In the first episode of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy becomes increasingly irritated at the prospect of living up to her destiny. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to start Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
You know, I always go through this when I start a show or a new book, especially one with a namesake as large and popular as this one: How did I never get into this before? Somehow, over the course of the last fourteen years, I’ve not seen a single second of this show. I avoided every discussion of it, my friends never told me to watch, and I’ve blissfully wandered through life without knowing anything important about the show. And now, at the end of 2011, I’m going to watch all 144 episodes. Christ. That’s like…fuck. I’m not going to finish this until THE SUMMER. WHAT THE FUCK.
I’m not going to think of that right now. Instead, let’s get this first part out of the way:
THINGS MARK KNOWS ABOUT BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
- Sarah Michelle Gellar is Buffy.
- David Boreanaz is Angel and he’s buff? I don’t know. Isn’t he on Bones?
- Joss Whedon wrote it.
- There’s someone named Spike?
- There are vampires, I assume?
- Wasn’t this on the WB when it aired here in California? That’s probably why I didn’t watch it, because my sister was obsessed with the WB, especially Seventh Heaven, and that show’s morality made me want to vomit and WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THIS.
- There’s a show called Angel and I’ll be watching some episodes in between Buffy ones for proper clarity and to get the full story. Well, we’ll figure it out when we get there.
- Oh, there’s a musical episode! They hold a screening of it every year at Comic-Con. I’ve never seen it and I don’t know where it is. We should do a liveblog for it, shouldn’t we?
- Vampires?
- There will be slaying?
- I mean, it’s in the title, so she has to do that, right?
- How hilarious would that be if she ended up never slaying a single vampire?
- This is a reminder not to ever give me a television show. I will troll the audience/my employers constantly.
- Well, now I’m hopelessly off-topic.
So that’s where I stand right now. Somehow, by the sheer virtue of destiny or something, I don’t know a single plot to any second of this show. Not by osmosis, not by association, not by pure luck. I am going to watch this show in a beautiful state of ignorant bliss, and y’all get to watch my brain shatter into a billion pieces.
It should be repeated now that my site has a couple sets of very specific rules regarding commenting, and I know there’ll be a lot of new people around here. So: read the Site Rules. Do not spoil me. Is something happening in the future? Don’t post it. We use rot13.com to discuss any and all spoilers; it’s a cypher site, so that’s what all the gibberish is down below. If you have to ask yourself, “Is this a spoiler?” don’t post it. rot13 that shit, okay? Additionally, since this is a wide and varied community, I do my best to keep things as open and accepting as possible, which means that we discourage and disallow problematic language in the concepts. If you are told not to use a word/slur around here, please help us out to create a safe space for all commenters and go along with us. It’s just one site, okay? I want everyone to be able to watch Buffy together without feeling like they can’t have a conversation here!
And finally, it’s about goddamn time that I start watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS
Here are the vast majority of them
- Oh my god, the cold open is so cheesy and I love every second of it.
- Okay, I genuinely did not expect that Darla (that’s her name, yes? I believe she says it later in the episode, right?) was the actual vampire. That’s a clever misdirect.
- It’s funny how much the opening of this show feels so unbelievably 90s to me. This is what American television was like when I was growing up. I mean, if it wasn’t for the vampire (and the very overt sci-fi and fiction references later in this episode), this would seem like any other sitcom or drama for teenagers on TV.
- First thing that completely impresses me: This is not a show about Buffy discovering that she’s a vampire slayer. She comes to Sunnydale with a history. She’s already the slayer, and now she wants to escape that.
- SHE BURNED DOWN THE GYM AT HER LAST SCHOOL. WHAT THE.
- Oh my god, Principal Flutie, could you just give a forty-five minute rambling monologue to me? Here’s your topic: glazed donuts and their ability to call to you no matter where you are when you see or smell them. Discuss.
- The introduction of Willow, Xander, Jesse, and Cordelia is really awkward and jumbled. Look, I am not expecting perfection from this show; I know some of this shit will be dated or weird, and I’m totally okay acknowledging that and allowing Whedon to immerse me in this world. Still, not my favorite bit of exposition.
- Willow, can we hang out? I’m just going to call it right now: She’s my favorite character. Alyson Hannigan plays her with such a sincere sense of cluelessness that’s kind of refreshing? Like, Willow isn’t a fool at all; she’s rather matter-of-fact about things, like Buffy actually asking to hang out with her. She just doesn’t believe it would ever happen. I like that. She’s fascinating to me, and she doesn’t feel like a cruel joke.
- On that same note, I want to like Cordelia, but she’s written with just a single layer and there’s not much to her Regina George thing isn’t entertaining or funny. It’s kind of realistic, but I want more from her. I’ll patiently await some character development on her part.
- Xander you are SO AWKWARD. I don’t know how I feel about him yet. I’m not a fan of him constantly following Buffy around? But…well, I have to wait to talk about some of this. Hang around until the end of this list.
- ERIC BALFOUR. I forgot he existed!!! Oh god, he was on Seventh Heaven for a bit, wasn’t he? I swear, I will never mention that show again after this review I SWEAR. He’s not a very good actor, is he? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything besides this and That Show I Won’t Mention Again.
- GILES. GILES!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD. Okay, maybe I will like him more than Willow. IT’S POSSIBLE. oh my god what is a Watcher I don’t get this at all.Â
- A stake is a standard defense tool in Los Angeles. I love that Buffy barely commits to making this lie. She is hardly trying at all.
- So, back to #4: The dynamic this show has in the pilot is so fascinating to me, but when Buffy confronts Giles about the dead coach, she’s insistent that she doesn’t want to follow her destiny. I honestly expected this show to abide by the same trope I’ve seen a thousand times: Buffy is a regular girl, then discovers she’s ~special~ and then she has to deal with this!!!11!! Instead, we are long past that point. Buffy has been slaying vampires for a while and is now fed-up with this destined role, preferring for some peace and quiet instead.
- And now let’s talk about the other fantastic thing this pilot does: It doesn’t make Buffy’s secret a plot point for longer than twenty minutes. I don’t necessarily think this would have been a bad thing to watch, but I’ve seen it before. How many ways can you write that sort of stuff? Instead, Joss Whedon has Xander, Jesse, and Willow all find out about Buffy and vampires by the end of the very first episode, drawing them into the action pretty much immediately. THIS IS WONDERFUL.
- Oh, hello there Angel! You’re rather dapper. Is he another slayer?
- What is a Hellmouth IS IT A MOUTH OF HELL that would make sense.
- OH GOD. I have to laugh at the Bronze. It is the most horrific 90s stereotype ever, both extremely accurate and based entirely on fiction at the same time. YES THIS IS POSSIBLE DID YOU WATCH THIS SCENE. So much grunge and flannel and bad blouses in five minutes! The thing is….we didn’t have anything like this in Riverside. I mean, we had the Showcase Theater and the Barn (R.I.P. to both of them), but they were explicitly venues for alternative music, not this weird combination between an all-ages bar like thing and a music venue. Plus, these type of scenes make me laugh because I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to hear anyone talk in these venues.
- OH MY GOD IT’S THE ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER FROM THE X-FILES.
- No, seriously, I want to like Cordelia. She’s going to find out about Buffy and they’ll become friends, right?
- Oh, so vampires dress like sleezy background actors in Scarface? Cool.
- The Master? That’s the third thing I’ve seen with a character with that name. I wish all three were The Master from Doctor Who, especially if it were always John Simm.
- What is the Harvest? WILL THERE BE PUMPKINS?
- I can’t help but laugh at the vampires using a cemetery. REALLY.
- OH SHIT SHE SLAYED A VAMPIRE IN THE FIRST EPISODE. Well, that was quick.
- Okay, I promise I’ll go easy on season one. But the fighting seemed staged and wooden to me. Is it explained how Buffy is so strong and agile? Did she train? (PS: THAT IS RHETORICAL. DON’T ANSWER IT.)
- A CLIFFHANGER IN THE PILOT? NOT FAIR. THIS IS NOT FAIR.
I definitely gotta say: this shit is fun.
[PS: Big sloppy thank you to Sadie, who designed the header for me. LOOK HOW AWESOME IT IS.]
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dawson…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dawson…
(Reads goes up at 6 am PST/PDT, I think. But definitely before 8.)
I can't decide what is going to be more fun: watching Mark ascend to unforeseen levels of unprepared or reading all these comments.
I can't decide what is going to be more fun: watching Mark ascend to unforeseen levels of unprepared or reading all these comments. I am so, so fond of everything I associate with Buffy, just because it was all so formative and intensely felt: the friendships, the fics, the post-episode keysmashing, the applying every song on the radio to the characters because duh OF COURSE THIS IS ABOUT THEM, the speculation, the fashion takedowns, the ship wars, the fetal position. It's the kind of show that can really bring out different opinions and perspectives on rewatch, but what that first go-round inspires will pretty much be preserved in amber. And I love that it looks like everyone here will be able to recreate that feeling with deadly accuracy.
