Bored Now does the complete Buffy 1997-2003

Episode 1.06 The Pack



During a class field trip to Sunnydale zoo, a bunch of bullies attempt to head trip Buffy, and then turn their attention to a more vulnerable pray, nerdy Lance.  After pressuring him to go with them to the off limits hyena section, Xander saves Lance from the gang, but then along with the bullies is mysteriously possessed by the hyenas.  Buffy and Willow notice a change in Xander's behaviour, as he starts acting more animal like, and hostile towards them.  Things come to a head when Xander starts hanging out with the other bullies, and becomes nasty towards Willow who is just trying to help her long time friend.  Next things take a darker turn.

There are many note worthy things to discuss about The Pack, and the more I watch it the more I think its up there with the best of season one, if not quite the best.  The episode once again merges a familiar horror narrative and uses it as an effective metaphor for the pains of teenage life, and High School.  The opening scene in the Zoo feels very organic, and is very well played by the actors.  The representation of bulling feels very realistic, and well observed.  This includes Lance's reaction to being bullied, the way feeling under threat, he sticks up for them in front of Flutie.  The bullies are nicely played too, with a fine mix of bravado, yet, cheesy, dumbness, the stand out performances are from Eion Bailey as gang leader Kyle, and Michael Mccraine as Rhoda.  On that note, it was also refreshing to see female bullies on television.  Of course Cordelia and the other snobs play that role, but they are different kinds of bullies, these girls are allowed to be rough around the edges, mean and masculine.  Its another fine example of the progressive gender roles women play on the show.

As this series moves along, there is a greater consistency to the story and characters, for example, in the opening scene when Kyle and co. bring up Buffy's murky past at her old high school (again another spot on comment on bully culture), although Buffy's retort about "just being thankful" when challenged on why no "cool people" hang out with her is again very sharp, and goes towards not just Buffy's wit, but how she uses this sharp humour as a weapon to rebel.  Its these subtle touches and character depth which sets Buffy apart from most females on television, and certainly most superheroes male or female.

At this point you can see the chemistry growing between the leads, especially Gellar and Hannigan, their conversations about Xander and Angel respectively, and the later one about Xander's odd behaviour again feels very realistic, the flow is low key, and you can feel the bond between the characters, these scenes are intimate, and yet take on a life of their own through the actors.  This is actually Willow's most important episode to date, as we really get a sense of how much she loves Xander, and how awkward his crush on Buffy makes their relationship at times.  Of course with Xander's less than sensitive actions towards Willow these feels manifest themselves, in a brutal and yet powerful way.  However, Willow is also giving proper agency to respond, stand up to Xander, and out smart him as the episode progresses, and its here that we really start to see Hannigan grow into the part.

It impressed me how the set up scenes with Xander, and the gang mix light and dark touches, as this makes the direction of the episode more ambiguous, and as a result, when things take a darker turn later on, the developments hold greater dramatic weight.  I've decided that I won't post spoilers as part of my reviews, however, I will put warnings at the start of certain reviews, about not reading on, if you don't want to stumble onto something which happened previously.  So make sure that you've seen The Pack, and therefore know the fate of a certain character before watching The Puppet Show in a couple of episodes time. Just a heads up people! Without revealing too much, about the dark twist to this episode, the turn of events is another thing I like, and the message which this series sends, and how Buffy keeps the viewer on their toes, and isn't afraid to pull the rug out from under them.  It was also important to introduce this darker edge, because up til now the show had played it fairly light, while there were distinct differences between Buffy and other teen programming, it was still in danger of becoming too soapy at times, so this episode I think is an important turning point.  There's also some excellent dialogue between Buffy and Giles, including his sly remark about Xander's strange behaviour actually making him a teenager, and Buffy's well placed X-Files reference in response.  This is good character growth, because it demonstrates Gile's old fashioned, and cynical views, but more importantly Buffy's street smarts, and instinct.  Its another example of the slayer thinking outside of the box, and piecing things together, while Giles is still a bit limited in his thinking or methods.  More on this in future reviews.

