Buffy

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

One of my favorite shows ever, along with Angel, and I never noticed this thread until now. But it's hard to imagine it having the impact it did watching it every week at the time. I LOVED the angsty years--so cathartic for me. I see some of its playfulness in Glee. And obviously the vampire thing took off. But otherwise, is there any evidence in the culture that Buffy ever existed at all?

geez louise! i like big chunks of the show, it's just saying things like "holy fucking mother of God it is the best television has EVER been for about 4 years" is setting up new viewers for disappointment, especially when the show does have its flaws

You're right, of course, but the internet is for hyperbole.

i mean it's seriously like the strokes never existed in buffyland.

Desultory trip-hop wins the day.

buffy's mom had a stroke

ha

I catch reruns on cable, but I don't think I could commit to watching the whole thing through again. I'm afraid I wouldn't like it as well.

I rewatched the whole series last year through Logo's reruns, and yeah, definitely came out not liking it as well ... at least as a whole. The only seasons I really didn't like when they aired were 4 and 7. That remained true - if anything I disliked 7 even more the second time around. But I really hate 5 and 6 now - I think the second half of Buffy has got to be the worst stretch I've seen on any series I kept watching.

On the other hand, I liked season 3 even more than I had remembered - they were really in the zone there, with hardly any of the X-Files-style menace-of-the-week horseshit.

And obviously the vampire thing took off. But otherwise, is there any evidence in the culture that Buffy ever existed at all?

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 13 April 2011 15:02 (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Well it launched the idea of popular tv shows about smart, capable and strong females (see yr Veronica Mars's and Alias's etc.), it changed how stilted tv dialogue was and challanged meta and morality like i personally don't think any show had done before (Glee is a good example but really, try comparing pre- and post-Buffy sitcoms with things like Willow coming out compared to wusshisname on Dawson's Creek) and also I think it did a lot of boring shit, like helping advance cgi etc. And yeah, unfortunately, the vampire teen connection is pretty damn fucking huge.

Also S7 is balls*. Pretty much the biggest drop in quality a tv show that still has the og cast and still their best writers and directors has ever taken?

*Except Conversations W/ Dead People and Selfless. 'Selfless' should be in the canon of great TV history, and not just the canon of good Buffy episodes.

Oh yeah, "Selfless" was great.

geez louise! i like big chunks of the show, it's just saying things like "holy fucking mother of God it is the best television has EVER been for about 4 years" is setting up new viewers for disappointment, especially when the show does have its flaws

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:08 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

nick i was sort of joking! "i'll kill you" is my stock response when someone impugns my tv. also i'm sure i don't know what you mean by "flaws" >:[

no I think she wants to kill you. I know I do >:(

:D

the shows flaws were really only relative to itself, imo.
the worst episode of buffy > the entirety of fringe, V, house, vampire diaries, bones, etc, etc

obv. this is kinda blatant fanboyism but the show def warrants it. it's not like i'm all about vampires or strong female leaders (or whatever)

need more strong vampire leaders imo

the shows flaws were really only relative to itself, imo.
the worst episode of buffy > the entirety of fringe, V, house, vampire diaries, bones, etc, etc

For the record, this is probably true, but I also think Sixlets > a handful of shit.

I am not praising Sixlets here.

I mean, most of Buffy's bad episodes are also better than Blansky's Beauties, Til Death, last summer's Kilborn Show, and hockey. If that's where we're putting the bar, then yeah, I'm on board with that.

will ride for 2/3/4/most of 5 til the day i die, have a deep love for 6 despite its flaws, mostly wish 7 didn't exist

i just think of S1 as a long-form pilot episode

is there any evidence in the culture that Buffy ever existed at all?

I think the evidence for "Yes" is that I can hardly even remember what passed for humorous dialogue on tv before Buffy.

Bill, I was just listing off shows that were currently or recently on the air. I'm sure we could war for years as to whether Mad Men or Buffy will have a lasting impact upon TV history. But considering the show WAS put on two fairly half-rate TV networks (WB & UPN) - these same networks that would follow up an episode of Buffy with, say, hockey - I thought it sorta warranted.

I know, I'm just saying ... you happened to list a bunch of shows that I think are really really horrible*, so it's not hard for me to agree that Buffy at its worst is better than them. I don't think you were actually cherrypicking and trying to find weak shows to put on the other side of the >, it was just funny to me.

*Like I said, I think the worst seasons of Buffy are the worst TV I've watched full seasons of - which could change if I rewatch Lost - and I had to phrase it that way because shit like V or House I'm not going to spend more than a couple episodes on.

Fringe is awesome btw

Fringe won me over, but it took a couple years. They've found their groove.

Bill, I was just listing off shows that were currently or recently on the air. I'm sure we could war for years as to whether Mad Men or Buffy will have a lasting impact upon TV history. But considering the show WAS put on two fairly half-rate TV networks (WB & UPN) - these same networks that would follow up an episode of Buffy with, say, hockey - I thought it sorta warranted.

― kelpolaris, Thursday, 14 April 2011 02:20 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I know, I'm just saying ... you happened to list a bunch of shows that I think are really really horrible*, so it's not hard for me to agree that Buffy at its worst is better than them. I don't think you were actually cherrypicking and trying to find weak shows to put on the other side of the >, it was just funny to me.

*Like I said, I think the worst seasons of Buffy are the worst TV I've watched full seasons of - which could change if I rewatch Lost - and I had to phrase it that way because shit like V or House I'm not going to spend more than a couple episodes on.

― Bill, Thursday, 14 April 2011 02:27 (4 hours ago) Bookmark

Marti Noxon, former Executive Producer on Buffy is now a writer and producer for Mad Men. Drew Goddard, writer of the best episodes of Season 7 of Buffy, went on to write a bunch of Lost and Cloverfield for JJ Abrams.

Buffy goes mad deep, fyi.