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Bloodsucker Chronicle
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Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Seasons 1-5 Episode Guide
"... O you were a vampire |
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Guides: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5 (last one reviewed)
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Below are my original viewing diaries. They are no longer relevant but if you are interested, they are in reverse chronological order. In other words, start at the bottom because the oldest ones are at the bottom.
May 24: FINALEE. Well, season 5 sucked. I think WB made the right choice in not renewing Buffy. The show degenerated from dramatic action adventure in the first season to melodramatic action angst the fifth season. The result was a frustrating 22 hour movie with an unsatisfying, unfinished climax. Maybe UP will be able to rejeuvinate the show, but I doubt it. Goodbye.
Mar 04: THE END. Buffy hasn't been very good this season. Only one grade A episode so far with less than half a dozen grade B episodes I liked enough to consider watching again. Angel's been even worse. The really poor way they handled the death of Buffy's mom, Joyce, was the last straw. I've stopped watching Angel all together. I will finish the season of Buffy but after that, I don't plan to watch any Joss Whedon shows ever again. If I can't trust an "artist" to reliably give me material I enjoy and not give me things I dislike, I won't watch them. That is one of the two founding principles my grading system is based on. So if WB doesn't want to pay Fox the extra million for Buffy, good for them. This viewer is already gone.
Nov 20: Unfortunately the first word that comes to mind to describe season 5 is "routine." Almost every show so far has earned a B-. Of course it's still better than a lot of the stuff out there. This time I am trying to identify the shows necessary for the long term story lines in advance so I can record just those in the reruns.
Jul 3: I finished my annual summer Buffy marathon already. Really good too. I skipped episodes 16, 17, 19 and 20. That caused a little discontinuity, but not enough to be a problem. I would recommend watching 20 though for the sake of the Adam plot. The surprising discontinuity was in 17. On the surface it was about Superstar Jonathan but it was really about Buffy and Riley getting back together after the problems Faith generated. I don't have an easy solution for that but the show was fun anyway so maybe it's not a problem.
It was interesting to compare season four to the first season which was the only one better. Most of the first season was introducing characters, situations and setting things up. Only 4 of the 12 episodes dealt with the main plot about the Master. The first 12 episodes of the fourth season also concentrated on introducing characters, situations and setting things up. After that the main plot about Adam started and again there were really only about 4 episodes that concentrated on him and that need to be watched for continuity. The rest concentrated on subplots about Faith, Oz, Willow and Tara. Some were good, some weren't.
In between watching episodes, I was converting cassettes to MP3s and I found a song that really fit Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The song is called the "Magic Wood" and was sung by Joan Baez. It's Folk instead of Rock but it is extremely good. The lyrics are actually from a 1945 poem by Henry Treece. I'm including a few of them below. Hope I don't piss off someone about copyrights. I'll remove them if necessary.
Partial Lyrics from The Magic Wood as performed by Joan Baez
Lyrics based on a 1945 poem written by Henry Treece.
Lyrics transcribed from a copy of a vinyl recording. May have errors.
The wood is full of shining eyes,
The wood is full of creeping feet,
The wood is full of tiny cries,
You must not go to the wood at night.
I met a man with eyes of glass,
And a finger as curled as the wriggling worm,
And hair all red with rotting leaves,
And a stick that hissed like a summer snake.
He sang me a song in backwards words,
And drew me a dragon in the air,
I saw his teeth through the back of his head,
And a rat's eyes winking from his hair.
Jun 21: Season 4 was quite an improvement over 2 and 3. Things got a little tedious in the second half but overall it was great. Everyone I talked to locally agrees that episodes 19 and 20 were pretty poor. But they also agree that 21 and 22 (the end of the season) were great. Personally, I only erased 4 of this season's episodes and expect to enjoy my annual Buffy marathon this summer more than any since season 1.
Last I heard Buffy had been renewed for another season, two I think. I don't think I can take three more years waiting for her to graduate from college, but I'll try. See you next season. If you have any song suggestions for the season 5 guide, send them along.
Mar 3: The show is back on stride now that Adam has been released- unfortunately. Every time they develop a long term villain the show slows down and gets morose. After the Faith episodes, I'll have a hard time suspending my disbelief if the producers expect me to believe the Buffy and Riley could ever make it in the long run.
Feb 21: The 4th season feels so different it's taken me a while to find appropriate songs to match the episodes. The story lines are much more adult. But I think I've found a few.
Dec 6: I hope you are enjoying the 4th season of Buffy as much as I have. I think it is as good as the first season and I once again look forward to the new shows. The decision to have Buffy go on to college instead of stay in high school forever was the correct one.
