It’s good, except for all the scenes where people fight vampires. Maybe there’s a special edition that cuts those out?
The monsters/demons/vampires were the worst parts of the series. It never felt like Whedon dedicated much of a budget to the makeup department. Still, all that good dialogy bits more than made up for it.
They get better in later seasons. The first two seasons are especially crappy.
Is this topic actually about anything, or are we just declaring shit about Buffy?
Season two was the best!
Season three was great, but has a crappy ending!
Season four had a stupid villain!
Season 5 should have ended the series!
Season 6 had this whole “magic=drugs” morality tale!
Season 7 sucked, except for the very last episode, which was cool!
You’re insane. Season two was easily the best of the lot.
Just watch the episode “Hush”, I think from Season 3. It’s brilliant.
Is this topic actually about anything, or are we just declaring shit about Buffy?
If it’s about anything, it’s about my frustration with the tedious action scenes that need to exist in order for the “slow moments” and “character scenes” to be there by contrast. Buffy as far as I can tell is good because of the character tensions and situations that emerge as a result of the vampire/slayer combat. (Plus some standard high-school/soap situations thrown into the mix.) The vampire/slayer combat itself is, most of the time, completely rote. I don’t really blame the guys who made the show, as there are only so many ways to choreograph a fight scene (particularly on a limited budget). But I almost wish they would just use an intertitle saying “Buffy fights a vampire and puts a stake through its heart” so as to save a few more minutes for the dialogue/character stuff that actually makes the show worth watching.
You forgot Conversations With Dead people, which was excellent, as was the one where Spike’s trigger (not his chip) is removed.
I adore Buffy.
I never got into the Buffyverse shows until well after they both had ended and moved to syndication, and I actually started with watching Angel. After having seen all of Angel, I wanted to start watching Buffy, but always found reasons to put it off. So finally, after getting a Hulu account, I started watching it a few months ago. I’m now to season 7 and it is easily one of my favorite shows ever.
I’m not sure I would put out a blanket statement that season 2 was the best. Spike and Dru are easily the best villains (though Spike was a favorite character overall since I saw him in Angel s5).
The episode “Halloween” left a bit to be desired, but made up for itself in the later references of the episode where Xander gets the rocket launcher to kill the Bad, or his leadership skills against the Mayor at the end of s3.
“Ted” was funny, just because I am a sucker for John Ritter, but was disappointing compared to the rest.
I have to say that the best range was about halfway between s2 and into s3 with the Angelus arc, then Faith’s presence. Faith was such a wonderfully flawed character and a great counter to Buffy.
Speaking of s3, I was surprised at how much I actually liked Mayor Wilkins. He had the human personality that The Master would occasionally slip into, which was a great change of pace. I also thought his relationship with Faith was so good for both characters. It wasn’t a master/minion relationship at all, but was a fully reciprocated one. I loved that.
I was ambivalent about s4. The Initiative stuff was great, but the rogue experiment in Adam was one I wished wasn’t there. They made it work, but I was still overall unimpressed. At the very least, the resolution and the consequences of that resolution somewhat made up for it.
S5 was probably my favorite, overall. Glory was an atrocious villain, but it took a back seat to all of the cool things like Willow and Tara’s relationship, Dawn (who’s annoyance, I thought, was necessary to develop her to the likable character that she is in s7), Joyce’s death (which was done in such a haunting and sad way, I think I actually started to cry while watching “The Body”). But my favorite single episode was the first, “Buffy vs Dracula”. I don’t know why I liked the cliche Dracula being introduced into the show so much, but I loved it. The character was just so perfectly done and so romanticized, I actually wanted to know more about how he interacts with other vampires and the demon culture that clearly exists in the Buffyverse Underworld.
S6 is actually the point that I saw my first episodes of Buffy. It was the episode where she started working at the Doublemeat Palace. The season was great, though so depressing. But despite all that, they actually made some interestingly threatening villains out of the Trio and Willow. I don’t know that the drug addiction analogy was really necessary for that. I think the abuse could have been done in a less hamfisted way. Also, way to bring back Amy the Rat. I don’t usually try to point to characters in shows and call “hot”, but she really was, even early on. Not as a rat, of course. As a human.
But probably the hardest loss has been to Anthony Stewart Head from the regular cast. I find Giles to be one of the best characters ever, because he is so different from the youthful Scoobies. Its hard seeing the show without him and makes me wish for the days when they’d congregate in the Sunnydale High library.
I’m definitely looking forward to the final season. The stuff with Spike has been wonderful thus far, and I know a bit about what happens at the end of the series, so I’m really looking forward to watching it unfold. Also, DB Woodside is a surprisingly entertaining actor to watch. The only other thing I’ve seen him in was Romeo Must Die.
Holy shit. tl;l2bconcise
Actually, one of my favorite things about Buffy is the way that later on the vampire fights become pretty perfunctory. I think there’s an opener where she’s walking along talking to someone and then just casually stakes a vampire as they pass. Not even a big deal anymore, y’know?
Yeah, if it’s played as a joke I could see that working, I just get bored when the show eats up 1-2 minutes for yet another generic choreographed rumble.
4, actually. 4 is under-rated, IMO.
If the topic is action scenes in Buffy then I think Charles is correct- they did get better as the series progressed (and the budget correspondingly got bigger).
My biggest issue with Buffy’s action scenes was that while it often had some really neat choreography, they really didn’t do a good job selling that it was Sarah Michelle Gellar and not a stuntwoman doing the action.
They did this to good effect in my favorite episode of all time: Once More, With Feeling.
Christ, if it’s really that boring, go install a PS3 game during the fights.
Ideally, no part of televised entertainment should be boring. That is why you cut stuff out.
So at this point, can we just declare our favourite Buffy episodes?
I nominate
1> Conversations with Dead People
2> The Zeppo man
3> Hush
4> Once more with Feeling
5> The Body
Season 2 was great, but my personal favourite is still season 3. The mayor and Faith were great characters.
I never really got pass most of season 7, even though Nathan Fillon was playing a great villain there. It came at time where I didn’t have much access to TV. Still, Buffy was one of those shows I’d schedule my life around. You know, life before TiVO.
Did anyone else have to defend your buffy watching habit to friends. I had several who thought it was just another dumb teenage show about kids made dumber by demons.
I liked the season finale with the cheese guy. I surely do not remember what that one was called. I think it was season 4, but sure I am not. They’d basically finished off the big bad the episode before, so it was almost entirely a bizarre dream sequence. Which wound up foreshadowing rather a lot, actually. Conversations With Dead People, Hush, and Once More With Feeling are all great.
Yeah, that was the Season 4 finale.
My favorite would be “Passion” followed by “The Zeppo”. Honorable mentions include “Hush”, “OMWF”, “The Body”, “The Gift”, “Chosen”, and “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”.
I’m also in the minority that thought S7 was a real return to form (admittedly, I watched it on DVD- it may have played much worse on a regular TV schedule).
Oh yeah, and while Buffy’s highs were, er, higher, Angel was the more consistent and better show.