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[frelling_tralk]

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?

Comments

[falafel-musings.livejournal.com]

I watched a few standalone Buffy episodes before I was convinced to watch the whole show. 'Hush' was my first and I think that's probably the best gateway episode. But 'Once More with Feeling', 'Restless' and 'The Body' are all powerful standalones too.

I'm in the minority but I didn't like the high school seasons as much as the laters ones. Of the early seasons, 'Earshot' was one of my favourites, along with 'Passion' and 'Doppelgangland'. My other favourite episodes are listed here, most of them later season episodes.

http://falafel-musings.livejournal.com/88732.html

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It depends on who you talk too really, a lot of my flist were also more into the later seasons and generally used to write meta and discuss them more. I'm kind of a mixture because my favourite seasons are 3 and 6 and a lot of people I talked Bts with found season 3 overrated and dull compared to later seasons, whilst a lot of fans of season 3 thought that Bts was terrible in season 6, so I always feel like kind of an oddity for liking earlier and later Bts equally more or less!

[falafel-musings.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm one of those fans who found S3 overrated! Or I'm just not a big Faith fan. I liked S5 and S6 the most. I also loved S2 purely because of Drusilla, my Goddess! I agree with what you said up thread thst 'School Hard' is another good gateway episode. I dragged myself through S1 Buffy. I found it so tedious.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Most of my flist found season 3 boring because of B/A I think, I was always the one arguing that their scenes didn't take up all that much time lol. I found their scenes kind of draggy in season 3 granted, but there were so many classic episodes that year that I'm happy to overlook that. My fav seasons used to be 3,5, and 6 actually, but on my rewatch this year I found myself not enjoying season 5 as much as I remembered and it dragging a bit for me in places, so I'm afraid that's a season that I've now started to think of as overrated with all the praise it gets compared to less popular seasons 4 and 6. I loved the initial intro's of Glory and Dawn and thought there were a lot of interesting ideas that year, but the pacing seemed poorly done as they used Glory making empty threats in one too many episodes which dragged things down for me a bit

I loved your list btw! Conversations With Dead People and Storyteller are so underrated by fandom

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Oh and ( I'm on a roll now!) I loved the second half of season 2 very much, as well as scattered episodes and moments in the first half, but that's another season I see as overrated I'm afraid because the pacing to me is just awful that year. Following up What's My Line with Ted AND Bad Eggs? Following up IOHEFY cliffhanger with Go Fish? :shakes head sadly: I find it quite hard to get through a lot of the early filler from that season like Reptile Boys as well. It is one of my favourite seasons in terms of the central arc though, when it was on it was ON. I just wish it was 6/7 episodes shorter

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

so I always feel like kind of an oddity for liking earlier and later Bts equally more or less!

I've actually gotten pretty much that reaction from one other fan because I said that for me 1, 4 & 7 are all underrated, and I guess the other person thought that combination odd. (Also they are not an S7 fan generally).

I think I can find good things in almost any season, episode or character on the show that isn't loved in fandom (except Gone? I can even find something to like - ok, two scenes - in AYW which I otherwise loathe with a passion), or downright hated. I can get differences of opinion, yeah (S3 isn't my favorite but I really haven't revisited it in a while so I might change my mind on it) but it's when we get into dumping vitriol on something that I want to say "hey wait a minute here". Except the aforenamed episodes.

Although there IS Willow with the ray gun in Gone, which is awesome, so even in that ep there's something. ;)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Seasons 1 and 4 are definitely underated. There are sooo many good episodes in season 4 especially, I generally feel all "wait a minute" when someone complains about the Iniative arc ruining the entire season for them. It wasn't that big a part and, like I say elsewhere in this entry, it's really only The I In Team and Goodbye Iowa that drag horribly for me. The Iniative episode is okay, as as the wrap-up in Primevil, and there's still plenty to enjoy with season 4

The main problem was that the main arc focusing on Riley instead of Buffy wasn't very emotionally resonant, but then they had a lot of important character growth for Buffy and Willow still as they got through their first year at uni, and we see the gang confront losing their former closeness in The Yoko Factor, even the final Restless is all about exploring the main character and their dreams and insecurities.

