Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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Is anybody else a fan of this show? I used to be obsessed with it several years ago, and have recently taken it up again. I'm on the second episode of the second series, at the moment.

Buffy the vampire slayer is a great show as is Angel the Series.

In my personal opinion "School Hard" (3rd episode of 2nd season) is where it really picks up.

It's one of those series that, while good throughout, deteriorated steadily towards the end. In particular, I hate how they had to "normalise" Mr Giles, stripping him of his endearing, nerdy qualities. I also thought Angel switching between being good and evil several times was a weak theme. I also disliked how they had to keep introducing new, invariably tedious characters like Faith, the government spy guys and Glory. Personally, my favourite character was Amy, though she only appeared in a few episodes.

I'll agree and disagree that the series declined over time. It certainly waxed and waned, but I think Season 6 may actually have been its best (while season 7 was a bit of a low point).

As for certain characters:

Faith: Actually an excellent character that is a perfect foil to Buffy. Faith's arc is what made season 3 great. I don't know why you found her tedious.

Government spy guys: Yeah season 4 was when the show had an identity crisis and had no idea what it was doing. These guys were pretty insufferable and I was glad when they ended up leaving the show. Only good thing that came out of this was the chip in Spike's head.

Glory: Pretty insufferable as a character, although having a villain so powerful made some interesting conundrums for the heroes. Giles going dark mode and killing gentle Ben is pretty significant moment that I feel like people tend to gloss over. Buffy's sacrifice also set up the fantastic season 6, and Tara's brain melting started Willow down the dark path.

Angelus: Angel only goes Angelus mode twice in the greater universe. The first is a fantastic arc. The second time feels like a pale imitation, but Angel righted itself in the second half of season 4 and season 5 is some of the best either show has to offer. While Buffy went out on a weaker season, Angel went out on a very strong season with one of the most perfect cliffhanger endings ever.

It wasn’t so much that Faith was a poor character in the sense of being involved in poor plots; my objection, I guess, was more to her as a character. I just thought she was pretty repulsive as a person. Even as far as villains go, I couldn’t sympathise with her, but found her slightly disgusting.

Spike was an excellent and totally relatable villain, though I much preferred him as one of the good guys. You’re right that his being made to be good was one of the good things to come out of that season.

Glory wasn’t too bad, I guess, but as mentioned above, I was deeply disappointed to see Giles corrupted and shorn of his “harmless eccentric” sort of persona. When he started wearing jeans and t-shirts and threatening Spike with murder, I realised the show was lost.

Not that I’m a homophobe, but I thought Willow’s becoming a lesbian was a particularly weak development for her character. It was totally unconvincing and blatantly belied by the fact that she’d earlier been passionately in love with Xander (who, being an idiot, didn’t reciprocate). The whole thing where she turned into a murdering psychopath following the death of Tara was, I think, the worst decision the writers ever made. I may be afflicted with some sort of bias here, however, as I was always attracted to shy, nerdy, “good” girls as a teenager, so that I may have been projecting my own tastes.

Angel, for me, represented my ideal of manhood – the strong, silent, longsuffering and stoical type. To see a model of moral and physical manhood corrupted into a worthless, Sadean maggot is the ultimate form of torture for someone, like me, who values those things. I hated what they did to his character, and the fact that, even after they realised their mistake and made him “good” again, I could never recover my admiration. Some people just get a kick out of dragging their betters down to their own level. This seems to have been the psychological motivation of the Buffy writers here.

To be honest, I think the bottom line is that the writers ruined the show with their excessive and unnecessary desire to make each season novel for its own sake. I suppose an unending supply of novelty is necessary to keep the interest of a primarily teenage target audience, though.

90s writers blatantly mishandling sexuality. Willow may have been bi, but no bi person would only be interested in men earlier in life and only interested in women later in life. I think the show just wanted a homosexual character and grafted that aspect onto an already existing character. It's a flaw that is a product of the show's time and ultimately I can gloss over it. LGBT representation in TV shows was not what it is today.

I'm going to have to strongly disagree on the Dark Willow storyline, but I think I have more of a tolerance for characters changing from good to evil than you.

Again, it was a shame to see a lovely, sweet girl like the Willow of seasons one and two go on a downward spiral.

I just watched the episode "Inca Mummy Girl" and am about to watch "Reptile Boy". After half a bottle of cabernet, I think I've had had a pretty good evening.

What do you think of Jonathan? He was one of the few later characters I thought was really well done. I roared with laughter all through the alternate universe Jonathan episode.

I rewatched every episode in late 2017, it's still very strong. I thought it might have dated more. I'd forgotten much of it.
I can't stand Angel as a character, but most characters are charming and well written. Taras final moment was a real shock, though I hated how quickly willow replaced her with some generic party girl.
The combination of humour and darkness is very clever, and often made to look effortless. On its original run it helped me through my difficult teenage years.

I remember loving it as a child especially the romance between Buffy and Angel!

The show was alright, I was never a hardcore fan. I really enjoyed the episode with

(Spoiler)
When her mom dies and the episode where buffy thinks shes in an insane asylum great writing in those wouldnt it be something if it ended and buffy really was insane? I think she tapped into an alternative universe when that monster poisoned her the want it ended was ominous.

I do not look. And I don’t watch TV programs as a whole.