I know, right? Multiple tries for me, and seriously, 300 comments in four hours! 😀
V jbhyq fnl ab! Crbcyr hcengr RIRELGUVAT ba guvf fvgr.
I agree, Willow looks really cute in this episode. Ubarfgyl V yvxr gur fgenvtug-hc areql fghss orggre guna gur zber "dhvexl" fghss gurl chg ba Jvyybj yngre. Naq V jvyy nqzvg univat n fbsg fcbg sbe gur ybat Jvppn fxvegf.
And I understand all the wardrobe comments, the clothes in this episode are … something.
YES.
Though, it would have to be in that weird universe where BtVS exists as a show (I'm pretty sure it's been referenced at least once) but Buffy and co. also exist so they can go solve crimes and slay vampires with Shawn and Gus.
Ooh, maybe it could be that Shawn becomes an actual psychic because of… something related to the Hellmouth!
I think I tried watching this first ep of Buffy three times before I finally actually got through the entire thing because it just wasn't working for me the first two times. But I'm really glad I did power through it, and now I look quite fondly on this episode.
So yeah, it took a certain frame of mind before I got into the show, but I'm really glad I stuck with it. Hope you'll be sold eventually!
V hcengrq lbhe pbzzrag whfg sbe gung. 😉
For a moment I thought you meant James Marsters was in "27 Dresses" and I was like WHAT I TOTALLY MISSED THAT.
…I like the way you think.
Gehr, ohg vg qbrfa'g fnl JUB gurl ner…qbrf vg?
BU GUR PNCVGNY-Q QVFPHFFVBAF. V nz errrnyyl ybbxvat sbejneq gb Znex'f ernpgvbaf gb fbzr bs gur fghss va gur yngre frnfbaf.
Hrm, maybe 7 am PST? 10 am EST (where I live) sounds about right.
Fbeel, guvf jnf zrnag gb or n erfcbafr gb Tnool.
OHAAVRF NERA'G WHFG PHGR YVXR RIRELOB-BQL FHCCBFRF
GURL'IR TBG GUBFR UBCCVAT YRTF NAQ GJVGPUL YVGGYR ABFRF
NAQ JUNG'F JVGU NYY GUR PNEEBGF
JUNG QB GURL ARRQ FHPU TBBQ RLRFVTUG SBE NALJNL?
OHAAVRF
OHAAVRF
VG ZHFG OR OHAAVRF!
And Cordelia, and Principal Flutie, and, well, everyone at Sunnydale other than Willow, Xander, Jesse, and Giles.
I am almost afraid to go on.
By the way, you and the other mods are going to be SO BUSY next week when you have to do LotR AND Buffy 😀 But it's exciting!
Also, the 'movie' doesn't have the gym burning down like it should. And it's even nineties-er than the show. And the girl who played Willow in the unaired pilot is in it, briefly.
Finally made it six hours after the page was launched. Spent some time reading the TV Tropes page and catching up on laundry in between. So it's kind of Mark Watches's fault I've got like seventeen tabs open now, right?
And having mixed feelings about Xander!
" Gur orfg cneg vf gung, nf sne nf V erzrzore, guvf arire trgf zragvbarq ntnva. "
Vg trgf zragvbarq n pbhcyr zber gvzrf, npghnyyl. Naq jura Falqre urnef nobhg vg…
Ahhh I got lost. Lost in tropes.
You mean… I have to hang out on the internet for long periods of time? THE HORRORZ 😀
I find that hilarious, because I have one yrfovna naq Cntna friend who I'm pretty sure modeled her wardrobe off of that character's.
No, I think it's just the season 7 DVD art.
Can I just say that I was having a really crappy day and I was also sad that I finished your hunger game reviews the other day and now to find that you are REVIEWING MY FAVOURITE SHOW EVER has kinda made life worth living again 😉 Relatively speaking. Can't wait! Hope the reviews come often!
Expectation spoilers, people. Not allowed.
MUAHAHAHA
Please read the spoiler policy linked at the top of this page.
Also, GEEZ you people are all younger than me! I was 17 when Buffy first aired, about to graduate high school. (This is also why I didn't watch it. I was FAR TOO BUSY AND SUPERIOR. Also I didn't have a TV in college.)
Hrm, if I'm looking at my DVDs right, I'm going to guess it's actually Season 5. Fcvxr is on the Season 7 cover but Qnja is not.
I forgot to mention that I liked all the random disease mentions. Black Death and Epstein-Barr I don't think I would have noticed if only one had been mentioned. (That's a lie I always notice mentions of diseases and nerd out about them)
"NOBODY cool has Epstein-Barr anymore!"
Surely you mean Xtreme. The 90s knew not of any E's preceding X's!
Trekkie here! But I might forgive you if you happened to see Voyager or some of the crappy early TNG, ha ha. But not DS9. DS9 was awesome. (Well, apart from the occasional crappy episode, especially in season 1.)
Oh Buffy has some very notable fashion faux pas coming up herself. If not even the clothing so much as the styling choices… what the hell were we thinking were acceptable lipstick shades back then?
I've been really getting a kick out of the Bronze. Nearly every episode it shows up, there's always a really shitty 1990s band playing there, and it cracks me up. I love that Sunnydale is so square that the coolest spot in it isn't really cool at all.
Mark, that was basically my reaction to Willow and Giles too. I'm only nearing the end of the second season, but so far they're my clear favorites. Personally, I think I prefer Giles a bit over Willow, because he's SO… GILES-Y! Plus, this has very little to do with my enjoyment of his character since I'm straight, but I'm not afraid to admit that Anthony Stewart Head is a very attractive older man.
Knaqre, ba gur bgure unaq? Bu, qrne. Lbh'er tbvat gb unir n ceboyrz jvgu uvz, V fhfcrpg. Gunaxshyyl, gubhtu, Pbeqryvn qbrf trg qrirybczrag, naq nf V fcrnx (V'z ba frnfba gjb) vf snfg orpbzvat zl fcvevg navzny. Nf sbe Natry? V nz bar uhaqerq creprag fher gung Znex vf tbvat gb pehfu ba uvz. V nz pnyyvat guvf fuvg EVTUG ABJ. Erzrzore ubj va bar bs uvf VZ pungf, gur thl ur jnf VZvat jvgu fnvq gung uvf cersrerapr sbe thlf jnf "qnex naq zlfgrevbhf naq xvaq bs n qbhpur"? PNYYVAT VG. PNYYVAT VG!!
I've been really getting a kick out of the Bronze. Nearly every episode it shows up, there's always a really shitty 1990s band playing there, and it cracks me up. I love that Sunnydale is so square that the coolest spot in town isn't really cool at all.
Mark, that was basically my reaction to Willow and Giles too. I'm only nearing the end of the second season, but so far they're my clear favorites. Personally, I think I prefer Giles a bit over Willow, because he's SO… GILES-Y! Plus, this has very little to do with my enjoyment of his character since I'm straight, but I'm not afraid to admit that Anthony Stewart Head is a very attractive older man.
Knaqre, ba gur bgure unaq? Bu, qrne. Lbh'er tbvat gb unir n ceboyrz jvgu uvz, V fhfcrpg. Gunaxshyyl, gubhtu, Pbeqryvn qbrf trg qrirybczrag, naq nf V fcrnx (V'z ba frnfba gjb) vf snfg orpbzvat zl fcvevg navzny. Nf sbe Natry? V nz bar uhaqerq creprag fher gung Znex vf tbvat gb pehfu ba uvz. V nz pnyyvat guvf fuvg EVTUG ABJ. Erzrzore ubj va bar bs uvf VZ pungf, gur thl ur jnf VZvat jvgu fnvq gung uvf cersrerapr sbe thlf jnf "qnex naq zlfgrevbhf naq xvaq bs n qbhpur"? PNYYVAT VG. PNYYVAT VG!!
Jbhyq V or pbeerpg va thrffvat lbh'er fbzrjurer va gur zvqqyr bs gur Natryhf fgbelyvar evtug abj? Orpnhfr gehfg, sevraq, gurer ner tbvat gb or qnlf n'pbzva' jura gur fyvqvat fpnyr bs Ohssirefr znxrf Natry bhg gb ybbx yvxr n gehr naq fgrnql arhgeny tenl.
Lbh ner fb abg cercnerq naq, yvxr sbe Znex, jr'er urer sbe lbh gbb.
I've been really getting a kick out of the Bronze. Nearly every episode it shows up, there's always a really shitty 1990s band playing there, and it cracks me up. I love that Sunnydale is so square that the coolest spot in town isn't really cool at all.
Mark, that was basically my reaction to Willow and Giles too. I'm only nearing the end of the second season, but so far they're my clear favorites. Personally, I think I prefer Giles a bit over Willow, because he's SO… GILES-Y! Plus, this has very little to do with my enjoyment of his character since I'm straight, but I'm not afraid to admit that Anthony Stewart Head is a very attractive older man.