Buffy's angst that year just wasn't tied in with the main villain the way that it was in seasons 1-3 and Adam was more of a generic monster figure to defeat, but still that should hardly make the entire season a total wash-out. It's not like Adam gets a huge amount of focus in most episodes after the mid season two-parter anyway, it was generally just a couple of scenes in episodes like Who Are You or Superstar to remind us that he was still around, and then the big finish with The Yoko Factor/Primevil, so it really shouldn't matter THAT much that Adam is nobody's favourite villain. And at least the final confrontation with Buffy was a very cool-looking one, and it tied in with the scoobies all coming together to find their individual strengths

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Well first off, Happy Birthmonth, hon! (I like birthmonths, more excuses to celebrate and no one has to feel embarrassed about being late. I'm trying to make it "a thing".) I hope you're enjoying your day; be nice to yourself this weekend.

Re: seasons 1 & 4, I can't really add anything except a lot of YES and WORD. I love the way both seasons basically predict everything that's to come. NIghtmares is Buffy's journey - her challenge to overcome - in a nutshell; and Restless calls back to that ep w/Willows dreams, and to Puppet Show (Giles being decapitated.) Pretty much everything that happens from S5-7 is predicted in some way in S4,whether it was intended or not. I love WAY partly for that reason, esp re: Buffy, and Spike. It's WAY not SB that foreshadows the tone of their relationship (including the callback in DT); Faith and Spike meeting in that ep works beautifully for me as the moment that Faith "hands off" the role of Buffy's "dark mirror" to Spike. and I honestly fanwank that Buffy was as affected by being in Faith's body as vice versa. Giles trying to distance himself from Buffy; the end of her relationship with Riley, etc; Willow's increasing darkness S4 is the shift from a social framework (high school) to a more intensely psychological one, into Buffy & Willow's "heart of darkness". As well as Spike and Faith's opposite trajectory. I love that basically Buffy, Faith and Spike "meet in the middle" in S7.

And at least the final confrontation with Buffy was a very cool-looking one

That part where Buffy raises her hand against the bullet and it turns into doves? Or she rips Adam's "heart" out? Love it (even with the weird yellow or red contact lenses she had to wear. Her hands are so elegant, and how much do I love her wavy hair in that episode? Yeah, I guess I'm shallow.)

and it tied in with the scoobies all coming together to find their individual strengths

But there's the downside, which I think is one of the show's main themes: in a sense, they each tend to "overidentify" with their individual role or label (Giles especially; he tries bury his emotions under logic and has perfectly rational reasons for leaving in S6 or trying to kill Spike in S7. He ALWAYS has a rationale.) I think the show is very clear re: the problems with that. Or depending on someone else for your identity, being too meshed, especially in romantic relationships.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

That part where Buffy raises her hand against the bullet and it turns into doves? Or she rips Adam's "heart" out? Love it (even with the weird yellow or red contact lenses she had to wear. Her hands are so elegant, and how much do I love her wavy hair in that episode? Yeah, I guess I'm shallow.)


I love all of those moments, especially when she says "you can never hope to grasp the source of our power" before ripping out Adam's heart :loves:

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I love all of those moments, especially when she says "you can never hope to grasp the source of our power" before ripping out Adam's heart :loves:

I know, right? (And then Riley walks in, whatever.)

There actually is one moment in that ep that bothers me that probably shouldn't, I guess - the zombified versions of Walsh and Forrest are genuinely scary to me because they are superstrong but they are still partly themselves - and Forrest's dislike for Buffy from before is magnified by this IMO. But there's something about the callback to Becoming ("What's left?" / "Me") which was SUCH an awesome moment that to hear it repeated "What else you got?" but then have Riley answer "Me"...Ok, I know it's supposed to be awesome and ties in I guess with the whole "Buffy's isolation theme" (maybe)? It just struck an off note for me, esp watching the show last year all at a go (within three weeks); I might have felt differently watching it on tv back in the day. (Then again the writers had a very different opinion of Riley than I do apparently.)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Heh I barely remember that moment which just shows how much of an impact Riley made on me! But I do remember that people weren't all that impressed at how he managed to dig the chip out of himself with a knife and keep moving around. They seemed to forget that fandom accepted those kinds of moves from Buffy because she was a superhero, you can't just have an ordinary human pulling off impossible feats like that and expect your audience to accept it

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Well supposedly he was superpowered in some way by the chip so - IDK, residual power still in his system? But, yeah, I don't know how he managed that one either.

I have to wonder about the symbolism of it being near his heart - thinking of Out Of My Mind and S5, Buffy blames herself for the breakup, but whose heart is damaged here?