Now for the rough edges which stop this from ranking up there with the greatness of future episodes.  First of all the pacing is a little plodding, one or two scenes either could have been cut or at least cut down, and while most of the scenes seem to be important to the drama, I did think some of the points were a bit over egged, for example maybe, dodge ball scene could have been lost, and the slow motion shots of the bullies and walking with metal thrashing in the background was a bit cliche, and again seemed to ram the point home too much.  Again because of the low budget, certain scenes maybe don't seem engaging enough, and I feel like the glowing green eyes signifying the switch to animals was a cheap visual.  However, one thing I will say, is that The Pack proves that often, less is indeed more, as by having the camera cut away at crucial moments during the dark moments, and using the power of suggestion, it actually makes these scenes stand out more, and have a greater impact.  Despite a few minor complaints, overall this is a successful episode, and the best and most important up to now in the series.

Bored Now does the complete Buffy 1997-2003

Episode 1.05 Never Kill a Boy on a First Date



The Master discovers a prophecy about a powerful Vampire known as 'The Anointed One' who will rise from the ashes of five dead and decides that having it on his team maybe the best hope of defeating Buffy.  Giles informs Buffy of this prophecy, however, she is more concerned with pursuing pretty, but nerdy Emily Dickinson fan Owen.  For some reason Cordelia tries to muscle in on the object of Buffy's affection, but he blows her off and instead asks Buffy out to the bronze.  Buffy's joy is cut short by Giles who informs her that according to his reading the anointed One is due to rise on that night, meaning that Buffy instead has a date with him at the Sunnydale grave yard,

It soon becomes clear than Gile's calculation's may in fact be wrong, so Buffy decides to rush to the Bronze only to find Cordelia working her charms on Owen.  The next day Buffy finds out that nothing happened, and gets her real date with Owen that night, however, as it turns out that Giles may have been right about the time of the anointed ones arrival if not the location, Buffy's non-Slayer duties and her day job collide.

This is another passable first season episode, which fulfils a narrative function in a solid, if unremarkable way.  The Master makes an impact for a rare time on the show, Giles gets some great lines at Buffy's expense, and his whole lecture about her attempting to mix a normal life with her role as the Slayer is all very compelling, and credible.  She gets in some good lines in response such as "If the apocalypse comes beep me"  This is also Angel's strongest episode to date.  True, all he really does is stare, and look a bit bemused and slightly jealous at Buffy's interest in Owen, but there is some progress for him, and I do enjoy the scene at the Bronze when he bumps into Owen and Buffy, and the decoded messages which he, Willow and Xander have give her to hide her identity.

There's an eye catching, if slightly contrived action sequence at the funeral home, a nice twist with the identity of the annoted one, and some emotional pathos with Buffy and Giles late on.  Which brings me to the massive flaw of NKABOTFD which is that it lacks the emotional punch of the great episodes, and the main reason for this is because Owen just isn't a convincing love interest for Buffy.  He is far too much of a wet blanket, with clunky lines, and no personality.  Surely he most rank as the most unbelievable love interest of any she has on the show.  The pace just drags when he is on screen, and the central plot of Buffy trying to date him sidetracks more important characters such as Cordelia.

Bored Now does the complete Buffy 1997-2003

Episode 1.03 Witch



Buffy attempts to relive some of her pre-Sunnydale glory years by signing up for cheer leading practice much to the chagrin of Giles. At the tryout favourite Amber is taken out of the running when her hands get mysteriously set on fire.  The gang suspect that Amber's rage might have caused this.  At the next tryout Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen) almost cripples Cordelia by accident? Placing her hopes of making the cut at risk, something which Cordelia later warns Amy about the consequences of in icy fashion.  When Buffy learns more about Amy's background she suspects that her mother, a former cheer leading Sunnydale great is applying extreme pressure on her daughter.  When Amy fails to make the final cut her state of mind becomes even more unstable, this along with a weird driving school incident involving Cordelia casts suspensions heavily on Amy.

