frelling_tralk | (no subject)

Gateway episodes: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

So if you’re a late-comer to Buffy, and want to know whether you’ll actually enjoy the show, which of these standalones should you give a shot? Start with “Earshot,” the 18th episode of Season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy relied a bit much on excessively campy bad guys—fish monsters, a ventriloquist’s dummy, a giant man-eating insect, a robot—who served as narrative crutches clumsily telegraphing real-world evil. The bad guys of Season 3, on the other hand, embody villains we all know: adolescent alienation, romantic jealousy, teenage insecurity, high school frenemies, parents who just don’t understand.

Do people consider Earshot a good choice, or do you prefer to go earlier than season 3? (That would be me! I hate introducing newbies to a really late episode in a show as it spoils a lot of what comes earlier, so I try to choose the earliest classic episode that I can). Which episode do you generally consider the perfect episode to introduce newbies to Buffy? Do you have more than one?

Heh someone recommended Ted in the comments, and someone else responded with "You do want people to watch the show, right"? :P

ETA What was your first episode of Buffy, and did it win you over right away and make you want to see more?

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Oh yes, season 2 rocks when the Angelus arc starts, so... Surprise and up. I kinda think season 1 and the first half of season 2 are pretty similar in a way. More MotW than actual story prograssion, which is probably what they wanted anyway. And then Angelus and then it became more. They kept on having fillers through out but you can definitely feel the story progress after that.

I'll always think of season 4 as the odd one out just because of the whole Initiative thing. Like, here, take this and ask no question. I get that it's a new school, a new era, a new everything but suddenly these guys just show up and they look to have been there from the beginning and it's just... weird. So, for me, it's hard to choose eps from that season, aside from the obvious (where Hush comes in, because it's not too Initiative related and more MotW).

Suggesting season 2 as a starter point, especially with the Angelus arc is a little bit odd, even though I did put that in my suggestion, because at that point, the characters are all settled in who they are and what their relationship with each other is and it would just feel weird to get into something that's actually breaking without the viewer knowing anything... probably a reason why I added Angel from season 1. With Buffy/Angel, it's hard to pinpoint because it's little details here and there from almost every episodes that led them to Surprise.

Anyway, the best is to put in some fillers through the story arc to try and see if new peeps would enjoy those too. Which ones are the hardest to pinpoint because of opinions and such.

Bah, I'm rambling now.

Feel free to ramble away, I can never get enough of talking about Buffy ;) It's probably best to just pick out one episode that you think will entice someone and draw them in,and then insist on going back to the beginning to watch them all in order as Buffy was such a continuity-heavy show

And if anything I find some of the filler in season 2 worse than the much more criticised season 1 tbh. Yeah some of the season 1 episodes were cheesy, but it worked for them and honestly I never felt like they were legit bad episodes in the way that Inca Mummy Girl or Reptile Boy can be a bit painful to rewatch

There's a way to excuse season 1, actually. Since Buffy was a filler to something that got cancelled, they worked on the show because they had to fill in but you can definitely feel a vibe from the movie in there for some reason. They didn't know they'd be picked up for another season at that point. As for season 2, they had a chance to improve but they stayed in the same vibe. Again, as the Angelus arc approaches, you feel a change in the entire season. You can definitely see the difference, pinpoint exactly when it got better. Surprise was that and from that point on, it only got better... with a few weird fillers.

I keep going back to the Angelus arc but it's totally true. I kinda also feel like if it hadn't been for that arc, maybe the show would have felt the same as the first part and as season 1. I don't know. It's like everyone sat down and said "okay, we're going in deep now. Deeper than we ever did. Time to get serious about the whole thing. Mature every character, make the plot really good since a huge life changing thing is gonna happen. It's shaping the future of the show."

I hate to say this but it's almost like they got a wake up call or something. I hope I'm not the only one thinking this way.

I could so talk about Buffy to no end, too :)