Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Series Challenge (1 Viewer)

I know there are a lot of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fans out there. And I’m sure that some of you have the DVD sets just sitting on your shelves collecting dust. Or maybe you plan on taking advantage of the new slim sets with the reduced price that come out at the end of this month to start collecting the DVD sets. I know that’s how I plan on finishing out my collection.

And speaking of the new slim sets that come out on May 30th… due to the release of those DVDs I’ve been thinking about how I would like to start re-watching the entire series again. So, I was talking to my friend, John Williamson, and he said he would also like to start re-watching the entire series also. Since him and I became friends after “Buffy” was already off the air we decided we are going to watch it ‘together’ and discuss the episodes as we watch them.

I was wondering if anyone else would like to join us? What we would do is try to watch an entire disc (3-4 episodes) between Monday-Sunday and then discuss those episodes in this thread. Come on, it will be fun. This is a new way to breathe new life into a much loved show. And who knows, maybe we can get some people who have never seen the show before interested in it and they will buy the DVD sets as well.

Since the new slim sets come out on DVD on May 30th we can start June 5th, this way it will give everyone enough time to read this thread and decide if they want to participate in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD Season Set Challenge”!

I thought this was a good idea, too, because I told her that there are Buffy fans here, that's for sure because I remember the epic 'Buffytastic' threads, and thought it would be cool for them to participate if they liked.

It's really cool the way Wendy and I are doing ours, the other day we watched 'Welcome to the Hellmouth' and 'The Harvest' "together", that is to say over the phone while offering up our personal memories and comments on the show, it was in esscense our own little commentary track and it was really fun doing it that way. See, she lives in Frederick MD while I live in Wilmington DE and we did it by synching our dvd's so they would play at the same time and I really look foreward to more of that, it was a blast!

Anyway, hope others join us, if not, her and I will just relive the journey of Buffy and the Scooby gang ourselves, you'd be surprise how much fun it is revisiting a classic after not seeing it in a while.

This sounds like a good idea. If I am still unemployed in June, I'll join you. Got nothing better to do...

I did watch the whole series alone. Nobody to discuss it with. It will be nice to have people that also just watched the same episodes.

You do know that this will take 40 weeks...LOL

I would love, love, love to join you, as I bought the Chosen collection last fall and have yet to watch it. Unfortunately, I'm waiting for an Angel collection so I can watch them all together in order. :frowning:

Yep, fully aware of that fact. Just think how close we will get. LOL.

The reason I'm not making it more is because I would NEVER be able to watch more than that a week. I watch SOOOOO many TV shows and I do have a job so I don't think there is any way possible I could get more than that squeezed in, even over the summer. I hope that is okay.

Well, like Scott said this is gonna take us a while especially since we are only watching one disc per week. Maybe there will be annoucement about an "Angel" box set before then. We have until the end of Season 3. I would like to rewatch "Angel" as well and John has never seen "Angel".

I can't promise I'll watch along with you. I'm using the summer to clear the backlog of my other shows (I started 24: Season 1 last night ). But I'll certainly follow along. I've seen them enough times that I'll probably follow the discussion just fine. Or it might just encourage me to find the time anyway.

Or maybe I'll play along for season 1. For some weird reason, that's my favorite season.

Well, I waited a long time to buy Buffy until the Chosen One Collection came out last November. Since I was unemployed in the second half of December & all of January, I went through all 40 discs in just over 2 months. It was the first time I saw the series since it had been on the WB and UPN.

My opinions on this show haven't changed, and it remains one of my favorites. There were several episodes I didn't re-watch (such as "Inca Mummy Girl" and the one in which Buffy & Riley are possessed by sexually repressed ghosts of college kids, so the two of them have sex all day -- that's kind of cool in itself, but a stupid episode).

This is a series that definitely improved with age, and although the slow storyline with The Master helped the first year, the show really started to rock in the second season with the arrival of Spike and Drusilla, Angel losing his soul and becoming evil, Oz (who soon is bitten by a werewolf and later starts to date Willow), etc. Buffy and Spike strike a deal for him to leave town after she banished Angel to Hell.....even though his soul was restored at the last minute by Willow from her hospital bed.

The third season is when the program found its identity, with Angel back from Hell and his relationship with Buffy slowly deteriorating. Faith, the Human Slayer and the Mayor of Sunnydale created an exciting storyline that never failed to maintain interest. And Mr. Trick didn't last too long.

Blowing up Sunnydale High, and the Mayor (who, as a 60 foot snake ate Principal Snyder) in the season finale was a masterful touch. Plus Angel and Cordelia leave for a spinoff series.... Even Buffy left Sunnydale to find herself, only to permanently return a few episodes later. She and her mom had to finally come to terms with the secret she kept from the woman for 2 years about her being a Slayer.

