Geoff's Comments about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 1
Last updated: 5 February 2003
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Buffy and Angel comments -> Buffy, season
1
1.1 1.2 Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest (10)
Even though it shows its age by now in its lower budget - just how
many times is that one hall used? - this extraordinary start still
ranks among the finest 90 minutes of TV ever made. Everything good
about Buffy is here: well-drawn and instantly appealing
characters, sharp and witty dialogue, clever storylines, the
nearly-perfect blend of comedy and horror, an obvious underlying
intelligence, and sheer verve. It's great in the way ita mixes
standard elements of horror in with high school drama and subverts the
conventions of both to create something new and exciting; there is
real danger in the way Buffy's advie to Willow goes awry, for
example. If you'll only ever see two Buffy episodes, make it
these two.
[Trivia time: in the computer lab, Cordelia appears to be writing some
C code which performs basic graphic operations.]
1.3 Witch (7)
Already Buffy departs from its notional vampire-slaying
premise. This episode has promising subject-matter, using as a
metaphor for a certain type of teenage trauma the story of a one-time
cheerleader turning to witchcraft to relive her glory days through her
daughter. It's generally well executed, but as with many episodes in
the season would have benefitted from being longer than 45 minutes.
1.4 Teacher's Pet (6)
Another promising non-vampire concept, in which a neat reversal of the
standard damsel-in-distress idea is used as an excuse to take the piss
out of male teenage sexual boasting, but in execution it veers too
close to being a parody of the lesser sort of American high-school
drama to be properly effective. It's maybe a bit unfair to be too
critical; Buffy was still working itself out at this time, and
the praying mantis costume is an obvious result of the budget. But
what's the purpose of the scene with the eggs in the fridge at the
end? It's a loose end that's just left hanging.
1.5 Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (6)
Another weak episode, which dwells a bit too much on the point that
being a Vampire Slayer can sometimes get in the way of your social
life. There's some cool stuff like Giles sliding out of the drawer in
the morgue and the vampire's fiery death, and important stuff like the
introduction of the Annoying One, but like its predecessor it's
perhaps to close to parody to work. Moreover it takes a long time to
actually get anywhere, leaving the viewer with too many memories of
Buffy's shortest outfits and not enough of the actual story.
1.6 The Pack (8)
After two rather frivolous episodes, this much more intense and
atmospheric supernatural take on bullying is something of a shock, and
it works much better as a supernatural treatment of a familiar
high-school situation. Wins points for being both silly and scary.
[Trivia time: Jennifer Sky, the hyena-possessed schoolgirl with the
blond hair, went on to Cleopatra 2525, a series so ridiculous
it's surely a joke.]
1.7 Angel (6)
Exactly what is the purpose of disposing the entire subplot about the
ridiculously-named Three before the opening credits? This is an
important episode, the first to bring its eponymous character to
centre stage as Buffy's doomed love interest. However, while no doubt
a favourite among the show's legions of female fans, it tends towards
the unexciting.
1.8 I Robot, You Jane (8)
Apparently one of the first season's least popular episodes, for no
obvious reason; it's a deft blend of mini sci-fi movie, technophobia
and plenty of humour. It shows a lot of nerve to introduce computer
teacher Jenny Calendar as a "technopagan".
1.9 The Puppet Show (8)
Seemingly nothing to with the rest of the season, this is a rather odd
standalone which gives us the first look at the wonderfully nasty
Principal Snyder. Once again there are no actual vampires; instead
there's a twisty plot and plenty of off-colour humour, topped with a
hilarious final scene ("Oedipus, Oedipus, unhappy Oedipus") and the
entirely appropriate choice of font for the credits.
1.10 Nightmares (7)
The only episode where Buffy gets to wear vampire make-up. Like 1.3
Witch, this is another riff on the theme of children failing to
live up to the expectations of adults, mixed in with fears which may
seem trivial to the onlooker but are no doubt very real for the
experiencer. It's spoiled only by overdoing the ending.
1.11 Invisible Girl (7)
A sympathetic portrait of loneliness and rejection which is
simultaneously touching and unsettling, presented in a manner which
many people can relate to very naturally. This is the episode in which
Cordelia ceases to be a generic high-school "bitca" and becomes
someone who might actually be worth caring about - a minor triumph of
characterisation well beyond other TV shows.
1.12 Prophecy Girl (9)
"Please give me another season!" A very dark episode which sets the
tone for the more mature themes of later seasons. Buffy's much-praised
"I'm sixteen, I don't want to die" speech is teenage angst on a grand
scale, and the episode pulls out all the stops in a spectacular
finale; again, it might perhaps have benefitted from being longer, but
this is nitpicking. The best scene is the one where the resurrected
Buffy, in her white dress, heads off to meet the Master, flanked by
Angel and Xander, and soundtracked by the title music: cheesy, but
guaranteed to raise a loud cheer or two. And the overhead shot of the
cast at the end, which could very well have been the last time these
characters graced a TV screen, is undeniably poignant.
The DVDs
The DVDs, while a lot easier to watch than the video box sets, don't
actually provide that much more in the way of extras besides photo
galleries, the odd script, and commentaries; it's a real pity that
neither Sarah nor Alyson contributed anything.
The high point of the season 1 DVD is Joss Whedon's berzerk commentary
over 1.1 Welcome to the Hellmouth and 1.2 The Harvest,
which offers you an illuminating and very funny perspective on the
episodes which ensure you'll never watch them in the same way again. A
highlight is Whedon's comment when Xander stakes Jesse. Besides that,
there's the rather puzzling video for Hepburn's "I Quit", a song which
appeared on the CD of music from the show but, despite incorporating
footage from 3.16 Doppelgängland, has no clear connection with
it.