Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Addictive viewing, 24 Aug 2006
Buffy The Vampire Slayer originally began as a spin-off show of a 1992 film by the same name that enjoyed limited success. Despite this, the creator Joss Whedon pitched the concept of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - the series to several studios before eventually getting picked up henceforth bringing about the creation of one of the most loved and successful series of recent years.
In the original film, Buffy was cast as Kristy Swanson but to bring a younger, fresher look to the series and probably also to distance it from the mediocre film, Buffy was recast as Sarah Michelle Gellar, a relatively unknown actress at the time. The series proved to be a hit for Sarah Michelle Gellar succeeding in making her one of the most recognisable TV actresses around the world.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is based around the story of Buffy Summers, an until recently normal teenage girl who discovers that she is the chosen one, a warrior of the people who's duty is to rid the world of the scourge of vampires. After moving to Sunnydale with her mother Joyce Summers (played by Kristine Sutherland) and enrolling at her new school she meets her new watcher who goes by the name of Giles, an academic who's purpose is to help and protect the slayer in the course of her duties. Her watcher just happens to be the school librarian and is played by respected British actor Anthony Stewart Head.
In this first season, Buffy is made to feel an outcast as her slayer duties and efforts to keep her identity a secret leave her displaying particularly odd behaviour so she inevitably ends up making friends with others classed as outcasts by the 'in' crowd. These people go by the name of Xander Harris (played by Nicholas Brendan) and Willow Rosenberg (played by Alyson Hannigan). The 3 friends help Buffy with her duties as her secret is revealed but they all end up being ostracised by the cool crowd (especially Buffy), headed by Cordelia Chase (played by Charisma Carpenter). Their dislike of each other is prominent through a couple of seasons.
In all Buffy seasons, there is usually a nemesis that the slayer has to deal with who runs throughout the entire season even though there are other self-contained stories for each episode. In this season the arch-enemy is known simple as 'The Master' an incredibly old powerful vampire who has been kept in a mystical prison below Sunnydale's streets for nearly a century. His intention is to open the Hellmouth that Sunnydale is built on releasing not only himself but untold evils onto the world. The only thing Buffy has to do is stop him...
Appearing in this season is vampire with a heart Angel (played by David Boreanaz) a 200 year old vampire previously called Angelus cursed with the return of his soul by gypsies after he slaughtered members of their family. Despite being a vampire, Angel caanot kill humans as his soul has brought back his conscience so spends his life drinking animal blood and trying to atone for the death and carnage he imparted on the world during his time as a killer. He also becomes Buffy's love interest and succeeds on playing this part for several seasons.
The first show does consist of episodes which are perhaps not as mature as later seasons but they are all still in high school so that's understandable. I also think that perhaps Joss Whedon was not 100% sure at that time what target audience he was aiming at. Examples of a couple of episodes are Xander being possessed and taking over the characteristics of a hyena, Willow releasing an ancient demon on line after scanning some mystical text onto a computer and even a talking, living ventriloquist doll.
Buffy spawned seven seasons and also a spin-off series called Angel starring David Boreanaz in his own show as the lead character. This show also achieved success. Buffy The Vampire Slayer cemeted the careers of a lot of people on the show and was sadly missed when it finished.
This series is a must for all ages and there really has been nothing since that has come close to the originality that made this series such a phenomenal success worldwide.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Pitch to the Unconverted: The most original show, wrapped in trashy chocolatey goodness, 24 Jun 2009
I'm very British and I don't take kindly to silly nonsense, so when a friend tried to interest me in Buffy, then on its 4th series, I gave it short shrift. 'Typical trash fantasy' I thought (and probably tactlessly said), 'low standards and no idea of the history and traditions they are ripping off'. This prejudice lasted until way after the final series ended. From the flashes I saw the vampires weren't sophisticated, weren't sexually dangerous and why, why, why did they have those ugly annoying lumpy foreheads? The production was very American, even worse, Californian American - superficial, plastic and suspiciously girly - and of course you have to get past the name.
And then late one eventless evening 3 years ago I tuned to BBC2 and randomly caught the first ever episode.
If only I had seen that opening scene years before - immediately I was shown that this is no thoughtless genre rip-off. The dialogue was clever and funny and high and low-brow references piled-up. Drama and tension was masterfully handled. And then there was the retro feel of outdated film stock, many scenes took place in a library (ok you may not get as big a thrill out of these last 2 as I do), the librarian Giles was English and... hang-on, the writer obviously understood the British and their attitudes towards America and played the two v. wittily off each other. Buffy was hot, frivolous and deep, Willow irresistibly sweet and Xander immediately sympathetic to any man who was not automatically successful with girls as a teenager.
And they mesh together so well, the dynamic between these characters is pure magic. Blessed by the Casting Gods very quickly these four no longer appeared cartoon cut-outs to me but real people I grew to love, was sometimes annoyed by, but never tired of.
Grounding the fantasy, real-life themes are interwoven, often for comedy, often for tragedy, but never for preachy education. With Buffy the creator Joss Whedon began his reputation for carefully crafting stories and characters within individual episodes and across whole series.
The premise may not be original, but then there's been a relentless production of novels, television and films for the past 100 years, so what is? The originality shines through in how the set up is played with, in the flair of the writing. With so many films and shows talentlessly cheapening old myths you owe it to yourself to give a chance to one which skilfully hijacks them. You could ask 10 different fans what they love about the show and you could easily get 10 different answers.
So the perfect marriage of guilty pleasure and intelligence. There are 12 episodes here, 144 episodes in total - the experience of running through them all is pure luxurious indulgence, a tremendous and epic journey unparalleled elsewhere in modern TV - and I urge anyone who has not done so to leap up and rush out and buy this, then half way down the garden path realise they can order it here and come and sit back down again.
The later series may be richer, funnier, more complex but personally I love beginnings and Season 1 is utterly charming and never let my high standards down.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent start, 13 Jan 2008
I imagine that this series seemed a lot better to me when I first saw it, not because it's bad now or anything, but because it was so completely eclipsed by some of the seasons that followed it (especially the third season).
For a start, at only 12 episodes (the show was originally a mid-season replacement), it just doesn't feel like a proper season of Buffy, without enough room for the engaging arcs of seasons 2, 3, etc - the season's Big Bad basically shows up in the first and last episodes, and doesn't really do much in between.
On top of that, the stand-alone, "monster of the week" episodes in this series aren't much to shout about either - it's nice to have seen them so as to get all the references and stuff later on (Amy's origins are useful to know, and they make loads of references to Xander's encounter with a giant preying mantis in later seasons when discussing his questionable choice in women), but they do look incredibly dated now (also, I got quite a shock the first time Angel showed up, he looks so freakishly young), and there's nothing to rival legendary stand-alones like Hush or Once More With Feeling etc.
That said, if you're going to watch Buffy at all it's very useful to have seen it from the beginning, as minor plot points and characters do become more important later on in Buffy (and Angel), and the trademark sharp writing is very much in evidence, so I certainly wouldn't advise against this, I would merely offer a word of warning: if you're getting into the show on reputation alone, maybe having been too young to see the early years first time around, then don't judge the show solely on these episodes, good as some of them are - use this as an introduction to the characters and themes, and hold out for the far superior 2nd and 3rd seasons.
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