I gotta protest the resurection of a thread where I fawn over some buffy-watching chick.
Man, I cant believe I had it bad for that woman. (shakes head in disbelief)
What was I thinking?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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What, you mean Alyson Hannigan would look hot as a Goth? I dunno. I'm not nearly as convinced about her "hotness" as a large number of internet nerds seem to be, and pale skin added to her 24 pounds body would just make her look seriously ill.
Besides, you could always just look at Vampire Willow.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Well, it's come to this. Should I do some creative writing? Wash the dishes? My clothes? Clean out my car? Bake cookies? Watch Father Ted and Firefly before deciding to start this up all over again? (I just bought the Father Ted DVDs, and I just got my Firefly DVDs back from the place I used to live.)
"Welcome To The Hellmouth"
This announcer guy is weird and unsettling. He sounds like he is offering us something illegal.
A frightening angle on some poorly-lit desks! The ghost of scholastic underachievement will leap out and remind me that I could have probably gone to a decent university if I had just applied myself.
Oh, it is just some guy and a blond girl. I bet this girl will be killed because the guy is a vampire. And then someone will have to save a blond girl in every episode. I am on to the formula! (Julie Benz's little girl voice is kind of disturbing.) On a less sarcastic note, people who graduate Sunnydale High alive should never, ever, ever go back.
I realize Angel (the show) establishes that Darla was a true-blue Master cultist, (Order of Whateverius) and that riding around Europe meeting glamorous people and then killing them with Angel was just a detour, but still, killing kids and hanging out at an all ages club is sort of a step down for her, isn't it?
Buffy conveniently dreams the footage from the title sequence.
The first day of school, set to the nondescript tunes of mid-1990s high school-themed rock.
Sunnydale High is apparently exclusively served by short buses.
Hey, it's Xander's best friend Jesse! He and Willow sure take it hard when Jesse dies.
Should Buffy be carrying a wooden stake to school if she doesn't expect there to be any vampires?
I don't understand why everyone is suggesting that the best place to find textbooks is the library. We got our textbooks in class, and they wouldn't have had any in the library even if we wanted them.
James Spader is the hottest guy Cordelia can think of? The past really is a foreign country. Was James Spader ever cool?
Giles looks extremely disappointed when his book recommendation isn't accepted.
"That's the chatter in the caf." No, I'm sorry. "Pos" and "neg" aren't going to cut it either.
Cordelia claims that nothing ever goes on in Sunnydale? Plenty goes on!
Meanwhile, behind this hedge. . . oh, and underground. I've probably said this already, but I like to think that it was the Mayor who sabotaged the Master's plan.
Here's the introduction of a shadowy and rake-thin David Boreanz. Angel wisely doesn't mention how he fell in love with Buffy when she was fifteen and he was spying on her from the bushes.
And now, at the Bronze: rock photography! Check this out desirable youth demographic, we're as cool as MTV!
Giles: "But you didn't. . . hone."
"I hope he's not a vampire because then you might have to slay him." I see Xander starts out at a subtle character.
Hey, let's go make out in this above-ground crypt; everybody's doing it! And how do Buffy and Xander track down Willow and her vampiric kidnapper? Maybe everyone really is doing it?
Darla is shocked to discover that a back-talking teenage girl has killed her fellow vampire. Shouldn't back-talking teenage girls be a segment of the population vampires naturally fear? I mean, "Who are you?" You obviously didn't pay attention to the lugubrious announcer at the top of the show, Darla.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Ah, Parents Television Council, where would we be without you?
Well, this isn't timely, but neither are any of my other comments, OK, so: "Violent scenes including vampires, demons, werewolves, and other creatures make this dark fantasy series a nightmare for parents." Well, sure. I mean, as far as it goes, yeah. There are all those things. But then: "All sex among these young college freshmen is portrayed almost exclusively as romantic or fun, with no reference made to the consequences of such behavior."
And, I mean, this is season four they're talking about.
In a totally unrelated note there's an amusing passage that refers indirectly to Famke Jansen as "middle-aged."
Registered: Mar 1999
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I spent a few seconds trying to come up with a counterexample to that, but all I could find was that Spike's name is William. I am defeated.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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(Gunn's first name is Charles, but almost no one calls him that. I have never met a Wesley, but it doesn't instantly strike me as California weird. Also consider how many characters on Firefly have names that are also nouns: Wash, Book, River. . . well, just those three. But unusual = the usual, is what I'm saying.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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In retrospect, I probably shouldn't put so much space between watching an episode and talking about it, because once again my attempt at clever note-taking proves too clever for me to figure out several days later.
