I am completely in love at this point, but it was the episode "Hush" that has drawn me out of my hovel to come tell reddit about this love. That episode was nothing short of perfection. I really can't think of any horror film over the last decade that was as good as that. I am stepping down from the soapbox now, thank you.
Posted Oct 3, 2012, 4:41 PM UTC
I'm jealous that you get to watch Buffy for the first time. Enjoy this time in your life.
It feels pretty monumentum. I knew it would be good, because In Whedon We Trust afterall, but it is so much more than I expected.
I loved both Buffy and Angel. Though, I do agree with you that Hush was my highlight of both series combined. Very creepy episode.
"the gentlemen are coming and they might get you..."
Well, no sleep for me tonight!
I should probably start watching this myself... I'm kinda busy with the shows I currently watch.
Lower your pitchforks! I watch/watched the other reddit staples like Arrested Development, Firefly, Community!
"we need to talk"
:') Tears of joy, sweet tears of joy.
I find that "Hush" pales compared to "The Body."
Yes, that episode doesn't have any creepy-crawlies but I honestly think it's one of the most beautiful episodes of a television show I've ever seen. It deals with loss and grief in a very real and human way, and has enough characters that it can show many processes at once. Anya's breakdown in that episode is very well done.
It also employs a lot of the silence that made Hush so good.
I haven't seen The Body yet, but I am very excited for it now! Cheers!
The body is one of my top 5 episodes of TV ever. It's fantastic. In fact the intro to it was one of my first viewings of buffy by accidentally leaving it on during an FX rerun to see what my friends were raving about. It spoiled something HUGE in the show for me, but was one of the best few minutes of TV I'd seen at the time amplified by how unexpected it was from a show I didn't think could be that great.
Upon rewatching, the spoiler I gave myself, was no biggie, because the episode was so amazingly well done by all involved. Scenes from that ep still haunt me. I've since watched both shows about 12 times over the years, as background noise while I work, and this is one of the episodes I cannot do anything else while watching.
HUSH is a fantastic episode from a creative standpoint and that creativity extends to a production standpoint because of what it is. That's what makes it amazing.
The Body while still interesting in production choices, harbors big moments for the characters you will come to love more and more. It's truly the most haunting episode of the series IMhO.
also, welcome to the club.
OP you better be watching Angel alongside.
http://buffyfest.blogspot.ca/2009/04/buffyangel-episode-watching-guide.html
as I watched Hush, I kinda new it was special. As it went on I kept saying to myself, 'there is no way this didn't win awards.' and whatta ya know? it did.
It was silent for a good 40 mins it seemed. Absolutely remarkable, and a testament to how invested the whole crew was in that show.
The scene in the college theatre where they're planning what to do is so hilarious. I think it was Buffy or Giles making a staking motion and everyone else is confused because it looks like a handjob. Classic. This is the episode that made me into a fan as well.
Hush was a pretty creepy episode. One of my favourites in the series. "Once more, with feeling" was a great one too for entirely different reasons.
That's one of my favorites too. It's easy to miss how much the events and revelations in this episode actually changed the relationships between the characters.
I very much enjoyed Buffy and Angel the first time through, but I don't think I could re-watch the show. The "freak of the week" concept wouldn't sustain my interest through a second pass.
I can definitely understand that. I think transcends that in a sense though. The freaks seems to exemplify a greater character development than just being for the sake of monstry. So it may still strike your interest. I always go back to the X-Files (except those last two seasons) and it always works on that character level.
I like the MOTW episodes of X-Files better than the arc ones. Much more like pulp sci-fi short stories with varying writers.
Hit or miss, sure, but I like the thoughtful twilight zoney vibe more than "Hey, there really ARE aliens and a govt coverup!".
I absolutely get that, and overall the X-files MOTW episodes were great for far longer than the alien stuff.
Still, I have a place in my heart for the early arc episodes, up until maybe the end of S4 where it started to go nowhere and get silly.
I get that, but did you entirely miss the arc stories? Those were what really made the show.
That's why I watched it the first time, but that's not enough to suffer through the piffle a second time. I can't re-watch Doctor Who for pretty much the same reason.
I've tried.
The monsters on Doctor Who are barely relevant to what the show is. If that is all you see, you didn't watch them in order, didn't get emotionally invested, or don't understand it. Motherfucking facts.
Hold your tongue, fanboy.
