Buffy 2x06 - "Halloween"

After a couple of pretty weak episodes, Buffy rebounds with "Halloween." While the episode lacks the suspense, action, and dramatic heft of "School Hard," it makes up for these shortcomings in zany fun, complete with a few good character moments. More after the jump.

An Announcement

It's irregular for me to post on a Saturday, but I'm breaking the routine for an announcement. A special announcement. A scheduling announcement. 

Don't worry. I'm not going away. I am, however, reducing my weekly output. Starting with the coming week, The Whedoning will be switching to a thrice-weekly schedule for the summer (and hopefully not much longer than that). I feel I owe you a brief explanation, after the jump.

Buffy 2x05 - "Reptile Boy"

If you thought "Inca Mummy Girl" had a case of season one retrogression... well, you were right. And so does "Reptile Boy." Review after the jump.

Buffy 2x04 - "Inca Mummy Girl"

Isn't that always the way? After the excellent "School Hard" we get the rather lackluster "Inca Mummy Girl," backsliding into the so-so monster-of-the-week territory of season one. It's not a bad episode, but it's a bit boring in how much familiar territory it covers. Find out more after the jump.

Happy Birthday, Joss!

I know it's highly unusual for me to post twice in one day, but I'm not here to say much. I just wanted to express my happy birthday wish for Joss Whedon. Because I know he reads this.

Happy birthday, Joss!

Tomorrow, we shall return to our regularly scheduled Whedoning.

Buffy 2x03 - "School Hard"

With School Hard, one of the Buffyverse's most popular characters arrives in Sunnydale with a bang. Or rather, a crash. The result is an incredibly enjoyable episode. Find out why, after the jump.

Buffy 2x02 - "Some Assembly Required"

After an enjoyable but heavily flawed season premiere, "Some Assembly Required" is a breath of fresh air. Not only is it a really solid monster-of-the-week episode, but it's also one of Buffy's most thematically interesting episodes to date. Click on through for the review.

Buffy 2x01 - "When She Was Bad"

It's only been three days for us here on the Whedoning, but the gap between "Prophecy Girl" and "When She Was Bad" was three months. But now that the show's finally back, does it meet expectations? Well... yes and no. overall, it's not a stellar episode of Buffy, but in some ways the writing nad production is more assured, which is nice to see. More after the jump.

Buffy Season One Wrap-Up

So we're done with the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and now I have to take what's been a rather inconsistent, even schizophrenic little show, and tie it all up in a nice little bow. So what did I think? Well, obviously, you're going to have to click through to find out.

Buffy 1x12 - "Prophecy Girl"

It's been a lot of ups and downs for such a short season, but now we find ourselves at the end of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's an episode that doesn't have the greatest deal of tonal coherence, but throws enough interesting material together that even while it doesn't really come together it's quite entertaining.

Buffy 1x11 -"Out of Mind, Out of Sight"

If you were expecting that the penultimate episode of the season would lay the groundwork for Buffy's final confrontation with the monster, then you're bound to be disappointed by "Out of Mind, Out of Sight." What we get here instead is a fairly standard, high concept Buffy episode with only passing references to the ongoing plot, but with some long-overdue character development for Cordelia.

Buffy 1x10 - "Nightmares"

"Nightmares" marks another attempt by the Buffy writers to delve into the psyches of their characters, with mixed success. But while some elements of the episode are less than inspired, it's overall a pretty enjoyable watch. Click through for the review.

Buffy 1x09 - "The Puppet Show"

This episode has a cringeworthy premise, straight out of Goosebumps, but the cheese factor is not always a problem. Buffy often rises above the ridiculousness of the premise to produce something pretty entertaining, and that's the case here. More after the jump.

Buffy 1x08 - "I Robot, You Jane"

The boy Willow is getting romantically entangled with turns out to be more than he had seemed at first. In other words, this episode seems in some ways to be a bizarre parody of the previous one. But aside from some extremely cheesy usage of technology, this episode held up pretty well. More after the jump.

Buffy 1x07 - "Angel"

It's often said that Buffy doesn't really hit its stride until the middle of season two, but new fans take a look of "Angel" for a preview of what it's going to be like when it does. more after the jump.

Buffy 1x06 - "The Pack"

"The Pack" continues the trend of the previous episode, digging into the characters and using their personalities as an engine for drama as well as comedy. But unlike that episode, the main plot here suffers from some really lackluster performances. Even so, it has enough good moments to make it seem pretty entertaining, if inconsequential.

Buffy 1x05 - "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"

As I’ve been writing these reviews, I’ve been doing only a very small amount of “research”, looking up a little bit about what people have said previously about these episodes. It seems to me that "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" hasn’t exactly been celebrated, and that's not really fair to it. It won't be making any top ten lists, but it’s a very good episode that’s significantly different from what’s come before and does a good job of showing the versatility of the show—even if the main antagonist is another vampire. More after the jump.

Buffy 1x04 - "Teacher's Pet"

Frankly, "Teacher's Pet" is a pretty uninteresting episode of Buffy, which is a bit of a surprise because it comes from David Greenwalt (who was a frequent contributor to Buffy and also a co-creator of Angel). But this is his first episode, so I'll give him a pass. Besides, we don't really know how much the writing credit means. In the Buffy writer's room, as in most shows, the script is a collaborative effort. So let's not go passing out blame on this one. Check out my thoughts after the jump.

Buffy 1x03 - "Witch"

This week it's "business as usual" for Buffy and friends. But don't for a second think that means I won't write extensively on it. Perhaps someday I'll settle into the paragraph-length reviews I originally intended, but today is not that day. More after the jump.

Buffy 1x02 - "The Harvest"

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest" were originally aired on the same night (under the former title), but the DVD and other official episode lists list them separately so I decided to treat them as such. And a good thing too, because after the long review I wrote for the previous episode, breaking them up seems like the only sane thing to do. Another longish review after the jump.

Buffy 1x01 - "Welcome to the Hellmouth"

If you've watched the earliest episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to see what all the fuss is about and you're unimpressed, then I urge you to keep with it because, in the opinion of a lot of people I know, the first season is not very good. So, stick with it. It gets good later.

That's their take on the first season of Buffy, and I encourage you to follow their guidance, because it may well by your take on it as well. But it's not mine. While the first season of Buffy is hardly the show at its best (see the latter half of season two for when that starts to kick in), I really do like the first season, and I think the premiere is a particularly strong moment for the show."Welcome to the Hellmouth" provides a great introduction to these characters and this world. More after the jump.

Buffy Unaired Pilot

You can't watch the unaired Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot legally. There are bootlegs, which I won't link to. It's not very difficult to find if you want to (I found it fairly easily). In 2003, IGN Movies (or, as it was drolly called back then, IGN FilmForce) did an interview with Joss in which they discussed the possibility of it ever being released:

IGNFF: Is the [pilot] presentation ever going to make it to DVD?
WHEDON: Not while there is strength in these bones.
Well, I mean, it's one of the most heavily bootlegged things on the Internet...
Yeah. It sucks on ass.
Yeah, it does, but it's sort of that archival, historical perspective...
Yeah, I've got your historical perspective ...
It would take it off the bootleg market...
Ah, I don't – what are you going to do?
Put it on the DVD.
Not me.

But does the pilot really deserve this reputation? I'll weigh in after the jump.