Knaqre, ba gur bgure unaq? Bu, qrne. Lbh'er tbvat gb unir n ceboyrz jvgu uvz, V fhfcrpg. Gunaxshyyl, gubhtu, Pbeqryvn qbrf trg qrirybczrag, naq nf V fcrnx (V'z ba frnfba gjb) vf snfg orpbzvat zl fcvevg navzny. Nf sbe Natry? V nz bar uhaqerq creprag fher gung Znex vf tbvat gb pehfu ba uvz. V nz pnyyvat guvf fuvg EVTUG ABJ. Erzrzore ubj va bar bs uvf VZ pungf, gur thl ur jnf VZvat jvgu fnvq gung uvf cersrerapr sbe thlf jnf "qnex naq zlfgrevbhf naq xvaq bs n qbhpur"? PNYYVAT VG. PNYYVAT VG!!
Bs pbhefr, unq lbh unq bar, gur frnfbaf yngre ba jbhyq unir cnegvphyneyl nccrnyrq gb lbh va gurve evqvphybhfvgl. Jnvg hagvy lbh trg n ybbx ng gur vafvqr bs HPFhaalqnyr qbez ebbz! V jbhyq unir yvgrenyyl unq gb cebzvfr gurz zl svefg obea NAQ znxr fher gung puvyq unq ybpxf znqr bs guernqf bs tbyq sbe fvzvyne fvmvat va pbyyrtr.
Okay, so I'm likely to have repeated some comments others have made because there appears to be a billion, but after a quick "search and find" I wanted to say two things:
You should totally LIVEBLOG the movie! Although I don't believe you need to watch it to understand the show, I love how Joss (Whedon. I like to call him Joss because we're BFF's, he just doesn't know it.) continued the story instead of doing a reboot for the show.
When the time comes I really think, if you have time, you should review the <cite>Angel</cite> series in tandem with <cite>Buffy</cite>. Although they're connected in theory, and aside from a few crossover episodes, <cite>Angel</cite> really is it's own show and I'd love to hear some Mark perspective on it.
And if you think the last comment is a spoiler than you're crazypants. It's like saying <cite>Mork & Mindy</cite> spoiled <cite>Happy Days</cite>.
Okay, so I'm likely to have repeated some comments others have made because there appears to be a billion, but after a quick "search and find" I wanted to say two things:
You should totally LIVEBLOG the movie! Although I don't believe you need to watch it to understand the show, I love how Joss (Whedon. I like to call him Joss because we're BFF's, he just doesn't know it.) continued the story instead of doing a reboot for the show.
When the time comes I really think, if you have time, you should review the <cite>Angel</cite> series in tandem with <cite>Buffy</cite>. Although they're connected in theory, and aside from a few crossover episodes, <cite>Angel</cite> really is it's own show and I'd love to hear some Mark perspective on it.
And if you think the last comment is a spoiler than you're crazypants. It's like saying <cite>Mork & Mindy</cite> spoiled <cite>Happy Days</cite>.
Please don't use "crazypants" on this site. It falls under the "problematic language" rule that Mark talks about in this post.
Not a problem. I was wondering, though, why not? I was unaware that it was offensive. Although I don't want to upset anyone I was hoping for some context to better understand why it would be considered problematic, especially since I've been using it for years.
It's easier for me and more informative for you if I just link these two posts:
"Ableist Word Profile: Crazy"
"On the ubiquitous use of 'crazy'"
Sincere thanks for being open to hearing why we don't want "crazy" used on the site.
Just want to echo the thanks, since echinodermata posted the links I would have posted.
Funny thing, Charmed started in '98 so Buffy actually came first. And really I didnt notice bad action in this episode. Now that people have pointed it out I might start noticing but I usually have a good eye for this sort of thing. I suppose it could be that it was just too dark for me to catch it. 😛
Charmed did not always have the best action scened but they werent that bad. I will always love Charmed as it was basically my Buffy as I was too much of a scaredy cat to watch much of Buffy. (It never actually scared me but I had a practice of avoiding even the possibility in my childhood. I would tell my friends my mom wouldn't let me watch Goosebumps so that they couldn't make me.) Charmed was my sisters show though and she has most of the first few seasons taped so I watched it with her. I even made it through to season 8 when she gave up around 6 or 7.
Oh you lucky guy! I was spoiled on a few big plot points before I even started watching the show, then spoiled some more about the later seasons before I saw them. I wish I could wipe my mind, Dollhouse-style, and watch the entire BtVS completely unspoiled. 🙁 But following someone else discover the show and see it with unspoiled eyes is the next best thing, I’ll live vicariously through you!
My favorite character is Buffy – and someone else that appears later. I also liked Willow and Giles, but I didn’t like Xander at the time.
I saw the movie before the show, but it is really very different in tone and spirit, Kristy Swanson wasn’t nearly as good as Buffy, and I had no idea the show would be that good, since the movie was your run of the mill broad teenage comedy. I recommend you to read the comic “The Origin”, which is adapted from (a shortened version) of Joss’s original script. Joss proclaimed the movie not canon, but the comic “pretty much canon” (i think the ‘pretty much’ is there because of the art, the vampires look weird in the comic, but otherwise it’s fine and represents a better beginning of Buffy’s story.
As for question 26… whfg xrrc jngpuvat. V’z abg fher ng juvpu cbvag gurl svefg zragvba vg, ohg gurl pregnvayl qb. Ohssl’f cbjref ner bs fhcreangheny bevtva. Fynlref unir fhcrefgeratgu, ntvyvgl naq snfg urnyvat, naq gurve oybbq unf fcrpvny cebcregvrf.
Frnfba 1 ernyyl fgnegf jvgu fbzr irel purrfl rssrpgf, zhfvp, svtugf naq cebqhpgvba inyhrf, ohg vg trgf zhpu orggre yngre. Gur purrfvarff vf qvnyrq qbja zvqjnl guebhtu frnfba 1, naq qvfnccrnef qhevat frnfba 2. V ernyyl ybir fbzr bs gur frnfba 1 rcvfbqrf, gubhtu – gur dhnyvgl evfrf nebhaq rcvfbqr 5, naq gur frnfba svanyr vf terng. V ybir nyy bs OgIF (rira gubhtu V ybir gur yngr frnfbaf n ovg zber guna gur rneyl barf), vapyhqvat frnfba 1, rira gubhtu V pbafvqre vg gur jrnxrfg frnfba bs gur fubj. Vg jvyy or sha gb frr lbhe ernpgvbaf.
I think that you should watch Angel the Series at the same time as Buffy, not just the select episodes. You’d just spoil AtS that way.
Lrnu, V'z trggvat cerggl pybfr gb gur frnfba svanyr. Qba'g fcbvy! (Nygubhtu V xabj gung Natry cebonoyl qbrfa'g raq hc orvat rivy sberire orpnhfr, lbh xabj, ur tbg uvf bja fubj jurer ur jnf gur ureb, fb… gung xvaq bs ehyrf bhg uvz orvat n onq thl sberire.)
Oh, by the way, was anyone else totally WHOA at first about just how young Alyson Hannigan and David Boreanaz look in the pilot? I mean, seriously, oh my god, LOOK at them.
They all genuinely look like teenagers to me!
Willow and Jesse pretty much hits the mark pretty squarely but it's hard for me remembering if anyone in my high school looked like Cordelia or Xander. On that note — I'm pretty sure Joyce is every den mother who ever hosted a meeting of girl scouts that I ever attended. That very same woman. I'm like 98% certain.
The actress playing Cordelia is about ten years older than her character is supposed to be. Joyce, however, is spot-on. The perfect TV mom.
I know, right? The actress somehow manages to look like everyone's mom ever. Hell, everything about Joyce is like every mom ever. The writing and the acting and the look just come together to create the perfect archetypical mom.
I– I don't want to talk about how I found this but there's apparently a collection of the fandom that likes shipping Joyce. Jvgu punenpgref bgure guna Tvyrf. Jvgu punenpgref yvxr Snvgu naq Bm. It — I —
Anyway. Yes. Joyce. She seems to exist in a place completely outside the confines of just FictionLand and RealityWorld where she isn't really Buffy's mom (because I don't think they look alike) but she feels completely right being SOMEONE's mom.
IS SHE REALLY. She looks perfectly aged to me!!!
Both Charisma Carpenter and Nic Brendon are about ten years older than the characters they portray.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is the ONLY one of them who was still a teenager when Buffy began, she was 19 but just a month away from her 20th birthday.
She's 34 now and has a new show and a toddler, and has only JUST started looking like she's getting older.
Cordelia could pass for an 18 yo imo but not a grade 10. But I could care less how she looks really because she delivers her lines beautifully.
I gave up after season three but I remember watching both Buffy and Charmed back to back. They're the shows that for some reason, usually get classified together in my mind, despite that the themes aren't really that similar in my mind… (well, besides the sci-fi/supernatural slant). Regardless, if someone liked Charmed, I usually feel pretty comfortable in saying they'll like Buffy and if they stick through the first season of Supernatural, they'll really like Supernatural too. Which Mark is going to review eventually too! Yay!
So maybe you, togyavosaur, will have a chance to be introduced and familarize yourself with two new shows (those being Buffy and Supernatural) that could potentially be a big thing for you!
