Poll!

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Quite a while back, snickfic posted about her season 1 rewatch, and there was talk about "The Pack" being the first really effective episode of the series. And that got me to thinking.

It seems pretty generally accepted that season 1 is in a different category than the rest of BtVS - Buffy with training wheels, almost. It doesn't get much fandom love. Full series rewatches usually begin with a grumble about slogging through season 1 in order to get to the good stuff. I've even heard plenty of people suggest NOT starting at the beginning in order to get new viewers hooked on Buffy, or at the very least, assuring people, "Just keep watching! It gets much better, I promise." It's shorter, it's campier, the metaphors are really anvilicious, the monsters are really cheesy (okay, that doesn't totally change), and it features less of the long-term arcs and emotional character moments that become the touchstone of the show.

But where, exactly, does the "real" BtVS begin? What's the first episode that makes you sit up and say, "THAT'S the show I know and love!"

[Poll #1494098]

Comments

[servus-a-manu.livejournal.com]

This is a hard one, because I actually watched the first 3 seasons of AtS first. Then I needed all that backstory, so I went back to watch BtVS. I honestly can't remember my first impressions of s1, except that it seemed a bit unpolished in comparison to AtS, but I was able to rationalize that as part of the mechanics of TV series. Also, I'd caught glimpses of a few eps on tv when it was being aired. Enough to know it existed, and to recognize the look of the show, but not enough to really be savvy to the series.

School Hard was a watershed ep for me, less because Spike shows up and more because a character like Spike shows up (along with Dru). Does that make sense? It seems to hail the beginning of the story arcs and multi-faceted characters that become the hallmark of the entire 'verse (a few exceptions notwithstanding *cough*Andrew*cough*). But I'm not sure that School Hard is the defining moment for me. Maybe Prophecy Girl, which I thought was still pretty campy, but the theme lended a gravitas that was at odds with the humor and made me sit up and really take notice.

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School Hard was a watershed ep for me, less because Spike shows up and more because a character like Spike shows up (along with Dru). Does that make sense?

Yep, it definitely does. I think it kind of ties into what snickfic was talking about, with Spike killing the Anointed One. Spike and Dru are definitely different from most of the vampires we've seen before, and Spike in particular embodies a lot of what makes the show great.

And the gravitas of "Prophecy Girl" is definitely what caught my attention. Buffy's emotional response to the prophecy? OMG. That might be when I first loved her.