Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Vampire - Part 2

[jaymes_e06]

If you have xfinity the weeks episodes are on demand too.

 

[Thundarr]

My mom is watching reruns of Buffy for the first time. She's enjoying it, but she misses some episodes because of work or w/e and it turns out she's missing literally every important episode. It's kinda funny at this point. She started watching around "Lie To Me", and since then has missed the S2 and S3 finale, the majority of episode where Jenny Calender dies, the episode where Spike
gets his chip, and most devastatingly of all, "Hush". But don't worry, she caught all of "Beer Bad" and "Ted".

With the holidays coming up, why don't you buy her the complete series on DVD/Blu-Ray for Christmas (or Hanuka, or whatever your religion celebrates at this time of the year)? Problem solved.

 

[eddy]

Or get her a netflix subscription.

 

[eddy]

As for Buffy, while many like to talk about Joss Whedon's strong points being planning, some of the problems in the show came when they didn't plan enough.

People say this? Whedon's strongest points have never been planning. Its dialogue and character work. And themes. He's good at plotting out character arcs but if you think he's good at plots I just point to the whole thing with the key and the blood and..well, not even Whedon could explain that s*** to you now.

 

[flickchick85]

People say this? Whedon's strongest points have never been planning. Its dialogue and character work. And themes. He's good at plotting out character arcs but if you think he's good at plots I just point to the whole thing with the key and the blood and..well, not even Whedon could explain that s*** to you now.

When they say planning, they're not necessarily meaning "plotting." They mean he plants seeds for his future plans way ahead of time. Like the "countdown" to Buffy's death, the references to Dawn like 2 seasons before she appeared, the appearance of The First and "monks" several seasons before they became the Big Bad, the questioning of Willow's sexuality in Dopplegangland, the allusions to seasons 5 & 6 episodes in Restless, etc. Even if the nitty gritty of his plots get convoluted, it makes re-watches very rewarding because it seems like he at least had ideas of where he was gonna go (whenever he was in charge, at least) so it all works together quite nicely compared to other serialized shows where it seems more clear they were making s*** up as they went along and had no long term plans.

That said, I always liked the plotting of Season 5. It kinda reminded me of the plotting in a Harry Potter book, so it never seemed overly convoluted to me as it did to so many others. Just lots of little pieces to a very bizarre puzzle that fits together fairly well at the end. But then, S5's always been my favorite, so I guess I've re-watched it the most, too. *shrug*

 

[Maximus One]

Did Joss ever step down as showrunner? I didn't even start watching Buffy until the last season had started airing so I didn't know any of the behind the scenes stuff for it or Angel like I do most shows nowadays.

 

[flickchick85]

Did Joss ever step down as showrunner? I didn't even start watching Buffy until the last season had started airing so I didn't know any of the behind the scenes stuff for it or Angel like I do most shows nowadays.

Yeah, Marti Noxon took over as showrunner in S6.

 

[jaymes_e06]

When they say planning, they're not necessarily meaning "plotting." They mean he plants seeds for his future plans way ahead of time. Like the "countdown" to Buffy's death, the references to Dawn like 2 seasons before she appeared, the appearance of The First and "monks" several seasons before they became the Big Bad, the questioning of Willow's sexuality in Dopplegangland, the allusions to seasons 5 & 6 episodes in Restless, etc. Even if the nitty gritty of his plots get convoluted, it makes re-watches very rewarding because it seems like he at least had ideas of where he was gonna go (whenever he was in charge, at least) so it all works together quite nicely compared to other serialized shows where it seems more clear they were making s*** up as they went along and had no long term plans.

That said, I always liked the plotting of Season 5. It kinda reminded me of the plotting in a Harry Potter book, so it never seemed overly convoluted to me as it did to so many others. Just lots of little pieces to a very bizarre puzzle that fits together fairly well at the end. But then, S5's always been my favorite, so I guess I've re-watched it the most, too. *shrug*

I agree completely there was foreshadowing of Dawn in the fourth season, Willow turning dark, Joyce's death and Tara's all kind of mysteriously placed throughout the seasons. That is why I can re watch this show so much it tells you what's to come so intricately.

 

[Thundarr]

Or get her a netflix subscription.

Yeah, but Netflix might take the series down eventually. With the complete series on DVD/Blu-Ray, you never have to worry about that again. So long as you have a DVD or Blu-Ray player, and no one steals your collection, you can watch the series as often as you want, when ever you want, and as for as long as you want. No having to work around some TV or video website's schedule or availability or whatever.