I am actually familiar with Supernatural and occationally watch it on TNT but it really isn't my thing. Thinking about it I have only really watched because it is on right after Charmed.
Sometimes I accidentally ending up spoiling myself for future episodes of Supernatural because I'm watching the reruns of Charmed when TNT airs them in the mornings because they just kind of switch over without very much fanfare. "Oh hey, there's a recap featuring things you haven't even seen yet, oh sorry, did we just ruin that for you?"
But man, I hope my drawing those aforementioned comparisons doesn't sour you on Buffy! I promise, I may just have no idea what I'm talking about!
No worries. I am in this to the end whether I like it or not. This is my first time following along from the beginning and I want to see it though. Also since WB was the only channel I watch/I was 6 when it aired I know enough through various forms of osmosis that I think I will like it. And the pilot didnt repulse me. 🙂
I dislike the Supernatural recaps as well. Though I suppose they are probably the reason I know as much as I do about the show. Supernatural was also after Smallville and I would be waiting for the clip of next weeks episode (or it would have just ended) and the THEN screen would come up. Funny thing is my brain never connected it with SN so I would alway keep watching just to see what it was for.
Yes! We've got some rough waters ahead but if you didn't get seasick from the pilot, ye got a chance about you, matey.
…I don't know why I had to take that to the pirate place. Just… let's just not talk about it.
I haven't followed along at any point since the beginning *and* I've never followed along with something I hadn't experienced at least 90% of on my own. The closest I'll get is when he starts Cowboy Bebop since I only ever made it through the first three discs before Insufficient Funds collaborated with the universe to keep me down.
Haha, the only reason I watched Charmed was because it aired after something else on TNT, and I eventually got pulled into it. I like cheesiness, but damn you, engrossing TNT reruns!
Funfact: Nowadays it airs after Angel.
I was eight when it originally came out and pretty much thought David Boreanaz was the hunkiest thing ever to don black leather. Now… he just seems so babyfaced! Like I could just pinch his cheek and babytalk to him about how adorwable he looks and he would just sigh and drop his shoulders and accept it.
Jnvg hagvy lbh frr Ryvmn Qhfuxh!
I sympathize, I was spoiled for pretty much the whole show.
V'z abg n ovt Ohssl sna ng svefg, ohg fur ernyyl tebjf ba zr bire gur pbhefr bs gur frevrf. V nyjnlf yvxr Tvyrf; V ybir Jvyybj ohg fbzrgvzrf gur jnl ure punenpgre jnf jevggra … jryy, jr'yy trg gurer, jba'g jr. Knaqre abg nf zhpu ohg V fgvyy yvxr uvz. Ubarfgyl, gurer vfa'g n punenpgre ba Ohssl V ungr, juvpu znxrf zr na hahfhny sna, vg frrzf yvxr!
HEE HEE, I remember Devon Sawa! Jonathan Taylor Thomas! Brad Renfro! JONATHAN BRANDIS. *thirteen-year-old swoon*
BE ZNLOR ZVQTRGF…
I'm so proud of you all. <3
It's to the point that I didn't even have to decipher the lines to figure out what they were.
This happens everytime the musical is mentioned. It's a thing of glory.
Jnvg, ner lbh fnlvat gurer'f fbzr xvaq bs pbaarpgvba orgjrra Ora naq Tybel?
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
I'd only ever seen him on Bones before, so I was kind of blown away by his youthfulness here.
It's sad he hasn't been in more things. From what I know, it kind of happened to the lot of them. The only ones that got out were Ryvmn Qhfuxh with… other projects… and Hannigan with How I Met Your Mother.
V sbetbg ubj hggreyl ybinoyr Frgu Terra jnf va uvf Ohssirefr gvzr gbb.
Funny story that's tangentially connected to the above because I don't want all of my comments to equal "JUST YOU WAIT" comments. I heard somewhere that David Boreanaz was originally asked to read for Mal on Firefly and at first, he was completely on board until he heard the premise of the show and realized it was going to be a cross between a sci-fi and a western.
Which was a devastating problem for him because he apparently has a very real phobia about chickens. So he ended up backing up and we got hunky Nathan Fillion instead!
CHICKENS. OMG. This is the best bit of trivia ever.
It made me sad that Nicholas Brendon (Xander) didn't do much for a long time after Buffy. Especially when I heard he was entering rehab for alcoholism and had been arrested. Then he popped up on Criminal Minds and I geeked out for like half an hour. According to Wikipedia, though, he was still having alcohol problems as recently as last year, so I hope he's okay.
Tru-fax: David Boreanaz would never survive Key West. Those things are everywhere! I'm not claiming to be a hundred percent verifiable on this but I'm pretty sure where I'm getting this is from one of the commentary tracks for an episode of Firefly with Joss. The problem I'm having double-checking this is that I can't remember which one! 🙁
That's really unfortunate. I hope he's had a strong support network around him to help get through. It's never easy kicking an addiction (and you never truly defeat it, I hear) but adding in feelings of general overall unproductivity and… well… I hope he's okay too.
A quick Google search says that he's talked about his chicken phobia more than once, so I don't doubt you. That's just such a random phobia to have.
Trust me, we are SO MUCH BETTER OFF with Nathan Fillion as Mal. Better actor, for starters. Also (and I say this with zero objectivity, since I don't like Angel very much) 1000xhotter. And has not apparently sexually harassed anyone, so that's a win too (sad way to have a win and I read some awful gossip, but).
NO NOBODY STOP
BUFFY IS BLOODY AMAZING 😉
OH MY GOD THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE BEEN ABLE TO ACCESS MY SITE IN LIKE FIVE HOURS
So a bit of an update! Buffy fans, you shredded an entire server in five minutes. Close to 150,000 people tried to load this page at one time and you virtually wasted that server. Now, it was a shared server with Dreamhost, so that means you also sent down OTHER SITES.
I've just ordered my own server that I won't have to share. That should be up in 12-24 hours and we probably won't ever have to deal with this again. Unfortunately, bandwidth isn't cheap, so
http://markdoesstuff.com
Buy my books so I can afford this shit.
I would put a donate button up BUT WE ALL SAW WHAT HAPPENED TO REGRETSY. Do not want that.
ANYWAY THANK YOU BUFFY FANS. I LOVE YOU ALL.
…what happened to Regretsy?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post…
That's a brief explanation. But since Regretsy is not a non-profit site, they had their PayPal shut down.
Basically!
That's… weird. Haven't plenty of actual PEOPLE been like "I need money, please send by clicking this PayPal button!" in the past? I'm pretty sure Cleolinda has a donate button. Or does this only apply to corporations?
hahaha yeah it makes very little sense at all. I need to find it, but actually, it's NOT totally against the rules, and some blogger went through the Terms of Service and proved PayPal wrong.
That said, I'd rather earn the money and have people donate to my AIDS ride (bit.ly/ALCin2012 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION) or another worthy charity than to me.
Now I'm not saying this under the presumption that everyone here celebrates Christmas… but it is an awfully good time of year to go pick out wrapping paper if you or anyone you know who also reads Mark happens to like penguins and books do wrap just ever so nicely, what with their already being rectangular and generally smallish and all. Just sayin'!
Penguins? I'm so confused
Ooh new server. Congrats!
I was going to go on the forums earlier and say Mark you didn't announce the forums! But it wasn't loading anyway, so…
(Hey y'all! There are new forums – link on the top bar. You can talk about spoilers without rot13 and also talk about random off topic things and all that good stuff.)
My mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I sent her a link to your merch page. So…yeah. SO MUCH EXCITE!
I am so excited for your success Mark!!!!
I love that other people love Jesse (for any reason). My friend was reccing Haven to me, and I was like, "Wait, isn't Jesse from Buffy in that?" Because that is how I still always think of Eric Balfour.
In the future do you think you could refrain from posting these kinds of expectation spoilers? Specifics about later seasons count as spoilers and are prohibited in the spoiler policy. I'm going to rot-13 some more of your comment so it's less spoilery.
To explain this to new people, please don't bias me for future moments. Like:
I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL MARK REACHES THAT PART ABOUT ANGEL'S IDENTITY
or
OH MY GOD I HATE THAT ONE EPISODE IN SEASON TWO WITH CORDELIA'S NEW BOYFRIEND
If you want to speak of the future, use rot13.com to cypher your comment. I would love to participate in the comments, but I'm attempting to watch this without any ideas of the future.
Thanks!
Mostly what people are saying is stuff like "X season is better than Y season, and X thing gets much better after Y episode." I've been deleting or rot-13ing such comments, but if that's too strict I'll stop.
Hahah, please continue doing whatever you see fit! 🙂
PS: This is not a spoiler this is absolute fact
I have tried posting on MW before but always got waaaay behind Mark and could never post at the right time. WELL NOT THIS TIME. This time I am determined to make some kind of substantive post EVERY DAY. So here goes, with my "How I Got Into Buffy" story.