Buffy, to distract a vampire: "Hey!" She gets quippier as time goes on.
Jesse is how it is spelled, according to the captions. In my notes here is another "Boy, I am sure hoping Jesse is OK because I totally buy that he is a core character" bit, but I think we can skip it.
"This world is older than any of you know." So, what, six billion years? Seven? Followed by the first pass at a comprehensive metaphysics of vampires and magical things in general.
On cops: "They'd only bring guns." Well, I mean, come on, guns are pretty good on their own.
Time to harness the power of the "internet" to solve crimes. And then Willow says she has "decrypted the city council's files," which makes me wonder what other mysterious things would (or ought to) be there.
Buffy is wearing some pretty stylish sunglasses to go monster-hunting.
"That may be how they do things in Britain. They've got that royal family and all kinds of problems."
Re the locked gate in the crypt: who locked it, I wonder? I mean, it is locked from the outside, yet all the vampires ought to be on the inside right now. And how did Angel get in there? I mean, it's the middle of the day. Did he just hang around for 12 hours on the off chance she might show up?
Later, under the surface, the sewers teem with domesticated rats. (Well, there is one; and it walks over Buffy's feet.) And there are what look like welder's rigs in the background.
Now I am distracted by Xander's necklace. Is that a ring hanging from it? It is an odd choice, whatever it is. Plus more vampire backstory, but what I really like is this sort of bizarre and out of nowhere wipe edit. They're sneaking around inside the card catalog.
Having high school kids programming computers breaks my suspension of disbelief more than vampires, but it turns out that kids actually do this in modern high schools. At my school we just learned how to type. (I have a series of stories involving myself, a girl I liked a whole lot, some other people, the back room with the only PCs where we all sort of sequestered ourselves during class, and an almost daily routine of adolescent disappointment, but maybe later.)
Harmony has a very confused look on her face whenever the subject drifts from how cool Cordelia is. And who is this guy who just pops into the frame eager for details about how Cordelia was assaulted at the Bronze?
Anyway, back in the sewers, and I guess they made a choice to not spend much time having the main characters adjust to the situation, because Xander already seems pretty blas� about running around in sewers from vampires.
"I've got an idea. You can die." Jesse is pretty new to the whole villainous banter thing.
Re the Master's magical blood energy connection: "My soul is your soul." Oh?
Giles' explanation of the Hellmouth suggests that it is both unique and previous unknown.
"The world will end if you can't go out tonight." Time to literalize those metaphors.
Are those communion wafers in Buffy's chest of antivampiric things? She didn't mention them in her earlier list of things they don't like.
The song that Cordelia likes is really short, which is either an editing choice or a clever attention span gag. And then, I used to think you were just a loser Jesse, but now that I see that occasionally you are also an aggressive loser I guess I will dance with you.
I wonder if there is a website that keeps track of how many hostage situations the Bronze has seen?
Luke is allergic to the Master's blood, I guess. (Get it? Because where he drew on him with blood, Luke now has this bumpy welt. See?)
Xander, on a head being cut off by a cymbal: "Head's up." He is new to bantering too.
Though with the benefit of hindsight it is a pretty obvious gag, I think I fell for this sunrise thing the first time.
And for the wrap up: How come no one remembers the vampire attack? Uh, because they forgot! OK. And then some music, and Giles is really excited about all the things they could do if the show gets picked up.
"Maybe you could blow something up. They're really strict about that." The solution, apparently, is to blow everything up.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Oh, the "which witch?" jokes I finally convinced myself to discard. In this episode: witchcraft and cheerleading are dangerous.
Giles: "I make allowances for your youth." Somehow Watchers normally can make teenage girls follow orders. Yet of the three slayers who get any lines, one is rebellious and another is evil and rebellious. So, I don't know. Watchers, go figure.
And now inside the witch's layer. Spooky dried flowers! This witch has set up shop in a particularly menacing arts and crafts store.
re Giles' disapproval of the cheerleading life: "He totally lost his water." Gross.
Buffy: "What's this?" Willow: "What's that?" Only Willow says it all accusatory, see. It is a good line delivery, is what I'm getting at.
Willow: "She's on fire!" Cordelia: "Enough with the hyperbole." Oh, I'm afraid not, Cordelia. I bet there is a "figure of speech turns out to be literal description of magical thinger" gag in her very last episode.
Now, OK, normally I avoid this sort of thing, because, I don't know, it seems kind of creepy and weird; not so much the reaction, but putting it up on the internet. It's sort of OK now, being in my mid-twenties, but someday soon I will be old, so, internet cache of the future: I totally disavow this statement once it gets weird. Anyway, Sarah Michelle Geller looks nice in a cheerleading uniform.
