I'm watching Buffy for the first time right now,

[RoJoHen]

All Buffy threads are the same:

OMG, Buffy is awesome! Except for the last 2 seasons. The last two seasons are the worst thing that have ever happened to TV!

Oh, I dunno, I kinda like Season 6.

I LOVE THE LAST TWO SEASONS! OMFG, THEY GOT SO DARK AND REAL! CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS! YAY!!!!

I hate the last two seasons, except for "Once More with Feeling." That is the best episode of anything ever.

 

[label]

All Buffy threads are the same:

1. OMG, Buffy is awesome! Except for the last 2 seasons. The last two seasons are the worst thing that have ever happened to TV!

2. Oh, I dunno, I kinda like Season 6.

3. I LOVE THE LAST TWO SEASONS! OMFG, THEY GOT SO DARK AND REAL! CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS! YAY!!!!

4. I hate the last two seasons, except for "Once More with Feeling." That is the best episode of anything ever.

I think we should just number those and sticky this thread, that way we can just reference the number that represents me best.

Me, I'm a 2 with helping of 4.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm actually option #5, the one who enjoys the last 2 seasons despite some flaws they may have. It seems to be such a minority viewpoint, though, that I didn't even bother putting it on the list.

 

[tharpdevenport]

All Buffy threads are the same:

OMG, Buffy is awesome! Except for the last 2 seasons. The last two seasons are the worst thing that have ever happened to TV!

Oh, I dunno, I kinda like Season 6.

I LOVE THE LAST TWO SEASONS! OMFG, THEY GOT SO DARK AND REAL! CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS! YAY!!!!

I hate the last two seasons, except for "Once More with Feeling." That is the best episode of anything ever.

I'm of the:

Season 1 was weak (but still better, over all, than TNG Season 1), but still good.

Season 2 is wonderful.

The Season 5 finale would have made for one of the most awesome series finales on television ever.

Season 6 was good, and the Willow magic/drug addiction analogy was a nice touch.

Season 7 has so much BAD in it, it's very hard to appreciate or even like.

 

[RoJoHen]

All Buffy threads are the same:

OMG, Buffy is awesome! Except for the last 2 seasons. The last two seasons are the worst thing that have ever happened to TV!

Oh, I dunno, I kinda like Season 6.

I LOVE THE LAST TWO SEASONS! OMFG, THEY GOT SO DARK AND REAL! CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS! YAY!!!!

I hate the last two seasons, except for "Once More with Feeling." That is the best episode of anything ever.

I'm of the:

Season 1 was weak (but still better, over all, than TNG Season 1), but still good.

Season 2 is wonderful.

The Season 5 finale would have made for one of the most awesome series finales on television ever.

Season 6 was good, and the Willow magic/drug addiction analogy was a nice touch.

Season 7 has so much BAD in it, it's very hard to appreciate or even like.

That's Option #2. I don't care how you feel about the first 5 seasons. Everybody like those.

 

[Trekker4747]

I see no statistics on the number of times something kinky happened. Show re-watch fail.

 

[label]

I'm actually option #5, the one who enjoys the last 2 seasons despite some flaws they may have. It seems to be such a minority viewpoint, though, that I didn't even bother putting it on the list.

I liked Season 6 fine and Season 7 started out OK for the most part. But then so much of Season 7 was dealing with

Spoiler: Season 7 plot points

the slayerettes and the depressing lets-stayed-holed-up-in-the-house-forever crap and the unstoppable Uber-Vamp who is nigh-on-impossible to kill unless there's thousands of them attacking you and then anyone can kill them easily, and the First's boring, non-stop taunting and culminating in a silly finale with a pointless death or two.

All that being said, I still liked Season 7 better than Season 1 and perhaps even Season 4 (maybe....) and I love any Buffy season more than most TV in general so this is all relative.

So, I'd like to say I'm a number 5 like yourself, but I just couldn't get past some of the more serious problems season 7 had and rate Season 7 as a "good" season even thought Conversations W/ Dead People, Selfless and a few other episodes were great episodes in and of themselves.

 

[DevilEyes]

All Buffy threads are the same:

1. OMG, Buffy is awesome! Except for the last 2 seasons. The last two seasons are the worst thing that have ever happened to TV!

2. Oh, I dunno, I kinda like Season 6.

3. I LOVE THE LAST TWO SEASONS! OMFG, THEY GOT SO DARK AND REAL! CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS! YAY!!!!

4. I hate the last two seasons, except for "Once More with Feeling." That is the best episode of anything ever.

I think we should just number those and sticky this thread, that way we can just reference the number that represents me best.

Me, I'm a 2 with helping of 4.

Number 3 here.

Well, actually season 7 has some issues with the main storyline (and Buffy's overdrawn and looooong speeches could put one to sleep), which makes me put it below seasons 6, 5, 3 and 2 objectively, but it also has some wonderful character stuff... and I liked the concept and a lot of the execution of First Evil, even though the Ubervamps were rather lame and went nowhere.