The tale is in three parts:
Part 1. How I heard of it for the very first time. I was probably like 10 and my brother and I loved the comic FoxTrot. It was mentioned in just ONE strip, and I briefly wondered what it was before moving on, because I figured it was a TV show and we didn't own a TV and I didn't really care.
Part 2. I'm about 14, and we finally have a TV in the house. (I've also started public school.) My brother and I get into FIREFLY and it is the greatest show ever and everything is beautiful and the only thing that hurts is how pitifully short it is. (You may notice a pattern about "my brother and I." Being homeschooled we were pretty much each other's only friends, despite the 4-year age gap.) For some reason, however, we do not connect the name "Joss Whedon" to "everything awesome ever." At this point, thanks to watching ALL the commentaries and extras on the Firefly (and later Serenity) DVDs, I was aware Buffy was created by Joss, but thought it had a stupid name and that the involvement of this guy Joss in both was some kind of coincidence. In fact, my dad actually brought season 1 of Buffy home from the library and tried to get me to watch it because he knew how much I liked Firefly, but for some reason I still didn't.
Part 3. I'm in Japan on a semester exchange my senior year of high school and VERY LONELY. And honestly one of the things I miss most is American TV, despite not really watching that much when I was actually at home. The fact is (and I know this might be controversial), Japanese TV sucks. The characters are ciphers and have no arcs or growth, the plots are boring, there's a ton of sexism, and there's not even a whiff of artistry to be found. All of which, combined with serious homesickness/isolation due to a kinda neglectful host family, left me bingeing on all sorts of American TV shows I'd never had the remotest interest in, to the detriment of, you know, studying and stuff. One of those shows was House M.D., which my mom really liked. And on a fan forum for House, I saw someone's icon.
Vg jnf n unys anxrq, oybaq, irel irel frkl zna va n orq jvgu erq furrgf ubyqvat hc n cnve bs unaqphssf. Now, I'm not normally into obaqntr cynl rgp but for some reason I saw this and I was wildly attracted. One of the comments on the forum made it clear that this icon was related to Buffy in some way. I went to Wikipedia and found out ALL THE THINGS and was officially spoiled for the entire series, although I couldn't keep all the names and plot twists straight. What Wiki definitely made clear to me was gur angher bs Ohssl naq Fcvxr'f pbagebirefvny eryngvbafuvc and, wanting to see more of this tragyrzna to jubz I was so inexplicably attracted, I went to Youtube and watched ALL THE VIDEOS I could find of Ohssl naq Fcvxr. Nsgre guvf, V jnf bssvpvnyyl, svanyyl, veeribpnoyl, sberire va gur Fchssl fuvccvat pnzc, fgvyy jvgubhg univat frra n fvatyr rcvfbqr. It was only after this long, convoluted sequence of events that I finally downloaded season 1 on iTunes and started watching.
(Cut for length…)
My impressions of the first episode? "Cheesy, but inexplicably intriguing. And cliffhanger alert! Must keep watching, no choice now. Oh, and that Giles is a cutie. Vs V jrera'g nyernql zragnyyl zneevrq gb Fcvxr V jbhyq qrsvavgryl or vagrerfgrq va fbzr bs gung."
Vg ernyyl gbbx hagvy zvq-frnfba gjb sbe zr gb fgneg jngpuvat abg sbe Fcvxr, ohg sbe gur fubj. Va yngre frnfbaf, Fchssl orpnzr zreryl n cyrnfvat qvirefvba sebz gur NJRFBZRARFF gung jnf gur rirelguvat ryfr nobhg guvf frevrf. Gura va rira yngre frnfbaf, jura fhqqrayl O/F jnf n znva cybg cbvag, V jnf nccerpvngvir, ohg n yvggyr hcfrg gung vg raqrq hc va fhpu n qnex cynpr. V'yy or irel vagrerfgrq gb frr Znex'f bcvavbaf ba gur jubyr guvat, orpnhfr tbyyl nz V fgvyy pbasyvpgrq nobhg vg nyy. V nz fgvyy n fuvccre naq cebonoyl jvyy or gvyy gur qnl gur jbeyq raqf, ohg va beqre gb pbagvahr gb or gung jnl V srry yvxr V unir gb rkcynva njnl zbfg bs frnfba fvk. Zru.
Anywho, I'm really excited about this and I can't wait to finally enjoy Buffy in an environment like this, where relative newcomers to the fandom are so readily accepted. In other parts of the Web when I've tried to get involved I've always run into diehard fans who know EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SHOW and write essays about it and stuff, and it just seems like there's so much on the internet about Buffy that I'll never be able to catch up and I just get exhauseted and give up. (And I've been trying for 4 years now ><;;) In particular I am looking forward to GIFs! Because I am really bad with technology and don't know how to make them, and I love them and want at least one for EVERY EPISODE.
Okay it's late now and it's finals week, so end of too-long comment that no one will read because it's at the end of the comment list. I'll try harder tomorrow. Night night!
Unir lbh ernq AnhgvOvgm'f Fchssl fgbevrf? ORFG. Jung V ybir nobhg gurz vf gurl bsgra unir Ohssl naq Fcvxr npghnyyl snyy va ybir, naq or TBBQ sbe rnpu bgure, vafgrnq bs gur njshy ghea gurve eryngvbafuvc gbbx ba gur fubj. Fb jura V guvax nobhg Fchssl, gung'f jung V guvax bs, orpnhfr va-fubj V jbhyq arire jnag Ohssl gb or jvgu n thl jub gevrq gb encr ure. Ohg va snasvp, V gbgnyyl fuvc gurz.
I'll take a look, thanks for the tip!!
Gurl qvq snyy va ybir, naq riraghnyyl gurl jrer tbbq sbe rnpu bgure. Qvq lbh zvff frnfba 7? V jbaqre jul fb znal crbcyr fcrnx nobhg Fchssl nf vs raqrq va frnfba 6, jura guvf jnf whfg gur svefg puncgre bs gurve fgbel.
"Fb jura V guvax nobhg Fchssl, gung'f jung V guvax bs, orpnhfr va-fubj V jbhyq arire jnag Ohssl gb or jvgu n thl jub gevrq gb encr ure."
Jryy gur jubyr fbhy/ab fbhy guvat vf cerggl vzcbegnag va gur fubj. Naq n ohapu bs crbcyr ner nyfb fuvccvat Ohssl jvgu n thl jub zragnyyl gbegherq ure naq ure sevraqf naq snzvyl sbe zbaguf, gbegherq ure zragbe/sngure svther culfvpnyyl naq rzbgvbanyyl, zheqrerq ure grnpure, naq gevrq gb qrfgebl gur jbeyq. Naq ur jnf sbetvira. Jung'f hc jvgu gung? Qbhoyr fgnaqneqf zhpu? Abg gb zragvba gung Ohssl vf nyfb fgvyy sevraqf jvgu Jvyybj, jub gevrq gb xvyy Ohssl, Qnja, Tvyrf naq rirelbar ryfr va gur jbeyq.
Lrnu, znlor encr vf whfg bire gur yvar sbe zr. Ohg nyfb, Natry naq Fcvxr ner va qvssrerag fvghngvbaf. Vg'f abg yvxr Fcvxr unq n fbhy, sryy va ybir jvgu Ohssl, ybfg uvf fbhy, gevrq gb encr ure, naq tbg gur fbhy onpx ntnva. Ur jnf nyjnlf Fcvxr, naq ur sryy va ybir jvgu Ohssl jura ur qvqa'g unir uvf fbhy, naq V ERNYYL jvfu gurl unq tbar va n qvssrerag qverpgvba guna gurl qvq jvgu gung.
Nfvqr sebz gung, gubhtu, V nyjnlf gubhtug gurl cbegenlrq Ohssl nf abg orvat NF va ybir jvgu Fcvxr nf Fcvxr jnf jvgu ure. Fur fnj uvz nf fbzrguvat fur ghearq gb ng ure qnexrfg zbzragf, abg n tbbq naq cbfvgvir guvat va ure yvsr. Gung'f jul V yvxr snasvp orggre, orpnhfr vg pna tb onpx naq punatr gung.
V qvqa'g zvff frnfba 7, ohg V xvaq bs ungrq vg.
Vg qvqa'g raq va n qnex cynpr. Vg raqrq va n yvtug cynpr, va Pubfra. Sebz qnexarff gb yvtug, gung jnf gurve nznmvat wbhearl.
Nyfb, frnfba 6 vf njrfbzr.
V jnf n Fchssl fuvccre svefg gbb! Gur svefg rcvfbqr V fnj jnf gur zhfvpny, naq jura gurl unir gur ovt xvff ng gur raq, V jnf yvxr "gung'f ubgg!" Gura jura V fgnegrq jngpuvat sebz gur ortvaavat, V jnf yvxr "Jub ner gurfr crbcyr? Jurer'f Fcvxr? Jung'f tbvat ba?" Unu.
V fuvc Fcvxr naq Ohssl nf n penpx fuvc, orpnhfr vg'f uvynevbhf. V ybirq gur rcvfbqr va frnfba sbhe jurer gurl snyy haqre n fcryy naq gel gb trg zneevrq. Ohg V qvfyvxr gur vqrn bs gurz gbtrgure va gur erny jbeyq.
