Meta: BtVS 1.1 & 1.2 - Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest
I'm enbarking on a Hulu enabled project of re-watching old TV shows that I have known and loved. With the summer TV schedule looking pretty slim for anything worth spending time on, I figured it wasn't such a bad idea. With the lynnevitational fast approaching, I also figured that starting with Buffy the Vampire Slayer *really* wasn't such a bad idea. Although, the pieces of what little I've written revolve more closely around seasons 5 through 7 and Hulu only has the first two seasons up, so this could be a wash on that front. Anywho ...
I didn't watch this show from the beginning the first time 'round. I came in with Becoming and back tracked. My BFF's mom introduced me to the show via Buffy and Angel and I was pretty well hooked from that moment on. I have, of course, over time managed to see all of the first two seasons, and I think I would have been a fan from jump, if I had given it a chance. Initially, I was *so* not interested because I had seen the horrible 80's flick and my immediate response upon seeing a commercial for the show was, WHY would you make a tv show from that movie? and I promptly turned the channel.
What I didn't realize was how phenomenal it was and would continue to be ...
1.) Re-watching it, I'm struck by how vaguely cheesy but light-hearted and fun the show is, and by extension how dark it will become. WTTH has some hints of those darker tones that will shadow the show in the coming seasons, but without it being obvious or unwieldy. It's a perfect introduction to much of what we need to know about the show and its mythology, tenets that don't change all that much through seven seasons. What does change, rightfully and most excellently so, are the characters. As they grow and develop, reacting to the prolonged stress of their situations, as well as sundry trauma, they evolve.
2.) I can see, now, how Charisma Carpenter was indeed older than the rest of the cast. It never dawned on me at the time that she was supposed to be playing a sixteen year old. Julie Benz, as well, was age inappropriate if she was supposed to be capable of passing for a high schooler.
3.) As much as we throw it around how Buffy is a feminist show, and as much as I maintain that really it isn't, I can recognize how it's a kind of hybrid. Buffy really is just an average girl in extraordinary circumstances. She very much wants to be a regular teenage girl and there is nothing feminist about that. She just wants to "fit in" and do what "girl's" do. Her desire to be what she isn't coupled with her insistence on doing her duty anyway, does win her brownie points.
She's in an awkward place, I think. Joss casts Buffy very sharply against two models, neither of which she can emulate or encapsulate. On one end of the spectrum there's Cordelia -- mean, apparantly shallow, bitchy, self-centered fashion plate. Self-centered Cordelia MIGHT have been someone that Buffy used to be, but I doubt it. Comparisons have been made that she would have been Cordelia in Los Angeles, but Buffy has a nice streak from the beginning that doesn't wash with the kind of character that Cordelia is. She's genuinely disturbed by the way that Cordelia treats Willow on the opposite end of our spectrum. Willow is the awkward, geeky, sweet girl. Shades that Buffy can display in certain situations, BUT she's never as socially awkward, generally intelligent or insecure as Willow.
I would hesitate to say that Buffy even mediates the two character types. She does sort of bridge them, but in the beginning it doesn't really read that way to me.
4.) Xander versus Angel gets set-up before Angel and Xander even meet. Jessie, one of Xander's best friends gets vamped and we learn pretty quickly that Xander hates vampires. Couple that with his obvious Buffy crush and you get no joy for dead boy. Xander's ineffectualness is also introduced pretty instantly. While Willow is successful in providing intel, a role which she spends the majority of the high school phase before switching over to magic, Xander fails to engage as part of the group in any real capacity besides getting himself into trouble. Jessie even tells us, or is about to tell us, that Xander doesn't have the guts. Ironically, Xander probably doesn't. Jessie gets accidentally dusted by a jackrabbiting patron of The Bronze.
5.) Giles -- Seeing his character growth is, in retrospect, fascinating. In the beginning he appears very young and inexperienced. Knowing that he will develop into a very strong leader, and a father figure for Buffy is extraordinary. He's rather clueless here in the beginning and I wonder how much experience he really did have.
6.) Slaying versus Real Life is also pretty immediately set in contention with each other. It is Buffy versus School (Principal Flutie), Buffy versus Home (Joyce), Buffy versus Normalcy (Cordelia). She's at odds at all times. With the exception of her sudden and immediate bond with Xander and Willow, facilitated by Jessie's vamping and subsequent death (that conveniently leaves the threesome with an empty slot that Buffy easily slips into).
7.) Buffy and Angel -- Angel was such a douche! OMG! With the coat and the collar and cuffs. I laughed. BUT!! There's that lovely moment in the crypt where she asks him if he knows what it's like to have friends, where he gets very real all of a sudden. The mask that he's been wearing to impress Buffy, falls away and we realize that this is the real guy. The pensive, friendless pretty man who really should NOT be wearing a crushed velvet coat fortheloveofgod! It also highlights they're relationship. Buffy and Angel do this dance, alot! Where they talk but don't talk until things get too heavy and then everything comes spilling out in a rushy, angsty mess. with tears. and quivering lips.
8.) Apocalypse numero un, averted.
