Buffy

season 4 finale was the biggest eye-roll in near all television. i was laughing in disbelief that whedon actually allowed such a thing.

Allowed it? He wrote and directed it!

season 4 finale was the best. anya does stand up.

i never watched this show before. my wife and i watched the whole thing over the past year or so and watched the finale today. i didn't really get into it until about halfway through season 2, then started losing interest when it got more serious in season 5.

i need stats on:
* how many times sarah michelle geller played someone else inhabiting buffy's body or pretending to be buffy
* how many episodes started with a dream sequence

Season 4 always irritated me, the whole Initiative storyline was crappy. I mean, there's still stuff within Season 4 that I like, but overall it's just kind of UGH to me. And season 7 with the squijillions of Slayers.

Yknow, loving the series as much as I do, I sure did put up with a lot of bullshit, lol

Ok well, off the top of the dome:
1.
Season 1-

Nightmares - SMG plays Buffy as a vampire.

Season 2-

Halloween - SMG plays a 17th century lass.
B, B & B - SMG plays Buffy as possessed by Xander love spell.
Bad Eggs - Buffy as possessed by whatever.
I Only Have Eyes For You - Buffy and Angel possessed by old students w/ drama.

Season 3-

Numerous dream sequences w/ Angel that could count.
Anne - SMG plays Buffy playing Anne.
The Wish - SMG plays alterna-world Buffy.
Amends - SMG plays Buffy as inhabited by the first.

Season 4-

Beer Bad - SMG plays Buffy turning into a cavewoman.
Something Blue - SMG plays Buffy in love with Spike due to a spell.
This Year's Girl/Five By Five - Faith and Buffy body switch.
Primeval - Uber Buffy goes Matrix w/ spirits of Scooby Gang.
Restless - Most probably.

Season 5- Kevin turn away now.

Numerous Spike dream sequences with him in love w/ his idea of Buffy.
Buffy v. Dracula - SMG as Buffy under Dracula's spell.
No Place Like Home - SMG plays Buffy going under the veil, so to speak.
Intervention - SMG plays Buffybot. Also plays Buffy playing the Buffybot.
The Weight of the World - Lots of meta-dream stuff.
The Gift - Return of Buffybot.

Season 6-
Bargaining Pt. 1&2 - Buffybot, as well as post-reincarnation Buffy.
Once More With Feeling - SMG as Buffy inhabited by a singing curse or whatever.
Tabula Rasa - SMG plays Buffy as having lost her memory and naming herself Joan.
Normal Again - SMG plays Buffy unsure of whether she is a real slayer or mental.

Season 7-

Lessons - SMG as Buffy as the first. Reoccurs throughout most of the series.
Him - SMG as Buffy under another spell making her fall for a boy.

Will try #2 in a minute.

Oh Season 7 also has SMG as Andrew's idea of SMG when narrating his story in Storytellers.

#2 is harder but here I try it

Season 1 - Nightmares obv
Season 2 - Surprise w/ Dru coming back. Becoming starts w/ a flashback - could count as Angel's dream?
Season 3 - I don't think any of them start w/ a dream sequence but there are a few after the cold open/credits? That said I think Amends starts w/ Buffy & Angel sharing a dream.
Season 4 - Beer Bad start cuts between class and a dream sequence with Parker. This Year's Girl* has Faith/Buffy. Superstar and Restless could both arguably be called dream sequences all the way through.
Season 5 - None?
Season 6 - Could make a case for Once More W/ Feeling. Or depending on your feelings for Normal Again - every episode?
Season 7 - None?

*Relating to my previous post, Five By Five is an Angel episode, the name I meant and TBC ending for the Faith-Buffy switch is called Who Are You

^^^wow that guy is a nerd.

lol

i vastly prefer "fun" buffy to "serious" buffy so seasons 3+4 were the high point for me, seemed to have more wacky one-off episodes and the evil mayor (who oddly reminds me of david lynch) is easily the best long-term villain of any of the season.

i just found out recently that the professor in s4 (lindsay crouse?) was the same actress who was in "slapshot"

oh yeah most of my favourite episodes are ones written by the great jane espenson that are just mad lols: band candy where all the old ppl turn into teenagers, earshot where buffy can hear ppls thoughts, superstar where jonathon becomes the most awesome person on the planet, intervention where spike has his own buffy sexbot etc.

