'BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER' Season 1 dvd challenge! (1 Viewer)

[Wendy_L]

That's cuz this 'challenge' was my idea and I only have time for 1 disc per week because of how many other TV shows I watch on DVD. Right now I'm watching about 10 shows, if not more.

I don't what I'm gonna do when we have to watch both "Buffy" and "Angel"... I guess I don't really need 6 hrs of sleep a night.

 

[Nick Martin]

10 shows?

Damn, I have a hard enough time co-ordinating 2 or 3...

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

LOL, 10 shows is a mere walk in the park for Wendy, or at the very least a leisurly jog. Wendy, tell Nicholas how many shows you watch altogether during an ongoing season.



Russell, there are no rules for posting your thoughts and comments on these shows, you don't need to limit your comments, just fire away and have fun with it.

 

[Ruz-El]

As I said befor, we are watching them 1 a day at work (so basically 5 episodes a week) which puts us a little ahead. If there are no complaints, I'll continue to do the reviews, otherwise, I'll hold off in posting the next disc reviews till next monday. I leave it up to you guys.

Yesterday at work, The Buffy Nerd (who I should probably call Phil, as that is his name) made a viewing chart of watching all of Buffy and Angel, an episode a day, 5 days a week, in proper viewing order between the series. We discovered, that this challenge well end on May 15, 2007! He also is keeping track of my ratings and his own, so as to come up with an average per season. I'll post these in the season wrap ups.

 

[Nick Martin]

Impressive list, that's for sure.

I thought it was 10 shows on DVD alone, but nevertheless...

John, I fully understand your fear of being spoiled on anything Veronica Mars...I hope to get the DVDs, since I cannot watch the show on UPN, and my local canadian channel aired S1 only after its original UPN broadcast, last summer.

I want to see S2 more than ANY other show on TV.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

A lot of shows, eh Nicholas? Wendy is a master at deligating her time for her shows.

 

[Wendy_L]

That is no problem Russell. Like I said, I wish I could watch "Buffy" at a faster pace but I know I could never do it with all the other shows I'm trying to watch this summer, which is about 20 shows in all, if not more. But hold your reviews for the later episodes until we get to those episodes, ok? I'll list what episodes need to be watched each Monday and if I'm not available to do that then John Williamson will for me.

The chart sounds really cool and like something I would do myself. I love keeping charts and lists. LOL. And I would definitely be interested in hearing what the average is.

 

[Ruz-El]

LOL! I should see if Phil still has his Buffy/Angel charater chart that graphs out the relationships of each of the major players based on the actors height and age. He also has spreadsheet that allows you to enter your age and see how your age relates to all the other characters. I'm not calling Phil "The Buffy Nerd" for no reason!

 

[ethanTo]

Hmmm....Summer, obviously. And....ummmmm. I don't know. As far as music, sometimes I think it's great to spot a song you know, if it fits just right. I think that the OC does the best job with its music, of picking interesting things that work, although their season 2 BAIT SHOP was very annoying and gratuitous. Like in the death of that surfer kid this season (I stopped watching this show this season because I got so bored with it), when they played a song off of Sufjan Steven's Greetings from Michigan. On the other hand, I feel like if the song is already so played out by the time that they air the episode, it is greatly annoying. Example, there was a Smallville episode around RECKONING this season where they kept on playing the James Blunt Beautiful song, amidst the ever-tedious Lana-Clark longingly gazing sequences. UGH. Just terrible. While it makes sense for One Tree Hill to have so much music, as it is a bigger part of the show (esp. with Peyton), they really went over the top this season, what with the lame appearance of Fallout Boy (what a worthless guest spot) and their Cingular RingTones challenge. So gimmicky. But you can't blame them for knowing their audience, and Veronica Mars aside (which is out of the league of the others, Smallville, OTH, the OC), I would say that the ever-cheezy formulaic One Tree Hill has become my favorite guilty pleasure teen drama.

To return to the topic at hand, while the Bronze is another one of those gimmicky PEACH PITS, at least they are not using it to plug bands, by the end of Disc 1, anyways. It has yet to become obtrusive.

 

[Wendy_L]

LOL. I'd like to see that. If you find it and it's in Excel you should send it to me. Send me a PM if you ever find it.

 

[Dave Mack]

Sound like fun, guys! I got my gf into Buffy in Sept. 2004 by showing her the musical. We then watched ALL seven seasons of Buff and ALL five of ANGEL in order with all of the crossovers intact. Was ALOT of fun. It took us about 10 months. Have fun, everyone!

and here is a pic. of OUR Buffy...

[url=http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4856/buffdapooch7uw.jpg] [/url]

She kinda has Sarah Michelle's nose. DOH!

d

We also just got the out of Print Buffy board game off Ebay which is fun but we need more Scoobies to play with. Any in the East Bay?

 

[ethanTo]

Witch
CREATURE FEATURE begins! Or monster-of-the-week or whatever. I don't know how I feel about this, we had an interesting discussion going on in the Battlestar Galactica thread here, about continuous shows where each episode flows into the next (like BSG does) versus the way that a show like Smallville is more episodic, Smallville being a notorious monster-of-the-week. You can already smell my bias a mile away, and I expressed my opinions more fully in that thread (I am really down on Smallville). I like (just from seeing the other posts) that they are going to bring back these characters later, I love it when shows dredge up old characters, gives the world a more real/immersive feeling I think. Especially if the characters are really minor players, like Amy and her mom. Attention to detail. Since it's still so early in the show, no big deal though! I liked this episode, in all its cheesiness.

