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TV|Shark 006: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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    TV|Shark 006: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    Bad outfits, cheesy one liners, an obsession on relationships and a world of monsters built on top of a Hellmouth. Hitting in quite a big way was the supernatural show that initially saw the teenage vampire slayer follow up on the failed movie by oddly acting as a canonical continuation thereby introducing the world of cinema to these threads for the first time.




    Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    Ran: 7 Seasons (1992 till 2003)
    Episodes: 1 Movie and 144 Episodes
    Following Buffy's move to Sunnydale following her expulsion from her old High School, the series followed her introduction to the wider with of being the Slayer and the fight against her prophesised death. Following the closing of that arc, the show expanded its run of episodes for the second season onwards and began to cover a wider range of monsters but always within the same arc model of monster of the week but with an over arcing villain she would ultimately face off against with her friends. The style of the show adapted as time went on, becoming increasingly focused on the darker elements of the characters relationships and friendships aiming to mature with its audience, especially after its arguable popularity peak in its second and third years before the cast split to cover the shows more grown up spin-off...

    Angel
    Ran: 5 Seasons (1999 till 2004)
    Episodes: 110 Episodes
    Moving to LA after the third season, cursed with a soul vampire Angel sets up office as a detective for hire taking down monsters in a self-named city. The show followed a similar structure of monster of the week but was more willing to go into some darker corners with characters as well as to have a storyline that arced over the entire run of the show and even beyond its cancellation in the fifth year. Despite the large success of both shows, no other proposed revivals or spin-offs ever got off the ground.

    Share your thoughts and memories of Buffy and Angel!


    #2
    Greatest vampire related TV ever made ... apart from season 4.

    Highlights for me:

    Season 6's Once More with Feeling - who doesn't like musicals.
    Season 5's Fool For Love - Spike's history was always fun.
    Season 3's Doppelgangland - who couldn't like Willow's new look?
    Season 3's Helpless - where the watchers prove they're asshats.
    Season 3's Consequences - See, want, take.

    Okay, there were a couple in season 4 I liked, namely Hush (pictured above explaining how to deal with the Gentlemen) and Who Are You where Buffy and Faith swap bodies.

    Angel is bit less memorable, but there were quite a few episodes in Season 5 I quite liked, particularly Smile Time where Angel turns in to a Muppet. A bit of a shame that series got killed off on such a cliff hanger season ending.

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      #3
      Hush was excellent but, yeah, season 4 took a big dip for me and I must admit I never felt the show fully recovered. I think it peaked at season 3, which was a fantastic season. I never quite loved the series as much after season 4 and the new sister and so on didn't really work for me all that well. I rather enjoyed the first season of Angel but didn't hugely get into it and only dipped in and out after that.

      But those first three seasons of Buffy I totally loved.

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        #4
        Season 1 of Buffy was light but an easy watch, the humour hit the right note. Season 2 was the high point though, there are some bum notes in there but they build the Angel arc well enough that that finale nailed it. Season 3 was solid and had some good solo eps but some things such as the Mayor felt a bit of a come down, it works well if you consider S1-3 as a mini-arc as though the show was supposed to end there. Season 4, the issue there is that Angel started that year and you could tell that anyone worth a damn behind the scenes had made the jump. Season 4 had one or two stand outs but mostly was a carwreck lacking in understanding of what made the previous years work and I don't at all mistake that this was also the point where Marti Noxon's input increased on the show. She was effectively running most of it come Season 5 where the trend continued of over-focusing on the relationships and making everyone as miserable as possible. The show's loss of colour and slip into beige tint reflected the quality and it all culminated in the Buffy-Spike arc that is one of the most heinous storylines they ever ran and amounts of character assassination for both those roles. Excruciating to watch. Looking back, the show should have stayed dead at the end of that intended Season 5 closer, it would have had a stronger legacy for it instead of the mess that followed and its poor mans LOTR ending.

        Angel, that show was the invert. Season 1 has its moments but it reeks of finding its feet, never sticking to an approach too long and shifting as it goes. Season 2 onwards, it utter destroyed Buffy, overall a vastly superior show

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          #5
          At its prime Buffy was brilliant. Seasons 2 and 3 were definite high points, moving on from season 1's mystery of the week to proper story arcs, but still having the innocence and fun of high school. Season 4 went downhill with the whole Initiative factor ... it kind of spoiled Sunnydale as we knew it in a way ... but it did have a couple of outstanding episodes. And so it played out for its remaining seasons, slightly overstaying it's welcome (Spike was starting to look like Les Dennis). But even on an off day I loved this show.

          My favourite episodes generally opened with the words 'written and directed by Joss Whedon'. It's a bit of an obvious choice but I'd rate The Body as the cream of the crop. I remember watching it when it first aired and it knocked me for a six. A work of proper genius. Many shows can make you laugh ... few can make you cry.

          Angel was okay but got silly. Still worth watching for the great characters though.

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            #6
            Absolutely wonderful. Have watched it from beginning to end 3 times. Riley ruined whatever season he was in though.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Brad View Post
              Absolutely wonderful. Have watched it from beginning to end 3 times. Riley ruined whatever season he was in though.
              It was season 4, although arguably his return as guest star in Season 6's As You Were was even worse with his annoying wife in tow.

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                #8
                That was season 4. The one with Adam.

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                  #9
                  Yep! So, 80% awesome then. Better than most and the greatest musical ever.

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                    #10
                    Loved Buffy. I even "enjoyed" season 4.

                    Angel was good fun too. Boreanaz is a good actor and really made the show watchable.

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                      #11
                      Watched it twice. Totally awesome. Angel too.

                      I liked it for the light heartedness of it all and yet somehow their lives mattered, even though it felt very slapstick.

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                        #12
                        Yeah, not sure anyone else has ever managed to balance things quite like that show did.

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                          #13
                          Season 4 was fine for me, season 6 wasn't exactly up to par after she was brought back from death. There wasn't exactly much in the way of direction for most of it (or so it felt).
                          Angel was similar after Cordelia "left" in season 4, although they brought it back in season five for the most part. The world parallel world story was good too. Jeremy Reimer was in season 1 too.

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                            #14
                            I'm still hoping for the blu-ray set to happen one day. But looking at the atrocious treatment the show got 'for modern TVs' recently (a switch to widescreen revealing edges of sets and crew plus the lighting got no post-production so looks wrong in places) I have a feeling it might never happen. I'm glad I kept my old dvd sets but I'd love an upgrade one day.

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                              #15
                              I always found the musical episode a funny one, it's well made but I never really enjoyed it much. Part of that is because it's the point where the horrific Buffy/Spike storyline fully begins and both characters are ruined (permanently in Buffy's case who becomes insufferable to the end whereas Spike is recovered somewhat in the final season of Angel) but also because none of the case could sing.

                              My ex was massively into Buffy and Angel so the show marks itself out somewhat because of the conventions I'd get dragged to. By we split I think the only cast members I hadn't seen at some point where Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan. Hannigan you still heard about because she's married to the guy who played Wesley, Gellar was always distant from the others it seems (but was likely in greater demand too). Boreanez too, even on set, but when I saw him at one of the cons he admitted as much.

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