I didn't read this thread because I don't want spoilers but I am contemplating watching this start to finish as I've never seen a single episode. Plaxico seemed to think I'd love it and now I'm sort of bored and curious. So, it's good, huh?

So good

But if you find it lacking at first, wait until the middle of season 2. Then you will not physically be able to stop yourself from watching the rest of the series.

e - watch it!

E, dude...DO IT!!!

E- omg yes watch it now.

First series is v. good but SOOOO DATED. But yeah, as the good goat said, once you hit the middle of season 2 - holy fucking mother of God it is the best television has EVER been for about 4 years.

Do it
clap clap clap
do it
clap clap clap

one of us etc etc

think you guys might be overselling this a bit

no-one is overselling it.

as the guy who instantly answered 'i'd like to see a full list' of questions revolving around this show, i think i am just about where you'd expect me to be on a scale of selling it

lol @ buffy not being ILX cool 9 years ago.

think you guys might be overselling this a bit

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, April 12, 2011 6:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'll kill you

only on ILX would we be expected to not recommend the tv show the thread is dedicated to discussing. "How gauche" :)

I've watched a good number of wonderful and/or critically acclaimed television series that I love with all my heart and, on the whole, hold in slightly higher esteem than BTVS (which I do love, mind). But I think I still feel comfortable promoting the meme of Buffy season 5 as the best season of any TV show ever.

1) HS ILU <3

2) OK, I'm gonna give it a go.

I'm kind of sick of it because my wife and daughter have watched the whole thing through at least five times, but it really is all that if you haven't seen it before.

xxpost

And also the meme of Buffy season 6 as the most simultaneously brilliant and bold and emotionally draining and difficult to watch season of any TV show ever.

(And while I'm on the topic of season 6 and its emotional drain...what the hell were people thinking, trying to turn 'Once More With Feeling' into some sort of Rocky Horror-esque singalong fun frolic? Musical or not, that shit is straight depressing at the core.)

(sniff) but I love singing along to it?

I TOUCH THE FIRE AND IT FREEEEEEEEEZES MEEEEE

Oh, don't get me wrong. It's a great episode/soundtrack. Great great great. But sitting through an hour of people trying to make it fun makes you realize how intensely misguided the attempt to make it fun is.

Wait - this is going to involve singing?!

Just one episode, and you'll either be totally invested or have given up on the series by the time it comes around.

Yes, and it dodges the pitfalls that annoy me about 93% of musicals by a) providing a reason for the singing and dancing and b) making the singing and dancing really essential to both the plot of the episode and the progression of the series. Plus, it's also alternately very funny and, as noted above, intensely depressing.

Honestly, almost nothing about the series works on paper for me, which is why I was relatively late to the game. Suspend your disbelief and prepare to see any number of tropes and genre conventions that may have irritated you previously used to astoundingly good effect.

look here's the deal

Best show to have multiple strong convincing female leads in donkeys years...girls get to fight, be funny, and the guys are cute and awesome and everything else is gravy because it's just rad.

Go. Watch. And don't report back til Season 2 :)

erica i am so excited for u to watch this show!!!

(take the first season with a grain of salt)

:)

Starting now . . .

oh dear lord they all look so young - babies!

yeah watching clips of the first season after watching the show for a while it's amazing how young they all look

also lol 90's fashion :/

season 3 made me want to repeat high-school again, whereas before all i was desperate for was to get on with it (as i suspect most kids are, but still)

i'm on season 6 and don't think i've ever contemplated stopping, tho. i've certainly forced myself to take breaks - to do more productive things, or invest myself in other shows - but they never last very long.

yeah, funny thing about the 90s initial setting is that i never really felt it wore off, even when the show is approaching the 2000's. i mean it's seriously like the strokes never existed in buffyland.

totally! It's all floppy hats and stripes and overalls for like 15 years

Strokes should never have been big enough to play the Bronze >:(

and i keep thinking xander's dress-code has finally matured but it's like 5th season and dude has lime-green pants on

lol

irl lmao