The Buffy Re-Watch Club

So I feel like it's time for me to revisit Buffy and I thought it would be a lot of fun to do it as a group. I know it's well loved on here and hopefully we can get a good group going.

A lot of vampire shows have come and gone, but nothing has ever held a candle to Buffy. I find myself missing the Scooby gang and needing to get back into the Buffyverse.

So this is how I thought it would work. We will watch two episodes a week one on Thursday and one on Monday. Of course you don't have to watch the show on those days, but to keep the thread in some kind of order those would be the days when we switch the conversation to the next episode.

If you've never seen it before I highly suggest you watch along with us. You don't know what your missing.

We don't have to wait until Thursday to start talking about the first episode; you can go ahead and watch now, but we will wait until Monday to go to episode two.

You guys should watch the show at the same time and do commentary. I almost asked Honeykid if he'd watch the entire series of Sex and the City with me and do commentary at the same time. I thought it would be epic.

I'm contemplating. Have never watched a minute of this show but have heard a lot about it over the years.

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Letterboxd

Never seen the show, but I might give it a watch and follow along.

I've always wanted to watch the series from beginning to end. I only remember bits and pieces from when my sisters were so into it, when it was running. I might join, if I can find a good place to watch.

It's on netflix swan.

You guys that haven't seen it really should join. Once you get into season 2 you are hooked. It's a great show.

People that have watched it and don't want to watch it again can join in the conversation from memory but I want the conversation to remain episode specific.

People are welcome to do commentaries in this thread as well as long as it's the correct episode.

I'll probably watch the first one tonight.

My grandparents had a dog for a long time named Buffy. It died recently so they got a new dog and its name is Angel. I'm sure they don't even know what the Buffy and Angel shows are, but it makes me think of that.

So I decided to jump right in or I may have just not. The first episode is just what I thought the show would be. I am going to try to let myself get into the characters and not be critical straight off though. I don't want to be the one in the group who nit-pics and makes fun of the show. I am going to embrace the cheese. So I people watched. Hey that's the girl from How I Met Your Mother, the guy for Six Feet Under, and the guy from Bones. I'm allowed to think Buffy is cute since Sarah Michelle Gellar is my age in real life, right?

I think once people start talking, I can get into the camaraderie of it. I am the guy that has seen every episode of 90210, so I am not above some high school schlock. Let the games begin.

It gets better, it really does. The second season is when it really starts to get good. Only 12 episodes in the first season so we get to the good stuff soon.

It's funny to see someone do it all backwards. The first time I saw Bones, it was "There's Angel!" , and "Why does Willow have to be in this sucky show?"

By the way depending on how much this has grown or if it takes off, I may do an Angel re-watch club when we get to that part of Buffy.

I've already been rewatching! We'll see what I can add to the epi discussions though.

Newbies, if you were like me, you may feel a bit 'meh' by the end of season one. KEEP GOING.
Over the seasons you will witness some of the best character development in TV history, some of the most fun and surprising and scary and tragic individual shows ever aired (eg. "The Body" during which I cried several times and still think it one of the finest portrayals of mundane death and the aftermath of grief and confusion ever crafted, "Hush" which is amazingly scary in some scenes and also hilarious in some of its non-verbal character exchanges, and its conceptual opposite "Once More, With Feeling" is just plain brilliant, plus I must note the superb Lynchesque "Restless") as well as the overall arcs that are truly memorable and even heartbreaking (in a good way).

There is just no way to easily convey how nuanced and imaginative the show becomes over the seasons (I'd say season 4 is where it starts to really shine though there are lots of earlier episodes that are great and lay the necessary groundwork for later seasons to have their impact) but it does, and it's remarkable and glorious.

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

Season 4? Really? I remember seasons 4 and 7 as the worst of the programme. Season 3 is the peak of Buffyness.

BTW, sean, is that proper 90210 or the new remake?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Yay, glad your joining Deadite. I'm excited that three people who have never seen the show might be joining in. There is nothing like watching Buffy for the first time.

Remember that we will move to the next episode every Mon. and Thursday so make sure you watch the next episode before coming in here on those days. I don't want anything to be spoiled for you. I was going to wait one week the first time before moving on, but I think everyone can get the first episode in by then. The first episode is in two parts but we are only doing the first part and will do the next one Thursday.

Seanc, you said you watched 90210. Did the high school look familiar? It's the same one.

Uh, no. The third season was good; season 4 was where it went from good to great. Most of the most widely beloved and acclaimed epis are from later seasons, basically 4 onward. Claiming Buffy "peaked" at season 3 is wildly inaccurate but you are quite welcome to your sad little opinion.

My sad little, but correct, opinon. As with most high school set works, once/should they carry on beyond the high school years, they're never as good. More acclaimed episodes, yes. Some of the best episodes are from season 4 onwards, but Buffy's never the sme programme once they leave high school. But we'll have a good time talking about all that in the months to come.

You're correct, it isn't the same after season 3; it's different. That's why it's such an awesome show: It evolved and was ambitious, even if it put off some people (like you apparently) who mistakenly think it would've been a better series if left to stagnate in high school hijinks. Sorry haters but Buffy was epic precisely because it continually re-invented itself and wasn't content to feed zombie viewers their formulaic fix. Every season had relatively weaker epis, but the series overall wouldn't have reached its highest highs were it not for taking risks and challenging viewer expectation.

Season 4? Great? Those words don't belong in the same sentence...Adam was a terrible Big Bad, I flat out LOATHED Riley...Season 5 was a massive step up from that. Season 2 is where the show got great.

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Season 5 is great. My favourite one after season 3. Couldn't stand Adam and Riley, either.

Nope, the Initiative stuff was pretty cool and was logical to expanding the show's reality beyond the hermetically sealed universe of "scooby gang vs latest evil" in the first three seasons. 4 was the season where uncertainty ruled as everything was in transition, and contained some of the most creative epis in the series thus far. It's easy to superficially nitpick stuff like Riley (I always felt meh about him myself) and "Big Bad" Adam (big bad isn't the point anyway) but that also misses the greater scope of 4 which yes was a bridge to the great stuff in season 5, but as well 4's own fantastic individual epis like Hush cannot be dismissed by any true BTVS fan. And as far as I'm concerned every "weaker" element of 4's arc is vindicated by the sublime Restless which was like a quiet epilogue to all that had gone before as well as foreboding of next season.

Well have to agree to disagree, Deadite, cos I hated Restless, too.

Hush is great, and I like Beer Bad, which seems to split Buffy fans I know 50/50 and the wonderful Pangs.

That's the first time I've ever had a Buffy fan say they liked The Initiative. Not that I know a great many fans, but it's just odd to hear it. When I said Adam, I was referring to the whole Initiative thing. Anyway, I guess we should stop all this, as we're starting to get into stuff that those who've not seen it won't be aware of. Don't want to ruin it for them.