Post by stargazer1682 on Jun 14, 2020 22:54:04 GMT
No matter how many times I watch this show, the first episode has a unique quality to it, that I’m not quite sure I can put my finger on. There’s definitely a nostalgia element; like looking at photos from when you were a kid decades later. And to that end, I’ve always felt there’s something about the cinematography during this time in the late 90s, something aesthetic that you see throughout season one of Buffy, but also at least the first season of the original Charmed and other shows that time too; where the video doesn’t look grainy per se, but there’s a distinct difference, at least in my opinion, to the actual literal look of these episodes in contrast to just a season or two later.
It’s also strange how new the characters are; they’re meeting for the first time, they haven’t settled into their groove as friends and heroes of Earth. One of the things I love about the writing from this time was how they got to the fucking point. Somehow it’s become a lost art, and arguably Buffy is at least partly to blame. Buffy the Vampire Slayer popularized and possibly invented the concept of the season long “big bad,” even coining the phrase, if I’m not mistaken. And to great effect. But this serial element, which was at least as pronounced in Angel, along with the gradual serialization of shows like Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot (thanks, Ron Moore) paved the way for shows today to be virtually only serialized. But they don’t know how to fucking pace it or balance it out. In my opinion the best seasons of any show are season 2 and 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; though I do tend to favor season 3 over season 2, in large part because I feel like the episodes and pacing were a lot tighter and they managed to fit so much in without making the story drag or feel like they wasting time. But unlike say, The Flash or Star Trek Picard, Buffy the Vampire Slayer at it’s peak knew how to balance their season between the serial, season long arc and episodic episodes.
But I digress (which I often do)….
It’s hard to say much about this first episode, least of all without going on some tangent about where it all leads, since it all starts here. But not much happens in this episode, other than introducing us to all the main players and the background of the world we’re being introduced; and on top of it, Welcome to the Hellmouth is really part one of a two part series opener, concluded with The Harvest, where the story that’s set up in this first act actually gets paid off.
One of the strangest things to see whenever watching the first episode of Buffy, or even the first handful of episodes, has to be Darla and how different she is from how we come to know her later on in flashback and he resurrection. She lacks the subtlety and condescension in her evilness, that I’m so glad they didn’t continue; as it just wouldn’t have been the same. The Darla we later get to know was, as Stewie Griffin would say, so deliciously evil; and this Darla’s just a simpering sycophant.
Cordelia is another fun one to watch in this episode, because she probably changes the most compared to anyone else. Sometimes I do feel like by season 3 of Angel they lost the core identity of Cordelia in favor of that growth, but it’s hard to say. Wesley makes a similar journey, where he’s also barely recognizable by the end.
So much else of what I want to say plays more into the following episode, so I think I’ll hold off for that.
I will say, while probably not intentional foreshadowing; there’s something about Giles’ saying, when asked if he got the phone with his Time Life subscription, that he got “the calendar” that really gets you, like a stake through the heart.
It’s also strange how new the characters are; they’re meeting for the first time, they haven’t settled into their groove as friends and heroes of Earth. One of the things I love about the writing from this time was how they got to the fucking point. Somehow it’s become a lost art, and arguably Buffy is at least partly to blame. Buffy the Vampire Slayer popularized and possibly invented the concept of the season long “big bad,” even coining the phrase, if I’m not mistaken. And to great effect. But this serial element, which was at least as pronounced in Angel, along with the gradual serialization of shows like Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot (thanks, Ron Moore) paved the way for shows today to be virtually only serialized. But they don’t know how to fucking pace it or balance it out. In my opinion the best seasons of any show are season 2 and 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; though I do tend to favor season 3 over season 2, in large part because I feel like the episodes and pacing were a lot tighter and they managed to fit so much in without making the story drag or feel like they wasting time. But unlike say, The Flash or Star Trek Picard, Buffy the Vampire Slayer at it’s peak knew how to balance their season between the serial, season long arc and episodic episodes.
But I digress (which I often do)….
It’s hard to say much about this first episode, least of all without going on some tangent about where it all leads, since it all starts here. But not much happens in this episode, other than introducing us to all the main players and the background of the world we’re being introduced; and on top of it, Welcome to the Hellmouth is really part one of a two part series opener, concluded with The Harvest, where the story that’s set up in this first act actually gets paid off.
One of the strangest things to see whenever watching the first episode of Buffy, or even the first handful of episodes, has to be Darla and how different she is from how we come to know her later on in flashback and he resurrection. She lacks the subtlety and condescension in her evilness, that I’m so glad they didn’t continue; as it just wouldn’t have been the same. The Darla we later get to know was, as Stewie Griffin would say, so deliciously evil; and this Darla’s just a simpering sycophant.
Cordelia is another fun one to watch in this episode, because she probably changes the most compared to anyone else. Sometimes I do feel like by season 3 of Angel they lost the core identity of Cordelia in favor of that growth, but it’s hard to say. Wesley makes a similar journey, where he’s also barely recognizable by the end.
So much else of what I want to say plays more into the following episode, so I think I’ll hold off for that.
I will say, while probably not intentional foreshadowing; there’s something about Giles’ saying, when asked if he got the phone with his Time Life subscription, that he got “the calendar” that really gets you, like a stake through the heart.