I just need you to know that this is inadvertently the most hilarious comment on the site because of the rot13. It's just like "IMPORTANT SENTENCE BECAUSE A;;AKDFJ FA;KLDJS ;;AKLSDFJ F"
i love the internet.
Yay, Mark responded to my comment! I feel so special. I hope the rot13ing wasn't too confusing. I could have just put in all in rot13, but that seemed weird since not all of it was spoilery. But there are a few places where it definitely just looks funny, lol.
BTW Mark, every time I watch a new TV show now I think, "I want Mark to watch this!" Including shows like Downton Abbey that are just completely different from the scifi/fantasy stuff you normally watch. I'M OBSESSED
Mark IS going to watch Downton Abbey! I AM SO EXCITE.
Hahahaha, wordpress is awful with HTML. Sorry!
I will liveblog the movie, and I'll be watching certain Angel eps in tandem and reviewing them! So you get BOTH OF THEM.
Why only certain Angel eps?
Mark's explained in another comment, but it really hits home if you do the maths:
144 Buffy episodes = 29 weeks (near enough) of reviews, which is more than 6 months.
110 Angel episodes = 22 weeks of reviews.
That would total 51 weeks, so Mark would be spending most of next year in the Buffyverse.
I've emailed some suggestions through and it seems likely that Mark will end up watching a lot of Angel (especially in seasons three and four), so that he doesn't get confused by the continuity, but limiting the episodes he writes about here, so that he can move on to another show about halfway through 2012.
It's not remotely related to "Buffy" in any way, but I think I would die a sad and lonely man if Mark never watched "Smile Time," from season 5 of Angel. It is, simply put, an experience that nobody should should miss.
NPGHNYYL, zl svefg qbez ebbz jnf ovttre guna gung bar. V tbg n ebbz va gur nggvp bs gur nqzvavfgengvba ohvyqvat, juvpu jnf va na byq znafvba. Fb V tbg freinag'f dhnegref, ohg vg jnf FCNPVBHF. Gur erfg bs gur pnzchf jnf gval yvggyr fdhnerf, juvpu zrnag jr unq nyy gur cnegvrf. Nyfb, jr unq n YNETR jnyx-va pybfrg gung zl ebbzzngr riraghnyyl zbirq ure znggerff vagb gb unir ure bja cevingr ebbz. Gur qbjafvqr jnf gung ynhaqel snpvyvgvrf (naq rirelguvat ryfr) jrer qbja guerr syvtugf bs fgnvef naq npebff gur dhnq.
Pbhag lbhefrys vaperqvoyl yhpxl. Abg bayl jnf zl svefg ebbz gval ohg gurer jnf ab ryringbe naq jr jrer ba gur ynfg sybbe. Zbivat jnf gur yrnfg shaal pbzrql V'ir rire orra hajvyyvatyl guehfg vagb ba zl gvzr ba guvf Rnegu. Jr nyfb unq n pnc ba ubj zhpu ryrpgevpvgl/jngre jr pbhyq hfr orpnhfr jr jrer va na "raivebazragnyyl sevraqyl!" ebbz. Juvpu, lrf, njrfbzr orpnhfr jub qbrfa'g jnag gb pbafreir va beqre gb uryc gur Rnegu n yvggyr ovg, evtug, ohg nyfb, vaperqvoyl qvssvphyg gb trg hfrq gb ng svefg.
Lbh unq lbhe bja onguebbz?! V'z wrnybhf bs obgu bs lbh naq Ohssl. Funevat guerr fubjref jvgu 40 bgure tveyf (hayrff lbh jnagrq gb jnyx guebhtu gur pebjqrq fghql ybhatr gb nabgure cnve bs fubjref, juvpu V unq gb qb ba bppnfvba) FHPXRQ. Rfcrpvnyyl jura lbh'er sbeprq gb ~pbafreir raretl~ orpnhfr gur yrtvbaf bs oybj qevref unir gevccrq gur pvephvg oernxre, naq gur znvagranapr crbcyr ner fybj gb svk vg. V'yy tvir lbh gur ryringbe guvat, ohg tbq qvq V ungr nyy bs zl sevraqf jub qvqa'g unir gb funer onguebbzf. V jnf fb birewblrq va whavbe lrne jura V fnj gur fb-uhtr-vg-pbhyq-or-n-orqebbz onguebbz V unq gb funer jvgu bayl bar bgure crefba.
Wow, it's amazing how young the whole cast look back at the start! Even Giles is so baby-faced!
I've decided I never need to have a relationship again; all my emotional needs are met by fanfic and Mark's blogs. ;p
<3<3<3<3<3
I just came to "Buffy" in the last months. I gobbled it all up in two months though (and real life suffered).
Looking forward to the reviews. IA the Darla misdirect puts the audience on notice this is not going to be a cliche show.
Zl svefg qbez ebbz jnf fznyy, zl frpbaq jnf GVAL (vg jnf n fvatyr), naq zl guveq jnf TVABEZBHF, vg jnf fb njrfbzr. V fbzrubj nppvqragnyyl cvpxrq gur ovttrfg ebbz ba pnzchf, naq vg unq GJB orqf, naq V chfurq gurz gbtrgure gb znxr bar TVNAG orq. Ohg ab znggre jung fvmr, qbez ebbzf arire ybbx nf avpr va erny yvsr nf gurl qb va Fhaalqnyr. Gurl nyjnlf unir gur fnzr fgnaqneq qbez-orq naq qbez-sheavgher naq ner JNL zber bs n zrff guna Ohssl'f qbez ebbz rire vf.
Our walls looked like something out of a prison or state home. It was rather unfortunate. We tried to cover as much of it with posters though, in the grand tradition of college kids. (Our carpeting was some really revolting combination of maroon, burnt orange, and brown too so there was that)
Jvyybj'f vf zhpu pybfre gb yvsr, V gubhtug. Jung, jvgu gur oblsevraqf fyrrcvat bire naq gur cbfgref ba gur onpx bs gur qbbe abobql haqrefgnaqf ohg lbh.
THE BEST PART ABOUT THIS
Is that constantly reloading actually makes it WORSE
THAT IS A DISASTER.
lol. later that night I realized I had three different mark sites opened in my phone browser. So every time I went on my browser my phone would attempt to load them…. that probably wasn't helping.
I completely second this! I really see it all as one giant show.
Danny (and Lindsay) are my favorites on CSI:NY so I am bound to recognize the actor. I became a fan of Danny because he is, IMO, one of the better looking CSI's and he is a pretty cool character too. (And Lindsay is awesome and I first saw the actress on Without A Trace, where she was also awesome.)
I am a big Danny and Lindsay shipper. I also ship Sid/Sid's Glasses and Me/Stella's Hair.
Sid's glasses are the coolest thing ever and I really want a pair. I would totally be able to amuse myself for hours if I had them.
EDIT from the Future: I had a dream last night that I had Sid's glasses and it was awesome
V erzrzore n zragvbaf, abj gung lbh oevat vg hc … ohg V guvax Falqre jbhyq unir ungrq Ohssl ertneqyrff. Bu, Cevapvcny Falqre, V pna'g jnvg sbe lbh gb fubj hc, nf zhpu nf V ybir Cevapvcny Syhgvr nf jryy.
Vg'f zragvbarq va "Fpubby Uneq" nsgre fur trgf va gebhoyr sbe oheavat qbja gur fpvrapr yno va "Fbzr Nffrzoyl Erdhverq". Furvyn nfxf vs vg'f gehr gung fur ohearq qbja n fpubby ohvyqvat bar gvzr, naq Ohssl nqzvgf gung vg jnfa'g npghnyyl *bar* gvzr.
Well, I've still been hanging out in reads and the spoil blog, and I tried to keep up with Battlestar, but exams and travel had other plans.
Oh, VHS. 🙂 My brother has all the episodes taped from the WB back in the day and rewatched them regularly until his VCR broke this summer. About a month ago he stole my DVDs and hasn't given them back. Little scamp.
I remember watching gur rcvfbqr Uhfu during one of my father's Very Important Business Dinners in the living room while the dinner guests were in the dining room and thinking about how this was one episode I really didn't particularly feel bad about that he didn't have time to set the VCR up for me.
Ha,ha,ha. What a predicament. I can't find a working VCR either. Does the DVD set have commentary? I'm Tivo-ing them off of some "Chiller" station at three A.M. for the time being. Sounds like a last-minute Christmas list addition may be in order. 😉
There are a few commentaries per season, not as much as I'd like. Some of them can get pretty spoilery, so it's best for anyone who hasn't seen the whole series to wait to watch them.
Yeah Joss dropped a major spoiler for season 6 into the commentary for an episode from season 4. I mean thanks bro!
The thing I'm most sad about is that the DVDs don't include the previouslies. I'm maybe a bit obsessed with the show, but I'm really sad that I can't see those unless I catch the episodes on TV. Rfcrpvnyyl gur bar sbe Gur Tvsg
I always thought the previouslies should be an option on the DVDs, so you can watch with them on or off.
