In Hawaii, Buffy wasn’t shown on any channel until the episode where she kills Angel. 
After reading this thread, I finally decided to try out Buffy. So I stopped at Blockbuster on the way home to rent the first season - and all they have is seasons 3 and 4.
So here’s my dilemma: I don’t want to spend $40 for the season 1 box set until I know if I like the show (and also because I heard Season 1 wasn’t that good). I wouldn’t mind starting with season 2, but I’d still like to watch a bit before I take the plunge and buy the box set.
So I rented the first four episodes of season 3. Is that a reasonable start? Am I missing too much back story? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy season 1 and/or season 2?
It is a good start. You may want to try the FX channel for repeats too. They usually run in the morning and early afternoon. I believe that they may be into season two right now.
Nope, they’re late in season one. Letting it run is part of my morning routine (never mind that I own all the seasons on DVD), because I don’t deal well with the AM news shows.
The ones this morning were Angel and I Robot, You Jane.
Season 3 is an ok place to start - if you don’t mind spoilers, you can scan through the first two seasons at Buffyworld.com - I think knowing a little of the story at the end of season 2 might be helpful.
I don’t know about that. Season 2 had an awful lot of Buffy/Angel action that makes Season 3 all the more meaningful. I’d hold off on 3 until you’ve seen 2. Season 1 you can pick up as you can.
I’ve been a huge fan of Firefly ever since I was first introduced to it a year ago, and recently started watching Buffy as well. As someone who dislikes most horror movies, I find most of the plots (particularly the “monster of a week” episodes) pretty forgettable, but I’m enjoying the main storyline so far, and love the characters, particularly Xander, Willow, and Giles. Plus there’s that trademark Joss Whedon dialogue, which is always a lot of fun.
Between Buffy, Angel, catching up on Battlestar Galactica, and participating in the SDMB Firefly marathon, I’ve got my summer cut out for me. 
Dog racing.
Manchester United.
People, billions of them, walking around like Happy Meals with legs.
Yep, BtVS is definitely some quality television, especially when James Marsters isn’t wearing a shirt.
The sixth season was kind of a downer, but I don’t think that it was lower quality television, Joss wandered off to do Firefly or something and left Marti Noxon in charge, and Marti Noxon basically was using the show as a psychotherapeutic tool to work out some of her own dee-seated personal issues, or air her dirty laundry, or whatever, but there was still a lot of really good writing and really really good acting, and James Marsters appeared shirtless whenever and wherever possible, and S7 was extremely spotty (started off really good, then kind of bogged down for a while while the fate of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s contract was decided, then when it was decided that it wasn’t, picked back up). Last ep was disappointing, and James Marsters had entirely too much clothing during the final season, but he was naked a couple of times, or nearly so, I think there was a sock kept discreetly off-camera, during S6, so I guess it’s OK.
$40?! I got mine for $17 from Amazon. It’s entirely worth it at that price.
You could probably rent all of seasons 1 and 2 from Netflix within one month, and that would cost you less than $20. Since it’s possible to stop and start Netflix whenever you want, and it doesn’t have any startup fees, maybe that’s the route you could go.
Another route you could take would be to buy used off Amazon or wherever your preferred used shopping site is.
Buffy is without a doubt the second best television show I’ve ever seen (surpassed only by Firefly). I didn’t start watching it until slightly over a year ago, and now I’ve seen every episode twice. Same with Angel, with the exception of the last four, and that’s only because my husband hasn’t gotten to them yet (probably will finish it up by this weekend).
Sam, just go ahead and watch what you’ve rented. “Anne,” the first episode of S3, is one of the best of the show. (Hmm, it’s hard to say this without spoilers.) That episode is set up in important ways by the end of S2, but there’s nothing about S2 specifically that you really need to know. So, if you plan to watch “Anne” and the next few episodes, you should read the spoiler below. Otherwise, start from the beginning. It’s not that S1 isn’t good, it’s just that it doesn’t reach the heights the show hits consistently in later seasons and is somewhat formulaic. Or, you could start watching the FX reruns, which are currently in S1. Of course, I’d recommend getting the S1 discs (cheaply at Best Buy or somewhere), 'cuz I’m reasonably sure you’ll like them.
Anyway, if you do decide to start with the first disc of S3, read this:
Rather minor spoilers for the end of S2: Due to some very difficult choices and the extraordinarily painful consequences thereof, at the end of S2 Buffy hated her life and her job as the Slayer, so she left town without a word to anyone.
–Cliffy
Disagree. I’m with Silenus - better to start at least with season 2 as the evolving backstory is one of the more interesting ( sometimes frustrating ) things about the series and season 2 is when things really start to get going. Frankly I’d start with season one, which as noted can be rented. It’s short ( only 13 episodes ) and overall maybe a little lighter in tone and perhaps more uneven, but still well worth watching.
I’m somewhat old school - I caught the series early in season one when it was on TV and I find folks like me have a tendency towards being fonder of the earlier seasons than those who caught the show in the later in its run. Personally I have only a mild fondness for seasons six and seven and regard 2 and 3 as the pinnacle. But you’ll get opinions all over the map on that topic.