Oct 7: Season 4 started well. For some reason Buffy's insecurities worked this time. Her quips were great as usual. The college worked well but I have never seen ONE prof as nasty as the two Buffy encountered. Local and small colleges especially don't stay in business with faculty like that. But TWO??? The underlying concepts were correct but not the presentation. Maybe it was just the writers way of letting the audience know that college operates under a different set of rules than high school.
Sept 24: "Earshot" had several funny moments in it but the end made me laugh so hard I had to stop the tape. I was still laughing 5 minutes later. Way to go people and thanks.
Sept 13: "Earshot," the missing 3rd season show is scheduled to be broadcast on Sept 21. The 4th season starts Oct 5.
I wonder if there will be a new slayer to replace Faith. That is assuming Faith is really dead. As I recall her fate was not fully resolved. Speaking of new slayers, if we put Buffy in the hospital and stop her heart 11 times so she "dies" and restart it, couldn't we have a dozen slayers. Then if we do the same to that dozen, we could have a gross of slayers. If we do it to those 144, we could have 1728 slayers, a decent sized and renewable army since any slayer killed is replaced automatically. But I suspect that would be more than the oh so conservative British watchers council could handle. We'd better get some nasty US colonials on that council. ;-)
I see that Charisma Carpenter is moving to the "Angel" show. Maybe that explains why they did such strange things with the Cordellia character last season. I wasn't going to watch "Angel" but with Cordy there, I will give it a try. They had better use her a lot.
August 25: I finished my annual summer Buffy marathon, watching at least one and usually two shows a day. I was disappointed in the first part of the season. The characters were way too gloomy and dispirited - not fun to watch.
Usually seeing the shows closer together makes them work better because the sub-plots don't get lost. But, even though I liked the Xander, Willow, Cordy and Oz sub-plot, it was too down to be really enjoyable. I've erased most of the early shows. Maybe I can pick up a copy of The Zeppo when it is rerun some day. The end of the season did get better though and was quite enjoyable.
So, apparently, it's on to college for some of them. I don't know what high school is currently like so I couldn't evaluate that, but I work at a small college. Here's hoping they get it right, or should I be negative in the season 3 tradition and instead say don't get it wrong.
July 14: Graduation - at several levels. Buffy burns another school. You might not remember but one reason she is in Sunnydale is because she burned her last school. The two part finale was a bit slow, basically because it was too melodramatic. The ending was good but sort of an anticlimax after 2 hours of watching. Maybe it will be better when I watch the series again in August. And maybe the show will graduate to a higher level now that high school is over. I hope so.
There are some loose ends. Is Faith alive or dead? Will she come back? If she dies, will there be another watcher? Maybe that's why they left her in a coma.
Before you ask, I do not plan to watch Angel so I will not be doing an episode guide.
June 6: It's interesting that the WB decided to cancel or delay showing two episodes because of the recent violence at High Schools. I've never connected the violence on Buffy with reality in any way. But I do respect them very much for making what had to be a difficult the decision, especially for the second part of the season finale.
What's sad is that other shows, much more grounded in reality, did not cancel their violent shows. For example, the conclusion of JAG on CBS saw one man shoot several innocent people in cold blood just so he could find and terrorize his daughter. That's much more likely to happen than vampires attacking town and much more scary. If I had not been watching with others, I would have shut JAG off.
Three cheers for the WB and one grand boo for CBS.
May 15: One new show didn't get broadcast at the end of April. Something about green goo and mind reading. I wonder if we're going to get to see it.
The Prom illustrated an interesting point. Xander is portrayed as a looser. Yet, he has had reasonable success with women; Cordy, Willow and Faith, on camera. Now another one likes him and called him an alpha male. Interesting....
February 12: One of my questions about other ways to kill vampires was answered. If you cut off their head they die. The last couple of shows have been good.
I wonder if interest in Buffy is waning. It is getting hard to find the titles on the web. Come to think of it, I wonder where the sites I use get the titles?
December 12: I think one of the reasons I am losing interest in the show is because it is becoming more difficult to suspend my disbelief. As more and more people in Sunnydale learn about the vampires, it becomes harder for me to accept that they are still being fought by only one or two people with only hand to hand combat and wooden stakes. The latest episode, You Wish, really accentuated the problem. In the alternate reality there was a night time curfew. So, apparently the whole town knew about the vampires. Why weren't the police or army out fighting them. Or at least why wasn't the slayer team using more effective weapons. Have the creators of the show written themselves into corner they cannot get out of?
October 15: I was going to suggest using spears but the new second slayer, Faith, seems to have taken care of that with a 4x4. Still, no matter what is used, it takes a lot of force to get through the ribs. Either that or vampires have weak ribs. When fencing was actually used for combat, fencers had to learn anatomy in order to avoid the ribs.
Thinking about swords brings up another gruesome thought, what happens if you dismember a vampire? Do they magically rejoin or is there a point at which they finally die. Could our slayer team chop one up and then stab the heart. Sleep tight.
