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| Writer: | Joss Whedon |
| Director: | Charles Martin Smith |
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| - | Review |
Congratulations, you've somehow managed to make your way to my first 'Buffy' review. This is a fantastic series which happens to start off not so fantastic, but still decent. The biggest reason why people have such a poor perception of this show is simply its title, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's corny and dumb-sounding and it makes people stay away from the show, which is truly a shame. Don't let the title or those couple random episodes you caught pieces of on TV (and not in context within the season) scare you away! The series is dramatic, scary, funny, action-packed, and sports a whole array of moral issues cleverly camouflaged in metaphor.
Anyway, S1 does have huge consistency problems that are largely rectified in future seasons. I generally recommend starting with "School Hard" (2x03) for newcomers. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be entertained by in this first season and the two part pilot for the more open-minded. Now, on with the review!
This is a great introduction to the multi-dimensional characters of the show. For what the episode needed to do I'm not sure it could have been any better. From the very first scene I knew I was watching something different; something that played with my expectations. That continued through a lot of this pilot episode. When Jesse, Xander's friend, utters his first words I already strongly dislike him because he reminded me of your typical guy on shows like The OC. To my pleasure, though, Jesse is killed off very quickly.
Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing. What's important though, and ultimately why I like this episode, is how quickly and adeptly I fall in love with all the main characters. Since that's the most important part of what a pilot episode should do, this episode scores high and accomplishes its goal. Also, Willow's very cute.
| - | Minor Pros/Cons (+/-) |
| Pros: | |
| + | Principal Flutie's speech to Buffy in his office and the re-taping of her report card. |
| + | Xander and Buffy's first meeting. |
| + | The second library encounter (see quote below). |
| + | Buffy owning Angel in their first meeting. |
| Cons: | |
| - | Luke is far too corny. |
| - | The Master is pretty corny too and not all that interesting. |
| - | The early dream sequence. Excessively hokey. |
| - | The music is very B-movie corn. This is a problem during all of the first season and won't be mentioned again (even though it is a negative in every episode this season). |
| - | Foreshadowing |
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| - | Quotes |
| BUFFY: | What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series? |
| GILES: | Ah, w-w-w-yes. |
| BUFFY: | Did you get the free phone? |
| GILES: | Um, the calendar. |
| - | Score |
| 85/100 | B+ |
Just misses the mark of excellence. Essentially, a great episode that's rough around the edges and/or slightly flawed. Extremely fun to watch.
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| - | Screencaps |
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| - | Comments (24) |
| 1. | Jamie OliverJul 29, 2006 (Sat) | |
| Although by no means a perfect episode. It is a strong start and is rarely dull. Characterisation is perfect from the start apart from Darla but she develops later in the season. It is great to see someone review this series properly rather than some of the poor reviews on other sites. Well done. |
| 2. | AmyAug 3, 2006 (Thu) | |
| About the music, are you talking the background music or the Bronze music? Because, to be honest, I really liked the Bronze music from this season. I was even hoping I could find a list of it somewhere. Anyway, I have to say I love the way this episode was set up, especially with our introduction to Darla. At first you think she's the typical soon-to-be-dead schoolgirl afraid of monsters, and then you discover she's the monster. Just the first example in a long line of Joss's infamous genre benders. |
| 3. | mikejerAug 3, 2006 (Thu) | |
| I was referring to the background music, not the Bronze music. |
| 4. | bjarmsonNov 4, 2006 (Sat) | |
| It's by no means a fully mature episode of Buffy, but there are a lot of things to like about it. The acting by all the principals (including Principal Flutie) is very good right from the start. The dialogue is far above what is found on even good shows. A few throw-away moments define just how good this show would become. In the girls locker room scene two girls are dicussing the new girl, Buffy, and one says, "What kind of a name is Buffy anyway?" Then says "Hi Aphrodesia" to another girl, and mentions something her friend Blue said. Later Cordelia mentions her name, Aura. Absolutely hilarious dialogue, that on most shows would be banal filler (is Joss "The Man" or what). A second moment is the first get together of the Scoobies in the schoolyard. Xander starts babbling on about how he and Buffy are old friends (they met in the hallway earlier), and Jesse (his best line) says "is it me or are you babbling," to which Xander replies, "it's you." Also Buffy's meeting with Principal Flutie and her interactions with her mother are subtle, funny, and flawlessly acted. Altogether about as good as it could probably get for a first show on a miniscule budget. |
| 5. | aliFeb 18, 2007 (Sun) | |
| I love the pilot. I think that for a first episode the pilot did a very good job. The charcters were introduced very well, each one of them got a specfic role and characteristic that remain constant through the show. Dont get me wrong the charecters evolve alot thourgh the show but they still kept their uniqe charectaristic. The main theme of the show was also well intreduced and brought up a very powerfull issues such as frindship, sacrifice good versus evil, responsibilty and more. The pilot stresses that not everything we see is what it is, darla is actually the predator and buffy the blonde tiny girl is the protector, the hero. The pilot greatest succses is that it made me care for the charecters and wanting to discover more about them and that's the biggest succses of any pilot. This is defentlly the best pilot of the best tv show i ever see!!. |
| 6. | TranquillityApr 22, 2007 (Sun) | |
| Interesting that you mention the music as, on my most recent re-veiwing of season one i found the background music downright bizarre! It is just so cheesy how almost every episode in season one ends with 'feel-good' 'everything's ok' music - Thank goodness this particular feature dissapeared after a short while! |