I see no statistics on the number of times something kinky happened. Show re-watch fail.

Oh dear, I don't think it's possible to count those. Though I remember saturn5's thread had a regular 'kinky dinky' column where most of those were mentioned.

 

[Skellington]

I see no statistics on the number of times something kinky happened. Show re-watch fail.

Oh dear, I don't think it's possible to count those. Though I remember saturn5's thread had a regular 'kinky dinky' column where most of those were mentioned.

I'm reasonably sure that that was his point.

I would tend towards a number 5, myself.

 

[Forbin]

Me, I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't LOVE season 1! Sure there were one or two less-than-great episodes, but even those were better than most other things on TV at the time.

 

[Skellington]

I think that season one's quality is variable but okay overall. Its shortness appears to have enabled it to act as a "trial run" of sorts for the series, which I would say benefitted the series immensely.

 

[Mr Light]

Season One had great dialogue and characters but horrible, horrible plots and stories.

 

[Trekker4747]

I see no statistics on the number of times something kinky happened. Show re-watch fail.

Oh dear, I don't think it's possible to count those. Though I remember saturn5's thread had a regular 'kinky dinky' column where most of those were mentioned.

I'm reasonably sure that that was his point.

I would tend towards a number 5, myself.

You win a cookie.

 

[C_Miller]

Season One had great dialogue and characters but horrible, horrible plots and stories.

Yeah, that's how I see it. It also had a couple good episodes. The opening couple did their job, the ending of Invisible Girl was classic Twilight Zone stuff, which I love, Angel was a great episode. And I thought the final episode was good. But I could not take The Master seriously. He felt too much like a Power Rangers villain who would show up at the beginning, talk about how much he hates the Power Rangers, send an monster to fight The Power Rangers which would ultimately get beaten, and then in the end of the episode, he'd be upset about it.

Overall, subsequent seasons were much better (except 7).

 

[RoJoHen]

I think that season one's quality is variable but okay overall. Its shortness appears to have enabled it to act as a "trial run" of sorts for the series, which I would say benefitted the series immensely.

I think it would be helpful if more shows took this approach. Short first seasons with self-contained arcs. If the show is popular, renew it. If it's not popular, it gets canceled, but at least the fans have a complete story to watch.

 

[I am not Spock]

^Yeah, Buffy took that approach every season. If cancelled at any point, it would still stand on its own as a complete story.

Season One was still at least fun and entertaining. The show didn't become awesome and one of the best things on TV ever until about mid season two with the Angel storyline. One was short, but there were hints of the greatness to come. 'Prophecy Girl' and the conversation with Buffy not wanting to die started to show the true potential of the series. I'd still take either Buffy or Angel's respective first seasons (or Buffy seasons six and seven. Love those, myself) over most other things on telly.

 

[saturn5]

Season 1 had a visible lack of budget and the high romance hadn't kicked in yet, it was early days and showed it (the girls dressed very obviously to hook the audiences lust) but it was still good enough to have us watch season 2 and get addicted

 

[Forbin]

Well, "The Witch" is still one of my favorite episodes of the series with its great statements on peer pressure, parental obsession, and twilight zone ending. And "The puppet Show" is still, IMHO, the most brilliantly twisted take on a horror genre trope evah. Even relatively bad eps like "The Pack" and "Teacher's Pet" each had something to enjoy somewhere in there.

 

[DevilEyes]

Well, "The Witch" is still one of my favorite episodes of the series with its great statements on peer pressure, parental obsession, and twilight zone ending. And "The puppet Show" is still, IMHO, the most brilliantly twisted take on a horror genre trope evah. Even relatively bad eps like "The Pack" and "Teacher's Pet" each had something to enjoy somewhere in there.

Season 1 is a pretty good season. I certainly enjoyed it when I first watched the show. "Nightmares" and "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" were also good episodes about some very real issues of high school life behind the supernatural stories. And the show had a lot of its trademark humor, wit and self-irony. The ending to the "Puppet Show" was one of the most memorable and funniest endings to an episode. "What is this, avantgarde? I don't understand it"

It just wasn't the great show that it would become in season 2. The characters became more complex, the story better, the villains far more interesting and unconventional (Spike & Dru were miles away from the Master and his minions - and who can forget Spike throwing the Annoying One into the sun - I cheered, and amazingly, so did my mom, who watched Buffy with me from the first episode ), moral ambiguity started to creep in, as seen "Lie to Me", which pretty much announced that things weren't going to be black and white anymore. That was the episode that made me think "I thought this show was funny and smart and had some good metaphors but didn't really take itself too seriously, but now I see that there's more to it". And "Passion" was the moment I realized "Wow... this is great drama, some of the best I've ever seen on TV".

 

[Forbin]

Oh, I'm not saying the show didn't improve, I'm just saying S1 doesn't deserve some of the dissing it seems to get. It has some pretty memorable and clever moments.