Witch is a mid-range season one episode, with a good set up, a hit and miss middle section, and a bit of a sloppy ending.  In a later season of the show it would look weaker maybe, but at this stage it perfectly sums up many of its strengths and weaknesses.  Much of the good stuff comes from the character growth and interactions.  It makes sense that Buffy at this stage is still trying to cling on to as much of a normal teenage life as possible, and the opening scene when Giles is talking about her surrendering herself to an "cult" only for the shot to cut to Buffy in cheer leading attire is again sharp visual comedy, and the oddball father-daughter interactions between Gellar and Head are once again excellently played by both.  Xander's ever growing crush on Buffy is another welcome development because it gives his character a greater purpose, and plays nicely with Willow's true feelings for him, which of course Xander misreads.  Its this kind of social comment on the pains of High School life that the show is so good at during its early seasons.

Cordelia comes to life in this episode too, while there is a far greater purpose for the character than we see during this debut run, the fact is that Charisma Carpenter is very watchable and entertaining when playing a stuck up bitch, not only that but there are certain scenes such as the locker room scene with Amy where she injects the air with pure venom.  Even while on the fringes of the story Cordelia still gets many of the best lines, and Carpenter deliveries them with cool, comic timing and ease.  The character of Amy also makes a promising debut with Elizabeth Anne Allen putting in a solid, and nicely understated turn, and I was fairly well invested in the character and her plight.  Other small things I enjoyed included Buffy joyfully singing "Macho Man" while under a spell this never fails to tickle me. I love this piece of dialogue too:

Giles: "Why would anyone want to hurt Cordelia?"
Willow: "Maybe because they met her"

Now for the bad stuff, while there are many entertaining moments or interesting character interactions, they do exist as moments, and the narrative as a whole does not quite gel.  One unconvincing element is the suggestion of Cordelia as a red herring considering that to the best of our knowledge she processes no super natural powers.  While, there is a nice twist late on, overall the suspense just didn't involve me enough. The other main flaw is that the big set pieces are just too cheap and unconvincing.  This is largely down to the low budget which the show had to work with at this stage, however in an episode which relies even more on these visually set pieces to tie loose plot ends together, the problem becomes even more telegraphed.  The final big one is over blown, cheesy, although I will admit kinda fun too. I did find the conclusion to the episode a bit rushed though.  So hit and miss, but with mostly promising stuff at least through the character growth.

Episode 1.04 Teacher's Pet



As Xander's obsession with Buffy crosses into his daydreams, the object of his affections meanwhile forms a bond with her biology teacher Dr. Gregory (William Monaghan), which makes his sudden disappearance, and reappearance minus a head, all the more harder for her to accept.  Around the same time a highly sexual  substitute teacher Miss Natalie French (Musetta Vander) arrives driving Xander's already highly charged hormones into over drive.  The control this newly arrived member of the Sunnydale faculty has over Xander is enough course for alarm, before her odd liking for bugs, and strange demon like actions.

On a positive note, what makes Buffy such a watchable show is that even the weaker episodes have enjoyable moments, or something of value.  Teacher's Pet is just about as lame, ill thought out, and badly written as a Buffy episode can get, and yet it does stick to the rule at least.  So lets deal with the small moments of mercy before giving the episode the kicking it so richly deserves.  Firstly, the engagement between Buffy and Dr. Gregory is touching and also relateable, as even the most hardened school hater has at least one teacher whom he or she forms a bond with. This at least adds to Buffy's motivation to get to the bottom of his untimely death.  There are also some nice moments of Scoobies banter.  I personally enjoy Willow and Buffy's humour and reactions to Xander's failed attempts at competing with High School hierarchies.  After that I'm kind of struggling with this one.

