Buffy Season 1

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I've been listening to the Story Wonk podcast series lately.  They do story seminars and pop culture analysis in podcast form and they're amazing.  After listening to their entire backlog of the general pop culture podcast The Lightbulb, their Harry Potter series Dear Mr. Potter, and the Star Wars series Story and Star Wars I still wanted more.

I saw that they had a Buffy The Vampire Slayer podcast series called Dusted going through the entire TV show episode by episode.  I had always kind of dismissed Buffy since it was before my time but I figured if these two people think it's worthwhile to cover the entire series then there must be something there to check out.

The first season of Buffy is rough but I can definitely see the core of a series that could become good.  The setup to kick off the series isn't bad but then it's followed by a lot of "monster of the week" type episodes that don't hold up as well.  The episode about Angel halfway through the season is the first one that made me stop and think, "hmm... there might be something to this show."  Then I got few more monster of the week episodes but then the season ends really strong with an episode all about prophecy and Buffy's role in the world.  That was an excellent episode.

After the entire first season my verdict is... cautiously optimistic.

I can see the heart of what may become a good (or even great) show but it's not there yet.  Shows have a way of finding their feet better after the first season so I'm interested to see what happens in season 2.

Comments

  1. MagsonJanuary 5, 2016 at 4:05 PM

    It was pretty fun up through about the late 3rd, early 4th season for me. My wife loved the whole thing, so I watched through to the end to appease her, but I also didn't spend any time with the Angel spinoff. It was fun overall, but the later seasons they were obviously just winging it with the storylines and whatnot, so the "snappy dialog" that the series is so famous for just became a lot of snarking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VoidJanuary 5, 2016 at 4:31 PM

      You'll see the rest of my Buffy review get posted here in the next couple days. I basically ran into trouble trying to watch all of it and instead I watched a combo of "best of" lists. It actually ended up being a great way to watch it.

      Delete
  2. ChestnutJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:17 PM

    Monster of the Week definitely plagues a lot of 90s shows, though, if you look at pop-culture as a whole during that time. It's even an issue with some shows nowadays--more often than not it's "filler bloat" now.

    Buffy Season 1 is rough. Even though it was my time, I had other things I was interested in because I couldn't appreciate the first season. Having watched it from first to last more recently, I was better able to appreciate it. Second season definitely improves. Fourth is a bit iffy. Then it's more iffy episodes here and there rather than seasons.

    There are some very powerful episodes throughout. So I hope you enjoy your Buffy journey! ^_^

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    Replies
    1. VoidJanuary 6, 2016 at 11:09 PM

      Thanks for the info! I've definitely noticed a different approach to TV now vs then. The filler bloat really bugs me. I like efficiency in the storytelling. I actually have another Buffy post later this week :)

      Delete

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