[DreadPirateRob]

Congrats for finally discovering the wonders of the Buffyverse - better late than never. Pound for pound, it may have been the best written and acted show ever. I still miss it (and yes, I am one of the ones who refuses to delete my season pass out of reverence. I also still have the finale saved in my Now Playing section, and will keep it there until S7 comes out on DVD)

Originally posted by peitsche
1) Is it just me (or does it change later?) who feels that Cordelia's transition from outcast (from the core group point's of view) to member of the group is somewhat random and sloppy? It seems Cordelia all of a sudden happens to be near the action even though she doesn't exactly want to have anything to do with the "losers." I just don't understand how she becomes part of the group later. Even though I never watched the show before, it is hard to fail to notice that she is going to be a major character.

I don't believe that Cordelia was originally intended to be part of the Scoobs - it just evolved that way. (Little bit of trivia for you - SMG originally read for the part of Cordy). Charisma Carpenter was tailor-made to play that role, and became very popular with the writers and cast, and eventually, the fans. As such, she got more and more screen time, and the only way to justify it was to make her part of the Scooby Gang.

Without spoiling too much, her transition into full-fledged Scoobydom kind of comes in fits and starts, but it is logical. She is in the wrong place and the wrong time far too often, only to be saved time and again by the Scoobs, and comes to appreciate them. I'm not going to go into the Tao of Cordy or anything (although while browsing in B&N the other day I did see a book on the Philosophy of Buffy. Perusing it, it appeared to be an anthology of academic dissertations on the meaning of life as expressed on the show. A bit scary, if you ask me), but you could argue she starts to find a purpose behind her shallow existence by helping fight evil. All in all, Cordy evolves very significantly and satisfyingly, but it is a long arc that lasts 7 full seasons (thought not necessarily all on BtVS).

2) In your opinion, should I start watching Angel in the order it aired on T.V. (in relation to Buffy's original air dates, that is), meaning I start watching the first season of Angel when I start watching the fourth season of Buffy? Or should I watch all seven seasons of Buffy before I jump into Angel?

I'd echo the post above - S4 of Buffy and S1 of Angel had quite a bit of cross-over as they were trying to establish Angel as its own show, and thus the crossovers are used to advance the plot on both series. If you are experiencing both for the first time, I would watch them together. I don't have Angel S1 yet, but I would hope the ep quide would indicate where the crossovers are.

3) Since a lot of people seem to like season 2 so much, what are your favorite episodes or scenes from that season? Please keep in mind that I'm still in the beginning of the season, so spoiler tags are appreciated for matters concerning the later episodes of season two.

As I said above, you haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. Among most Buffyphiles, S2 and S3 are widely regarded as being the best seasons of the show. All of the seasons had amazing episodes, but it seems as if nearly ep in Seasons 2 and 3 was outstanding.

My favorite S2 episodes start with "Halloween" (ep 2.6, or 18 overall), which starts a string of 5 consecutive very strong eps ("Lie to Me","Dark Age", and "What's My Line" Pts 1 and 2). Then you get "Ted" and "Bad Eggs", which are Monster of the Week (MotW) type eps - fine and all, but not nearly as good as the more plot-advancing ones. Then, the season closes with a bang, 9 out of 10 episodes that are simply amazing (the only weak link is "Go Fish" another MotW, which isn't really that bad. You'll soon learn that the worst Buffy episode is better written than nearly everything else on TV). In particular, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered ", "Passion", "Killed by Death", and the 2 part finale "Becoming" 1&2 are all incredible hours (well, 42 minutes) of television.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

One thing re the FX reruns - they are often edited/cut differently than the original ones were when aired. Most jarring is the S6 musical episode "Once More With Feeling" - it was longer than an hour when originally aired, but it was cut down quite a bit when the repeat aired.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

Originally posted by AJRitz
So far, I think my favorite ep is Inca Mummy Girl, but posts here suggest that the best is yet to come. I'm totally hooked.

It gets much, much better. Trust me. If you liked Inca Mummy Girl, you may want to cover your furniture in plastic, because the middle of S2 through the end of S3 will blow your mind...

