Speaking from the viewpoint of a straight guy – Angel’s makeup was just freakyweird in the first season and a half or so. Not his vamp face, either, just his regular face. It looks like the makeup people, once they were told he was a vampire, wanted him to look different all the time.
Didn’t want to start a new thread with what’s really the same subject, so this is a ::bump::
I just started season 3. This is hurtingmy cradit card.
Anyway. After seeing the first four episodes, I’m really starting to get it. Way darker, moodier. Relations getting more complex. The dippy high school characters are all but gone.
I now very much see averyone’s attraction to Willow. She used to be kinda cute and adorable, but very much a little girl. Turning into woman now. Xander is not only the wise cracking coward, but get’s to show some darker sides. Cordelia, who was such a bitch, and not very likable, is getting to be a very likable (hrmf and do-able) bitch. Oz is really cool.
The Buffster… wow… better looking than ever. Also, the brood ballances nicely against her soda-pop, bubble-gum style.
Faith leaves me cold so far.
Yes! I hated the really pale foundation/powder thing they did to his face, and especially the red lip gloss. It was a stereotypical vampire look; which I liked when Dracula showed up. It’s much more interesting if the vampires look like everyone else. I do, however, like the rat-eating, dirty, shaggy-haired Angel before he got the nice pad and all the leather gear. So vulnerable . . . like a puppy . . .
Season 3 is my favorite The Gaspode, and Faith gets more interesting.
It’s odd that S3 is my favorite because we only see Spike once. 
But every single episode is flawless, IMHO.
Second pepperlandgirl’s choice of the third season as the best. It’s got a great villain with a great plan, writing so sharp and polished you could shave with it, twists and turns that would make a snake named Twisty-Turny envious, and (here’s the most important part (to me, at least)) every episode (except one) leads to the big finale and proceeds logically from the continuity laid down before it.
Season Three is a study in how episodic television should be written.
blinx, I’m in the same boat with you. As it turns out, Amber Benson is not sexually oriented the same way as Tara (yay!). She has even remarked, “Oh, man, I wish I was a lesbian, 'cause I could get laid every single night for the rest of my life!” in reference to her many (lesbian) fans. 
It is funny how SMG is the youngest (barely twenty when the series started). Alyson (Willow) Hannigan was twenty-three when the show started, but she looked fifteen (if that!). I found her to be cute and adorable those first couple of seasons, and then she “blossomed into womanhood” (i.e. they stopped dressing her too young so much).
Not that I ever had anything bad to say about Seth (Oz) Green, but Alyson and Amber had great chemistry as Willow and Tara. Pity we won’t see that anymore…
Apropos of pretty much nothing in this drooling fanboy/girl thread, but not wanting to open another thread to ask a Buffy question, I have a Buffy question. In S1 and S2 opening credits, there’s a shot of Willow bathed in white light and screaming. What ep is that from?
Oh, did anyone see the Buffy movie “Backstory” on AMC? I caught the last ten minutes or so of it last night. Given how much I’ve heard of Joss’ dislike of the movie, the interviewees seemed pretty nice in talking about him. Although maybe there’s more “backstory” that didn’t make the puff piece…
That’s actually not Willow. That’s Amy’s mom, from the first season episode “Witch.” Yeah, I know it looks like Willow because it flashes by so fast, but, if you watch “Witch,” you can see that that bit is definitely lifted from Amy’s mom trying to send Buffy to “the dark place.”
No one has mentioned one of my favorite characters - Kendra. Love that accent!
Why do I watch the show? Because it’s funny, and exciting, and I’ve gotten involved with the characters’ “lives,” and my wife likes to watch it, . . . and I’m a dirty old man. 
Ahhhh. So after a marathon today, I’m done with season 3. going traveeling tomorrow and will be gone from the dvd for two weeks. When I get home, season four will be waiting in the mailbox, and I wanted to see all of season 3 before that. I’m now officially a Byffy glutton [tm].
Have to agree. It’s by far some of the best stuff I’ve seen on television during the past few years. I might even go so far as saying it’s broken new ground, the way Miami Vice did 15 years ago.
