I miss the interesting villians of Season 1-3

Out of all of season's 4 and 5 we got maybe 4 :(

Angel has always produced cool villians though... like Marcus, Penn, and the Scourge in season 1... and others in season 2 (Though not as many, admittidly, but that's because most episodes involved Darla). And really good big bads from Wolfram and Hart, like Lindsey, Lilah, Gavin, Holden, Darla and Dru made an apperance too...

On Buffy in the last two seasons, we've had Adam for season 4, the lamest big bad ever, who would have been pretty bad for even a one shot villian :( Glory who was slightly better, but still came off as an idiot and uninteresting. Plus one shots? dick all. The Hush Gentlemen, Sweet, maybe Sunday, the Watcher's Strike Team... and god, that's it. The rest have been demons from the moon or fake looking snakes. Ugh.

I have really been liking seeing these season three eps I missed. I'm a little wishy-washy on the whole hiding Angel thing and not automatically looking for an explanation why he is back. It seemed to me, I'd be jumping on that right away instead of worrying about being homecoming queen.

The Xander-Willow flirting is cute too, so very high school confusion.

Recent episodes, plus watching my season 4 tapes on the weekend, have really tied in the Willow abuse of magic thing. The first time she talks about fooling with spells (season three this week) she mentions doing a glamour spell to hide a zit (a selfish spell). Its obvious throughout season three her magic becomes a source of help to the group, so Giles lessens his worry over her tangling with powerful forces. But this weekend I watched two Willow seaon 4 episodes "Something Blue" and "Wild Things" in which it is just so painfully clear she is going down the path to DarkWillow, they just didnt give us the big hints until this current, 6th season of Buffy. Man, I just love that kind of writing, they had it planned all along and I didnt see it coming until Joss wanted me too.

FX Buffy 11/09/01:

I finally got around to watching the FX Buffy's from Friday because I was out of town for the weekend and got in late last night.

"Spike's Back" (I have no idea what the episode name is) was really spooky, Spike is growing on me as a character (seeing as he is now and compare him to his early appearances), and seeing him with Joyce having a heart-to-heart about being lovesick over Drusilla was just classic.

I got chills when the camera panned the trio (Buffy, Xander, and Willow) as they try to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their love lives, just sitting on the benches on the school grounds. You could truly feel the hurt in each of their hearts. The price of betrayal that Xander and Willow felt was high, and the price of Angel's soul at the cost of Buffy and Angel's love was also set up well that you felt meaningful teenage angst that's not cheesy or hokey (like most episodic TV).

"The Wish" (I think this is the name of this episode featuring the introduction of Anya to the Buffy-verse) was truly a fun episode that indulged in the "What-if" universe when Cordy is granted her wish that Buffy never showed up in Sunnydale by Anya and it shows the "what-if" consequences of such a wish.

Loved seeing both Willow and Xander in full vampire get-up. Willow was truly delightful as a vamp. Buffy as a street-tough slayer was pretty cool (did they have to put that scar across her lips and not on her cheek?) The whole "vampires take over Sunnydale after dark" scenario was just a gas. I knew that once I saw Mark Metcalf in the credits that the Master would be making an appearance. Seeing Giles lead the good fight against the vampires made sense (though I doubt if Oz would have been one of the vamp fighters, but if he was still a werewolf, would Giles turn Oz loose on the vamps during a full moon?).

Anyhow, I am really enjoying these season 3 episodes, they are just choke full of interesting twists and turns, and you can tell they are having fun with the material at hand.

FX Buffy 11/12/01:

The season 3 Christmas episode. SMG doesn't looked too swift in bangs (haircut). Loved Giles when he grabs the crossbow before inviting Angel into his apartment (does this mean that Angel can enter Giles' apartment from now on? I thought it did, like once invited, it becomes an open invitation). Was a bit intrigued with the whole thing of Angel's past victims visiting him in dreams and then having his past victims (like Jenny!) tell him that he must kill Buffy to get back to feeling "right" again. It was nice that Buffy got her to invite Faith over for X-mas, even if she was relegated to protecting Joyce. BTW, the mom and daughter banter was back, and fun to watch them cajole one another.

The witches episode. Wasn't too coherent while trying to finish this episode up, but it seemed to be a "filler" episode. I'll re-watch it again to make sure.

Originally posted by Patman
does this mean that Angel can enter Giles' apartment from now on?

yes

The witches episode. Wasn't too coherent while trying to finish this episode up, but it seemed to be a "filler" episode. I'll re-watch it again to make sure.

It's filler. I think it's a great concept, and it's wonderful to see Willow's mom ... I know people like that, but it's not the best of episodes.

das

Does anyone know when the show titles will be announced for the FX marathon? My DTivo has added generic episodes titles to my To Do List, but I doubt I will want to record all of them.

TIA

Ian

I have to wonder if Joss and company are syncing up the new episodes with th FX reruns because it's uncanny to show Amy turning herself into a rat in the "Parents go nuts and burn the witches" episode and then next week on the UPN Buffy have Amy return from rathood.

Did Amy show up earlier in the series? I ask this because it seems she is in the know that Buffy is a slayer from the group conversation at the lunch table in that FX episode.

Amy appeared in the second episode of the 1st season.