So much snappy dialogue!! My favorites were "That girl's on fire!" Cordelia: "Enough with the hyperbole!" haahaha I love that they give 'big' words to Cordelia, I think almost all of my 'favorite' lines are going to be from her! I also remember willow awkwardly saying "I know this really good cauldron" - what the heck!! haha

The FX in this episode were really terrible, as others have said. When that girl lost her mouth, oh man -

I guess this episode was about mothers and daughters, with the way that they kept comparing Buffy and her mom's relationship to Amy and her mom's. Neither mother-daughter pair seems to understand each other, and I think the buffy-joyce pairing shows how that can be normal, or disastrous like Amy's family, and it seems like that is mostly determined by the Mom in both cases. What happened to Buffy's dad anyways? Was that explained in the movie?

I think the play is WHICH (which is mother which is daughter)

 

[ethanTo]

Teacher's Pet
Urgh.


I am with the rest of you guys on this one, this was a boring episode. It wasn't nearly as fun as Witch, and there weren't really any twists of any sort. I liked the line about her predatory shoulderpads but that was about it. I just realized what this reminded me of, that character Reese WItherspoon played in Legally Blonde, I wonder if any of the inspiration came from Buffy.....

 

[Ruz-El]

So far the music at the Bronz has been pretty fair. I readilly admit to not understanding the Bronz at all. All the high school kids hang out their, yet none are old enough to drink. How does this place stay in business? We have nothing like that here in E-town north.



for hipness. When I countered with The Cramps on a 90210 halloween episode singing "Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon", he had to concede.

Wendy, I'll get Phil to look for the excel files. If I can get them, I'll let you all know and anyone who wants a copy can PM me.

 

[Simon Massey]

Welcome to the Hellmouth:star::star::star:
It is strange watching this episode again having seen all of Buffy and Angel and the most immediate impression is how small a budget they seem to have. Despite this, what is also really clear is how well the group of characters interact with each other. The only one who doesn't quite work well is Giles, who in this single episode goes for the most stereotypical posh Brit I have ever heard. ("My name is Mr Giles!") Please!!! At least by episode 3 he had dropped this a little bit.

Still a great opening scene as well, which I remember watching for the first time and thinking that this show was trying to be a little different. It is a little slow though throughout the rest of the episode though this is clearly down to the need to introduce the characters. Xander and Willow are the stand out characters here and I like the way they introduce Cordelia as someone nice then immediately show her bitchy side.

Didn't this show run as one with the Harvest because the cliffhanger is really bad. I dont particularly think the guy who plays Luke is very good anyway (seems to be struggling to speak through the prosthetics)

The Harvest:star::star:1/2
Similar to the first half but not as good, mainly because of the vampire Luke who I didnt like throughout both episodes. And given the way the Harvest is built up throughout the episodes, it turns out to be pretty dull really. At least if they had more vampires raiding the Bronx at the end to make it feel a little more important (budget limitations I assume).

The Witch:star::star::star:1/2
This is an episode I really like. Again the group gel really well together and it's immediately clear the role each is going to take throughout the season - Giles the father figure, Willow the researcher and "tech" girl. Xander is the standout character yet again as he tries to find his place within the core group. As the episode revolves around a parent trying to live their past through their child and presumably commenting on how some parents stifle their children by doing this, I liked the way they contrasted this with Buffy's home life and how her parents have, at least up to this point not been involved enough to the extent that Buffy is craving some attention from her mother.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Well, his name IS Mr. Giles, Rupert is his first name.

It's funny that you mention the actor who plays Luke struggling to speak, the same thought occured to me, I guess some actors are better at it than others. Try watching Fright Night, Chris Sarandon has one hell of a time trying to speak lol.

 

[Scott-S]

Joss mentioned this in the Commentary. He said the teeth were a nightmare to try and talk while wearing. He said Angel always had a hard time with it.

 

[Nick Martin]

Oh yeah...don't you just love Summer?

The other is early Cordelia. She didn't say it as often, but still....

 

[Simon Massey]

It's not the dialogue it's the way he says it and his mannerisms in that scene. He tones it down later which was a relief.

Teacher's Pet:star::1/2
The first weak episode. There are some nice scenes early on as you see more of the school and the characters. But the problem is the show doesn't seem to have a focus at all and as just a run of the mill Monster of the Week episode you need a decent monster to be worthwhile. This one is crap. Still Nicholas Brendon makes it watchable and David Boreanaz turns up to remind us that he was in Episodes 1 and 2 though he has very little to do. As well as showing how he and Buffy are attracted to each other, it also reminds the audience that you have little idea who or what Angel is and that this is still something to be dealt with. With the success of the show and the spinoff being inextricably linked I doubt there are few first time watchers now who aren't aware of who Angel is. Still best to leave this until the relevant episode....

 

[Nick Martin]

That guy has been a little of everything - Brian Thompson (Luke) has been a vampire on 2 different shows, he will appear later on as another demon in season 2 of Buffy - when we arrive there, as well as several Star Trek aliens - including a Jem'Hadar.