| 7. | LatoyaMay 1, 2007 (Tue) | |
| I loved how Xander reacted to Buffy. He was skate boarding, easily making his way through the crowd and then spots her walking. He keeps his eyes completely fixed on her with a love/lust at first sight thing. And then goes right into the school railings. And the Freudian slip when he bumps into her later. He meant to say "Can I help you?" and insteand says "Can I have you?". |
| 8. | MarieMay 11, 2007 (Fri) | |
| I disgree, I liked the episode. Yes, it was cheesy, but it was so different from any other TV show that it was actually enjoyable. I think one of the main things that made this episode, and in fact the first season, fun to watch is the dialogue. It is loaded with funnny phrases and things, which makes the show completely enjoyable. |
| 9. | mikejerMay 11, 2007 (Fri) | |
| Marie, you disagree with what? I along with all the commentors liked this episode too. |
| 10. | MarieMay 14, 2007 (Mon) | |
| I'm sorry, my mistake. I could tell that the other commentors liked the episode, but you seemed like you didn't like it to me. I guess I just didn't read it carefully enough. The sentence "Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing." is mostly what made me think you didn't like it. Sorry again. |
| 11. | mikejerMay 14, 2007 (Mon) | |
| It's no problem. If all else, look at the score for a quick judgement of how I thought of an episode. I will be rewriting all my S1 reviews after I'm done with S7 though. |
| 12. | buffyholicOct 3, 2007 (Wed) | |
| I love this episode. For a pilot, this is very entertaining. We meet the characters (they are so cute here!) and we immediately fall in love with them and the show. The dialogue is amazing. I had a lot of fun rewatching this one again. Buffy and Willow are the cutest. |
| 13. | AustinOct 4, 2007 (Thu) | |
| I think B's "prepare me speach really sets the tone for how emotions are going to run in this show |
| 14. | XenaGuyMar 23, 2008 (Sun) | |
| bjarmson said, (Nov 4 2006) |
| 15. | XenaGuyMar 23, 2008 (Sun) | |
| Hmmm ... I didn't "copy my comment in case of failure", and it got lost ... Basically, I included this quote ... "The acting by all the principals (including Principal Flutie) is very good right from the start." I agree with all except Nick Brendon, who I think started the series with as much polish as your typical high-school actor in an amateur play. Example: "You dropped your-r-r-r ... stake?" That delivery dropped me right out of the story. His improvement in the first two seasons was noticeable, and by Season 2's end, he was quite respectable. This is not a knock on Nick, I'm a fan. But, face it, compared to the rest of the cast, he was a novice actor when the show was cast. Otherwise, I loved the pilot, the Darla twist was one I didn't see coming at all, and the main characters grabbed me from the beginning scene. I didn't care for The Master's presence though, I normally don't like SuperVillians that are relatively powerless. It's like, why kowtow to him? What can he do if you tell him to take a hike? |
| 16. | RayJul 27, 2008 (Sun) | |
| "Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing." I also agree with this sentiment. When I first started watching Buffy (on a formal basis) I decided to watch it from the beginning and to be honest, this episode wasn't disappointing at all. Sprung Monkey's performance at the Bronze both rocked and was very fitting ("Oh, I just wanna believe, can you hear me, can you see me, what's inside of me, oh, I just want to believe, if my life it has a purpose, help me to believe"). Pilot episodes usually aren't the strongest of many series', being because they have the difficult job of drawing in the viewers, setting the atmosphere, introducing the characters and the premise of the show while still being entertaining and not overloading. As far as the cons go, I actually thought the beginning dream sequence with the angel's statue, cemetery, books, cross, and the Master (the Master isn't really that scary but he's hilarious) was actually pretty cool. I can see why you feel they're hokey, but I hope we can at least agree that it's not as hokey as, say, the Knights of Byzantium :-p... |
| 17. | mikejerJul 27, 2008 (Sun) | |
| As you'll notice in my review of "Spiral," I don't let the Knights off the hook in the slightest. :) |
| 18. | boogie manMar 11, 2009 (Wed) | |
| mwa ha ha ha ha |
| 19. | PV2HMar 14, 2009 (Sat) | |
| Another one of my favorite quotes, after Buffy kicks Darla's butt: "You know, I just wanted to start over. Move to a new town, make some new friends, maybe a dog. But no, you had to come here. You couldn't go suck on some other town." LOL |
| 20. | UrsusMar 14, 2009 (Sat) | |
| Isn't it weird that the "Jesse" character is supposed to have been Willow and Xander's best friend for years- but when he turns into a vamp he gets dispatched without any remorse, and is never mentioned again? |
| 21. | SamMay 3, 2009 (Sun) | |
| I agree with the B grade on this. I think it's a very good start to the series, with good portions of snappy dialogue and good character development. One of the things that always cracks me up about this episode, though? Take a look at the first picture. It's a cap of the scene where Buffy corners Angel in the dark alley on her way to the Bronze on the night after her first day at school. Yet you can clearly see that the "alley" is actually a warehouse--because one of the gates is open and it's daylight outside! It's another one of the charming examples of the shoestring budget of the first season. Another good example is in "Nightmares" when Buffy is taking the test in the classroom and she doesn't know any of the questions. Look at the wall behind the students--it's another warehouse room. Classrooms don't look like that. :) Anyway, I'm glad the show was renewed and given bigger budgets so they could avoid stuff like that. |
| 22. | KateAug 4, 2009 (Tue) | |
| noone can really insult this episode. In theory, without this episode, we wouldn't have any others. In theory, because of course they could have another start episode....whatever. |
| 23. | Smallprint84Mar 2, 2010 (Tue) @ 3:47am | |
| Hey did you realize that the boy Darla killed in the teaser (when they brake inside the school) is Carmine Giovinazzo!!! (who is now a great actor in CSI-NY as Danny Messer). So cool, one of his very first roles. BtVS has been such a great career dive for many actors. |
| 24. | Smallprint84Mar 2, 2010 (Tue) @ 3:50am | |
| Yeah, the Bronze-music has always been cool. Luckily the score is improved with S2 |
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