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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I would suggest: Band Candy, Hush, Halloween, Beer Bad, Fear Itself, Once More With Feelings. Oh, boy, so hard to pick any one episode they are all so great for different reasons.

How old is the person? Older the person, I would suggest later the season.

I love most of those choices! Halloween and Fear Itself especially are perfect one-off episodes to watch for the first time

I'm not sure about the musical though, I always feel like those one-off concept episodes are a bit too odd to introduce a newcomer to Buffy as they're not as representative of the average episode. Hmm now I'm curious about what people's first episode was, and whether anyone did watch something like Hush, The Body, or OMWF first and it made them want to see more :goes to edit that question in:

Edited 2013-05-08 14:33 (UTC)

That's true, there is some back story that would make both HUSH and OMWF a little tough to follow.

Dead Man's party might be nice, but you'd have to add an explaination of why Buffy left.

School Hard is good and I Only Have Eyes for you is sweet, but might be a little angsty...

I think School Hard would be a great intro to the series as it's shaking the series up a bit with Spike and Dru, but it's at the beginning of that villain arc so there's not too much continuity to keep track of

And I'm all about The Spike

I can relate to that *g*

Yeah, and since he grew up just down the road from us, it would just be a sin not to pay proper homage

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