I don’t need to repeat all the obvious stuff for all fan boys/girls, just add my €0.02 that I like how many layers the show has. For once, the metaphores are kinda subtle, for television anyway.
Oh and Vamp Willow… yummy!
I actually just got the first two seasons on DVD (Region-1) this week and I love 'em. However, the fact that no one else has mentioned the terrible, terrible picture quality in certain scenes suggests to me that I got a bum copy. Looks like Cliffy will be heading back to Best Buy tomorrow.
–Cliffy
Cliffy which scenes? Let me know and I will dutifully watch my DVD’s tonight (all in the name of research) and let you know the result.
It shows up from time to time, but there are two places I remember where it’s really awful. In an early episode (don’t recall which one) there’s a scene where the Scoobies are going through kids’ lockers, then again during What’s My Line when Angel and Buffy are talking at the ice rink.
–Cliffy
Cliffy I have the same problems with the picture quality as you. Especially the scene in which they were snooping around in other people’s lockers. I actually thought it had been recorded with a security camera. If it was anymore grainy it would have been static.
BTW : We Euro-trash are very lucky indeed (for once). I have seen the release date for Buffy Season 3 in the States in the winter of 2003. In Europe we are at season 4 already !
Thanks for explaining that. I was just at Amazon trying to figure out how in the world The Gaspode had ordered season 4 when Amazon lists season 3 as “not yet released”.
BTW, I’m another new fan. Until about two weeks ago I had never seen an episode. When one of my friends discovered my secret he loaned me the first season. I’ve now seen the first 12 epispodes and can understand the popularity of the show. Now I need to get cable so I can see the new season.
I am relatively new to the phenomenon Buffy as well. I had seen an occasional episode, but didn’t think that much of it. It was after I saw the last few episodes of season 5, I think, that I was hooked.
BTW the DVD-packs are way more expensive over here. The complete second season costs over 120 Euro’s (about 130 USD ?)
Darn cool show. Some of the writing and directing is among the best I’ve seen.
num, giles
num, spike
My wife and I are also new Buffy converts. We borrowed the seasons 1 and 2 DVD sets from a friend, and got good and hooked. When we started winding down to the end of season 2, we begged all of our friends to see if anyone knew anybody with the rest of the seasons on tape. (Damn lucky Eurodopers with their 3 and 4 on DVD already, grumble grumble.) We did manage to score a contact – a friend has 3 through 5, but not 6, so we’ll be okay for a while. Hopefully FX will be running season 6 by the time we catch up on tape, and we can shift right over.
The writing on BtVS isn’t just good, it’s scary good. Best example, I think (given that I haven’t started season 3 yet), is the Oz character. Let him pop up here and there so we know he’s around, and start wondering who he is. (First appearance, playing in the band: “Who’s she? No, the Eskimo.” And that’s it.) Let him come into the main characters’ orbit. Give him a few things to do, so we like him. Then reveal him as a werewolf. Clearly, Joss Whedon was casting the role, and said to Seth Green, “Yeah, doesn’t look like much at first. But trust me. We’re going places.”
The first season isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good, either; it seems obvious to me that the series was pitched to the network as “X-Files plus Clueless,” and that this angle kept them restricted in how much they could get away with. Season 2 shows a much stronger sense of overall continuity; when stuff happens, it matters not just in the present, but will obviously matter down the road. In all of season 2, the only two episodes I could have done without were John Ritter As Robot Dad, and the Hospital Boogeyman. Other than those two, I’d watch any of the other episodes again in a heartbeat.
On to season three. Please, I beg of the longtime Buffyphiles who may be reading this, keep the future-season spoilers to a minimum. Somewhere on page three, somebody mentioned that Buffy and Spike will be hooking up at some point. I’m really not sure I needed to know that…
Uh, in that last paragraph, I meant to say “somewhere on page one.” Duh.
I’m also a sometime Buffyphile, but I must have missed a big chunk, 'cause I have no idea what happened to Drusilla? First she was there, then she wasn’t, then she showed up on Angel (I think) , then she was gone…what happened?