Sunnydale, CA. 

A town of less than 40,000 people with 12 cemeteries in city limits where the high school kept tabs on its annual mortality rate and residents long ago accepted all the bizarre occurrences of their odd home. Maybe a citywide outbreak of laryngitis one day, a rash of insanity possessing many seemingly random people to build an unstable tower to nowhere another, plus there were the times nightmares came to life and when everyone started bursting into song (sometimes flames) as if life was a musical–not to mention the whole Mayor snake thing.

Next door neighbors of 1630 Revello Drive, the Summers residence, probably had a particularly memorable experience. I mean, how do you ever forget the neighbor who started up some kind of all-girls army in her backyard shortly before you finally gave in and fled town–just in the nick of time, too. We’ll get to all that and more with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus, our look back at the show 25 years later. Well, technically this coming Thursday, March 10, is the 25th anniversary, but this is a Sunday kind of ongoing series.

First off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer exists as a group effort built on countless people’s hard work over many years and when a collaboration like this is handed over to the public it takes on a new, ever-evolving identity and belongs to anyone who feels connected to it, inspired by it, or whatever else. We’ve all seen many headlines in the last year or so about how some people don’t look back on their time with the show fondly. Obviously that’s quite unfortunate, but however one may feel in 2022 about Joss Whedon is a road I won’t be going down as this is about a whole series–not an examination of how one particular person was received by some colleagues.

Anyway, being cooped up for all of 2020 with suddenly a lot more home time helped, without a doubt, as simply going through stuff we already owned for entertainment yield a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) stuff. This is hardly the first time I’ve rewatched Buffy the Vampire Slayer since it wrapped almost two decades ago, truth be told. I watched the reruns on a loop for probably a couple years after both it and Angel had ended to the point I pretty much knew what everyone was going to say before they opened their mouths. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus

Based on all that I bet you’re shocked to hear Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my teenage obsession. In fact, the photo before this paragraph of my extremely homemade binder that ended up spilling into a second binder (plus a few other things for the photo op) is probably Exhibit A in the case of just how big a BtVS fan I was. Exibit B is below, with Exibits C-Z available on request.

Episode titles, air dates, credited writers, how many episodes each character appeared in as well as their license plates and home addresses–whatever trivial information possible I had it down and was ready for the final exam at a moment’s notice.

I reached a point post-teenage years, however, where I realized the only way I’d ever be able to *enjoy* any of it ever again was if I abstained from watching long enough so that details became fuzzy and–best case scenario–I genuinely forgot what happened. I didn’t glean all those details just from watching, by the way. So many books…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus

Probably a dozen years or so has now gone by and I think in that time I’ve only rewatched the series in order once (with my husband shortly after our spur-of-the-moment nuptials), although I’d be lying if I said certain holiday episodes haven’t achieved traditional yearly viewing status.

I’ve decided to put teenage Adem’s efforts to use on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus and will be sharing select silliness from the binders as we move through the series like trivia questions, my BtVS monopoly ideas, photos, etc but for obvious reasons I won’t be able to get to most of the contents–look at the things!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus

As for the specs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus, I’ll revisit each season with a mixture of episode-based takeaways and overall thoughts. If you couldn’t tell by now, this is NOT a spoiler free zone so should you still be reading I hope you’ve seen the show already.

Enough of all the lead-up. In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer…

1.1 Welcome to the Hellmouth/1.2 The Harvest

…and, as Buffy herself would say, “Blah blah. I’ve heard it, okay?”

• Written by Joss Whedon / Directed by Charles Martin Smith & John T. Kretchmer
• I always enjoyed how Buffy’s tired of all this stuff from the get-go and the viewer isn’t treated to a traditional hero’s origin story. Yeah, it’s establishing the beginning of something but it’s actually the foundation of what will lovingly be referred to as “the Scooby Gang”–originally the foursome of Buffy, Willow, Xander, & Giles with many others coming and going over the years. 
• Before continuing let’s get this out of the way: when it comes to things like SFX, editing, music, and pretty much all the technical aspects of production I’d say considering it was made in 1996 on the WB with a budget of apparently $8 I think they did okay. It’s all quite rough around the edges and the picture itself can be grainy beyond belief sometimes, so do your best to power through. It gets better.

