Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Complete First Season [DVD]

Surely the legions of fans of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" television series appreciate the irony that now that the show is in syndication, the First Season (1997) is finally coming out on DVD. This still puts us behind the fans in Europe who can already get last season on video tape, but we will try to be patient, hard as that might be (But it was still a big mistake NOT to include "Prophecy Girl" in the first set of videotapes). Now that "BtVS" is into its Sixth Season and the Slayer is on her third life, this might be a good time to re-evaluate that first season. I therefore offer the following points for contemplation:(1) The most important factor that gives the television series more depth than the movie is clearly the character of Angel (David Boreanaz), although the creation of the Scooby Gang is huge as well. But even more impressive than the fact that a vampire with a soul is in love with the Slayer is the fact that Joss Whedon holds off on this revelation until the seventh episode ("Angel"). For the first six episodes Angel was Mystery Guy, Stealth Guy, Cryptic Guy, and then in the first truly memorable moment of the series, Buffy learns the truth as Angel's face morphs in her bedroom. Creating these star-crossed lovers is where this television series start an operatic story arc that culminates in "Becoming: Part II," the show's zenith. (2) Related to this is the Master (Mark Metcalf) story arc that defines the first season. Each subsequent season of Buffy has similarly been defined by a pair of story arcs, usually dividing the season in half: Season 2 starts with Spike & Dru and then Angelus takes over in the second half. Of course, this helps set up the thrilling season finales each year as the Master/Angelus/Mayor/Adam/Glory meets their fate. But it also means that throughout the season things are brewing and building. In other words, the order of the episodes matters.(3) As Joss Whedon has often told us, the subtext of "BtVS" is that High School is Hell. I was surprised that over half the episodes from the First Season dealt primarily with the horrors of going to high school, as opposed to expanding the Buffy mythos. Living up to the unreasonable expectations of parents ("Witch"), having a crush on a teacher ("Teacher's Pet"), school cliques ("The Pack"), meeting someone on the internet ("I Robot, You Jane"), facing your worst fears ("Nightmares"), being ignored by everybody ("Out of Mind, Out of Sight"), and even just trying to go out on a date ("Never Kill a Boy On the First Date") are dealt with in Season One. (4) The final obvious strength of the show would be the characters and the actors playing them. Willow (Allyson Hannigan) might by the all-time best Best Friend, and watching the character grow over the years has been fascinating. Poking fun at the pomposity of Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) never grows old, but I have to admit that I think Xander (Nicholas Brendon) is the [punch line] of way too many jokes. Then again, one of the show's masterstrokes is that Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who represents everything about high school that the others hate, gets dragged into being a member of the gang. It is also clear in retrospect that Joss Whedon's knows how to use the characters and acting talent he stumbles across. Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy Madison), Robia LaMorte (Jenny Calendar), and Mercedes McNab (Harmony) are all introduced in first season episodes and brought back for even greater fun in future episodes.Watching the first season episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" makes it clear that the show certainly started strong. Yes, there are some efforts that could be a lot better: my groaner is "Teacher's Pet" although others have problems with "Witch," "I Robot, You Jane" and "Out of Mind, Out of Sight." But all of those episodes suffer in part because they are the farthest removed from the core of the Buffy mythos. But the "Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest" pilot, "The Pack," "Angel" and "Prophecy Girl" are first-rate efforts, and that's a third of the initial season right there. However, as soon as you watch "When She Was Bad," the first episode from Season Two, it is clear that the show had gotten a LOT better. So I would really give Season One 4.5 stars, which rounds up on the strength of Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance and especially her "I don't want to die" speech in "Prophecy Girl." Killing Buffy only makes her stronger.

I've enjoyed--I admire--"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" more than anything I've ever seen from television.I was slow getting around to "Buffy." It sounded too silly (cheerleader? vampire slayer? really?) to be worth watching. That was until I took my teenage kids to see "The Avengers"--eight times, and I confess the last three were my idea. It was the quality of the performances (directing and acting), and even more than that the script, which never condescended to its audience, and the obsessive attention to quality, for which no detail was too small, that kept me coming back. I admire artists who have the self-confidence to take "escapist" forms seriously, by which I mean not that they hang them with Ingmar-Bergman-style crepe (I'm talking about you, DC), but that they are willing to give them every measure of their skill, intelligence and commitment, without apology or reserve. With "The Avengers," Joss Whedon won my admiration for all that and more. So when the much-earlier Buffy (his first major project) showed up on Prime, I gave it a try.I'd never binge-watched anything in my life (who has the time, right?). I was a little surprised, then, to find myself streaming Seasons 1 through 7 every moment I could find until several weeks later, when I reached the end of Season 7. And started all over again.That was a couple of years ago. I recently went through the whole series again, and find myself having to pay homage to Whedon's extraordinary achievement. It's extraordinary for being his first major project. It's extraordinary because he manages to elevate a premise as silly as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to a level of narrative complexity, emotional power, and conceptual depth that places it above anything I've ever seen on television, and above most feature films as well. The time I've spent watching "Buffy" is simply the most rewarding I've spent in front of a small screen.What is it about "Buffy" that has me raving this way? It's difficult to do it justice without spoiling the plot or just becoming a bore, but here are a few things that come to mind. First, there's that seriousness thing. In a medium where success too often demands the least effort necessary to attract the least common denominator, Whedon's whole-hearted commitment (along with the rest of the cast and crew) makes "Buffy" by turns moving, thrilling, thought-provoking, memorable, and consistently hilarious. That's another thing I like about it: for all his commitment, Whedon keeps the plot and dialog consistently funny, in a way that never undercuts the emotional impact of the story. The writing--dialog, characterizations, plotting--is so good that it keeps you riveted even when the material is just ludicrously goofy: in Whedon's hands, goofy becomes art, and as the narrative arc bends toward Big and Important Questions, Buffy reaches toward the sublime. Whedon does things with that narrative arc--twists it and bends it--that are so daring, so breathtakingly imaginative, that you would think you were watching the work of a seasoned craftsman at the top of his form. OK, there is perhaps one season where the goofiness of the premise burdens the story perhaps a little more than it should, but even at its weakest the story never loses sight of where it's going. The progression from beginning to end is skillfully controlled, assured, and in the end overwhelmingly powerful. The characterizations--writing, direction, performance--especially Buffy and Spike, but the entire cast (with perhaps one exception, a lapse in casting that does not last through the series), are consistently convincing at the level of "I know that person." Or "I wish I knew that person." The characters are so good that, after you finish the last episode, you miss having them in your life. Finally, I mentioned Big and Important Questions. A lot of film and video offerings address questions of moral responsibility, duty, mortality, what it means to be human. Whedon attacks these and more--and the complex relations among them--with the honesty, energy and intelligence they deserve. And rather than being some kind of decorative intellectual bric-a-brac, these questions arise inevitably from the unfolding of the story, and are a crucial part of the emotional matrix that makes this series so deeply memorable.If you haven't seen "Buffy," if, like me, you dismissed it simply because the premise is (and it really is) so completely silly, give it a try. You won't regret a minute of it. Except, of course, that it has to end.