valarltd | Getting my Geek on

I am introducing my kids to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Olivia in particular. They're enjoying it. And I've never seen all the episodes in order.

My first impressions:
Giles does NOT respect his students' personal space. He gets much too close, physically, to Buffy, Willow and Xander. At one point in the Bronze, he was literally close enough to lick Buffy's ear or kiss her. Eeep.

It mostly holds up. The lack of cell-phones makes it a product of the times. A couple of eps wouldn't work if anyone other than Cordelia had a cell.

The funny bits are still funny. The action bits are still action-filled.

Ep 1/2
Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest

Mark Metcalf is wonderfully gross as The Master, who is trapped in a between-dimension doorway. Buffy has to stop the Harvest (lots of killing) and keep him trapped. She also has to deal with a new school, new friends and enemies and a new watcher. She doesn't want the gig. She doesn't care...except she does.

"It's my first day! I was afraid that I was gonna be behind in all of my classes, that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair! I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus. And I don't care."

I like Buffy a lot better than I remember liking her. I still adore Willow and Giles. Because I was Willow (we were all Willow) and became Giles. Angel is still a smirky, cryptic bastage that I would happily stake by the end of the ep. Xander's dumber than I remember. Oli has already figured out that Angel is a vampire.

Ep 3
The Witch

A witch is harming the cheerleaders to make sure her daughter can relive her glory days.

This ep wasn't bad. Logic, a nice parallel between the Buffy-Joyce and Amy-Catherine relationships. It wasn't as good as the first two, but a solid ep.

Ep 4
Teacher's Pet

Preying Manis lady. Nuff said

This is a clunker. Bad effects, silly plot, patently transparent mystery. and Xander being dumber than usual.

Ep 5
Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

One more ep of Buffy's quest to be a normal teen. She falls for cute Owen, and spends half the ep dating and ditching him. Also, the Anointed One makes his first appearance.

Giles: Alright, I-I'll just jump in my time machine, go back to the twelfth century and ask the vampires to postpone their ancient prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show.
Buffy: Okay, at this point you're abusing sarcasm

This is a filler ep, It advances the story arc, does character development and generally is competent. It's not anything worth seeing more than twice

Ep 6
The Pack

During a field trip the school bullies and Xander are possessed by Hyenas.

Giles: I've been reading up on my, uh, animal possession, and I cannot find anything anywhere about memory loss afterwards.
Xander: Did you tell them that?
Giles: Your secret dies with me.
Xander: Shoot me, stuff me, mount me.

One of the best eps of the series. Some of Nicholas Brendan's best early work, giving us the dark side of Xander, up to and including an attempted rape scene. (Buffy hits him with a desk)

Ep7
Angel

Buffy finds out Angel is a vampire. A cursed vampire with a soul. And she's in love with him.

Angel: Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends... and their friend's children... For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.

I am not, and never have been, a fan of the Buffy/Angel romance. I never liked Angel. (i like Angelus, but Angel leaves me really cold), so this episode left me going meh. Joyce is extremely clueless. Darla's set-up was ingenious and Sarah Michelle Gellar turns in an excellent and subtly performance. I ached for Buffy, even as the budding romance annoyed me.

More recaps coming soon.