YAY! I've been trying to read this all day, but the site has been down! I realise that there are over 400 posts, and there is really nothing that I can contribute, but eh, I'm going to list some thoughts.
-Willow is SO CUTE!
– I totally guessed that Mark's favourite characters would be Willow and Giles! (It's kind of obvious to anybody who's seen the show and read his blog)
-Ha ha, Xander is extremely awkward, and I love him for it.
– "The new kid? She seems kind of weird to me. What kind of name is Buffy?" "Hey, Aphrodesia."
-He he, there's a written exam to get into Cordelia's gang.
-Yeah, the characters introduction is pretty awkward, Whedon definitely got better with that over time.
-"He said something about the MOUTH OF HELL, I really didn't like him"
-I LOVE BUFFY!
"WILL THERE BE PUMPKINS?"
This made my crappy day super awesome.
Yay! I'm so ridiculously happy that you are watching this. Buffy remains my favorite show even after it has been off the air for so long. I saw the pilot the night it first aired, and was pretty much sucked in from there.
The fashion in this episode makes me giggle, even though I may or may not have worn similar outfits in middle school/high school (oh, 90s!). While Cordelia was making fun of Willow's outfit (which I thought was kind of cute and Willow-y) by the drinking fountain, my main thought besides feeling sad for Willow was that Cordy had no right to judge fashion while wearing those shiny neon green pants. Come on now, girl.
I have a suggestion about the spoiler policy: I think it might be a good idea for people to note when spoilers are specifically for Angel or the comics so that people will not get inadvertently spoiled on those while rot13-ing (Is that a word? Can I make it one?) Maybe put (Angel) or (comics) before the rot13 if the spoiler is outside the realm of the Buffy series? I think it would be nice to be able to discuss it all, but not everyone has seen/read it all.
I am SO FREAKING EXCITED that you are watching this!!!!!!!
Buffy is really amazing, truly, Joss Whedon is a god.
And yes, the first season is kind of… terrible at some points, but its an endearing terrible! Similar to some of the worst episodes of Doctor Who 😛
"I may have been obsessively figuring out how soon you could be done with BSG so we could get on to this"
I totally did this too XD Though I kept mis-calculating and getting confused.
Joss Whedon is no Steven Moffat or Russel T. Davis…. but Buffy has some pretty good (90s style) story lines .
And I can assure you that every episode will be worth watching!
I'm excited!
Uhu? Vg jbhyq znxr zber frafr gb fnl gung Ehffryy G. Qnivrf be Fgrira Zbssng vf ab Wbff Jurqba, ohg Qbpgbe Jub unf fbzr tbbq fgbelyvarf.
IMO, I'd probably flip that sentence around. Joss is better than both those guys.
You reminded me… You know how since Moffat took over the show, well-known writers seem to be getting the occasional guest shot on Who (Richard Curtis with "Vincent and the Doctor", Neil Gaiman with "The Doctor's Wife")?
Well… a Whedon-penned Doctor Who script would be the BEST THING EVER. (The show's writers might have to comb over the script to catch Americanisms, though.)
You reminded me… You know how since Moffat took over the show, well-known writers seem to be getting the occasional guest shot on Who (Richard Curtis with "Vincent and the Doctor", Neil Gaiman with "The Doctor's Wife")?
Well… a Whedon-penned Doctor Who script would be the BEST THING EVER.
I was so going to because it's sometimes so hard to remember what is a spoiler when your mind just kind associates Trait A with Character Blank and Event-Storyline C with Eventually Introduced Story-Arc C but I tried! I really hope I didn't do anything other than vague it up for you! Naq nyfb znxr lbh jbaqre jung pbhyq CBFFVOYL unccra va gur shgher gb fbsgra Natryhf!?
But rest assured, we all had the same first thought as you! (And I'm hoping we're at least a little right — mainly because this was my introduction to qnex naq oebbqvat yrngure-wnpxrg thlf, which, fun fact, my favorite fictional kind). HOW ARE YOU LIKING IT SO FAR!?
I just watched "V Bayl Unir Rlrf sbe Lbh" naq QNZA, vg'f znqr zr zber snfpvangrq ol Natry(hf) evtug abj guna rire. Vf gurer fgvyy fbzr tbbq vafvqr uvz? Vs fb, jul? Jung nobhg gur jubyr FBHY guvat? JUL QVQ FCVXR TRG HC BHG BS GUR JURRYPUNVE? bzt JUNG VF TBVAT BAAAAAAAAAA
that's one of my favorite episodes.
V unira'g jngpurq gur svanyr lrg, ohg V guvax vg znl or zl snibevgr Frnfba 2 rcvfbqr. (Frpbaq snibevgr, qrfcvgr zl erny qvfyvxr bs gur jnl gur raqvat jnf unaqyrq, vf cebonoyl "Orjvgpurq, Obgurerq naq Orjvyqrerq".) V ybir ubj gurl znxr gur svefg gjb pbasebagngvbaf obgu gur fnzr traqre frghc jvgu gur xvq orvat gur zna naq gur grnpure orvat gur jbzna, whfg fb gurl pna ghea vg nebhaq ba lbh naq unir Ohssl or gur wvygrq ybire naq Natry or gur qhzcre. Abg bayl jnf vg pyrire naq fhoirefvir, ohg vg jnf CRESRPG sbe Ohssl'f punenpgre qrirybczrag. (Fgvyy abg fher jung vg zrnaf sbe Natry'f; V'z ubcvat gur svanyr jvyy vyyhzvangr gung sbe zr.) V ubarfgyl qba'g guvax gurer'f n fvatyr jebat abgr va gung ragver rcvfbqr.
Zl snibevgr Frnfba 1 rcvfbqr, ol gur jnl, vf "Avtugznerf". V thrff V unir n guvat sbe gur rzbgvbany jrvtug. (Ohssl'f qnq gryyvat ure nyy gurfr ubeevoyr guvatf nobhg ure naq fur qbrfa'g xabj vg'f n avtugzner? GUNG ZNQR ZR SHPXVAT PEL bu zl tbq vg'f whfg FB URNEGOERNXVAT.)
Nyfb, bxnl. V whfg fgnegrq jngpuvat gur irel, irel ortvaavat bs gur svanyr, ohg V unir gb cbfg guvf.
Vf gung fhccbfrq gb or…. na npprag? Gung'f gur jbefg nggrzcg ng na Vevfu npprag (be shpx, ng NAL npprag ernyyl) V'ir rire urneq. Qnivq Obernanm, ner lbh rira gelvat?!
UNUNU. V YBIR UVF GREEVOYR VEVFU NPPRAG. Vg'f whfg fb urnil ba gur e'f. Bu zna. V jnf fb rkpvgrq jura V sbhaq bhg Natry jnf bevtvanyyl Vevfu naq V gubhtug gurer jbhyq or fbzr terng zbzragf (V unir n guvat — Vevfu Nppragf/Zr=BGC) ohg zna. Fb greevoyr.
You, m'lady, are in for so much good tv watching, you don't even know. 😀
Er… I'm a guy. Whether the avatar is a guy or a girl is NOT a reliable indication of whether the poster is.
I apologize. I — had a strange notion. Sorry. It's just past four-thirty AM where I am and hopefully my babysitting stint should be over soon. I think I must have gotten confused in my headspace about the order of certain comments in the thread.
Just pointing out that a Mark-gift would not go amiss in the holiday season even if you don't celebrate the holidays and simply need a reason to get/give a Mark-gift.
Especially if you need wrapping paper for said gift, which will be readily and cheaply available during this season and is sure to boast at least one completely secular no-holiday-mentioning gift wrap with a light blue background and adorable little penguins!
(Maybe this is me just totally projecting in the hopes my best friend is surfing around)
OHHH, PENGUINS. I myself am a fan of the penguin wrapping paper. Also, stuff with snowflakes. Snowflakes are pretty.
Stop it!
WHAT IS THIS PERSON DOING. Perhaps I can explain?
It's just more expectation spoilers. X season is good, X season is bad, etc.
aw boo! Tyler! I am glad you are excited, but I religiously read my own comments and I want to be unbiased in my viewing of this show! Can you drop such commentary into rot13.com so I am not spoiled?
THANK YOU COME AGAIN
Yikes! It's well past midnight here and this is the first time today that I've actually been able to access the site.
Like Mark I'm completely new to Buffy, but in the course of internet-ing I seem to have come across more spoilers than he has. Somehow I've never heard of the musical episode (seriously, how did I not know about this?), but I did already know the name of the town/high school and the names of most of the characters (continued in ROT13)…
…vapyhqvat gur frrzvatyl abg-lrg-vagebqhprq Snvgu naq Qnja. Gurer ner nyfb fbzr fbeg bs punenpgref V'ir frra va n tvs jub ybbx xvaqn yvxr gur Fvyrapr, gung V guvax ner pnyyrq Tragyrzra(?).