 

[ComicChick]

it's about time for a blu ray set! give us some behind the scenes and special features galore!

 

[Primal Slayer]

Lord knows there are plenty of bts they could give us but havent. But I don't think they will go blu ray with either series, esp Buffy. They don't want to pay any money to try to make it look better.

 

[flickchick85]

it's about time for a blu ray set! give us some behind the scenes and special features galore!

I know! Every now and then I've watched the HD re-runs on Pivot, and aside from the forced aspect ratio, the HD transfer of the early seasons especially (Seasons 1 & 2, which were shot on 16mm) look so much better than the version on my DVD's. I want those versions, please.

 

[Primal Slayer]

You know, I always wished that they hadn't made Dawn into an ordinary mortal after The Gift. She was crafted into a human from a ball of energy that was able to open portals, some residue should've been left after cutting her open in The Gift.

And I wonder how the show would've gone if they had killed her off like they planned originally before changing it.

 

[Sawyer]

I think it would've been cool if they did an episode where, for whatever reason, the gang's memories revert back to what they were pre-season 5 and they just all have no clue who Dawn is and she just starts losing it.

That sounds pretty bleak, so I'm guessing it would've fit in well during S6, but.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I'm actually kind of surprised they never did that.

And to hell with scheduling conflicts, should've had Cordelia/Angel show up in Restless, it's funny that Cordelia was the only original who never crossed over. Wesley also would've been fun to see in Sunnydale again for an episode.

 

[flickchick85]

Yeah, I always wanted one more Buffy/Cordelia interaction, if only to see Buffy's reaction to the person that Cordelia became.

 

[Sawyer]

I was always disappointed there were never any Angel to Buffy crossovers at all. The closest we got was Faith's arc on Angel leading to her role in Buffy's final season, but otherwise it was always Buffy characters ending up on Angel, not the other way around.

 

[cheungcheung]

I was always disappointed there were never any Angel to Buffy crossovers at all. The closest we got was Faith's arc on Angel leading to her role in Buffy's final season, but otherwise it was always Buffy characters ending up on Angel, not the other way around.

Angel showed up in the Buffy finale

 

[Warhammer]

Angel showed up in the Buffy finale

And it was shoehorned like hell.

Personally after Willow showed up in LA, I always wanted a big scene with Angel grieving over Buffy. It would have been perfect to have Angel and company show up in Sunnydale.

 

[jaymes_e06]

Guys I think I am about to educate the lot of you right now but due to The WB being but hurt over Buffy jumping ship to UPN the last two seasons the made it almost impossible for the characters to cross over in Buffy's 6th season and limited in season 7.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Guys I think I am about to educate the lot of you right now but due to The WB being but hurt over Buffy jumping ship to UPN the last two seasons the made it almost impossible for the characters to cross over in Buffy's 6th season and limited in season 7.

I have the comic that Darkhorse came out with when Buffy went to meet Angel off screen with the over the top possible scenarios that could've happened that the Scoobies thought up.

Even though I know they couldn't do anything during S6/3, still had opportunities during S4S5/S1S2. Having Cordy show up to Joyces funeral during the day wouldve been a nice sentiment.

I know originally they were going to write in the sun being blocked out from Angel into Buffy but they never did sadly. Seems like The First would take advantage of that. And of course I felt like they missed a lot of good opportunity to bring in Kendra/Jenny/whatshisname from S1 in S7 as The First taunting them.

But I was SUPER EXCITED when Willow crossed over and "battled" Cordelia. And all the rumors of Alyson joining the cast for S5.

 

[Sawyer]

Angel showed up in the Buffy finale

Yes, but as he was a BTVS character originally, that's not really the same. We didn't ever get to see Cordy or Wes go back to Sunnydale. We didn't ever see Gunn or Fred or Lorne get to mingle with the Buffy cast.

 

[ComicChick]

lorne and willow would've gotten along so well :/

 

[Doctor Jones]

It's still difficult to pick which series finale was better, because both are truly excellent and satisfying. They really represent for me what series finales should be: it should encapsulate what the series has always been about and resolving it in some fashion.

Buffy: Being the chosen one and passing it along
Angel: Fighting until the end and then keep fighting

 

[ComicChick]

i think i'm partial to the angel one, as i watched that since episode one, but i started watching buffy with the graduation episodes and it grew on me too