• The music, in particular, throughout this entire first season is rather awful. Once composer Christophe Beck joins the team in S2 the score improves by leaps and bounds so keep looking to that horizon. It’ll be nice when the audio stands out for positive reasons, but until then cringe and laugh your way through the debut year’s musical failures. I’m done with what doesn’t work well for now, because obviously enough of the landing sticks to score another season and a notable place in the upper echelons of pop culture.
• Honestly, I have little desire to linger on the pilot when there’s so much good stuff to get to so my thoughts on all this table setting are brief. I have a lot more thoughts–too many thoughts to write–as the seasons go by, so bear with me until S2 next week.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, like many successful low budget labors of love, keeps people coming back year after year by remembering to be about characters you actually care for and enjoy spending time with each week whatever they’re doing. By the time Giles flippantly remarks “The Earth is doomed” at the end of two hour premiere night I’m happy to spend more time with these characters in this fun new world.

1.3 Witch

• Written by Dana Reston / Directed by Stephen Cragg
• Hey look, Amy! Her occasional appearances over the years are always fun, however brief. The mother/daughter reveal still works and Robin Riker plays teenage Amy well. Oh, and why keep a cat in a chest with books? Just witchy fun? I guess confining creatures in small places was her go-to move, what with the cheerleader statue spell doom that awaits.
• As for Cordelia’s driving test from hell–I have an idea, why don’t you just stop driving? Same goes for the delivery driver who clearly *tries* to run Cordelia over and then speeds off into the distance once he misses his target.

• Joyce’s reaction when Buffy mentions being a vampire slayer doesn’t exactly jive with what we come to know of their pre-Sunnydale mental institution history when it comes to what should be a rather loaded term, but it isn’t a *glaring* continuity error. Joyce is certainly skilled at selective memory and compartmentalization, so maybe it’s more of an early indicator how good she is at that.
• Willow continues to be a computer whiz (which is good for filling in narrative gaps wherever possible), while the first Scooby Gang magic happenings get to be at Giles’ hand as he lies about performing his “first casting”–far from it, sir!

• I like how some psycho girl in the background laughs as Buffy puts the flaming cheerleader out. No love lost, there, I suppose. While I’m talking about cheerleaders–the girls’ locker room is a mess of towels. Slobs.
• Xander leering at Buffy like he does here subsides, but it’s still gross when it happens. I’m glad he’s never rewarded for this weird behavior. Also, he has too many rings. They disappear pretty quickly and are good for a laugh, though. One day he’ll be more into bracelets. And he’s already complaining about spikes, too (that railroad spike line). This will greatly increase in his future.

1.4 Teacher’s Pet

• Written by David Greenwalt / Directed by Bruce Seth Green
• As someone who lived places with seasons before spending many years in southern California I can sympathize with Giles’ “God, every day here is the same” sentiments. 
• Dr. Gregory becomes the first staff casualty of Sunnydale High–or at least the first during Buffy’s tenure. No day off after a teacher gets found decapitated is lame and definitely suggests he’s not the first death students have had to deal with.

• This episode’s on the lighter side, if you couldn’t tell by the lack of words. I have things I *could* say but ultimately it’s an amusing enough MOTW, nothing more and nothing less. And that’s a series wrap on mantis people, so don’t count on the hatching eggs ever coming into play.

1.5 Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

• Written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali / Directed by David Semel
• Giles’ “too bloody” comment makes no sense as there wasn’t any blood visible as Buffy beat up that vampire. That’s actually a longtime issue I’ve always had–characters don’t bleed nearly enough on BtVS. There’s a nosebleed, cut on the cheek, or pummeling every now and then, but oftentimes the violence feels too sanitized. I’m sure there were some rules about blood, though, so I’ll try not to hold it against the series.