The fourth season took things to a higher level, with The Initiative storyline, including that damned chip they put into Spike's head. Riley was an OK new boyfriend for Buffy, even if he was a little too straight for all the wacky going-ons in Sunnydale. Her previous date, Parker Abrams was a one-night stand. At least she was going out with humans again.

It became less about Professor Maggie Walsh and more about her demon / android creation Adam late in the year.

Oz leaves Sunnydale because he worries that the occasional werewolf in him might hurt Willow.....and Willow comes out of the closet shortly after meeting Tara in college.

5th season: The show loses focus with the sexy, but misguided Glory -- an annoying bitch who pursues the key (enter Dawn: the "sister" that Buffy never really had....but suddenly did. Joyce's death in "The Body" was at least a natural one (brain tumor), and that episode was one of the most original to come from the mind of Joss Whedon since the 4th season's "Hush".
Oh yeah, and Xander gets a job working on a construction site, and Buffy goes the fast-food route.

Then the gang kills Glory / Ben and Buffy sacrifices herself to save Dawn's life, after Dawnie's blood opens a portal that Buffy jumped into to close a few demonic dimensions that would have destroyed the world.

6th season: An excellent comeback in terms of story arcs, when Buffy is magically resurrected by some of her friends. Then the next high (or low) point is the Spike / Buffy lust-fest, and I enjoyed every minute of it. That darkness was offset by the comedy antics of the 3 nerds who used science, magic, and bargained with demons in numerous failed attempts to stop Buffy.

The most tragic event was Warren shooting Tara, putting Willow on the revenge trail as she uses black magic to become evil in pursuit....and then she becomes a murderer to boot! Giles returns from England with powers given to him by the Council, which he uses to face off against Willow, causing her own powers to be drained. Xander of all people is there, when it finally happens. Then Spike leaves town to bargain with a demon, goes through some tests, and when he wins gets his soul back so he could be a better "man" for Buffy....

The 7th season's Slayerettes in training storyline would have worked better if they had done about half as many episodes. The unexpected return of Faith (after getting out of a long-term coma, returning from L.A. where she dealt with Angel again, and then breaking out of jail) put her and Buffy on the same side. e-enter Giles after he left for England and came back twice previously. Re-enter a reformed Willow. The Watcher's Council is blown up.

Anya gets her vengeance demon powers back and then loses them again. Then after a few years with him, she loses Xander when he runs out of their wedding.

Buffy works as a guidence counselor in the new Sunnydale High for Principal Wood, who actually knows all about the demons under the school....And finally the big showdown, where Sunnydale is destroyed and some of our heroes (except Anya, who is sliced in two) save the world.

After making us laugh in the previous year, Andrew became more of a liability to the show, and it would have worked better without him. But much to even his surprise, he lived in the end....

Spike wears an amulet and "dies" but is magically brought back...sort of, next season on the ANGEL spinoff.

Do we really need to discuss this show?

Glory and Season 5 killed this show for me, although I did like some episodes scattered throughout the last three seasons, and Season 5 has three of my favourite episodes in it ("Buffy vs. Dracula", "The Replacement", and "The Body"). It started off strong and then she showed up and ruined it! I've considered buying the first 4 seasons when the DVDs are re-released. If I do, it'll be nice to have this thread around, as I've always enjoyed reading discussions of this show online, especially when I've been watching episodes. Unfortunately, the show was over before I got into message boards, so I didn't have a chance to do that very often. I don't know how much time I'd have to participate in this thread in June, but I certainly will if I have any.

John has never seen ANGEL????

Man, are you in for some GREAT TV.

I'm in. This gives me a chance to view the first 3 seasons again.

I don't have 4-7, nor do I want them, but I'll gladly join in for the time being.

Get the Chosen Collection, Ocean....if it's still available. 144 episodes, and it averages out to about $1 an episode. It's all or none for this show.

It's not all or none for me, only some.

I'm just not as big a fan of the Buff as most here.

Got the Chosen Collection as well from a Boxing Day bargain. I'd love to participate in the chat, since on my first viewing of the show entirely on DVD (Angel as well) I had to hide from Buffy threads lest I avoid spoilers. Of course a damn HMV flyer I read while waiting for an ultrasound casually made reference to Buffy's mom dying in an advert for the season 5 boxset, as if it was just a minor incident. At least it was still a surprise when it happened on screen.

I'll participate in the thread, but I doubt I'll be able to watch every episode in sync since I am currently working on Deep Space Nine!

just tore my heart out.

And I saw one very funny ep where Angel somehow got himself turned into a Seseme Street-like puppet, complete with a removable felt nose lol.

I plan on making up for lost time, though.

That's very interesting to me - considering I saw ANGEL the series first, then caught up on Buffy through reruns - only because I was interested in seeing how the characters of Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and others who originated on Buffy came to be. I am the opposite to you, in that I don't like Buffy herself, and that's why I only have seasons 1-3, because that's when those ANGEL series characters were regulars on Buffy.