 

[DreadPirateRob]

My wife and I were very surprised when we tried to get into Firefly during it's initial run. We could recognize all the Whedonesque elments, but try as we might, we absolutely could not learn to like it.

Cut to last year:

When I found out the movie Serenity was on it's way, I TiVo'd all the Firefly eps from the Sci-Fi channel. We figured we'd watch it just for the heck of it, 'cuz no matter what, we definitely were going to go support Joss's movie. Well, the second time around, we were hooked from the very first episode! We can't figure out how we could have missed out on it the first time. It's not Buffy, but it's still absolutely fantastic.

Heh. Funny you should mention that.

When Firefly first aired, I boycotted it, because I was pissed at Joss. Yes, silly fanboy that I am, I actually boycotted a show by my favorite TV writer/creator ever because I was pissed that he was starting yet another show. Instead of being excited about more Joss goodness in the world, I felt that Buffy and Angel were noticeably slipping, and because Joss was now starting another show, my two favorite shows in the world would decline even further. So, I didn't watch it. (Not that I would have been able to locate it anyway, probably, given all of the episode cancellations by Fox and the subequent cancellage - I didn't get Tivo until December of 2002).

FF to this summer. I'd heard for several years on this board how good Firefly was, but I just couldn't take the plunge to buy it/rent it (after all, I had my Buffy DVDs for whenever I needed a Joss pick-me-up). But I knew that a movie was being made out of it, and I was impressed that the fans had spurred that rather momentous occurrence (i.e. a movie being made out of a TV show that didn't even last a full season). Plus, the eps were going to air on SciFi Channel. So, I set up an SP and dutifully watched them, and was smack-dab in love with the show by the time I saw "Our Mrs. Reynolds". In fact, I couldn't wait a week between airings, so I went out and bought the box set, and became a full-fledged Browncoat.

Now, many of you know that I am a huge Buffyverse fan, but I'm going to go out on a limb here. Buffy is my all-time favorite show, but Firefly got better, faster than Buffy or Angel did (and well it should, since Joss had a chance to learn from his prior efforts), and I think that had it had a chance to air for several seasons, it would assume the top spot in my all-time pantheon.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

I hate bumping an old thread when I was the last poster, but oh well.

Since we are smack dab in the middle of re-run season, I've popped the Buffy DVDs in for another go-round. Man, I miss this show. However, I've happily discovered a few things now that I've re-watched S6 (for the first time since it originally aired) and am halfway through S7 (also for the first time since it re-aired): S6 is not nearly as bad as I remembered, and S7 is actually pretty damn good!

Don't get me wrong - I still consider even Bad Buffy better than Good of almost any other show on TV, now or then, but at the time they aired, I felt that S6 and S7 (to a lesser extent) were very disappointing compared to the sheer, unadulterated genius of prior seasons. Sure, they had their moments ("Fool for Love" and "Once More With Feeling" among the notable eps), but overall I remember feeling that the show had deteriorated. Now, clearly these seasons are still inferior to the show's earlier greatness, but now that I've got some separation, and thus some perspective, I think I can appreciate these last 2 seasons for how good they actually were.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

I think that is an excellent point, Jonathan and lonwolf - I can almost viscerally remember watching Season 7 and being frustrated at the gaps between weeks, and how certain things seemed to drag out forever, when in fact it was only 2 episodes or so. But when those 2 eps take 6 weeks to air, the sensation is understandable.

In any event, I am now excited because I've watched 1-5 numerous times, but I kept holding off on watching 6 and 7 because I didn't think I could keep my frustration in check long enough to last the entire season. Now I can watch 1-7 in a row, and just enjoy myself.

Yay for me.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

I wish they'd release an Angel S1-5 box set - right now you still have to buy each season individually.

 

[DreadPirateRob]

Every Christmas season we drive north up to the CA Central Coast area to spend time with family.

Although Sunnydale is not a real place, there are various clues within the series that it is located somewhere near/north of Santa Barbara: i.e. it's close to the Pacific Ocean, it's only a few hours drive from LA, it's only a few hours from the desert, and, my personal favorite, it's in the area where the Chumash Indians once lived.

So on my drive up the 101, there is a sign honoring the Chumash tribe, and that always prompts me to sing under my breath,

"...his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe"