Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1x02: The Harvest

Last week's episode set up the characters. This week we get the actual story.

Buffy is able to overcome Luke with the Chekhov's cross that Angel gave her. She and Xander and Willow take refuge in the library. This is where Giles is able to give a big speech about the power of monsters. Buffy vows to get Jesse back.

Buffy returns to the crypt to search for Jesse and Xander obsessively comes with her. They descend into the sewers where they find Jesse has become the vampire and they flee

All the while, Giles and Willow have been working out about the Harvest, an event where a vessel will devour the blood that will power the Master's freedom.

Buffy and the others head to the Bronze where the harvest happens. Xander kills Jesse. Willow injures Darla and Buffy kills Luke, thus leaving the Master trapped.

Angel only appears briefly but doesn't really help. He warns her about the Harvest but Giles could probably have found this information in his book. It feels as though he was only in the episode because he had to be.

The direction is good. The final act at the Bronze is nice and moody.

Overall this is a promising episode. Everything is set up and anyone would c

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1x01: Welcome to the hellmouth

Earlier this year I commented on the fact that it was 20th anniversary of Buffy. Now I am keeping the promise I made back then to look back at the earlier episodes. How does Series 1 hold up after all this time?

The pre-titles sequence sets up the basic premise of Buffy. A man and a woman enter the school. In horror movies the girl would die but in this scenario she turns out to be the vampire and attacks the boy. The female victims are the empowered ones.

After the distinctive title sequence we are introduced to Buffy Summers. It is her first day at Sunnydale High after she was kicked out of her old one in Los Angeles. She meets new friends such as WIllow and Xander and also the adversarial Cordelia. Unfortunately she cannot escape her destiny. The librarian is her new watcher, Rupert Giles. Soon afterward, the body of the man from the pre-titles sequence is found and it becomes clear that Vampires are present.

In the evening, Buffy meets the mysterious Angel and gets a cross. She then goes to the Bronze where Willow is taken by a vampire.

Buffy is a likeable character. At this stage she is trying to move away from her vampire slaying duty but she is not too winy about it. Sarah Michelle Gellar successfully protrays the

Cordelia is the Queen Bee of Sunnydale High. She is unlikeable at this stage but it will be interesting to see where she goes from here.

Willow is shy and a victim.Alsion Hannigan does a good job portraying her.

Xander is outgoing but gawky. Nicholas Brendon does a good job in portraying him.

Jesse appears to be a main character and he is nerdy.

Principle Flutie is amusing and Buffy's mom is alright.

Vampires: The Master, Luke and Darla. The Master seems like a great character with nosferatu style make-up.

The sets are good. Teh graveyard is eerie and the Master's lair is a wonderfully gothic looking place.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 20 Years

Today marks twenty years since Welcome to the Hellmouth, the first story in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series aired. This series was a kind of sequel to the 1992 Buffy movie which was notable for inverted the old horror movie trope of the blonde victim being the victim of monsters. This time, the blonde was the one who defeats the monsters. The film seemed a bit too frothy and camp, but the television series was far superior. It lasted a good seven years and left behind quite a legacy. 

When it started, the show was a High school fantasy drama where a young slayer was coming of age.
These first three seasons drew inspiration from superhero comics like Spider-Man, where the hero had to balance their responsibilities as a hero with her responsibilities of being a student. The show could have stuck with this format, but it continued to evolve by allowing Buffy to graduate and move to College and then into adult life. It even got its own spin-off, Angel.  It's legacy can be seen in various shows. Smallville would never have existed without Buffy, nor would the far inferior Twilight. When Russell T. Davies brought back Doctor Who, he ussed Buffy as one of the templates for creating a modern genre show.

The first time I watched the show was when School Hard  aired on BBC2 in early 1999. I continued to watch the show on and off and became more drawn into it as time went on. I was probably a bit young for it at first, but I still enjoyed the monsters. As I got older, I understood the growing up message. Even now there are very few shows that have surpassed it.

Buffy herself was the ditzy blonde. She got a lot of character development over the years as she went from sassy schoolgirl to confused adult and finally to mature young woman. She even took on a parenting role in looking after her younger sister, Dawn.

Willow was Buffy's best friend, a girl who starts out shy but becomes a confident young witch. Alyson Hannigan did a brilliant job as the character.

Xander stays relatively the same, as an easygoing guy. He is more foolish in the early episodes but becomes a confident construction worker and is the voice of reason in the Scooby gang.

Anthony Stewart Head was also great as Giles, the Watcher. This was a role that caught people's attention and he had a wealth of roles after this.

The two vampires with souls, Angel and Spike. Angel started out noble but Spike went from being a villain to becoming one of Buffy's most crucial allies. His journey was so long it would take a while to put together all the content.

There were many other great recurring characters, including Cordelia Chase, Tara, Anya and many others. A lot of the actors can be seen in a great deal of other programs.

All in all this was a great show. I never quite got into the comics but the show was great. Hopefully the anniversary will see more Buffy related content coming out.