When does Buffy get good?

[sojourner]

I haven’t. But you’ve not said anything I can respond to

This. I don't respond to every post.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

"Hush" and "Band Candy". Though watching them without any prior knowledge of the characters probably wouldn't work.

"Once More, with Feeling" - marmite

The older I get, the more certain scenes of Band Candy at the Bronze seem like nothing to bat an eyelid at.

 

[Sue]

d) don’t watch Angel. It’s shite.

For shame. This is just plain wrong.

(I was going to suggest danny la rouge might prefer Angel.)

 

[Sue]

The older I get, the more certain scenes of Band Candy at the Bronze seem like nothing to bat an eyelid at.

Kiss rocks!

 

[baldrick]

I really like S1. Yes the teenage life as dark and filled with monsters is a bit overdone but I think it's fun. Some of the set pieces of Buffy's new friends gradually discovering who she is are very trope-y now but it wasn't then.

Anyone who doesn't laugh at these lines has a cold dead heart imo

"You were supposed to die! It is written!"

"What can I say? I flunked the written"

 

[Orang Utan]

I’m going to take a wild guess and speculate that most Buffy fans here are between 30-45 years old.
I am definitely too old for it. It wasn’t something my peers were watching IIRC.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

(I was going to suggest danny la rouge might prefer Angel.)

Why? Aren’t we trying to persuade him to continue watching?

 

[danny la rouge]

For shame. This is just plain wrong.

(I was going to suggest danny la rouge might prefer Angel.)

He’s a handsome young man, is for sure.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

danny la rouge in the opening of S3 she spearheads a rebellion of exploited workers brandishing a hammer and sickle, if you want some Real Urbans.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

I’m going to take a wild guess and speculate that most Buffy fans here are between 30-45 years old.
I am definitely too old for it. It wasn’t something my peers were watching IIRC.

Yes, but tbf I thoroughly and unironically enjoyed Never Have I Ever in my early 40s so

 

[Orang Utan]

Yes, but tbf I thoroughly and unironically enjoyed Never Have I Ever in my early 40s so

I don’t know how people get the time to get into their own demographic’s tv shows let alone other generations’

 

[The Octagon]

I’m going to take a wild guess and speculate that most Buffy fans here are between 30-45 years old.
I am definitely too old for it. It wasn’t something my peers were watching IIRC.

While I'm a big fan of Buffy, this is probably fair.

I grew up as the same age as the characters and certain shows stay with you.

It also created several tropes that newer viewers will take as given, but were groundbreaking and exciting at the time, so there's likely to be a disconnect there.

Although I work at a uni and there's quite a few newer fans too, the writing is still sharp enough to appeal and there's a bit of a 90's revival with the fashion and music.

 

[Orang Utan]

Shame Heartbreak High never gained this traction

 

[belboid]

I’m going to take a wild guess and speculate that most Buffy fans here are between 30-45 years old.
I am definitely too old for it. It wasn’t something my peers were watching IIRC.

You’re younger than me by a distance!

(Not a very long distance, but still)

 

[Thora]

I was a big Buffy fan aged about 14 and my 13 year old loved it when he saw it recently.

It was the greatest show ever, for a 14 year old. Not objectively a great show

 

[Orang Utan]

You’re younger than me by a distance!

(Not a very long distance, but still)

Yes, I don’t know what your excuse is

 

[Agent Sparrow]

Shame Heartbreak High never gained this traction

HH was pretty mediocre from what I remember. Australian Hollyoaks.

 

[Orang Utan]

HH was pretty mediocre from what I remember. Australian Hollyoaks.

My point is that it was on when I had a lot of time to watch telly. It didn’t have to be good. It just had to be on telly in the early evening.
And that’s why Buffy is rated in that particular demographic.

 

[belboid]

Yes, I don’t know what your excuse is

Because I have taste, muckle flugga. It was also a good time for me to watch TV. mrsb and I rather bonded over, what must have been, the repeats of the series in the run up to the finale in....2004? So, that was nice. Especially as the only other female led drama on at the time, that wasn't completely abysmal shit was Sex and the City*. Comparatively, I think you can see why I have more than a spot spot for Buffy.

I think I have mentioned on The Thread that it was then I first saw the episode The Body. I won't go into detail, but it was only six or nine months after my mum had died and no piece of television ever has made me blub like the Blubbery Baron Of Blub as that did. So it still very much has that time and place effect that hits me as hard as the music I listened to when I was fifteen. That episode is still really hard to watch.