- Tamerlane
Yes, **Sam[/b[ will be missing stuff if he just up and starts with S3, but he’s got them right there. I think if we make him jump through a bunch of hoops to start at the beginning, he’ll just say the hell with it. Whereas once he sees the S3 episodes, he’ll know he enjoys the show enough to purchase the S1 DVD’s.
That’s what happened to me.
–Cliffy
The problem is that the end of “Faith, Hope and Trick” makes no sense if you haven’t seen “Becoming, Parts 1 & 2.” Neither does “Amends,” for that matter. Nor does any of the interaction with Snyder, or Spike, or…
You can start with Season 2, but Season 3 is just too dependent on “Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…”
Watch it, Sam. Enjoy it. But try very hard to rent Season 2 at the same time. 
Yeah, I just recently started watching it. My father’s watched for several years, a mixture of episodes as they aired and reruns. I watched enough of it to decide I enjoyed it, and when he recently started buying the DVDs, I got completely hooked. It’s got an excellent cast, but I’m most fond of it just for the sheer quality of the writing. And for the most part, the writing in season 1 was great. I understand what folks are saying about it being “formulaic”, but episodic TV shows don’t bother me, and I just really enjoy the cast and writing whether it’s in a story arc or not. We just finished season 2, and we’re waiting for the third, which he ordered off of eBay.
Don’t skip any seasons, Sam. Try another video store if you just want to rent, but seriously - season 1 is excellent entertainment at the very least. It’s mostly pretty episodic, yeah, but episodic doesn’t mean bad.
Well, last night I watched the first two episodes. They were pretty good, and I think the ‘backstory’ became pretty obvious fairly quickly.
I can’t rent from Netflix, because I’m in Canada. So the only option for renting is to try to track down a different video store in town that might have them, or buy the box sets. So I decided to just watch the first four episodes of season 3 and no more, and if I really like it I’ll just bite the bullet and buy the first two seasons and start watching them in order.
I have to admit that so far my reaction is a little mixed. I didn’t fall for the show from the first episode like I did with Firefly. I found the Willow character a bit annoying, and the Zander (Xander?) character to be somewhat forgettable (but it could be that he just didn’t have much of a role in the first two episodes I watched).
Of the two, “Anne” was clearly superior, and I liked it quite a bit. Both episodes have followed the same pattern, which I’m guessing is the recurring pattern in the series - “Buffy and others have some personal issues to deal with, and while they are doing so some evil beings come along and have to be dispatched in dramatic and amusing ways”.
I also have to say that these vampires are total wimps. If I were a Vampire I wouldn’t go around just jumping on people’s backs and going GRRRR! while they spin around in circles until I fall on a fencepost or something. I’d try, you know, sneaking up and sinking my fangs in right away before they have a chance to fight back. Or hell, get a gun and wing 'em to make the kill easier, assuming I don’t have any super vampire strength or anything (do they? If so, how come four mortal high school kids seem to be able to handle them?)
Anyway, I’ll definitely watch the next two episodes, because I know that Joss Whedon’s stuff sometimes takes a few episodes before people ‘get it’. I’m annoyed at one of my co-workers for this reason - he saw one episode of ‘Firefly’ and doesn’t shy from telling everyone that it’s ‘crap’. I’ve told him he needs to see a few episodes before forming judgement, but he’s not interested. I’ve even offered to loan him my box set and I’ve invited him over to watch it on the big screen, but he ‘already knows’ he doesn’t like it. So I’ll definitely give Buffy a fair shot.
One last thing: Are the box sets available in widescreen? I have a 16 X 9 projection screen that I do my watching on, and 4:3 images bug the hell out of me.
Well, Sam, the next two episodes are better. #3 is the one where is helps to know the backstory, which explains the last 10 seconds. #6, 8 & 9 are some of the best episodes of any season (Band Candy, Amends, and Lover’s Walk).
Some are tougher than others. The prevailing theory seems to be that the older a vampire gets the more powerful s/he becomes. Joss’ theory of vampirism is also that it acts like an infection. The older a vampire gets the more demonic s/he becomes in outer form. Check out the Master from S1 for an example of an extremely aged vampire. You’ll also encounter later in S3 a vampire “so old his feet are cloven.” There may also be an issue of certain bloodlines being more powerful than others, which I won’t get into so as to avoid spoilage.
Regardless of how strong one might be, though, four against one is going to be a tough fight. Even with that 4-1 advantage the Scoobies still had a lot of difficulty handling vampires without Buffy.
As for why the vamps don’t employ some of the tactics you suggest, part of it has to do with their enjoyment of the hunt. There’s a moment toward the end of S5 where a vampire talks about how the chase makes the blood hotter and sweeter. As for guns, vampires in the Jossverse for the most part don’t much cotton to them or other modern weaponry.
IIRC the series was not shot in widescreen format, so the 4:3 is how they were intended to be seen. Joss talks in the commentary for I think one of the S4 eps about his decision not to have the DVDs in widescreen.
My copy of season 4 came with a “note from Joss”
It essentially said that the point of widescreen is to show a film as the director intended it. Since buffy was shot in and intended to be shown in 4:3, releasing them in widescreen would be as big a travesty against art as pan and scanning Ben Hur.
That’s what I was referring to in my post.
The off-camera reason the vampires aren’t that pussiant is that it would be boring. In early episodes, individual vamps are more scary, but by the 35th episode it’s more interesting to spend camera time on something else.
–Cliffy