Can someone please explain Buffy (tVS) TV series to me?

Cafe Society
1

I rented season 1, disc 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week, and while it was amusing and even interesting, I don’t quite see the mass appeal. The acting is decent but not extraordinary (some better than others); the characters are fun, however. The “special effects” are campy, but Buffy’s fighting seems “girly.”

I couldn’t quite figure out why the show has lasted as long as it has (is it still on?). Am I missing something? Is it just that the first four episodes aren’t the best the show has to offer (Hell’s Mouth, The Harvest, Witch (best of the 4 IMHO) and Teacher’s Pet)? Or is that the best it gets, and I’m just not going to find it interesting?

I’d be willing to give another disc or 2 a try if someone can convince me otherwise.

2

I would watch the rest of the first season. To me, though, the second and third season were the two best and that’s when the show really peaked in my mind. Well, at least until the final few episodes of season three, which sort of annoyed me.

The last few episodes of season 5 were also really good.

But yeah, watch the rest of season one.

3

Prepare for the floodgates to open, Deadly Accurate - lots of Dopers are fanatics. I am one.

  1. The first few episodes are only okay

  2. The final ep of the first season, Prophecy Girl, begins to give a glimpse to all that is BtVS.

  3. What it is - works into the metaphor of teen life and identity. Just like the X-Men uses mutation as a metaphor for puberty and teen angst (the powers manifest at puberty and leave the kid feeling like an outsider and that everyone is persecuting them, while inside they know they have special gifts, but can’t control them), BtVS uses the whole Slayer context to explore feelings of teen alienation and acceptance and empowerment.

  4. Watch the 2nd season for the arc where she falls in love with Angel (a good vampire) and that goes awry. By the time you get to the two-ep story where the love goes bad, the metaphor is beautifully realized.
    Carry on, other BtVS fans…

4

IMO, the best episodes of Buffy are the ones that have obvious allegories to growing up and experiencing common themes – and I agree with the two that went before me that the 2nd and 3rd seasons are the best, but don’t discount seasons 4 and 5. There’s still a lot to like about them.

Someone gave me a video just as the 3rd season was beginning with the admonition, “Don’t argue. Just watch these 5 episodes, and I’ll give you more when you’re done.”

The first episode just about killed me. It was just not very well done, whatever it was, and I so wasn’t impressed with it at all.

The second and third episode started to grow on me.

By the time I was done with the tape, my buddy already had two more to give me. :smiley:

Keep going. But definitely don’t quit until you’re at least halfway into the second season.

5

Weadon explores themes. He is insidious. He gets inside your head, and by the time he is done, you realize he has explored issues and controversies that other producers have been making a big deal about, beating their chests about, he has done it better, and he hasn’t even told you about it. It’s just there.

So don’t quit.

The first season is enjoyable (if you enjoy it) mainly for the quips and the gags. About half way through the second season, you realize that he is talking about separation, about what it means to be human, to reach out to each other. Third season, you realize that things have gotten a whole lot more central. I’ll let you realize the themes after that. He is sneaky. He had a lesbian love affair going on before Ellen did it, and he did it better. In one episode, he packed more emotion about death than NYPD Blue did in a whole season.

And then he went past that. He talked about failure, and coming back from failure. Addiction, and dealing with the craving of addiction as you try to recover from it. What it means to want and want, and want, and not be able to have. And to still have to live, when it is all gray. When you want to kill yourself it is so gray, and how to find a reason for living in the middle of the gray.

And he did it all in a damn show about vampires and teenage girls kicking ass.

Yes, it’s worth it.

I won’t even start about Firefly again. It has its own thread somewhere.

6

I never watched it until I married a man who has Seasons 1-5 on disk. Now I have seen every episode till the midpoint of season 5. Have to say, I’m sorry that I missed out the first time. (In my defense, I was living overseas where it had not made the rounds, but still . . .). Besides what the others have said–that it is a metaphor for teenage life, there are great themes explored–I think it is funny as hell. They realize that they are not putting out Hamlet but even its ridiculousness is believable since they don’t pretend it is anything but ridiculous.

So as a latecomer who didn’t get the appeal, I definitely recommend you stick with it.

7

At its best, the show has the wittiest dialogue on television. They balance horror, comedy and teen angst in nearly perfect proportion.

I have to agree about Buffy’s “girly” fighting style. There was one episode where she skewered four vampires on a single flagpole en brochette; If Adam West were dead, he’d be turning in his grave.

8

I’d agree that it’s worth going through the rest of the first season, but if that doesn’t do it for you, you’re just one of those folks who don’t get Buffy. (I bet you kick puppies, too! ;)) I was hooked before the end of the first episode (largely because of the scene where Principal Flutie tears up Buffy’s record and then pastes it together again and the interaction between Buffy and Willow, and then Giles, at the Bronze).

–Cliffy

9

I swear, I didn’t mean to!

OK, you guys have convinced me to give season 1 another try. If I really like it, I’ll probably buy it along with season 2 (and as I keep liking it, I’ll keep buying seasons.)

I try to remind myself that even The Simpsons wasn’t at its best the first few episodes.

10

:waves hand: Oh, oh, oh. I want to get in early in this thread.

An unhealthy amount of my post count on this board is about Buffy and spin off series Angel. I have this board to thank for discovering three of the best shows on tv ever. Apart from these two, there is also Babylon 5. I experienced all of them way too late.

So, this 42 y.o. man from Sweden can relate to the show. Damn right.