Moving on: discussing the aftermath of a cheerleader catching on fire, Xander seems angry that the monster problem wasn't solved for good last week. Speaking of which, I wonder how much time is supposed to have passed, since everyone seems like the best of friends already, and Xander and Willow are eager to get started solving mysteries. They should do a prequel movie with the two of them running around town as junior detectives who always come up with plausible but wrong solutions.
I wish there would have been some scenes in Joyce's art gallery at some point. Or her life in general. What happened to the gallery, anyway?
There's probably a problem between the way Buffy, in her show, is a super-nice person who always sympathizes with the put-upon and the unpopular, and her alleged history of being more Cordelia-like prior to becoming a slayer. Like, I'm not sure becoming a sacred warrior automatically makes you more considerate and fair-minded. (Though I have my own, uncharitable, theory, namely that her character is designed to be the cool friend who isn't too cool to hang out with you. "Uncharitable" because, I don't know, sometimes you do not want to see behind the curtain, as it were. You know? Or something.)
I think you're supposed to let the water stop boiling before you add the Jello. And the ritualistic totem. (The bubbling vat from the credits. In fact, a lot of credit footage is from this episode.)
Yet another attack against the noble and hip yearbook staff!
Cordelia's driving instructor really ought to have a brake mounted on his side of the car. I'm not sure why she wouldn't mention not feeling well. It's not like she usually shies away from letting people know how she feels.
Is the UPS guy who doesn't even slow down when there is a wreck and a dazed woman in the middle of the street blind too? (Bam! Because, see, I have just laid a smackdown of epic proportions on this guy.)
The two experiments being conducted in science class seem to have nothing to do with each other. Dissecting frogs and then something with acid? (Not to mention that frogs != newts, unless those medieval sorcerors were really sloppy with their lab notes.) But we are distracted by a student coming down with a bad case of no-mouth. The true witch is Charlie X! How do you explain away sudden mouth-sealing, anyway? People do catch on fire from time to time, or become blind, or take X and go to cheerleading practice (more on this later), but skin growing over a mouth?
And here is an actual problem, I think, as opposed to just some jerk's snark: the solution turns blue, meaning Amy has cast a spell recently. Yet their next clue is that she seems shocked by the girl with the mouth problem. And she was inept at cheerleading just yesterday. But now the big reveal is that Amy and her mother have already switched bodies.
Based on later revelations of backstory, Joyce should probably be a lot more concerned when Buffy idly mentions vampires.
"Is it me or is Buffy a bit looped?" And here I have written down: "ADR Joke," in the hopes that I would come up with one, but no luck.
Zoidberg: "Oh my God, I'm coming down!"
Giles: "This is a bloodstone vengeance spell." What is this, Dragonlance?
"She needs a sacred space. A pentagram. . . a large pot." "Her home." Or an evil Bed, Bath & Beyond. (I was so proud of myself for that one I chuckled and thought "they will eat this up." I really, really don't like myself.)
Now Amy and her mother switched bodies months ago? Well, whatever you say.
Sunnydale High has a really small gym.
Here there is some magic and a brief fight, for those curious and yet not already aware.
Did Amy's mother ("Catherine the Great," proving that whatever else went on in Sunnydale before Buffy got there, teenagers from the sixties were total squares.) intend the "dark place" of her spell to be the trophy cabinet?
Really, no one should be surprised that Amy has some problems later in life.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Oh, and I'm not sure anyone deserves to be stuck in a trophy for the rest of eternity. I guess if she's lucky it gets destroyed along with the rest of the school.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I think I read there was a cut scene from the rubble of the school with her still there...
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Smelly Simon: (I think the clue that he is not a regular is in his more or less normal first name.)
Does the fact that Xander is just a weird abreviation of a normal name count?
I love Simon's episode comments and would collect them and make a web-page about them if I could. But my hands are tied and it is pointless. I do agree that being stuck in a trophy for eternity is just a wee bit harsh though.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: I spent a few seconds trying to come up with a counterexample to that, but all I could find was that Spike's name is William. I am defeated.
Angel's not weird and sexy name.
(And failed-wit aside, did they intentionally give Spike and his sire-no-wait-he-wasn't-we-got-that-one-wrong-oh-I've-come-up-with -an-explanation-it's-what-I-meant-all-along-honest related names? Or does Joss just have a bit of a lack of imagination when chosing non-American names that aren't odd?)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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