Buffy Challenge Post 5: Season 1: Ep 11 - 12 Season 1 thoughts

Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Hey Willow is wearing a Scooby-Doo tee shirt, which of course was a terrible remake of a classic cartoon staring Sarah Michelle Geller who would of thought that would happen?

I was wondering when they would get to the invisible (wo)man?

"Maybe it's a Vampire Bat?" what a line!!!! As any good principal would tell you the number one priority of every school is not the students but avoiding nasty litigation due to students getting hit with invisible people with baseball bats and girls being pushed down the stairs by no one! Girls can be so cruel, and I can relate to the feeling of being invisible to the world at times. It can be a shattering feeling that can be demoralizing.

Cordelia opens up and proves that she might be human after all. Until she starts drifting off about her own needs again. Which is a really interesting social commentary about how SELF CENTERED people in our world can be, and this is in '97, it is worse today, I see it every day at school in my students. It is really sad how kids these days only see what is best for themselves and not what is best for others around them.

And if my years of television watching has taught me anything it's that when the FBI show up, that is not a good thing! (again with the hanging thread for the ending but nice twist! Sometimes I feel like I'm teaching an invisible class, or feel invisible in the class!)

Patchy episode but O.K

6.5/10

Prophecy Girl

Another obscure reference coming up ...... Xander practicing his speech to Willow about asking Buffy out (even though he doesn't realize that willow wants him to be more than friends) was something the great Danny Kaye did in Up in Arms one of his first films (he was practicing how to ask the girl he likes to marry him ...... to the girl that loves him! not a wise move!) And Buffy has just slayed again with her rejection of Xander! The poor fellow, feel for you buddy!

Any who, Season finale coming up so I better get back on the point.

It is interesting to see that they have not forgotten that Buffy is just a teenager and that the thought of facing your mortality can be overbearing a really powerful moment that I have not seen so far in the show.

Nice use of the Public Domain Cartoon there Joss, hopefully that helped with the budget for future episodes!

It is official, everyone liked Buffy's Dress! even the Master, which is nice of him to take the time to notice.

Cue the theme song, it's time for Buffy to kick into action which would of been really cool, but it had to be broken up by another Corny line "LOOK A BAD GUY!" the second exchange between Buffy and the Master was no better (more Corny dialogue) and the monster in the library looked like a gooier version of the plant from little shop of horrors.

The Master seemed a little too easily defeated for the villain that they were building up from the first episode of the season.
Strong start, strong middle, weak end.

7/10

As an episode by itself it was one of the better ones, but this is a season finally and it had to give me a reason to want to watch next season. It didn't do that, the show could of ended there and that would be it. I find it Ironic that I was annoyed by the little hanging endings in most of the episodes, (which did not pay off except for the one with the little kid) and in the episode which needed it the most I got nothing?

Now I have promised to give this show a 2 season buffer and on the strength of the first season, I think I won't mind watching season 2. My Favorite show right now is the US version of the Office and I didn't particularly like the first season of that show, it was the second season that grabbed me.

Now just some random thoughts, first and foremost, the less vampires or makeup of any kind the more I enjoyed the episode. When the actors were aloud to act the show was wonderful and that was highlighted in "The Pack" where the story was really driven by the acting (props for Xander in that one!) as soon as the show brings out the hokey costumes the show loses my interest and it seemed this was due to either poor writing or poor direction. Also for me personally the less vampires in the episode, the better the episode. Something else I noticed is that pacing was an issue in the first season of the show. Too many times the show started strong then petered out or run out of gas with 15 minutes to go. (could this show of been better in a 30 minute format? Don't know what do you think?)

A positive in the show is the strong supporting cast, my favorite shows are the ones where the lead character is not my favourite but the supporting characters are. Always enjoy Willow when she is highlighted (could be the familiarity factor?) but she is a character that the viewer can relate to (like Ando in heroes). Xander took a few episodes for me to warm to as did Giles (but once both of them had their moments to shine they were superb). I could care less about Angel and if you go back I barley mention him if at all until his spotlight episode where the big reveal happen. (maybe because the whole singlet and leather jacket deal lost it's appeal to me when I stopped watching happy days after I turned 12.) Oh and boy do people like Cordelia irritate me, but that is what they were going for so I guess that was a good thing right? (She was a star in the last 2 episodes though and props for the whole drive your car through school stunt at the end! always wanted to do that!!!!!!!) Now I was never a fan of Sarah Michelle Geller, but I have to say that I was impressed with her performance to carry the show at times. (I really hated Scooby Doo the movie and did not like her portrayal of Daphene in it!)

Overall, is the show good? Yes
Is it the best thing I've ever seen? No, not really (check out quantum leap, filmed around about the same time and yes I know it is a different type of show but it showed how strong writing and acting will always make up for restrictions in budgets and bad special effects.)
Will I watch Season 2? Will start on it in the next few days.
Doesn't it bother you when someone answers their own questions? YES!!!!!!

Until SEASON 2 of the Buffy Challenge..................................