First lets look at Xander's opening fantasy of him as a cool rock star sweeping Buffy off her feet.  Its fair to say that this is a some what realistic visual metaphor for the sexual immaturity of the high school boy.  However, as a sequence it is way too on the nose, and hammers the point to death.  It also has the effect of distancing the audience from Xander and making him seem a bit too creepy, plus it rather negates the feminist message which Buffy as a whole projects.  The second issue with the episode is how it defines logic, and by that I mean the logic of the Buffyverse.  While it is hard to apply real life logic consistently to such a show, one of the most appealing things about Buffy as a show is that when a character acts against their nature, we are given a logical explanation.  When Xander heads for what he believes is going to be a night of romance with Miss French, and Buffy warns him off it, logic suggests than Xander would listen to Buffy's warning because of her being the slayer and all, or at the very least that he would entertain the notion of not going ahead.  Some read this as Xander being under some sort of spell from Miss French, but since we are not given any strong indication of this, I can only assume that it is purely hormones driving him.  What makes the scene even weaker is when Xander cuts Buffy down and claims that she is just jealous of the thought that another woman could find him attractive. This makes even less sense considering that Buffy has done nothing to this point to indicate that she sees Xander as anything more than a friend.  And shouldn't Buffy have made a bit more effort to stop her friend from entering the dragon's den, given that she knew enough about Miss French's demon activities to know that she had bad intentions for Xander?Just horrible writing all round.

The payoff to Miss French's identity is just beyond bad b-movie dross.  Yes, to some the creature of week aspect to Buffy is appealing, but this was neither campy entertaining, scary or menacing enough for me.  It was just bland and very cheap.  The concluding set piece makes any in Witch look like the height of invention, and worse I neither believed in or cared about Xander's life being placed in danger.  Vander as Miss French is one of the weaker casting choices throughout the series, add to this than a whole host of central characters such as Willow and Giles are reduced mostly to connect the dots roles, and that Cordelia is wasted, Angel's random appearances seem mostly pointless, and that for the second episode in a row the Master is absent.  Like any Buffy episode this should be viewed at least once, but it really is pretty grim stuff.

Bored Now does the complete Buffy 1997-2003

Episode 1.02 The Harvest



Picking up the pieces from Welcome to the Hellmouth, The Harvest opens with Buffy seemingly at the mercy of Vampire Luke (Brian Thompson) inside a tomb.  However, the cross on Buffy's necklace when striking Luke forces the Vampire to recoil or face the threat of being burnt into dust.  After over coming that hurdle Buffy rescues her new found friends Xander and Willow from more demons, only for the future Scooby gang to discover that friend Jesse (Eric Balfour) has been taken.

Indeed, Darla and Luke deliver Jesse to The Master (Mark Metcalf) for feeding on, however the Master who is planning on a Harvest was planning on something a little more juicy.  When Luke informs him about his encounter with the Buffy, the Master identifies her as the Slayer, and so Jesse gets up graded from food to bait.  Despite the concern of Xander, Buffy insists that she will go to rescue Jesse solo.  Things get complicated when Xander shows up for the fight, and soon the whole of Sunnydale gets drawn into the battle.

Personally, I prefer The Harvest to the previous episode, mostly because the pacing is better, and you start to get more into the characters.  I like the pre-titles shot of Buffy's look of concern for Jesse, and this aspect is sold really well, that even though Buffy barely knows Jesse, as the Slayer she is concerned about any human life being placed in danger at the hands of demons.  Its also indicates the strong bond which Buffy will development towards Willow and Xander who of course are close friends with Jesse. Once again I enjoyed the interaction Giles has with the gang in the library, and his history lesson concerning the hellmouth, and the harvest, him spinning the globe is a slick visual segway also.  The episode foreshadows Willow's resources and how her computer skills will come in handy in future missions, not just this season but over the next few.  Xander's anxieties around his masculinity and Buffy and Willow's concern for him being placed in harms way are also hinted at for the first time.  Without giving too much away about Jesse's fate, it is a sign of things to come, that so early on a seemingly central character is placed in such danger. Throughout Buffy there are countless number of fine supporting characters, or fine cameo performances.  Here Balfour (later to appear in Six Feet Under), and Thompson (of X-Files fame) do stellar work injecting their respective characters with life.

On the downside, despite campy it the Master up for all its worth, sadly over the course of this season character actor Mecalf is strait jacketed in the part, and the character overall just feels too cartoonish. Some of the jokes fall flat too, such as Fluttie's remark to Buffy about the Royal Family, which didn't even seem a joke to me.  The best gag of the episode being when Willow tricks Cordelia into thinking that the delete button on the computer actually means deliver! That was an original joke, and nicely sets up Cordelia's naivety throughout the debut season, as well as to demonstrate how Willow is able to use her smarts to rebel against her rivels' bulling.