October 03: Battle On Buffy! Sorry, I couldn't resist. The announcers say Battle on Xena before Xena starts and it seems even more appropriate for Buffy. Neither show is for real of course, but whereas Xena's fights are often done for comic effect and are seldom serious, Buffy's are for real as far as her world is concerned. Anyway, it's good to have her back and maybe she can avoid the fate of previous slayers. Battle on Buffy.
Two words, wooden bullets. Don't laugh, tornados drive straw through boards. Wooden bullets should penetrate a vampire's heart. Even Cordy should be able to hit a vampire with an uzi loaded with wooden bullets. Of course, she might take out a few civilians along the way. If the whole team had weapons, the vampires might not stand a chance.
July 26: Several July comments at once here.
July 26: I wish it was September. I just finished my annual Buffy marathon, watching the shows in rapid succession and I would like to see what comes next. Overall the season was a B or B+ compared to the first season which was a solid A. I did not keep 5 of the episodes and plan to delete 3 or 4 more. Once those are gone, the remaining shows should be a B+ or A- set. Unfortunately, most of the deleted shows were the pivotal ones in regards to the season long Angel/Buffy theme.
One good thing about watching the shows quickly is the season long themes do work better. Even the depressing Angel/Buffy theme worked better. Drusilla and Spike were not quite as boring and I decided I actually liked Spike, it is Drusilla who is dull. Cordy and Xander were great and Charisma Carpenter has made my shining stars list. (I hope to get that list on the web next year with pictures if I can find them.) Robia LaMorte also made the list. Jenny was my favorite character in the show. I always like her, but watching the shows quickly made me realize she was the only one who was normal and not routinely depressed. To top it off, in the Valentines day show, with every girl coming on to Xander, it wasn't Buffy who was really sexy, it was Jenny.
And finally, I still like the opening credits theme music. Turn it up and rock.
July 22: According to the latest TV Guide, which had an interview on "Angel", "Spike" and "Drusilla," Angel might be back. I'll quote a bit of it.
"Boreanaz: Well if you'd done your vampire slayer homework, you'd know that vampires only die if you get them in the heart with a wooden stake.
TVG: So what about the 1999 season, when Angel gets his own show? Are you going to make guest appearances ... ?
Boreanaz: Believe me, Sunnydale hasn't see the last of this guy."
After watching all the shows again, I can add that Angel did not explode or burn or whatever. He was sucked into the statue of the demon. All they have to do is let him out, hopefully without awakening the demon.
July 03: I just finished a concentrated work month. I listened to a lot of music while working and found a lot of songs to go with Buffy. No other show automatically makes these music links as intensely as Buffy the Vampire Slayer does.
June 07: The good news is that this week's TV Guide said Buffy has been renewed for next year. It is supposed to be on WB on Tuesdays from 8 to 9.
Now here's a dark thought that occurred to me. The basic Vampire Slayer concept in both the movie and the TV series says that vampires will be around forever, and lots of them. But there is only one slayer at a time and she only lives for a limited time. On that premise, our Buffy is destined to die young! Can she break the mold and live to an old age, possibly raising a whole family of slayers or starting a vampire slaying corporation? Only time will tell. {;-)}
May 23: "Becoming pt2" was one of the best crafted romantic tragidies I have seen in years. The sword fight was very intense and quite believable. I normally fast forward through fights because they are so common on TV now that they have becoming boring. Not the sword duel.
Despite being a tragedy, there were some great moments. I especially liked the ones with Spike and Buffy's mom. The show was still a romantic tragedy though which is not my favorite subject. That's why the show got a B instead of an A or C. I still have to re-watch them this summer, but I'll definitely see you in September.
May 10: After a recent storm the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read Tornado Threatens Sunnydale. I couldn't help but laugh and wonder if Buffy had been there to protect them.
Feb 28: Most critics grade based on production quality first and content or entertainment value second. If they didn't, it wouldn't be possible for both "Gone With The Wind" and "Star Wars: A New Hope" to both get and A+. I grade on content first and specifically on content that matches what I like. Thus I thought "Gone With The Wind" was dull (C-) but gave "Star Wars: A New Hope" an A+. "Passion" got an F on content. I upped the grade to a D because of production quality which was very high.
I signed up to watch "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," a show about Buffy and her team protecting people from vampires and other things from the hell mouth. I did not sign up to watch "The Vampires That Destroyed Sunnydale," a show centering on the vampires.
Not only that but "Passion" was pretty predictable. I knew that Jenny would be the one killed off as soon as it was announced that someone was going to die. They have been building up to it for weeks and she is the logical one because it has the least impact on the show. Personally, I would have killed Buffy off. That would have created a lot of story potential with a new slayer.