FX Buffy 11/13/01

"The Test" (My name for the title). This was a terrific episode of showing what slayers go through for their final test on their 18th birthday. Having a de-powered Buffy go against a vampire under "controlled" condition was done really well, plus throwing in the loss of trust between Giles and Buffy (Giles causing Buffy to be momentarily zoned out and then injecting her was something that turns her into a normal girl strength/speed-wise), and once Buffy finds a way to overcome and pass the test, the Council gives Giles the failing grade as her watcher, and Giles gets fired (for loving Buffy like a father and losing his objectivity when it comes to Buffy). There was some terrific lines of dialog from Buffy in her de-powered state ("Bite me!").

"Xander Grows Up" (my name for the title). This was also a fun little episode, with the juxtaposition of Xander finding a way to stand up for himself (after being painted as the joke of the Scoobs and someone to be looked after as the least "powerful" in the group) and watching the rest of the group find a way to battle a great big evil that's brewing at the hellmouth.

Xander finds a way to gain entry into manhood, and the rest of the group find a way to turn back the tide of evil and also gain a new measure of respect for themselves in their never ending battle versus evil.

Xander finds that he can stand up to the bullies of the world (alive or undead). He finds that he can ignore Cordy's catty comments of his manhood and "weakness" within the Scoobs. He now knows he can face the crucible of death and come out standing tall. The rest of the gang also gain a measure of respect for themselves fighting the big evil, and then seeing all of them beaten up, with cuts and bruises, arms in slings, etc, but standing tall in the end, well that was a bit comical. Also the jelly donuts bit was just hilarious: "Buffy ate 3 of them!"

And of course, the big event in Xander's life up to this point: He gets it on with Faith! Way to go, Xander! Loved the way she boots him out of her motel room afterwards, "I've got to take a shower." Buh-bye!

OK, now ... it's one thing to be asking these questions when you haven't seen these episodes, but you just watched them! :) :) :)

Remember all that stuff with the cheerleaders dying and Amy's mom having switched bodies. Or when Xander wanted to make Cordy fall back in love with him so he could hurt her ... who did the spell?

And don't give up on Amy just yet ... she's resilient. :D

das

The Xander episode (called "The Zeppo"-- thank you Replay Tv), was sort of weird to get into at first, but once I figured out where they were going I liked it.

It sort of reminded me of that Star Trek: TNG episode called "Lower Decks" that focused on the four younger ensigns instead of the main crew.

It was neat how the main story about the Hellmouth was instead relegated to the B story and they focused on Xander's adventures.

I'm not liking this Faith character too much, does she get better? She doesn't seem very well-developed yet and what they have shown isn't very likeable. At least Kendra had the bad accent and the funny nerd-Slayer personality. Faith seems more like a juvenile delinquent than a real slayer.

Well, Amy looked differently (perhaps hair color) in the earlier episodes.

Yeah, that was great - here was the big evil, bigger than last time but we only see it as the B story. Another hilarious scene was when Buffy and Angel were doing the whole angst thing and Xander walks in - great example of the show poking fun at itself.

And the line at the end with Oz 'I feel strangely full'. :D

Well, there wasn't much to like so far - she keeps trying to replace Buffy. I think todays episodes will kick off her major storyline.

Just you wait...

Took the words out of my mouth ...

das

(it must have been while you were kissing me ... for the Meat fans)

I'm with das and Slumbering Fist on this...Faith is the entire reason that I started watching in Season 4 (This Year's Girl, Who Are You?). Not kidding, either. Eliza Dushku is incredible - not to mention HOT - and her character is one of the coolest, if not THE coolest, ever on the show. I'm sure there are others who will agree with me...

Kal

I never really cared for her either. I was glad when she was gone, I thought she was kind of a poorly thought out character and didn't have much real depth to her.

Yes, I can actually feel the flamethrowers pointed at me :D

:: points flamethrower at renaldow ::

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Kal

She wasn't my favorite character, but I didn't dislike her either. There's lots of depth to her, especially when looked upon as another possible path Buffy could be on. A slayer has to walk a fine line and deal with some pretty intense issues. Buffy could have easily turned out like Faith, or vice versa. We see a little of another possible Buffy in 'The Wish'. It's important to see the impact of family, friends, environment on a person. How Faith is when she arrives, how she changes over time ... those things interest me and make for good storytelling.

das

Buffy = Slayer with friends/family.
Faith = Slayer without friends/family.

Simplistic, but closer to the truth than not.

Well, put. I was going to try to explain why I like Faith, but I basically typed the same things you said about character developent and contrast combined with a bunch of dirty thoughts.

Faith is by far my favorite second-third tier character in the Buffyverse, just over Oz and Doyle and such.

Exactly how strong is Buffy? Like if pushed, how much could she bench press? (I'm borrowing a moment from "Unbreakable").

Does anyone know what Giles was injecting into Buffy to negate her strength and reflexes?

Giles says something about adrenalin repressers when he shows her the syringe.

As for how strong Buffy is - I always thought it was in the 'Olympic' level, but not 'Superhuman.' Proabably stronger than 2 average grown men but she always seems to rely on agility and speed more than actual strength.

Not that it's very important, but I think he said it was a muscle relaxant.

das

Well, I remember when Buffy bent that bounty hunter's rifle barrel into a u-shape (werewolf episode I think), and wondered if Olympic strong men could do that as easily as she did. She just doesn't seem to have a set power level, but I guess I shouldn't fixate on this as if really doesn't matter in the big picture. :)