When I first saw ads for this new Buffy spinoff, I knew so little about it that I didn't even know he was a vampire - I never bothered to check out Buffy at that time, but the ads were just so appealing I had to check it out. I was hooked right from the teaser of the pilot "City Of".

Mark,

I'm right there with ya - two Canucks in the thick of Deep Space Nine!

That's funny, Nicholas, that you said that you weren't even aware that Angel was a vampire, that puts you right in the mindset of Buffy and the gang before they knew, or any of us for that matter.

Another factor for me not following Angel from the start, was back then I really had no concept that Buffy and Angel would interact so much and have cross-over eps with each other, it just didn't occur to me, I thought that once Angel left Sunnydale and started his own thing in LA that the two shows wouldn't really rely so much on each other for specific plot points.

For instance the necklace that Spike used in the series finale of Buffy he got from Angel's show.


It was a case of me not realizing at the time that Whedon would connect his two creations in the way that he did, something I now know he is notorious for doing. In short, I thought the two shows would function independantly of one another without me having to see Angel to understand what was going on on Buffy, I was wrong in a few instances.

As a sidenote, and I mentioned this to Wendy on the phone while we were watching 'Welcome to the Hellmouth', it's actually only been 9 years since this whole thing began, that's not that long ago if you think about it lol. I can't wait to continue this.

Regarding the crossovers:

Like the example you mentioned in the spoiler, the crossovers were loose enough that it wasn't critical to understand the events that would occur if you didn't see both shows. Actual character crossover was quite minimal, as both series established their own identities...while some have disagreed with this analogy, I think of the shows the same way Co-Executive Producer/ANGEL co-creator David Greenwalt did - like 'Cheers' and 'Frasier': One clearly grew out of the other, but they are independent, self-contained worlds that exist in the same universe.

I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 of ANGEL immensely, and when season 3 premiered, that was when Buffy began reruns from its beginning, allowing me to catch up on things I didn't understand because of the Buffy originated plots, which were not crossovers, but carryovers from events that happened before Angel's show began. That way I learned all about Darla, Wesley, Harmony, Faith, etc and why they were important when they showed up in Angel's world. Not knowing didn't lessen my enjoyment of the show, it just left me with a slight lack of understanding.

The few character crossovers (touted as "Buffy/Angel crossover events" by The WB) were the only Buffy episodes I saw at the time - obviously from seasons 4 and 5. Still didn't get the appeal of Buffy.

I'll never forget that I didn't even see "The Harvest" until I got season 1 on DVD...its first rebroadcast on the canadian channel Space, was on the TV, but I paid no attention to it at all, as "Welcome To The Hellmouth" aired the day before - September 10th...just one of those things that stick with you in your mind, as you try to find the slightest bit of mild enjoyment on a day like that to relieve the tension Considering I ignored it entirely, it obviously didn't work.

P.S.

I'm one of the few people who consider ANGEL to be vastly superior....notice how I always type the shows title in captials...so it stands out more.

I'm glad you guys are talking about ANGEL so much because I know by doing that you are piqueing John's interest more and more and he is now more likely to start watching the series, which, IMHO, any true Joss Whedon fan should want to do with ethusiasm. I finally talked him into watching FIREFLY.

I want to explain to you guys a little more why I started this thread. I have only seen "Buffy" in it's entirity once. And that was on FX. I didn't get hooked on the show until I started watching the reruns in April 2003. After that I did watch Seasons 1-6 (actually 1/2 of S6) again when I introduced the show to an ex-boyfriend of mine. But we broke up and I didn't continue watching it. Then I met John and he told me he was a huge fan also. I told him I planned on finishing my DVD collection (I need S2 & S4) when the reduced price slim-sets came out. And he told me that he also planned on buying the DVD sets at that time. That's when we came up with the idea of watching the series all over again and discussing each episode since we didn't have a chance to do that together when it was originally on. Also, since I do have so many TV shows that I watch, and I know myself, I would of watched maybe 2-3 episodes and it would be a month or two before I watched anymore. So, watching it with John makes me accountable to someone and I won't get lazy about watching it again. And if I get people from this site involved then I'm really accountable to someone. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I don't expect this thread to be like the original Buffy threads. For one, as much as I adore you guys you sometimes write reviews like you are writing your thesis for your masters in "BtVS". I ain't about all of that. I just want to be able to say things like, "That wasn't one of my more favorite episodes of the season" or "Hehehe, that was a funny line by Xander" or "I really like the lipstick that SMG is wearing in that episode". In other words, its a more casual thread than some of the more official episode discussion threads.

Now, that doesn't mean you guys can't go full out in your discussions if you want but you won't be getting anything like that from me.

This sounds fun. I'll give it a go. I've been looking for an excuse to go back and watch this show...

Looks Like I can get the Angel sets from a friend, so I'll join in. I've only seen season 1, so it should be fun!