When I surfaced on this board again, late in sping 2002, there were so many Buffy threads I was amazed. I guess it was around the final of S.6 and I asked the same question you do in the OP. To be brief, I own S.1-4 and Angel S.1-2 on DVD. I dl’d all of season 7 and had the eps about 30 hours before airtime in the US (don’t ask). Suffice to say, I got hooked.

From listening to the commentaries on the DVD sets, a few things are quite obvious: The writers, directors and producers of the show know that it’s cheesy. There is one comment (I don’t remember who) that says: “Well, that’s Buffy for you - violence and cleavage.”

So yeah, I can see why you’re unimpressed. But the show works on multiple levels:

  1. Cheesy soap, much like Charmed.
  2. Witty drama-horror-comedy with snappy writing, great dialogue and (later in the franchise) fantastic action and spectacular visual effetcs (for tv). Especially in S.4 of Angel.
  3. A metaphor about growing up. About fitting in, while feeling the outsider. Another comment on a DVD set: “If Joss [Wheadon, creator of the franchise] had had a single happy day in high school, we wouldn’t be here.”
  4. On an ever deeper level it’s a story about good and evil, but not at all the way it’s normally done in any media of popular culture. It’s about the good in evil men and women, and the evil in good people. About the choices and sacrifices we make. About why someone innocent has to die, in order to achieve a larger purpose. It’s about redempetion and futility. About fighting the good fight although you know you can never win and that there will never be any awards, medals, well not even recognition, because no one knows what you’re doing, or why.* It’s very spiritual/religious but it never gets connected to one faith or doctrine. It’s in fact very, very dark and explores things about humanity that we might not be comfortable with.

Above all, it’s Joss Wheadon and he had a story to tell. And all the best movies, books, tv shows are made by people who want to tell a story. BtVS does this better than most and on an apic level I normally get from books, not tv.

*minor spoiler, vaguely written: A character tells Buffy, at some point in the show what’s in it for her: “Death is your reward.” I’ll let you find out for yourself if this really has anything to do with what actually happens. I just mention it, because I think it shows the tone of the show, perfectly.

11

Sorry, that’s not true. Ellen came out of the sitcom closet in 1997, Tara didn’t show up on Buffy until 1999.

He did do it better, though.

12

Just to offer a bit of a dissenting opinion:

Yes, I think it’s worth pressing forward with watching; and yes, I think Whedon does a good job of addressing issues that aren’t faced elsewhere. And it did a great job of having heroes who did stupid, selfish, and otherwise bad things. But the series did have a number of flaws that true believers tend to gloss over: a main actress who really can’t act; plotlines that are implausible even for a show about a vampire-hunting teenager; and a lack of certainty about whether it wanted to be taken seriously or not. If you can get past that stuff, then you should enjoy the show.

Here’s a fun thing to do: find a bunch of Buffy-lovers and say “you know what? I really like the movie with Kristy Swanson. I really liked her in the role.”

13

Steady on, there, mate.

You might want to have the mods add a ::ducks & runs:: bit at the end of your post…

14

Was this the episode when

Buffy’s mother died?

I though that was a tremendously powerful piece of writing, especially in the context of vampire slaying.

15

Deadly Accurate, you can’t judge the whole show by the beginning, because the point is that Buffy is a tapestry. Actions and choices have consequences that resonate across entire seasons of the show. The characters grow and change, and yet their essence stays the same. Keep watching. If you don’t love it by mid-Season Three, we can’t help you. No one can.

16

I watched a few episodes here and there. Saw The Body, saw Buffy vs Dracula, and um Bargaining 1 & 2, and thought “Ok, well, whatever.” Then a friend gave me the tapes of the first 3 seasons.

Yeah, that’s all she wrote.

The first season is a lot of fun, though I know some people advise to just skip right over it. It really picks up steam in the second season. Especially aroud episode 3. “You were there? If everybody who says they weren’t at the crucifiction were actually there, it would have been like Woodstock!”
“Who are you?”
“You’ll find out Saturday”
"What happens Saturday
“I kill you.”

Hee! I love that episode. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh right, once you allow it to suck you in, it’s brilliant, really. They’ll be characters you love and hate all at the same time, and stories of redemtion and heroism and love and loyalty and friendship and adulthood and when I’m not feeling bitter and angry (it comes and goes) I can look back on my years with BtVS with real, genuine fondess. I fell in love with the characters, so much so that I’m still writing fanfic, and it’s been over for nearly a year.

17

Sarah Michelle Gellar was a fantastic actress in the first several seasons, JerH, and I’ll kill any man what says differ’nt. I don’t think she was trying as hard in the last couple years, though – although she continued to create some excellent scenes.

–Cliffy

P.S. I liked Kristy Swanson’s Buffy, too, but it was a whole different enterprise – and by no means as powerful.

18

The show started out shakily; the first season is the weakest. So keep going: it’s well worth it as the show finds its footing and builds momentum.

19

Seriously, do not highlight this box unless you want to wreck season 5 for yourself!

She isn’t told “death is your reward.” She is told “death is your gift.” She initially believes this to mean that “a slayer’s just a killer after all,” tying back to her meeting with Dracula at the start of the season. She later figures out (through what I still consider the most annoying bait and switch of the series) that her death is the gift that she can give to Dawn, allowing Dawn to live while still saving the world.

20

Otto: You’re right. I was confused about episodes and thinking it was in 'restless’´as a foreshadowing.
Carry on.