• Owen’s a teenage boy who won’t shut up about Emily Dickenson, Buffy. Don’t waste your time on this goober. I know I mentioned elsewhere how the music in season one is awful so I’ll try not to bring it up again, just know it sucks almost as much as Owen–now I’m done.

• “Here Endeth the Lesson” take one, The Master. Who will say it next?
• Overall this episode feels like a sitcom-ish take on BtVS and isn’t one of my favorites. I don’t dislike it, exactly, but there’s something about the Anointed One storyline coupled with Owen that leaves me underwhelmed. Scooby Gang interplay is the saving grace, as is the case with most of season one.

1.6 The Pack  

• Written by Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer / Directed by Bruce Seth Green
• Good monster of the week (MOTW) showcase for Nicholas Brendan–he could be just as much of a jerk as anyone, apparently, if given the chance (insert joke about real life here). From smelling Buffy, being nasty to Willow, and the near sexual assault he never feels like Xander pretending to be kinda mean but actually comes across as a menace. 
• The largely dialogue free dodgeball scene and the coach’s reaction still amuse me. I like how their freakishly predatory behavior is presented as a glorious exemplar of what could be. Buffy’s slayer senses, surely helpful here, must have skipped a beat later on when Xander sneaks up on her.

• The no amnesia joke between Giles & Xander at the end is funny and all, but if you think about it that means those other kids remember eating Principal Flutie alive. I’d think those teenagers are forever broken now and might need some counselling, or something. They all should have been coated in blood, by the way, after killing and eating a man alive. I also think it’s amusing the possessed kids–Xander included–dress so much better as hyena people. I mean, especially compared to what everyone else looked like on the show in the mid/late ‘90s.
• As for the sudden killing of Principal Flutie, it still holds up. It isn’t telegraphed and just happens out of nowhere. Even as it’s about to happen you can’t help but think “They’re not really going to eat him, are they?”

• Willow crying proves a *very* effective string to tug. When Xander’s relishing her misery from below (after hyena gang’s predator power stroll camera shot) and she’s in pieces with Buffy it turns out Willow’s pain is universal. That’s all no excuse for making such stupid choices at the end with the zookeeper, though (who wanted to eat Willow’s face?). Same goes for Giles, who realizes what’s up way too late for someone otherwise intelligent. 

1.7 Angel

• Written by David Greenwalt / Directed by Scott Brazil
• It’s easy to forget there was a time Angel being a vampire was news. How innocent. Oh, y’know I haven’t really gone into David Boreanaz as Angel. Cards on the table, I’m not a huge Angel guy. He’s more relevant and involved going forward so I’ll get to him later.
• The Three prove to be about as useful in killing Buffy as a light breeze. Yeah, Angel shows up to assist her, but The Three still drop the ball then Darla kills them all–what a waste of unlife. At least Darla gets to have a little fun. Now’s a good spot to high five Julie Benz for making Darla such a watchable presence they couldn’t help bring her back no matter how dead she might be at any given time.

• Everything with Darla carries so much more weight once you know her past (and future!) with Angel. The Buffy/Angel/Darla triangle is actually exclusive to this episode, if you think about everyone’s timelines. They each have a couple deaths under their belt with alive periods occasionally coinciding, but the showdown in the Bronze which ends with Angel staking Darla–much to her pained disbelief–is the only time these three characters overlap. Fun fact!
• Joyce is very accepting of the asinine explanation given to her by a doctor as to how her neck was punctured. A BBQ fork?

• While I’m praising watchable vampires, Mark Metalf as the Maestro–er, the Master also manages to make the most of his screen time so that whenever he briefly pops up now and again it’s a welcome sight.

