Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel - First Time Viewer

Like I said about easter eggs a few weeks ago, the more you watch, the more you go "hmmm".

I really liked the foreshadowing in Restless. It really did feel like a preview to season 5, while most finales either end on a cliffhanger or a change up in the status quo to be changed back in the new season. This episode felt like it was setting up the entire season, which makes me happy that Joss and crew have a very interesting plan in place. Based on what you guys have been saying, I'm excited.

 

And since the cat is out of the bag (See what I did there?), I have to say I fucking love Dawn. Always have. Always will. Never got the hate.

I mean one big complaint about the early seasons was that the teenagers didn't act like teenagers. So they brought in a teenager who acted like a teenager and people hated her for it. Man, Buffy fans are a lot like Star Trek fans.

 

Pick any franchise and that same sentence applies to all of them.

 

By the way I had a question regarding Restless. Earlier in the week we were talking about "The Big Four" which included Hush and The Musical? Was Restless part of that group because it sure seemed experimental?

 

Yes, it was. And the other one will be coming up in the second half of season 5. You'll know it when you see it.

 

We Firefly fans are very civilised

 

I think Tara and Willow have very good chemistry but to me she never really evolved beyond just being Willow's love interest. I like the actress though and wish she had done more things after Buffy. Other than a episode of "Cold Case" she seemed to just disappear.

Jason

 

I liked Dawn and she is very important to the main plot of season 5. In fact season 5 wouldn't be as good as it is, if you didn't have Dawn in it. I think it was season 6 and 7 when they didn't know what to do with the character that she ended up feeling like a abstraction to the group. She wan't really a Scoobie so she was just kind of around.

Jason

 

She's an author now.

Eventually her Bensonverse books about female witches, will be their own show that was cancelled 10 years ago and someone is tracking down and reviewing old visi-cubes of her series.

 

Tara does evolve beyond her relationship with Willow. It just takes a while.

Spoiler

In season 6 she becomes a surrogate mother to Dawn and is a sounding board for Buffy.

 

Queries about spoiler tags should go in spoiler tags...

Spoiler

I've never been too good with the episode names, so couldn't pick out Restless or the Body

Obviously, Hush = Silent movies
OMwF = Musical

What are the other two genres to make up the Big Four?

dJE

 

To be fair Cordelia had an attitude like she was better than him and was embarrassed to be dating down. Hate was part of their foreplay.

I don't see how he was always calling Anya an idiot, he always treated her well considering she was a vengeance demon. And he can't control his dreams, only his actions.

Treating Xander as the group's 'heart' was more that he was grounded in the mundane, and in a way (Including one major spoilery way) he kept the other characters grounded when things got intense.

For the 'big four' thread,

Spoiler

The Body was a serious episode, with no fantasy (Except the fact vampires make appearances and then one fight at the morgue at the end), no one liners, and a completely serious tone. South Park did the same thing in one episode where Kenny is dying only this time everybody takes it completely seriously, only they had a humorous B plot.

 

I read one. I love her as an actress, but the book was unbearable. YMMV.

 

Restless: I don't know why, but Buffy's nearly-nonsensical exchange with the First Slayer is one of my favorite bits in the whole series:

First Slayer: "The Slayer does not walk in this world."
Buffy: "I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends!"
Slayer: "No friends!" Just death!"
Buffy (annoyed sigh): "I'm waking up now."

Hilarious, abstract, yet so full of meaning.

 

One thing I have noticed about Xander, through all his faults, was he seems to be the one who is always living in the real world, so to speak so keeping the other characters grounded might have something to do with that. I mean you have Willow who is practicing witchcraft, Buffy who is the Slayer, and Giles who is the watcher. Xander was just a guy. Also, his relationship with Anya seems to be more mutual than it was with Cordelia, even though Cordelia had every right to be pissed at him for being with Willow. That relationship (Cordy and Xander) always seemed obligatory than mutual.

@Forbin

That felt so Buffy, but yeah I'm excited to find out more about that as I move forward.

 

I agree. Cordy was actually not that nice of a person when we first meet her. She is kind of like the spoiled rich kid and he is the jokester with the quips to hide the fact that he hates his family and has been bullied. I always liked both characters because of that and liked how they even fell for each other despite the fact they had nothing in common and even contempt for each other.

One other thing I always loved about the show was Xander and Willows friendship and how they have that connection since childhood. Which comes in real handy in season 6. Cordy gets do lots of her growing on "Angel" but I also liked how Xander might seem like he doesn't care but he is also the only one putting his life on the line basically without a superpower. Buffy has her Slayer strength,Willow becomes a powerful witch,Giles has all his knowledge and experience from being a Watcher. Xander is just a regular teenage boy at first with nothing really special to add. Who at first is interested in Buffy because he has a crush but then stays friends after being rejected even if maybe he didn't get over in the most mature way. Still felt real to me though in how a teenager would react.


Jason

 

I love that part with the first Slayer. It’s built up like she’s some unstoppable psychological force, the way the first three are taken, and Buffy’s only hope is to talk her into letting them go. But then she just kind of psychologically takes control like “Hello. My brain, my rules.”

 

Ironically enough, today is World Dracula Day, in honor of the the novel being published on this day in 1897. Enjoy the show tonight.

 

I liked Dawn mostly for her effect on Buffy. I could have stood for her to be a tad less bratty at points. Maybe it’s more realistic for how a teenager acts but not teenagers with actual real responsibility witnessing actual life or death events. Teenagers exposed to real problems mature up real quick.

 

I agree. Having to take care of Dawn meant that Buffy had to take on life responsibilities rather than just being the Slayer.