Erm, the episode where Jonathan (or whatever his name was…he was one of the trio of nerds who tried to kill Buffy in season 6)…anyway, the episode where he changed reality to make him the hero of the series. I loved that one.
Sophomore year was mostly at parks, sometimes the mall, but that required parental driving and consent. By Junior year (Season Two) we hung around Denny’s or Olympic Star drinking coffee and splitting the Greek omelet four ways instead. Had we had a club that would let us in, we would have been there instead, but the only things by us were over 21.
But I thought your previous issue was with the parental dynamics on the show, so that’s what I focused on. Skulking in basements was the CLOSEST we ever got to parental interaction.
Superstar.
Buffy and Angel are like the new Battlestar Galactica: sometimes erratic in presentation, but even at their worst light-years better than most of the crap on the tube.
Damn. Now I’m gonna have to go home and watch Restless again. 
I guess we had a lot more - I mean, we spent a lot of time at coffeshops and WalMart and the mall, but we also spent a whole lot of time at each other’s houses, where the presence and nature of the actual owners was a pretty big deal. About half of us had parents who were together and half had just one.
What bothers me more than IMHO unrealistic high school stuff (how do they get all this money? Jobs are another thing that were big deals when I was a kid) is their unrealistic reactions to the fact that there’s actual vampires out there. Why don’t they hang out more at houses since a vamp would have to be invited in? Why the library, which is vulnerable? Why do they go wandering alone at night when they know it isn’t safe?
Also, the show cheats the viewers a lot, which is unforgiveable. Remember in season 2, when
Angel loses his soul and starts tormenting the Scoobs? We’re invited by the show to remember where he’s been invited in - that’s part of the suspense. Did you remember he was in Willow’s house? When he strung her fishies up it was a reward to people who had been watching all this time. And then after all that buildup he got into Giles’ place even though we’d never seen him invited in. It was a cheat to us. Yeah, maybe it happened off screen. Whatever - that was part of the game and they cheated. It was a little thing but it really ticked us off.
It’s stuff like that that really irritates us - we love the show but we’re often screaming at it for letting us down.
Well, that and how Angel is cute and funny or interesting with every cast member except Buffy blah blah furrowed brow blah blah. For hours and hours of my life.
Sounds like any number of guys I know. Totally different around people they aren’t in love with.
Yeah but she lost it. In S4 she gets a beeper from Professor Walsh and says that she’s been thinking about getting one.
Did any of the kids really have a lot of money? Cordelia had a nice car and such but it was established that her dad was rich. None of the others were ever really shown throwing around any cash and IIRC there were a couple of instances where Buffy and Joyce specifically talked about not having the money for something.
And the reused wardrobe a lot, which I liked. Buffy wore the same jackets and skirts and even shirts in different episodes, unlike teen shows where even the poor kid never wears the same clothes twice.
And she had those stylish yet affordable boots!
Like others, I thought the show was stupid when it was on TV and never watched an episode. In January, I randomly decided to watch the whole shebang, and LOVED it. Around Season 2, my boyfriend got into it as well, and watched up until the end of Season 6. I’m now into Season 7, sadly, and James Marsters is the only thing that is keeping me there. Overall, I totally think it holds up. Sure, there are some mildly dated pop culture references, but the themes are still relatable. I find it funny that people think Dawn is hot though. I want to punch her whiny ass through the screen!
I don’t recall the kids having money. Hell, they walked everywhere and drank water out of red plastic cups most of the time at the Bronze.
The stunt guys in the Buffy/Faith fight at the end of Season 3 were laugh out loud bad, though.
I’m just posting to say that the user name sparklemotion made me laugh gleefully.
“Sometimes I doubt your committment to Sparklemotion!”
Welcome!
I think the show still holds up very well. The special effects for the first season are pretty dated (the hyena in The Pack is especially bad, it looks like a muppet), but they weren’t that great even at the time. The first season was pretty much filmed on a shoe string budget by TV standards. The effects from the second season on aren’t necessarily great and there’s a few clunkers here and there, but they still look a lot better.
And the pop culture references are mostly still recent enough (to stuff like the X-Files) that I’d think current teenagers would get them even if they haven’t seen the stuff in question. Well, the James Spader reference is dated, but as Otto says, it was weirdly dated even in 1997, the year that it was made.
It’s a relief to read this thread and realize that no one got the James Spader reference in Season 1. All these years, I thought I was missing something crucial and that it was only me!
breaks down weeping
?
I don’t get it. What was the reference?
Wait, was there something to get abut that reference? I thought it was just supposed to be someone Cordelia and Buffy thought was hot, which, not really. Sorry James.
Now if only someone would definitively parse the “movies with dogs or Chevy Chase” reference. Was it just a random slam on Oh Heavenly Dog (which, sadly, I paid money to watch in an actual theatre) or was something else going on?
The Body
One of a very few TV episodes that really got to me. 
This show still inspires. After reading issue #2 of the new Dark Horse series Buffy Season 8, I had to go back and rewatch “Two To Go.”
“I’d like to test that theory.”
That’s exactly what I did after reading that.
I rarely light up after reading something, but the last page of that issue did just that. I’m still smiling about it. Just perfect. Joss still has the touch.
Ooh, the Body was an amazing episode, especially in terms of the cinematography.
In particular, I loved the scene where Tara and Dawn were sitting next to each other on the couch and the cameraman kept subtly changing the field of view. Good times.
Oh, and I saw James Marsters filming at my university last year! I didn’t even recognize him until I saw the scene they filmed on TV… he’s short and really, really muscular, almost stocky.
That totally shocked me when I saw him in person, too! They must stand him on a box for filming, because he always came off as, if not tall, at least not short (although since most of his scenes next to someone were with SMG, I guess that’s not hard). But lanky…how did they make him look lanky? 
May I ask why?