(no subject)

[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

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

When Noel Murray reviewed BtVS & AtS for the AV Club as a first-time viewer, he gave the episode Angel a grade A and called it "the first installment since the two-part pilot that really lives up to the series' premise." He also called it a "perfect episode" but regretted that he'd been spoiled for Angel's identity as a vampire by a featurette he'd seen previously.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/angel-etc,13034/

I agree it's one of the essential episodes of S1 (actually, it's pretty damn necessary); and I do love Nightmares because it's the "skeleton key" to Buffy's psyche and dilemma, basically. I do agree that for me PG is the first GREAT episode.

I rather liken S1 in some ways to a better version of the movie - still playing around with "tone" and not quite committed either way, like they are still feeling their way around (is it a commentary on real life, on horror and high school movie tropes, both?) With PG they finally plunged right into the meat of the matter. Your 16 year old protagonist goes off to a lonely death? Shit just got REAL.

I do however have a bizarre fondness for The Hyena, the wonkiness of the rape "joke" aside: I mean, they ATE Principal Flutie! I did not see that coming. Also - Jonathan and the scariest dodgeball game EVER. (And dodgeball used to frighten the hell out of me in school.)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I have a weird fondness for Out Of Mind Out Of Sight from season 1 as Macy was basically me, so I guess that a lot also depends on what theme a new viewer might pick up on or be particularly interested in.

I think The Pack is pretty popular actually, I've seen it fairly often referred too as one of the better season 1 episodes. We never played dodgeball at my school in England, but weirdly The Pack made me think it looked kind of fun if you look away the hyena aspect, which was...probably not the intended message :P I was HOPELESS at team sports, so that always looked like kind of a fun game to me as you could play more as an individual without letting down the rest of the team, but yeah I'm guessing not lol

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I'd forgot about OOSOOM (which makes me feel so guilty - poor Marcy, always the forgotten one); but during S1 I definitely identified with both Willow and Marcy (I wasn't "invisible" in the way Marcy was in that I was picked on quite a lot and pretty constantly until late high school; but I was definitely a "loner" with few friends and didn't have many people wanting to sign my yearbook. Which sounds rather pathetic when I type it out like that.)

Re: dodgeball, I guess if you were good at it, if you were nimble and athletic and were popular, i.e. didn't have people throwing that ball at you as hard as they could for the fun of it? Then I suppose it could be fun. I still remember the time the ball hit my face square in the nose and forehead and how much that hurt - and how amazing it was that it didn't break my glasses. To me it seemed fairly fucking sadistic - and that's without the mortification of being the very last one assigned to a team because nobody picked you. Good times. */end sarcasm*

So I guess add Jonathan to my early-seasons identification list!

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Yeah that doesn't sound good :/ My association with sports and balls is more never getting the ball thrown at me because I was frightened of catching it! We didn't have yearbooks at my school in England either, everyone used to sign each others school shirt instead on the last day of school. I was the only person in my year who didn't want anyone to sign my shirt because I was so paranoid about all the boys writing "50p a ride" with arrows on the back of the girls shirt and similar things. I went to a really classy school clearly :P

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I was so paranoid about all the boys writing "50p a ride" with arrows on the back of the girls shirt and similar things. I went to a really classy school clearly

WHAT? Words cannot convey my horror at that shit.

Open letter to parents, media executives, producers, writers, etc: Stop encouraging boys to be jackasses. IT CAN BE DONE.
Thanks muchly,
RSD.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was gross, I went to a pretty rough local comprehensive and everyone just thought it was funny I guess, but I just couldn't let people write stuff like that on me :/

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Good for you, hon!

It's maddening that we're supposed to laugh when other people objectify us (whether through a "joke" or an unwanted come-on) and are called humorless, frigid or bitch when we don't consent to it or find it funny.