One uneasy aspect of these early episodes are Buffy's exchanges with mystery man Angel (David Boreanaz).  This in part is because of how wooden Boreanaz is at this early stage, both actor and character develop greatly in the years to come, but at this point he Angel is very one note, and played unnaturalistic by Boreanaz.  The dialogue between Angel and Buffy is too cheesy, and because of the nature of Angel's character as a mystery man who seems a little too interested in Buffy's life, as a result he comes off as a bit creepy.

Of course highlighting these early flaws is something I am happy to do, as it will allow me to relish even more when the series really hits its stride later on, and makes for some of the most thrilling viewing anyway on television.

Bored Now does the complete Buffy 1997-2003

So it starts here, my complete run through on every episode of the classic cult show which has changed my life forever since first viewing it roughly five years back.  I will be giving my overview on each episode from each season, and giving my random musings on what's good and not so good.  Along the way I will be selling just why Buffy is a uniquely different show and far more cutting edge than about 90 per cent of television.  Hope you enjoy my reviews and maybe just maybe, I can convert one or two new viewers into die hard fans.

Episode 1.01: Welcome to the Hellmouth 



So compared to many pilot episodes of television Welcome to the Hellmouth is a pretty slick, and fun introduction to the universe of Buffy, even if there are a few rough edges to the characters, and some pacing issues.  There's certainly enough promise to tease you into greater things that were to come.

One constant throughout the twelve episode debut season is the cringe worthy opening sequence where a clunking voice-over man gives a dry reading of the fact that Buffy is a once in a generation chosen one. The speech is repeated with far more relevance by the character of Rupert Giles later in the episode.  The opening sequence perfectly sets up the subversive nature of the show, and how Josh Whedon and his fellow writers like to set up standard tropes only to sweep the carpet out from the viewer.  In this instance an innocent looking school girl played by Julie Benz of Dexter fame is alone after dark in school with a creepy looking guy putting all his best moves on her.  The scene places her as not just the victim, but him as a likely candidate for being a psychopath and maybe even a creature of the night.  This is switched around at the crucial moment when she reveals herself not to be a school girl, but in fact a Vampire and her victim.  This leads us into the iconic Gothic title sequence played out along side Nerfherder's energetic rock score.

Awoken from her tormented dream world Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is thrust into the fast moving LA life of new school Sunnydale High.  Upon arrival Buffy befriends respectively popular girl Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), smitten nerd Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon), and sensitive, but smart Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan).  She is also confronted by the new school librarian Mr. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) who she later finds out is in fact her new watcher.  When the boy from the opening sequence is found dead in a locker Buffy seeks Mr. Giles out, who reveals that Buffy being moved to Sunnydale is no coincidence, and furthermore, that Sunnydale is located on a Hellmouth which attracts a whole host of demons. Despite being reluctant to accept her destiny Buffy must face up to it later that night at Sunnydale hangout The Bronze when her new found friends are placed in danger by the creatures of the night.

So while it may take some of the actors time to grow into their roles, I do think that there is a nice bond established in this opening episodes.  There's some distinct dialogue, and some sharp comedy, including a great scene when the dorky Principal Flutie rips up Buffy's School record as a statement of her fresh start, only to realise that the school will need it so awkwardly tapes it back together, now that is smart comedy. There's a pretty subversive edge and atmosphere, and I like how some of the characters are only hinted at.  My favourite seqence is the one in the library between Giles and Buffy his dramatic speech about how all the fictional creatures Buffy had heard of, were actually real, and present in Sunnydale, Buffy's sacastic response is perfectly delivered by Gellar who really shows how comic chops from the off.

The pacing did feel a bit rushed,and while there are some great jokes and lines, some of the lines from supporting characters, even Cordelia at times feel a bit too cheesy even for 1997.  However, the twist of the open ended finish at a point where you expect a resolution is a nice shot in the arm.  So a solid start, to a show with so much more depth and excitement to come.