1.8 I Robot, You Jane

• Written by Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden / Directed by Stephen Posey
• For such a widely considered dud episode this is pretty fun. It actually benefits from having such amusingly dated & ridiculous computer terminology and computers themselves–huge boxy things all over the place. Aside from aesthetic amusements, the Giles & Jenny banter proves a highlight. Also, meet Jenny Calendar! A technopagen whose eventual Romani backstory adds some layers that didn’t exist the first time. Also, people say things like “the net” and “e-letter.”
• There are several in-your-face kinds of errors in this one, from the two different birthdays for Buffy splashed directly in our faces to Willow’s little hand-scanner missing quite a lot of text from the Moloch book. I could go on, but the point is this isn’t the tightest episode.

• Giles isn’t off the mark with his thoughts on the internet in regards to people being manipulated by technology, human interaction becoming obsolete, and that the knowledge gained from intangible/smell-free sources is fleeting. He’s right about all of that, really, if you ask me.
• So, how long did they leave dead Dave hanging there in the computer lab? I get they had other stuff to deal with, but it didn’t appear anyone followed up on that right away. Since he dies post-Flutie but pre-Snyder do you think Dave was left out of the yearly in memoriam slideshow?

• “None of us are ever gonna have a happy, normal relationship. We’re doomed.” Quite accurate, really.
• Willow falling for Moloch as Malcolm after getting to know him online as a “person” first actually fits well with what she eventually realizes about herself. If you think about who she’s romantically interested in pre-Tara—Xander, Malcolm, and Oz–none of them are presented as very attraction-based. There’s Xander, a friend she’s known and had a childhood crush on for years, the online relationship with Malcolm, and then Oz. I’ll get to it when we get to it, but even her Oz relationship is very much born from things other than physical attraction.

1.9 The Puppet Show

• Written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali / Directed by Ellen S. Pressman
• Watching Giles’ face as he experiences the various “talents” I’m reminded of being subject to similar torturous displays over the years. If you didn’t get enough of Cordelia’s take on “The Greatest Love of All” rest assured there’ll be an encore one day in her future. It’s not received any better.
• I know he’s not in season one at all (even though he shows up in the unaired pilot), but that montage of questioning people in the talent show just doesn’t feel right without an appearance from Jonathan.

• Now’s as good a time as any–I could never get on board with “wiggins.” It’s kind of like “frak, ”shiny,” “fork you,” and other stuff of that nature where I understand the why behind each, but still can’t help roll my eyes a little whenever someone says such a thing.
• It’s fun that Principal Snyder’s debut is equal parts comedic relief (with his various comments about Flutie being eaten) and red herring in a MOTW outing. While his methods and motives are certainly questionable, he lasts longer than his predecessor so kudos.

• Morgan nearly having a mental breakdown while his oblivious teacher can’t read a room is kind of hilarious.
• Giles’ power circle isn’t exactly inspirational. He’s much better at this in Willow’s dream state.
• We’re still early on in their Scooby Gang investigations, yes, but everyone shouldn’t be dismissing Buffy’s puppet theory so quickly. A sentient murderous ventriloquist doll isn’t the strangest thing, really. The twist of Sid being a demon hunter is a nice turn of events and the whole little whodunnit winds up being fairly well executed overall. Plus enjoy Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s one and only credit scene.

1.10 Nightmares

• Written by David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon / Directed by Bruce Seth Green
• The most effective scene of the episode is easily Buffy’s father telling her the divorce was, in fact, all her fault and that he doesn’t really care for the person she’s become. A few of Buffy’s nightmares come true and while she doesn’t experience this kind of singular, crushing blow from her father, she does get the standard absentee dad who simply fades away as if he were never there.
• “A dream is a wish your heart makes” coming from the Master amidst nightmares taking over reality always lands the right mix of creepy and funny. 

• We get one Willow nightmare (the opera she can’t sing), two Xander (clown & underwear), three Giles (lost in library stacks, can’t read, Buffy dies), and five Buffy (test troubles, becoming a vampire, the Master getting out, being buried alive, and her dad effectively ending their relationship). Oh, and you aren’t “naked” if you still have underwear on, Xander.
• I wonder if the girl who was beaten while smoking in the basement found it weird at all being questioned about the incident by a tag team of New Girl & The Librarian. It’s Sunnydale, though, and other things were going on so maybe it didn’t even register.

