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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

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Joyce! Oh, gosh that was a shocker. Not so much because they had foreshadowed it but it just happened and SMG's performance killed me. She was like, "Mommy?" Awwwwwww!

I just watched the last five eps of Angel last year and was unspoiled for years too. I'm not really in those fandoms and I'm glad so I remained unspoiled and new nothing of any drama. Angel was still a good run all these years later. :-)

Tara. Ouch. That hurt because she was one of my favorites. :-( I didn't have favorites much on Buffy and liked the gang as a whole but I really liked her. Fortunately, Willow was ragey on my behalf so I was less shocked about Tara than I was over Willow.

What I was going to say the other day was how valuable the first season was. I liked season 1 or I wouldn't have continued watching the show at all. But we built a relationship with those characters. When Willow changes after Tara's death and Xander talks her down, we know that little girl almost as well as Xander does. I felt like I literally watched Willow grow up over years of watching the show so then that season and that arc hits home even more keenly, I think.

So for me, like you, season 1 = good stuff. :-)

Now, I gotta go watch that vid!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

and SMG's performance killed me. She was like, "Mommy?"

OMG yes - and then her and Dawn (MT) in Forever - the look on Michelle's face when she rips up the photograph of Joyce - just, I have no words for it.

And then in the next season the mirror of that scene in the Body when Dawn finds Tara's body in what used to be Joyce's bedroom. KILL ME NOW.

And yes to Tara - so much so. People do not GET how great she is. She doesn't have a lot of screentime but she's crucial to some really important episodes: Hush, Who Are You, Restless, Tough Love, the Body, Family (which is more important to the S5 arc than I realized on first watch), OMWF, Tabula Rasa, DT, Entropy - you've got 5-7 of the series best episodes right there. And when Tara steps it up she is awesome. I love her Bargaining "Thanks, that was my first axing." She's so modest.

Have you read the Tara meta pocochina wrote in 2011 btw?
http://pocochina.livejournal.com/150718.html?format=light

What I was going to say the other day was how valuable the first season was. I liked season 1 or I wouldn't have continued watching the show at all. But we built a relationship with those characters.

YES for S1 love! *high five* That is exactly right. And in my case, I watched the show over three weeks rather than seven years and it's amazing how involved I got (am) with the story, like no other tv show.

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Gosh, seven years of my life. I hadn't thought about it that way. It was just . . . Buffy. Buffy at 8pm. Gotta go home and watch Buffy. Also overlapped with Angel for two years so it didn't seem that long.

Funny story. Once I was rushing home from work and I stopped at a Wendy's for a baked potato with broccoli. I had only about 15 minutes and they were going soooo slowly to nuke a potato, my gosh. This tough guy was ahead of me and he was big, brawny, and wearing a leather jacket. Finally, he was all like, "Damn, I'm gonna miss Buffy!" No joke, he said that. I didn't say anything but it was nice that we were on the same page. :-) That was Buffy. Everyone had to get home and watch it. Even those you least suspected of watching it.

There is Tara meta? *gasps* I didn't know that! Remember, I wasn't in fandom back then. Heck, I didn't even own a computer! I'll have to read it.

I liked when Buffy, Spike, Tara and Dawn were like this little family. Weird family but it worked. Spike picked Dawn up from school, Tara would make pancakes . . . she held them together, you know? I missed her sooo much.

Aww, it's nice to talk about Buffy. I never get to do that! frelling_tralk's journal is amazing!