And, it is just really fucking clever in places. Normal Again, Hush, hell, The Zeppo! Heathers is one of my favourite movies too. you can't knock a really good High School drama



*SATC was vilely objectionable and its undoubtedly true mrsb enjoyed it more than me, but it was well made, cannily scripted and had named women talking to other named women about something other than men, still a rarity for the time.

 

[danny la rouge]

I think you have answered your own question in your first sentence. It hasn't really aged well.

It’s got unrealistic CGI, wooden dialogue, daytime soap acting, melodrama, and a bonkers plot. It’s terrible. I love it.

From the thread ^.

 

[danny la rouge]

I've just googled La Brea and it looks like something I might watch. Was it good?

I meant to reply to this.

 

[belboid]

The four ages of Buffy (for a bloke, at least). They can all occur within any given five minute period.

First, you identify with Spike (or Angel, if you're weird), the cool rebel,
Then you ponder for a moment and think, okay, you are (the powerless but ultra-reliable) Xander,
Then you recall something from the seventies and think you're Giles.
Before, finally, looking in the mirror
And realising you're Clem

 

[belboid]

I am now alternating between tracks from Once More With Feeling and Steve Albini. It's an odd combo

 

[Humberto]

It's no Ally McBeal

 

[Lord Camomile]

The four ages of Buffy (for a bloke, at least). They can all occur within any given five minute period.

First, you identify with Spike (or Angel, if you're weird), the cool rebel,
Then you ponder for a moment and think, okay, you are (the powerless but ultra-reliable) Xander,
Then you recall something from the seventies and think you're Giles.
Before, finally, looking in the mirror
And realising you're Clem

As a (now) librarian with ADHD, I was destined to never be anything but Xander and Giles.

Besides, Spike was a prick and Angel was a mopey wet blanket.

(FTR, now I'm more firmly in my 'Giles-years', I recognise that Xander had massive problems as well. But, y'know, he was the awkward teen who used humour as a defense mechanism, so...).

 

[Agent Sparrow]

The four ages of Buffy (for a bloke, at least). They can all occur within any given five minute period.

First, you identify with Spike (or Angel, if you're weird), the cool rebel,
Then you ponder for a moment and think, okay, you are (the powerless but ultra-reliable) Xander,
Then you recall something from the seventies and think you're Giles.
Before, finally, looking in the mirror
And realising you're Clem

Now in my 40s with a daughter who is fast approaching adolescence, I find myself empathising with Joyce a LOT more.

Because I have taste, muckle flugga. It was also a good time for me to watch TV. mrsb and I rather bonded over, what must have been, the repeats of the series in the run up to the finale in....2004? So, that was nice. Especially as the only other female led drama on at the time, that wasn't completely abysmal shit was Sex and the City*. Comparatively, I think you can see why I have more than a spot spot for Buffy.

I think I have mentioned on The Thread that it was then I first saw the episode The Body. I won't go into detail, but it was only six or nine months after my mum had died and no piece of television ever has made me blub like the Blubbery Baron Of Blub as that did. So it still very much has that time and place effect that hits me as hard as the music I listened to when I was fifteen. That episode is still really hard to watch.

And, it is just really fucking clever in places. Normal Again, Hush, hell, The Zeppo! Heathers is one of my favourite movies too. you can't knock a really good High School drama



*SATC was vilely objectionable and its undoubtedly true mrsb enjoyed it more than me, but it was well made, cannily scripted and had named women talking to other named women about something other than men, still a rarity for the time.

This. ^^^ Even if you don’t like Buffy, there’s no getting away from the fact it did something very different at the time from a lot of other TV. And I think the comparison to SATC in that respect is fair. Given its apparent feminist (and later LGBTQ+) credentials, it’s a shame that Whedon turned out to be a massive, controlling nob.

I’m also not saying that it was perfectly groundbreaking btw.

 

[polly]

Shame Heartbreak High never gained this traction

I loved HH. You had to swallow a certain amount of cringe even at the time and it got steadily better as you got to know the characters, so it's probably a good comparison with Buffy. Except that people don't still act like it was good TV

 

[Agent Sparrow]

Harking back to the earlier conversation about musical episodes, where streams It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia? It’s my day off work today and I think I need to see their musical episode as part of a compare and contrast deal.

 

[Glitter]

danny la rouge persevere with S1 but don’t skip S2.

S1 is very much a scene setting season. Things get good in S2 and rapidly progress to awesome.

 

[iona]

All yous talking about Heartbreak High know there's been a Netflix reboot, yeah?