Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 1x3 Full Reaction
Added 2023-04-14 23:32:05 +0000 UTC
Comments
Great Reaction cass! I'm getting a late start to your reactions to Buffy! Does your Hulu have commercials? I have it but mine has commercials! I'm using the Vudu version which I bought the whole series for $24.99! Just curious!
Johnny
2023-06-22 18:50:51 +0000 UTCPlease stop blowing up her chat.
Thomas
2023-06-11 11:04:10 +0000 UTCI would like to discuss a sensation that I had watching these first reactions. Of course I could be completely wrong, but I get the impression that you're trying to approach and read Buffy as if it follows the same structure as most recent shows, like Wednesday for example, but it doesn't. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually but until then this may impact your enjoyment of the show so, if I may, I would like to try to help you better understand the structure of the show and the main focus in the mind of the screenwriters so to increase your enjoyment of watching the show and our enjoyment of watching you watch the show. Promise zero spoilers here. The main thing to understand and always keep in mind is that BTVS is an highly character-driven show and not a story-driven one. Understood this we can move to the first point of the structure. 1- The main threat or the “big bad” of the season storyline is never the main storyline of the season, it's more like a framework in the background used to carry forward the real main storyline, aka: the growing arc of Buffy as a person with all the steps and milestone she has to cross. Each season is basically one year in Buffy's life (smart move so the cast ages at the same rate as the characters) and her growing arc moves toward a final milestone, a new level of maturity that she has to reach and overcome to move on to the next phase in her life. Despite these arcs and milestones are ramped up to 100, because it's Buffy, they remain quite relatable to most viewers and this is probably one of the reasons for the success of the show (these arcs become quite obvious from season 2 but I get that it's more tricky to see it in season 1, let me know if you need some hints to spot it). 2 – Given point 1, there are no filler episodes in Buffy (ok, maybe 4 or 5). Actually, these episodes not directly connected with the “big bad storyline” are often more important for exploring the characters, advancing their growth, and evolving the different dynamics and relationships, basically the actual meat of the show. With the term “monster of the week” we mean only a peculiar situation, even by Buffy's standards, usually introduced to advance the characters and for this reason these episodes never feel empty or not important. Doesn't matter that you know that by the end of the episode Buffy will overcome this new monster/demon/threat because the focus of your attention is on what does it entail for the characters. 3- Buffy's world is a persistent one, what happens in an episode is never forgotten at the end of that same episode (not really always but maybe 90% of the times) but it will be quoted, or it will inform, or even it will move on the events in a situation one or two season later. This to underline the fact that there are no filler episodes in Buffy. I just want to add that the 1st season it's actually one of my three favourite in the series, and one of the reasons is that a great part of the events in the following seasons have their origins here. You have no idea for example of the ramifications that this apparently small inconsequential episode will have in shaping the event through the entire series. That's all. I rambled a lot and I'm not even sure if I expressed the concepts in an understandable way, but I still hope it will help you to better understand the progress of the show and enjoy it more.
G.Un.
2023-04-16 22:58:34 +0000 UTCGreat episode and great villain. I always particularly enjoy Buffy when is under the spell. Clearly an episode focused on parenting, relations between mother and daughter, etc. I have to say that, personally, I quite like Joyce in this episode because she feels real. She is not perfect, sometimes she doesn't even know what she's doing, but she tries. It's also an important moment of growth for Buffy who, at the beginning she wants Joyce attention and involvement in her life but when she tries and push her towards something that worked for her, Buffy immediately push her back understanding that she doesn't want to be defined by her mother's wishes or changing only to get her mother's approval. She's Buffy after all, the Slayer, a strong minded, determined, confident and independent individual. On the opposite side we have Amy and her mother. We have a mother, frustrated with her life, who becomes increasingly deranged and decides that the only option is to live through her daughter, refusing to even contemplate the idea of her being a person too, she gave birth to her daughter so she owns her. The daughter, unable to push back her mother's pressure and eager to be loved, ends up becoming her mother. Ok, in the show they actually switch place one in the other's body by magic, but the comparison with equivalent situations in our world is quite clear. About the “love triangle”, reading the room, I would see it more like 3 disjointed points, Willow likes Xander but he sees her “like a guy”, Xander likes Buffy but she calls him “one of the girls”, and Buffy doesn't seem interested in Willow in a romantic way.
G.Un.
2023-04-16 22:57:54 +0000 UTCI can't wait for you to get into the seasons when they get some sort of budget. Charisma Carpenter who has already been a damsel in distress twice in the first 3 episodes has her own real life survival story and she hosted an ID Discovery show called Surviving Evil. The first episode was about her encounter from 1991 when she was 22. https://tvovermind.com/intriguing-survival-story-charisma-carpenter/
aeronitz
2023-04-15 22:40:55 +0000 UTCI like to think of season 1 as the orchestra tuning up.
Darrell Palmer
2023-04-15 05:41:26 +0000 UTCI don’t know if any Buffy fan would call the first season their favorite, maybe not even *A* favorite, but these first three episodes have given us quite a lot of what will eventually make this show truly great. The first two episodes introduced the characters and setup the world of the show, establishing the Hellmouth and the high school. We met a vampire named Darla who wears a school uniform and saw another vampire Buffy described as looking like DeBarge - a musical group from the 80s - suggesting he hasn’t grown with the times. And Buffy averted the apocalypse with the help of some new friends. Besides the further development the overall character dynamics, the most important feature of “Witch”, to me, is the emphasis on metaphor. Catherine is an adult who was trying to relive her glory days vicariously (magically) through her teenage daughter. In other words; she’s a grownup who hasn’t grown up. Buffy and her mom, Joyce, seemed to be butting heads a bit throughout the episode. Early on Buffy even wanted her mom to be more like Amy's mom, but in the end, by saying she wouldn’t want to be sixteen again even if it meant she would better understand her daughter Joyce proved, that unlike Catherine, she has grown up and evolved past her high school self. That gives us three villains in three episodes who seemingly either haven’t matured or aren’t capable of it. … Nicely done figuring out the twist. So glad you’re enjoying the show.
tc3
2023-04-15 02:31:46 +0000 UTCSeason 1 may be the weakest, but that doesn't make it bad. Just means that the show is good and one of the seasons has to end up at the low end of peoples rankings. The season is still very fun and entertaining (and short). Loved it from the start.
Negative
2023-04-15 01:02:34 +0000 UTC
