't initially enthralled.

Demyx wrote:

I feel that when I rewatch S6 in the hopefully near future it'll have aged well due to the Trio being... very relevant. Not to get all P&C (although this is a pretty political show so it can be hard to avoid).

That... is a horrifying thought. And you're probably right.