Fvapr V'ir jngpurq cneg bs na rcvfbqr bs Natry, nf jryy, V xabj gung ur'f fbzr fbeg bs fhcreangheny perngher, V'z thrffvat n inzcver? Ng yrnfg, V xabj gung n ybg bs crbcyr unir orra vaperqhybhf ng Fgrcuravr Zrlre'f nccnerag pynvz gung fur'f arire frra n fvatyr rcvfbqr bs rvgure bs gurfr fubjf, fb V'z thrffvat gurer ner zber fvzvynevgvrf guna fvzcyl "vaibyir inzcverf." Naq vg qrsvavgryl frrzf gb zr yvxr "uvtu fpubby tvey jnyxf vagb n qnex nyyrl ng avtug guvaxvat fur'f orvat sbyybjrq naq riraghnyyl rapbhagref n frrzvatyl urycshy ohg cbffvoyl-fgnyxrel inzcver gurer" pbhyq or bar bs gurz.
Oh, I am always so delighted when commenters are unprepared. *claps*
I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!!!
I'm a die-hard whedon fan and also a member over at Whedonesque, but I've been round Mark Reads a lot. (Though I only really commented on the His Dark Materials trilogy.)
So excited to watch Mark watch my favorite show of all time!
Hey, welcome! To make this comment a little more meaningful than just a "hey, welcome", did you hear about Whedon having written the script for the upcoming Avengers movie? Whedon + Robert Downey Jr = Match In Snarky, Snarky HEAVEN!?
Umm… of course I have!? 🙂 Next year is going to be a good year for Whedon fans. Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing, AND The Avengers? Holy gosh!
The peek of Whedon to me was when I found out he'd written a string of X-Men titles. To say X-Men has been the fandom nearest and dearest to my heart since I was five would be like saying I like to occassionally draw air into my lungs.
If I were to collect the tears Joss Whedon made me cry with those books…
AAAAhhhh! Finally, the site loaded for me! Yay! I just finished watching all 7 seasons with my roommate who had never seen the show before. I laughed so hard at his face during the Bronze scene in this episode. He's 19. HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW ACCURATE THE CLOTHES ARE.
I have been waiting for Mark watches Buffy ever since I noticed the show on the list over on the suggestions post. That was months ago, I think. I am so freaking excited!
Gurer ner fb znal guvatf gung V jnag gb gryy Znex nobhg ubj gur Oebamr vzcebirf engure dhvpxyl (zhfvp-jvfr naljnl) naq ubj Pbeqryvn QBRF tebj nf n punenpgre.
Nyfb, V qba'g xabj vs gurl rire biregyl rkcynva jurer gur cbjre pbzrf sebz nal gvzr fbba. V'z qenjvat n oynax.
I KNOW I AM SO EXCITED TO FINALLY GET ON MY OWN SITE.
Jurer ure cbjre pbzrf sebz vf gbhpurq ba va Erfgyrff (YBY funerq qernzf) naq rkcynvarq zber va qrcgu va 7k15 Trg Vg Qbar.
Lrnu, V xabj, V whfg qvqa'g xabj vs gurl jrer rkcynvarq nal fbbare guna gung? V thrff jura Ohssl qvrf ng gur raq bs frnfba bar naq guhf znxrf Xraqen n Fynlre, gung xvaqn rkcynvaf vg, evtug? V'z fher Znex jvyy svther bhg gung fur unf fhcrecbjref fbba, rira vs ur qbrfa'g xabj gur jubyr fgbel.
Lrnu, vfa'g gurer n ybg bs Ohssl tbvat "yby V qba'g arrq gb genva" jvgu Tvyrf va guvf frnfba?
Lrf! Naq ur gnyxf nobhg ubj ure zhfvp vfa'g zhfvp, vg'f whfg abvfr. yby V pna'g oryvrir V sbetbg gung!.
Gung'f Frnfba 2.
Eric Balfour is in Haven on SciFi. I had completely forgotten that he was in the show at all.
Damn it, I'm going to have to start rewatching this again!
~come back~ come back to the first season~ enjoy with us all the delicious, delicious things you had forgotten.
There are just so many beautiful moments, it's hard to remember them all.
Yvxr gur guebj-njnl tnt jura gurl unir gjb Fhaalqnyr Uvtu sbbgonyy cynlref jnyxvat va sebag bs gur fprar naq lbh urne bar bs gurz fnl "Vs jr pna bayl tb jvgubhg nabgure zlfgrevbhf qrngu guvf frnfba, jr'er pbhyq tb gb gur cynl-bssf guvf lrne sbe fher!"
you're going to review all 144 episodes? That's gross.
sorry, I witch I could stop myself.
My dad's parents had a farm when he was growing up and my grandmother used to tell him (when he was very, very young) that if he didn't stop taking his clothes and running around, chickens would chase him around thinking it was a worm.
So, I mean, I'm not saying I *know* or anything… I'm just saying there are entire Maury shows devoted to people hysterically afraid of peanut butter so at least his phobia can, like, presumably, chase him around and freak him out.
Also, that walking around without their heads thing is kind of freaky, right?
I have a gif somewhere of that scene where Giles is showing Buffy the Vampyr book, only in the gif it's Breaking Dawn and she backs away from it. It is perfect, so of course I can't find it.
I'm not saying I've already engaged in a Supernatural conversation on this very board… but I would love to see the same.
I'm going to do Supernatural next year! I think I'll do Cowboy Bebop after Buffy/Angel, and then SPN.
My God I love Giles in this episode Bovril drinking genius that he is.
Somehow, over the course of the last fourteen years, I’ve not seen a single second of this show. I avoided every discussion of it, my friends never told me to watch, and I’ve blissfully wandered through life without knowing anything important about the show.
That is exactly me with this show, I actually refused to watch it because I'm not into the American Highschool tv show thing, but then I found it at the library and watched the first season a few months ago. (Mostly because of the pressure I got during Mark Watches Firefly from fellow commenters)
I liked it enough to watch along with you for the rest of the seasons, which I haven't been able to do in ages because I've been too busy to get into new things 🙁 But I'm going to make an effort with this.
So, my thoughts on the reasons why I grugingly liked this show after ep 1:
-60% to Allison Hannigan being awesome
-35% Joss's talent for funny
-10% Giles being the best librarian ever
-5% David Boreanaz being yummy
I know that doesn't add up, but Allison Hannigan is too awesome for proper percentages.
So far I don't feel anything either way for Buffy as a character, but I can't get over people saying her name. I never thought twice about it before I started watching the show but now every time someone says it my brain screams "That's not a real name!" (Whether it is or not doesn't matter, my brain will not accept it.) (But yes, it completely accepts Xander, Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Angel as totally realistic and normal names…)
I didn't pick up on the unusual thing about Buffy already having the history, that's pretty cool. 🙂
More detailed thoughts from me next episode, because I didn't know you were starting this yet until five minutes ago.
Buffy is usually a nickname for "Elizabeth", though not in this case.
Buffy Sainte-Marie disagrees.
i tell u this right now, every buffy fan is reading your take on buffy, and dying, i mean DYING, to tell u everything about it, but they are also jealous, SOOO JEALOUS, that you are just beginning this journey and dont know how much this show will blow you the fuck away. enjoy.
Ohh I just finished Buffy over the summer and got stuck half way through Angel…. that didn't come out how I wanted it to…..
So excited to see how fast you fall in love with Buffy, b/c let's face it, have we let you down since you've asked for requests from us? We know you, Mark and we know what you're gonna like!
Frnfbaf guerr naq sbhe bs Natry ner fbeg bs jrnx naq pevatr-jbegul. Ohg crefrirer! Frnfba svir vf cerggl njrfbzr!
Rot13ed for Angel expectation spoilers.
Not to burst bubbles about the names thing, but television shows have to pass all names through a check to see whether they're allowed to be said on-air, in the same way name brands do. For actors, it's a union thing through Actors Equity Association where you can't show a likeness or use their name without permission. It's possible James Spader was the highest "A-list" celebrity that would allow his name to be said on-air.
I know John Rogers, the Head Writer/Executive Producer for the show Leverage talks about the clearance hoops they are forced to jump through all the time for names… and that when it comes to the writing, it usually ends up being "Whatever makes it through" instead of some deep-meaning thought-out process. 😉
Not saying that's 100% what happened here, but just something to take into consideration.
Ooh, yes, I agree to specifying when you're rot13ing (totally a word now, cheers) Angel and comics spoilers! I'm several issues behind on the comics and wander the internet in perpetual state of anxiety that I'll be spoiled.
You are definitely not prepared on a massive scale! V jnf fhecevfrq lbh qvqa'g xabj Natry jnf n inzcver. I started watching this show when it had to switch to UPN in 2003 and chronically watching reruns on FX when they used to air them in the morning when i was in high school. Trust me, there is one thing to know that ain't a spoiler: Joss Whedon will chew up and spit out your heart, which you probably already know from Firefly/Serenity.
I'm definitely going to enjoy seeing or rather reading your experience watching this show. Its quite an experience and introducing it to friends always makes me smile because it always seems like EVERYONE has seen it. Have fun and enjoy yourself =)