So, everything you ever need to know about the series is introduced to us in the first two episodes. Buffy and Angel are in love, Xander hates Angel and is pretty darn useless except for the moral support and being judgmental, Willow is tech girl with super low self-esteem (a problem that chases her through the ENTIRE series), friends and people we love die. With Jessie's death, I guess we should have realized that Joss had no problem with killing off characters. Although, we didn't have the connection to Jessie that would have developed over time.
I didn't watch this show from the beginning the first time 'round. I came in with Becoming and back tracked. My BFF's mom introduced me to the show via Buffy and Angel and I was pretty well hooked from that moment on. I have, of course, over time managed to see all of the first two seasons, and I think I would have been a fan from jump, if I had given it a chance. Initially, I was *so* not interested because I had seen the horrible 80's flick and my immediate response upon seeing a commercial for the show was, WHY would you make a tv show from that movie? and I promptly turned the channel.
What I didn't realize was how phenomenal it was and would continue to be ...
1.) Re-watching it, I'm struck by how vaguely cheesy but light-hearted and fun the show is, and by extension how dark it will become. WTTH has some hints of those darker tones that will shadow the show in the coming seasons, but without it being obvious or unwieldy. It's a perfect introduction to much of what we need to know about the show and its mythology, tenets that don't change all that much through seven seasons. What does change, rightfully and most excellently so, are the characters. As they grow and develop, reacting to the prolonged stress of their situations, as well as sundry trauma, they evolve.
2.) I can see, now, how Charisma Carpenter was indeed older than the rest of the cast. It never dawned on me at the time that she was supposed to be playing a sixteen year old. Julie Benz, as well, was age inappropriate if she was supposed to be capable of passing for a high schooler.
3.) As much as we throw it around how Buffy is a feminist show, and as much as I maintain that really it isn't, I can recognize how it's a kind of hybrid. Buffy really is just an average girl in extraordinary circumstances. She very much wants to be a regular teenage girl and there is nothing feminist about that. She just wants to "fit in" and do what "girl's" do. Her desire to be what she isn't coupled with her insistence on doing her duty anyway, does win her brownie points.
She's in an awkward place, I think. Joss casts Buffy very sharply against two models, neither of which she can emulate or encapsulate. On one end of the spectrum there's Cordelia -- mean, apparantly shallow, bitchy, self-centered fashion plate. Self-centered Cordelia MIGHT have been someone that Buffy used to be, but I doubt it. Comparisons have been made that she would have been Cordelia in Los Angeles, but Buffy has a nice streak from the beginning that doesn't wash with the kind of character that Cordelia is. She's genuinely disturbed by the way that Cordelia treats Willow on the opposite end of our spectrum. Willow is the awkward, geeky, sweet girl. Shades that Buffy can display in certain situations, BUT she's never as socially awkward, generally intelligent or insecure as Willow.
I would hesitate to say that Buffy even mediates the two character types. She does sort of bridge them, but in the beginning it doesn't really read that way to me.
4.) Xander versus Angel gets set-up before Angel and Xander even meet. Jessie, one of Xander's best friends gets vamped and we learn pretty quickly that Xander hates vampires. Couple that with his obvious Buffy crush and you get no joy for dead boy. Xander's ineffectualness is also introduced pretty instantly. While Willow is successful in providing intel, a role which she spends the majority of the high school phase before switching over to magic, Xander fails to engage as part of the group in any real capacity besides getting himself into trouble. Jessie even tells us, or is about to tell us, that Xander doesn't have the guts. Ironically, Xander probably doesn't. Jessie gets accidentally dusted by a jackrabbiting patron of The Bronze.
5.) Giles -- Seeing his character growth is, in retrospect, fascinating. In the beginning he appears very young and inexperienced. Knowing that he will develop into a very strong leader, and a father figure for Buffy is extraordinary. He's rather clueless here in the beginning and I wonder how much experience he really did have.
6.) Slaying versus Real Life is also pretty immediately set in contention with each other. It is Buffy versus School (Principal Flutie), Buffy versus Home (Joyce), Buffy versus Normalcy (Cordelia). She's at odds at all times. With the exception of her sudden and immediate bond with Xander and Willow, facilitated by Jessie's vamping and subsequent death (that conveniently leaves the threesome with an empty slot that Buffy easily slips into).
7.) Buffy and Angel -- Angel was such a douche! OMG! With the coat and the collar and cuffs. I laughed. BUT!! There's that lovely moment in the crypt where she asks him if he knows what it's like to have friends, where he gets very real all of a sudden. The mask that he's been wearing to impress Buffy, falls away and we realize that this is the real guy. The pensive, friendless pretty man who really should NOT be wearing a crushed velvet coat fortheloveofgod! It also highlights they're relationship. Buffy and Angel do this dance, alot! Where they talk but don't talk until things get too heavy and then everything comes spilling out in a rushy, angsty mess. with tears. and quivering lips.
8.) Apocalypse numero un, averted.
So, everything you ever need to know about the series is introduced to us in the first two episodes. Buffy and Angel are in love, Xander hates Angel and is pretty darn useless except for the moral support and being judgmental, Willow is tech girl with super low self-esteem (a problem that chases her through the ENTIRE series), friends and people we love die. With Jessie's death, I guess we should have realized that Joss had no problem with killing off characters. Although, we didn't have the connection to Jessie that would have developed over time.