Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel - First Time Viewer

I agree. I mean, I've more or less given up on all of them for this very reason. And I stuck with Smallville through the bitter end. Because even once it became as bland as hospital food, at least they still made the mashed potatoes with fresh spuds.

Here's the thing though, Buffy is itself extremely formulaic. But I think because it's such a thematically driven show that you don't notice it nearly as much - even if you're not a pretentious d-bag like me with a pathological need to dissect every little ounce of subtext and symbolism.

It's like using the same artificial Christmas tree, but each year you decorate it with a whole new set of ornaments and trimmings. The DCW shows, however, all have the same trees each with its own box of decorations labeled 'Arrow', 'Flash,' 'Supergirl' etc. And the just reuse the same boxes year after year. Though sometimes, when they want to get really crazy, they mix and match. And to extend the analogy to what I was saying before, the focus is no longer about having a family tree but building an entire nativity scene. And to that end, it works great. Those big crossover events are always amazing. The problem is they've become the main focus of the franchise and all the individual shows suffer for it.

 

I really wish more of the shows would follow the formula that AoS used the last couple seasons, and Once Upon a Time used for it's last few, where instead of a big season long arc, they would do 2 or 3 interconnected arcs. They'd introduce an element in one arc, that would then go on to play in the next arc, but wasn't necessarily the sole focus of either. For example in AoS they introduced the magical book, the Darkhold in the Ghost Rider arc, and then once that was resolved, the Darkhold ended up coming into play in the next arc, The Framework. That was a nice way to make it feel like one big season, but without dragging the same arc out through 2X episodes.

 

I'd be happy if they cut the order of the DC shows and had more shows, like 4 shows on in the fall and 4 others in the spring

 

Buffy doesn’t make the big bad look weak, but it has the issue that the reason Buffy survives long enough to get what she needs to win is the big bad takes so few direct shots at her.

Certain big bads, especially in later seasons, could have just marched right into her home and done her in at any time before the end.

 

That's one of my favorite lines of the whole show.

I got a lot of use out of it with my friends, back in the day.

 

Wait, you know about this? I thought you said you'd never watched the series before.

 

When I started season 3 someone up thread said he hoped I noticed the increase in budget. I replied saying it was noticeable during the title sequence.

I have not seen this series before.

 

One of the more unnoticeable aspects of the increased budget is they re-recorded the theme song for season 3. The original recording was done very hastily and it gets off-tempo during the bridge.

 

They got rid of the annoying scream. It sounds a lot better now.

 

I just love the progression of "Here's a hallway" to "Here's the rest of the school" to "Here's some actual film stock to use." I've never seen a show jump up in budget as obviously as Buffy did from Season 1 to 2 and Season 2 to 3.

 

The Wish was like It’s a Wonderful Life if George’s view of what the town was like if he Hadn’t existed actually stayed reality. It was really cool seeing the characters playing Vampires and the Master coming back was something I didn’t think I would see. I also liked this Take No Prisoner version of Buffy.

I have to say though I’m surprised Cordy was killed off so quickly. The episode reset but she didn’t learn anything. It was fun seeing the characters in different roles but ultimately the episode was kind of meaningless.

I will say something about Xander though. There is a reason I haven’t talked about him much lately. I’m actually tuning him out a lot. He still comes in handy every now and again but Xander really is my least favorite character on the show. Also, you can only talk about how much of a douche he is every episode. Actually I think I prefer vampire Xander over our Xander.

Overall, a really fun episode in an it’s a wonderful life kind of way but where we were at the beginning is pretty much where we ended up.

 

Not quite.

 

Ok if a future episode proves me wrong I will gladly accept it. I don’t know what happens in future episodes so from a certain point of view that is a true statement.

 

Oh, some of us really noticed it when it happened, though I acknowledge that nowadays, when you can go from the end of season 2 to the beginning of season 3 without a break, it's more easily noticeable.

 

None of them would have wanted to, though. Except maybe

Spoiler

the First, which is why I always head canoned it that the first was actually doing all of that just to manipulate them into doing exactly what they did and its true grand plan was still a ways off.

 

Spoiler

Shh... not that snake. Lurconis from 'Band Candy'.

 

Why not

Spoiler

Adam and Glory? Maybe Glory saw her as a source of info for the Key but then how come she never kidnapped her, tied her up somewhere and started eating her friends brains one by one?

 

Spoiler

Adam never took her seriously, and frankly he had no reason to. Without magic, she was never a match for him and the possibility of magic was simply beyond his comprehension. He even counted on her to balance his carnage scales a bit since the Initiative would've been hopelessly overrun without her.

Glory couldn't kill her until after she found the key, because no one knew who or at first even what it was. Killing anyone would risk losing the key forever. Also, Glory was pretty lazy in general and what plans she did hatch were constantly interrupted by Ben's life. Once she found out who the key was, though, she did just barge straight in and take it, and left an entire field of corpses in her wake. Not Buffy's, sure, but that's because Buffy was never important to her. Only the Key was.

 

Yeah. When you get right down to it, the weakest plot shunt is Angel's.

 

I meant your comment about the snake. This comment:

Trying not to spoil anything if it isn't already spoiled for you.