Fantasy masquerading as sci-fi, the budget policy of "tell, don't show", and deus ex machinas utterly fail to dazzle the second time around. Camp and cheese and formulae reign after all the surprises have been laid bare.
A first viewing yields pleasurable entertainment. Another pass reveals that the show is a slave to tropes.
Piffle?! Nonsense. One of the best written, emotionally engaging, witty shows that's ever been. As Drew Goddard put it in his ama "The Body is the greatest hour in television history." Watched it all the way through for the second time a couple of years back and loved it again.
You're not understanding.
Between the parts that are good are formulaic freak-of-the-week events which drive most episodes. That's the piffle, the chaff which I don't need to re-experience to get to the good stuff.
We do a disservice to the show if we pretend that it's thoroughly flawless. It's very flawed... and very engaging, too. But not for a second time for me.
Personally, I thought "The Body" was too overtly Whedonesque (ie - emotionally manipulative) to get into. I understand why it's a favorite, but it wasn't my favorite.
I've watched both shows 12 times now. better each time.
The fact that shows really WEREN'T freak of the week was what I actually loved about them. With the exception of the first season of both shows, they were pretty arc-driven.
You know that a show can be both, right? Buffy is quite literally the textbook example of the "freak of the week" dynamic. There was continuity and thematic structure between characters and episodes, but the episodes themselves were, frankly, episodic. Farscape is another show which had strong arcs that tied seasons together, bouts of serialization, but generally had a rotating problem-of-the-week structure.
Hush was amazing as a single episode but Buffy was already the best-thing-ever at that point. Season two, three and four were some of the best TV ever made.
I wonder if it would have as much of an impact now. At the time it was a revelation, while we had good TV Buffy seemed to raise the bar quite a way. Now half the shows are genre shows but at the time it was sitcom city. Buffy showed that TV drama could have a funny bone
I tried watching Angel but it wasn't the same, however I decided to give the final season a go and I wasn't disappointed. The writing was every bit as good as Buffy at it's best, perhaps better. I watched Cabin in the woods last month and it felt like an episode of Angel that you'd be happy to skip. Still, it was worth it to see Amy Acker
They really need this on Blu-ray
I have just started as well, I watched the first 3 seasons, but have had to stop as I need to acquire Angel.
I am SO JEALOUS. Summer of 2006 I spent catching up on the series (I had watched the first season when it was on air originally then lost track.) It was such a good summer, that's a fun show to watch as a marathon, and Hush is by far my favorite episode.
Congrats, Buffy is an amazing show. Season 3 has an incredible ending, as do S6 and S7. Everyone always touts Firefly as Whedon's best show, and its hard to argue with that but Buffy is still my favorite.
I haven't watched Buffy, despite the eager recommendations, because I don't want to slog through the monster-of-the-week episodes that, apparently, populate the early portion of the show's run. So my question is - is it worth it? Can those episodes be skipped? Are they good enough not to skip?
I would highly suggest not skipping them. While they do have a monster of the week scenario, the monster pertains to a character development. I really can not think of an episode that seemed pointless, save for a couple the first season, but a lot of them are referenced repeatedly by the characters that were impacted, and you can see some real change.
fucking hyenas...
Welcome!
I wish I could be in your shoes and watch Buffy for the first time again.
Buffy is so awesome! It totally rocks! but please for the love of all things awesome, don't go on the Buffy subreddit until you've finished the series! It awesome and wonderful, but full of little spoilers that people who haven't finished the series don't realize will totally ruin a whole story arc.
Also, don't go on Buffy's imdb page, it shows how long people are on the show, and the spoilers tag on the trivia sucks.
Thank you so much for the heads-up!
You should be watching "Angel" in tandem with this now. You have some catching up to do.
you have to watch "Angel" starting when he leaves for LA. Not at the same time. OP should be aware of that. That way, the cross-over episodes make more sense.
Random Angel appearance. Glad to see he's doing okay.
Oh believe me, I am. I just started Season 4 of Buffy and I watch an ep of that and then an ep of Angel. I have enjoyed few shows as much of those two.
You should watch according to this guide. The story lines work a little differently than 1 Buffy Ep, 1 Angel ep, and you'll really want to watch the Faith Arc in its full glory. It's seriously one of the most gratifying character growths the buffyverse ever produced.
I'm currently struggling through season 4 right now. Got side-tracked by Breaking Bad.
Angel is the most fulfilling TV experience I've ever had. With the exception of The Wire, of course, praise be upon it.