1.11 Out of Mind, Out of Sight

• Written by Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden and Joss Whedon / Directed by Reza Badiyi
• Clea DuVall does quite well at bringing Marcie to life considering she’s only actually on-screen in a couple of flashback scenes and the role is mostly voicework. If you’ve seen Clea DuVall in anything else over the last quarter century (you probably have) then the fact she’s turned out to be a wonderful character actress should come as no surprise.
• Cordelia gets a little more fleshed out here as she and Buffy bond a bit (if you could call it that) while sharing thoughts on popularity, loneliness, and whether the effort is worth the attention. Charisma Carpenter is obviously the odd-man-out for much of this first season, but even with being on the periphery for much of the time she manages to layer Cordelia with several shades of recognizable humanity.

• Willow has a Scooby-Doo shirt in what I believe is the first overt (accidental?) nod to their spiritual sibling.
• That statistic Willow finds of the most recent missing student being six months ago doesn’t seem right. I guess it’s possible the last six months of dead students were all found and buried, but I don’t buy it. Also Willow, Xander, & Giles only survive Marcie’s attempt at murdering them because Angel fortuitously shows up. That’s some pretty good luck.
• Slayer Sense Fail: Buffy doesn’t sense Marcie at all before the quick little end fight. Also, Buffy reacts to falling through the ceiling more like a normal person than the slayer. One more–why can’t Buffy break free from a teenager loosely tying her to a crappy chair?

• I like the nod to “Have a nice summer!” being such a kiss of death. I may have written that a couple times, myself, to be honest. What else is there to say to some people?
• Harmony shows up again as one of Cordelia’s popular group long enough to get shoved down the stairs by invisible Marcie and it’s impossible not to think about the future ahead of her. That’s quite true of everyone, honestly, but I appreciate how frequently BtVS promotes from within. By that I mean how often over the show’s run characters who were once background day players, one-off villains, or perhaps even canon fodder were given the chance to become so much more.

1.12 Prophecy Girl

• Written & Directed by Joss Whedon
• Buffy’s patrolling (as it’s soon dubbed) is labelled “hunting” here and it’s odd–though Dracula would agree with that terminology. I imagine Faith would prefer the “hunting” term, too, considering how slaying makes her feel.
• Good for Willow refusing to be Xander’s pity date after the realistically disappointing let down of Buffy turning him down first. Willow has several good moments here, but of course at the top of the pile has to be the aftermath of finding the dead bodies at school. As had been previously learned, if Willow’s crying the viewer will feel it and her telling Buffy about how “It wasn’t our world anymore. They made it theirs. They had fun” hammers home to Buffy how important a duty she has.

• Also good for Giles in trying to break free from the traditional Watcher role. Even if Buffy puts a stop to his efforts with a punch to the face, the fact he chooses to face the Master shows his willingness to accept Buffy’s lead and think outside the box. Anthony Stewart Head does a nice exasperated Giles who has no patience for things like appearance or niceties when it comes to doing his best to prevent Buffy’s death.
• The “I don’t wanna die” scene still works wonderfully and feels like the emotional climax of the season. It doesn’t hurt having Sarah Michelle Gellar nail every moment she’s on screen. She’ll get *so much more* great material to make gold with in the years to come and this scene is still no slouch.

• This is easily the best episode of season one and evidence Joss Whedon and whoever else was in the writer’s room were finding the balance between drama, humor, horror, and all the other genres. Aside from the extremely cheesy in-show theme song moment and some edits that seem a little art student-esque I’d say this one fires on all cylinders. The final scene of the group breathing a sigh of relief over the Master’s bones does a good job at wrapping up the season while also leaving the viewer wanting more Scooby Gang adventures with our growing group of do-gooders.

Watching our heroes deal with all those monsters-of-the-weeks and ongoing threats as we begin Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus is only as worthwhile as it is because of the writing and performances successfully mixing fun and relatable characters framed in an exciting supernatural backdrop.

Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, & Cordelia are right there with the viewer feeling disbelief, amusement, surprise, or whatever else at the parade of strange circumstances they find themselves in regularly. That might sound easy enough, but if one watches enough TV/movies things like character consistency and recognizable human emotions become a pleasant surprise when you get them.

It helps that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, aka Buffyverse, is one in which characters get to remember all the craziness they’re involved in over the years. Unlike many shows, especially of the time or before, there isn’t a reset to status quo at the end of every week or that weird selective amnesia every character experiences where they forget whatever happened each episode that isn’t specifically part of the larger narrative.

The praying mantis lady Xander dates certainly comes up quite a few times over the years after she’s long been hacked & slashed, for instance. There’s no real reason to mention it, narratively or for any story purposes, but often a character is simply reminded of previous adventures by something from a current adventure so they speak or joke about it–as people often do.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t exclusively light & fluffy hijinks, either. Death is a fixture in Buffy’s realm right there on premiere night.

Sure, Jesse clearly isn’t long for this world since he’s the only one not in the opening credits and they don’t ever mention him again post-death (getting accidentally staked by Xander is still a good moment), but in S1 there’s also Principal Flutie’s random death at the mouths of several possessed students. While this isn’t the statement Joss Whedon was probably hoping to make by killing Jesse in the two part premiere, it helps make a little more clear people will continue to die and who knows when or how.

Buffy, of course, also dies and even if she does get better before the credits roll for the season there are several lasting effects from her experience–of both the wide-ranging and very personal variety. For instance, Buffy’s death in “Prophecy Girl” is pretty much where her relationship with her father ends–a fun fact I’ll get to next season in more detail.

As these initial 12 episodes were all made before any aired there’s almost a premiere-like quality to the whole season, for better and worse. This feeling is gone in S2 and even by the S1 finale there’s a strong sense they’re figuring out what works best.

Buffy isn’t the only character to have her moment in the sun, either, as the season progresses. Everyone gets a chance to make an impression and key the viewer into who they are a bit the more they’re involved in Scooby Gang adventures.

As the viewer learns over the course of the series, this is what makes Buffy so monumentally different and effective compared to slayers who came before her: she chooses to share her power. 

While I don’t mean she literally shares her powers/abilities with allies (…yet), what Buffy does right from the start–against standard protocols–is invite and allow willing civilians to assist in the battle against those previously mentioned forces of darkness. Buffy (and Giles) accept help from pretty much anyone who wants to lend a hand and, as is learned several times throughout the series, it’s this support system of connections that helps make a lasting difference.

Eventually we get a glimpse of what life is like for Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and Sunnydale as a whole if Buffy never moved to Sunnydale. It’s not pleasant, to say the least, and while we’ll get to that I do think it helps make clear it isn’t just Buffy who saves everyone–they constantly save each other. Everyone benefits from willing participants having a seat at the table, turns out.

Instead of being a rube oblivious to the dangers of the real world or falling victim to things that go bump in the night without ever even having a chance, there was now the option to push back for those who need to act. We all die someday, of course, but why go down without giving 100%? Buffy acknowledged her journey might end in a nondescript sewer while at the same time refusing to accept what was written and continuing to do things on her terms. 

What can I say? She flunked the written.

Hopefully you enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus part one and next time we begin season two, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes the transition to genuine pop culture phenomenon. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus

In the meantime, feel like testing your BtVS bonafides? Try answering these trivia questions from a 50 question quiz I made many, many moons ago while counting down the moments until next week’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus – Season 2 Pt 1. It’s hard to believe I once knew *all* this stuff off the top of my head instead of roughly half–and don’t just Google it, that’s no fun.

1. What was the real Natalie French’s street address?
2. Who was the friend from work Buffy invited to her (never-ending) 21st birthday party?
3. What movie did Buffy and Angel see when afterwards she asked if he’d like “some hot chocolate or some cold shower”?