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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

[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?