I think I like “Band Candy” as a candidate, Miller. The big “spoiler”
Joyce and Giles sleeping together
will still be shocking/funny by just the context of the episode. You don’t need to know the history of the characters for
the heroine’s mom shagging her daughter’s school librarian
to be funny, and it will still remain a funny shock on repeat viewing, because when you *do *know the characters and history, it’s funny and shocking on a whole 'nother level.
The production values in that one aren’t bad, the main themes of the early series - High School Is Hell and adults are clueless and not to be counted on - are at their strongest, and it’s just funny as hell.
Graduation day got delayed too. I’d forgotten about Earshot. Joss and the show really got hammered in the press after Columbine.
Can’t believe this was 11 years ago. My life is going by in a whirl.
Apropos of not much, I saw “Graduation day, part 2” the week that it was originally scheduled to air. Some of the Canadian syndicate channels didn’t get the word that the episode was delayed until they’d already shown it - I’m not sure, but I think that we might have been getting episode a day earlier than the WB showed them at that point as well.
A circumstance which memorably prompted Joss Whedon to tell us “Canadians, bootleg that puppy for your American friends.”
I’d have tried, but I didn’t really have access to a copying VCR.
Different fans like different parts of the series. Every season started with more standalone eps & ended with more arc eps. Later seasons are more arc-heavy. And the show changed a lot after the characters graduated from high school & the show-runner left to do a spinoff. And then there are the weird eps like “The Zeppo” or “Hush” that subvert things or play with form.
So the arc fans like some things, the standalone-ep fans like others, some people think the show’s first three seasons are it, others lost faith with season five or season six…
Watch some first season stuff. The opening two-parter sets things up for you, that’s good. “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” is cool.
And understand that, aside from the gargantuan amount of ymmv–even between fans–the show really, really, really isn’t all winners. There’s at least one important character arc that doesn’t really make sense as shown, the seventh season drags in the middle, elements of the fifth probably worked at the time but were just goofy in reruns once I knew how it ended, & so forth.
Oh, and some of the script weirdness at various points is a product of the division of writing assignments.
Most hilarious: Buffy was apparently supposed to have a kid sister, but an early script made her an only child, so they later exploited that for supernatural weirdness when they wrote the kid sister in–in season five!
Well, however this plotline came about, it’s still a great one, and gutsy at that. The first few episodes of that season are quite freaky on first viewing, and Dawn coming to terms with herself in the rest of the show run is quite moving at times.
Buffy is great. Angel is great. Just seriously good television. It starts out as merely entertaining but gets very involved and complex over time. I happen to think the earliest stuff (late Season 2 through Season 3) is some of the very best from a dramatic standpoint, but later seasons are more comprehensively wrought.
I agree that Band Candy is a good first episode to watch.
You may be interested in my own experience watching the series from the beginning, documented in this enormous thread. It starts out spoiler-free but things are progressively revealed as I get deeper into the series. You may want to play along.
I wonder how well the music from Buffy holds up today? Back when it aired it was considered trendy. The bar with the live band was one of my favorite scenes of the early seasons. It’s a shame they rarely used that location in the later seasons.
For new viewers, they’re in for some great 90’s music. Assuming, it hasn’t been changed on the dvd’s and syndicated runs. Sometimes licensing issues come up and mess up old tv shows.
The animation at the end of every episode’s credits where the zombie goes “Erg, Arg!” sums up the artistic value of the show. It was a teen show made for teens. I saw it because my daughter enjoyed it. Watch any episode for simple enjoyment value, and if you like it enough, go back and start the series from the beginning.
I’d disagree. I was the same age as the characters from Buffy (graduated in 1999 just like they did) and I always felt it was a show for me and my classmates.
The target demographic was 18-35 in the US, 16-35 in the UK, skewed to college age and slightly beyond. While I don’t have any problem with younger people enjoying it (indeed, my son watched it with us, and he wasn’t even a teen yet), the themes are much richer and deeper if your high school years are a bit behind you when you’re watching.
Assuming, it hasn’t been changed on the dvd’s and syndicated runs. Sometimes licensing issues come up and mess up old tv shows.