Thoughts on Buffy
A while ago, I was searching for a new TV series to watch and I impulsively settled on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Because I was familiar with the characters despite having never seen an episode (being subscribed to Seventeen magazine while Buffy was airing probably didn’t hurt) and because everyone is all big on Joss Whedon, I decided to check it out.
I see now why people consider Joss Whedon a genius. The show is really good.
(Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the show!)
Favorite things:
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Spike
It’s not so much that I find James Marsters attractive; it’s more like I find his character attractive. His irreverent demeanor, English accent, devotion to Buffy, and offhand quips that perfectly describe something that no one else is willing to bring up.
I ship Buffy and Spike, but I am still SO IRRITATED that Buffy was so mean to him all the time. Sure, she with him for all the wrong reasons in Season 6, but good grief. The things she said to him were extremely over the top sometimes. “You’re beneath me.” “It could never be you.” etc.
That said… they were SO HOT when they were together. *fans self* (When Spike holds up Buffy’s underwear as she’s trying to leave? OMG.) (Or when they wake up together under Turkish rugs.) (Or when Buffy is invisible and has her way with him. And then Xander walks in while Spike is… “exercising.” “Naked.”) *fans self again*
I also love Spike’s relationship with Dawn. He babysits her! She looks up to him! He calls her “Niblet!” I just love that he’s simultaneously this murderous evil vampire and a teenager’s babysitter.
Plus, he’s kind of… a total doof before he gets turned into a vampire. Something about this totally doofy poetry-obsessed loser turning into Spike… it’s great.
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Once More, With Feeling
The musical episode. I bought the soundtrack to this episode immediately after finishing the series and now I cannot stop listening to it. There’s just something about the cast singing and all those harmonies that I can’t resist. (Walk Through The Fire is especially good.) I am now extremely, extremely sad that I wasn’t yet a Buffy fan when Cinema 21 in Portland used to host Once More With Feeling sing-alongs!
Also: Giles’s knowing smile/laugh when Buffy sings, “Hey, I’ve died twice!”
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Tabula Rasa
This is the one where Willow accidentally causes everyone to lose their memory while trying to perform a memory spell on Buffy and Tara. The comedy in this episode is beyond wonderful. Spike thinks Giles is his father, Spike is wearing a brown tweed suit and a crazypants earflap hat, Giles and Anya believe they are engaged… the whole thing is simply amazing.
Other Thoughts
- I’m not sure I understand why everyone seems to love Angel so much. I don’t dislike him, per se, I just feel like he wasn’t around long enough for me to get to know him. I mean, Buffy was super into him, but I feel like I never understood why. Perhaps I should go back and watch the first couple of seasons to see if anything jumps out at me?
- I don’t like Faith. I get why people love her, but I found her a little too flippant and “whatever, I do what I want.”
- Legitimately scary bits: The Gentlemen, Gnarl the skin-eating demon, The First turning Anya into this white-eyed creepy person, and The First making Dawn see scary flashes of her dead mother.
- SPOILERS: Tara’s shooting and subsequent death seemed totally and completely random to me. I was convinced that Willow was going to bring her back right away and was very disappointed it didn’t happen. Also: Xander losing an eye was one of the most awful things to happen in the entire series. I was convinced here too that Willow was going to come through as his best friend and heal his eye, especially since they didn’t have her help Tara, but no. Sad! Poor Xander. END SPOILERS
I’ve heard mixed things about seasons 8 and 9 of the Buffy comic but I’m kind of interested in checking them out – not really sure how to go about this because I am not a comics person, but I saw digital copies for sale somewhere that I might take a look at. The artwork looked amazing.
I’m also going to try watching Angel. I started Episode 1 while I was in the middle of watching Buffy and didn’t find it spectacular, but then again I didn’t find Buffy spectacular for the first few episodes either so I’m willing to give it a chance. Plus, MOAR SPIKE YES YES.
5 Comments
Okay, honestly, I didn’t read your blog post. ONLY BECAUSE I want to watch Buffy. I have never really seen it and I know that it was super popular. I am looking forward to starting the series
YES, go go go! Season 1 is funny – their outfits are all awful and hilarious (so many pairs of overalls!) and Buffy is a little dippy, but it’s so so worth watching and getting hooked. I kind of want to watch the whole thing over again to catch stuff I didn’t the first time around.
Angel: DON’T WATCH IT! It’s a really, really bad show. I admit there are some nice episodes, but allover it’s a really, really bad show. S4 is the worst ever TV season I’ve encountered. Also, S5 completely ruins the magic of the Buffy finale. It’s horrible, horrible, horrible. And if you allow me to quote Buffybot: “His hair goes all straight up and he’s bloody stupid!”. Yeah, me no diggin’ the Angel either. I think the people who are into him are fans of the first hour who watched Buffy on TV when it was released and were then disappointed when he left.
I can tell you which Angel episodes are actually worth watching, if you insist. That would probably not be useful for the (crappy) continuity, but I’m sure you’ll have regrets once you’ve sat through all seasons of Angel.
The Comics: DON’T READ THEM. They’re really, really bad comics. There aren’t even any good “episodes” in it, it’s all just completely random, over the top, silly, [insert random negative adjective here]. And they completely ruin the magic of the Buffy finale (plus other sacrifices of the show).
Other than that, Buffy is without a doubt the best TV show ever. But you know that already
Oh, I forgot to mention: If you plan to re-watch Buffy, I can highly recommend this review site: http://www.criticallytouched.com/buffy/reviews.php
I’ve spent hours there reading those reviews and when I rewatched Buffy, I always read the review of the episode I just watched. It’s very insightful and it helped me a lot with some of the more mysterious episodes (like Restless).
Oooh, thanks for the link – I read a few reviews of my favorite episodes and I really agree with a lot of what the reviewer says. This is fun to read through.
For what it’s worth, I have really, really low expectations from Angel… I think I mostly want to see it so I’ve got context for images/quotes I see on Tumblr, haha. What I’ve seen of the comics (again, on Tumblr) looks so over the top and ridiculous that I kind of can’t help but want to check it out. Again, low expectations! I mostly just want to know what goes on.