I don't want to watch all of Buffy...just some.

Okay, so I’ve never seen Buffy. Really. I’ve never seen one episode all the way through. I think that counts. Just little pieces here and there, but nothing to give me much context or character sense.

I have zero intention of watching the entire series all the way through any time soon. This is because my viewing plate is more full than my schedule can accommodate already. If I were to start renting discs, which episodes should I look for? What are the best ones? I’m happy assembling any background info necessary to follow them from other sources.

I’d start with Hush (season 4) and Once More With Feeling (season 6).

I would just start at the beginning. But I’m that kind of person.

I wouldn’t. Those are very good episodes, but they’re also very different from the normal feeling of the show. The silent episode and the musical aren’t good examples of the usual feeling of the show.

I’d also suggest just starting from the begininng. Yeah, you can find out the context of the plot from Wikipedia, but Whedon’s work lives or dies by how much you can connect to the characters. That just ain’t gonna happen if you don’t watch most or all of the early episodes.

speaking of which, i never got to see the final season. life got in the way. would somebody take pity on me and please supply a season recap? pretty please?
there were an awful lot of cliffhangers i never saw resolved.

  1. Hush
  2. The Body
  3. Once More, With Feeling
  4. The Gift
  5. School Hard
  6. Surprise/Innocence
  7. Becoming
  8. Lover’s Walk
  9. Graduation Day
  10. Pangs
  11. Restless
  12. Fool For Love
  13. Triangle
  14. Normal Again
  15. Conversations With Dead People

speaking of which, i never got to see the final season. life got in the way. would somebody take pity on me and please supply a season recap in a spoiler box? pretty please? there were an awful lot of cliffhangers i never saw resolved.

I second those. I would also recommend “Graduation Day”, “The Wish”, “Doppelgangland”, “Innocence”, and the series finale.

Wiki to the rescue.

I never saw it during its run on TV, but so many people who have the same likes and dislikes and tastes as I do really loved the show, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m really liking it, and having a DVD season ready to watch whenever I’ve got downtime or I’m sick has been great. I’ve been watching it in big chunks, like when I had the flu.

By Season Three, I was hugely enjoying it, and am looking forward to the next time I feel like watching. It’s great to have something that’s “new to me” set aside.

Edited to add: Gah, the point! I have been watching every episode, in order, and just wanted to chime in that I think that’s best.

oh my. the girl was busy, wasn’t she? i wonder if my library happens to have the final season…

thanks, silenus :smiley:

I don’t know… Buffy’s is a lot less episodic than your average TV program, and many of the good episodes listed in this thread are only good because they resolve a lot of conflicts set up in earlier episodes. My opinion is that you almost certainly have to start from the beginning and watch every episode to really get the most out of the show. Plus a lot of satisfaction comes from seeing the characters subtly change from year to year (also true of Angel). You’d miss a lot of this if you only watched the highlights.

Why the hurry to get it out of the way? I’d give anything to have seven seasons of Buffy to watch all over again.

This is kind of tricky. I would recommend very strongly against following silenus’s list. They’re all excellent episodes, but without knowing the context for the events and characters, they’re either not going to make much sense, or they’ll lose a lot of their emotional impact. The Body is one of the best hours of television ever filmed, but if you haven’t spent five years getting to know these characters before hand, it’s not going to be the emotional suckerpunch it was meant to be. Plus, if you get hooked and want to watch the whole series after all, it’ll spoil a lot of the surprises that made the show so awesome.

Probably your best bet, if you’re renting and just want to test the waters, is to get Disc 3 of the first season. It’s the final disc for that season; Buffy was a mid-season replacement, so the first season only ran to twelve episodes. And a lot of that time was spent with the show still trying to find its legs. However, by the end of the season, it had started to really hit its stride, and the last four episodes are all really good. However, it’s still early enough in the series’ run that there won’t be a lot of continuity you need to follow, and the spoilers won’t be too bad. Disc three has a good cross section of the different genres Joss Whedon worked with in the series: comedy (The Puppet Show), horror (Nightmares), allegory (Out of Sight, Out of Mind, although this ep is pretty heavy-handed about it), and high drama (Prophecy Girl). It’s not the best of the best, but it’s good enough to give you a feel for the show, without ruining too much of it for you.

To help you out, this spoiler box contains brief bios of the principle characters in the show to date:

[spoiler]Buffy Summers: Vampire Slayer by night, “that wierd girl at school” by day.

Giles: School librarian and member of the Watcher’s Council, an ancient order dedicated to finding and training Slayers.

Xander Harris: School loser and Buffy’s friend. Has a huge, unrequited crush on Buffy.

Willow Rosenberg: Another school loser, and also Buffy’s friend. Has a huge, unrequited crush on Xander.

Cordelia Chase: Most popular girl in school, and Buffy’s archenemy.

The Master: Ancient vampire magically imprisoned beneath Sunnydale, and Buffy’s other archenemy.

Angel: Used to be one of the most evil vampires in the world, 'til gypsies cursed him with a conscience. Now fights for the good guys. He and Buffy totally have the hots for each other, but they’ve got “issues” keeping them apart.

Mrs. Summers: Buffy’s mom, who has no idea that her daughter is a superhero.[/spoiler]

I am too, and that’s the problem. I only have so much time to put my eyes on the screen. If I like it enough – I love Firefly, but sometimes I think it’s because like a sand painting, it was too impermanent to be less than perfect – then one day, I will start at the beginning. My movin’ pitchure dance card is totally full for at least two years, though, and I mean that sincerely.

Thanks very much everyone for the advice so far. I’m taking it all into consideration. Guess I’ll post my final selections and thoughts here too.

I’ve heard starting with the third season is a good bet; it’s well on its way from maturing from the first season’s relative silliness, but not too far gone in the accumulating mythology to leave you lost.

I saw *The Body * first, and was so overwhelmed by it that it sent me back to the beginning.

Funny – if someone asked me the same question I asked, only about the X-Files, I’d say the same thing.

My advice: wait.

Don’t have time to watch it now? That’s OK - Buffy isn’t going anywhere. Clear off your plate first, make sure you have the time to watch the entire series from beginning to end, and start from the beginning. It doesn’t have to be this month, or even this year.

You only have one chance to see Buffy for the first time. You should do it right, even if it means waiting for it.

And if you have quite a bit of time on your hands, I would recommend Television Without Pity .

they have quite detailed (and often very funny) recaps episode by episode

I suggest you start at the beginning of season two. The show hadn’t really hit its stride until then, and while there are some good episodes in season one, I don’t think of them as vintage Buffy in the way most of seasons two and three are. If you skip season one, you don’t even miss much in the way of character development; you will get to the really good stuff quicker, though.

Remember that Buffy has a continuing storyline, so watching episodes out of context is going to make them less enjoyable for you.

I’ll suggest “What’s My Line?” (both parts) from season 2 as a place where you can enjoy what’s happening, and understand it without needing too much explained. After that, if you want to know what happens next, you can just go from there until you get bored with it.