A friend of mine commented to me that the show had been pretty depressing recently. I'm afraid if they can't turn that around, they will loose me as a viewer by next season. I'll let you know my decision later in the season. Maybe someone else can take over the guide if I stop.
Feb 22: I watched 2 episodes of VR5 last week, numbers 5 and 6 to be exact, and there was Anthony Head (Giles) playing a character named Oliver Sampson. Funny thing, he was messing around in graveyards and with dead bodies in VR5 too. VR5 is very abstract and it's hard to tell if the character will be a hero or villain. So far though Head has done a good job of portraying him as very mean.
Feb 1: Willow sure screams well. She would have made a great Doctor Who companion, and I say that in the best possible light.
I received a message from a reader asking how I "can want Dru and Spike dead?" (well they are the bad guys) and saying the master was much more boring because Dru and Spike "have a certain chemistry...." I couldn't answer directly because neither the writer or AOL included a return address. But since it's a good point, I decided to answer here.
Comparing only individuals I think Dru was equally as boring as the master who was equally as boring as Spike. Neither of them has any great depth of personality. (Mathematically: if B=boring, M=master, D=Dru and S=Spike, the BM = BD = BS.) I agree, though, that Dru and Spike together are certainly less boring than the Master because of their "chemistry." (BD + BS < BM. Aren't negatives confusing and fun.)
But the characters are used slightly differently and that's what makes Dru and Spike less acceptable. More than other medium, TV shows explore character personality. In the first season, that exploration was pointed at the protagonists. The master was not really explored and when he was it was mostly to move the plot along. Dru and Spike are being featured for their own sake, which doesn't work as well because of their limited personality depth.
It's a common problem with shows that when the writer's run out of protagonist personality to explore and no one is willing to change those personalities to allow more depth, more time is spent on the villains. I don't care for it and I hope the Buffy writers can solve it because there is still a lot that can be explored with our protagonists.
Jan 24: Ah, the sad news. As with almost all shows, the idea wears out. Buffy seems to have reached that stage early. The BIG January event was a let down and was basically boring. If I had not had a Tomb Raider map to work on, I would have used fast forward even more than I did. I will continue to watch and maintain the guide, but I only tape selectively now.
Dec 12: There's nothing like a dose of apparent reality to make things tense and Ted really did it. I didn't like him from second one. When Buffy fought him and the police came, it was more scary than Drusilla or the Master could ever be. John Ritter certainly did an excellent job with the part. Cordellia certainly looked and acted great in this show. Excellent comic relief from her and Xander as well as in a couple of other places. I'm also glad Jenny is back!
Nov 27: What's My Line? The interaction with the second slayer was great. The interaction between Xander and Cordellia, and Willow and Oz was also very entertaining. Unfortunately the unhappy with my life theme is getting old. Add to that the fact that Drusilla and Spike are boring and it brought the shows' grades down.
I've never liked 2 part shows, partly because I don't like waiting a week between the parts and partly because they seem to have trouble keeping them interesting. I taped the What's My Line pair to solve the first, but they still were not up to the usual quality level. I actually used the fast forward in part 2 when Drusilla was on the screen and during the over long fights. Too bad Drusilla and Spike are not dead.
Nov 15: The second season is moving along pretty strong. It's not as astounding as the first but maintaining A level quality is tough. I learned that when I wrote for and edited a large fan fiction magazine for 7 years. The only way we could do it was to change characters so we had new personalities to explore. The show is doing something similar by bringing in new long term vampires and exploring Giles past. Unfortunately, villains are not the best personalities to explore. I just hope they keep and explore Jenny Calendar, who might just be my favorite character.
Sep 19: Buffy's back and stronger than ever (pun intended). I wish I had a grade higher than A+. The cast certainly proved they can act, especially Sarah. The range of emotions was superb.
Aug 1: Saturation! I just watched the entire first season in order one or two shows a day. Try it, it's a trip and there's a lot of story and character development that is easier to see. Now if I can only get the theme music out of my head.
June 03: WOW! The quality of the show, season, cast, staff- Everyone- was stunning. They all have my thanks for not ending with a cliffhanger. The overall rating for season 1 is an A (which is the best anything has ever earned) and I was wrong, an A on Buffy is equal to an A on any other show I've watched.
May 23: Buffy just seems to get better. Buffy and WENN are the only two current shows I have fully archived on tape and Buffy is the only show I listen to the credits music.
May 07: There is only one way to describe this show, it's a LOT of fun. It doesn't take itself seriously and yet has a low level humor on a parr with the best British comedy and still manages to be tense when necessary.
Apr 01: Don't take the grades to seriously. I used the A for the best of Buffy even if it isn't equal to an A in some other show.
The show titles came from the original Ultimate TV Guide site, which in 2003 was something entirely different.
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