Buffy - Season 2 discussion

[Brian G Turner]

Well, Season 1 of Buffy was interesting enough to want to continue, but Season 2 has really opened up and added more depth and interest to the series. Spike has made for a wonderful villain so far, and so much more interesting than The Master. Also interesting to see additional characters come up who have the potential for repeat appearances.

Think we're about to watch episode 12, but there have already been some really strong episodes so far. And the character development is coming on very nicely indeed.

 

[picklematrix]

Yh they really didn't even try to flesh out the Master. Nevermind though, the antagonists going forward are all a lot more interesting.

 

[Hugh]

I loved the way Spike just got rid of "The Anointed One" early on. I was fully expecting the Anointed to be there for the duration of the series, when suddenly...

 

[Bugg]

I'm biting my tongue so as not to accidentally spoil anything. But yeah. Can't wait to hear your reaction to the rest of the season.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Spike's my favourite character.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Well, knowing that Angel had a spin-off series, when it came to Angel being threatened in a two-parter I thought little of it. He obviously lives, so I didn't embrace the tension.

And then - of course - something very different happens. As JMS, who wrote Babylon 5, said "Sometimes changing a character is worse than killing them." And, OMG, Angel.

The tension over the previous few episodes has been building up, but last night we watched the episode where Angel confronted Jennifer, the computer teacher. And all I can say is, OMG.

This is really good stuff - it's a shame we didn't watch this earlier.

 

[Overread]

I did a binge of Buffy recently so yeah there's some big moments that start happening in the series now. I think the Master got under-developed because season 1 was still sort of inching toward "monster of the week" whilst Season 2 they fully embrace the ideal of longer term story arcs. Also watch out for the "jovial" episodes. An interesting thing is that some of the more amusing - almost comic relief- episodes actually contain some of the biggest plot elements for several of the characters.

Spike is also great fun in general in the series!

 

[Hugh]

This is really good stuff - it's a shame we didn't watch this earlier.

Ah, but what a treat to be watching it now....

 

[Bugg]

The tension over the previous few episodes has been building up, but last night we watched the episode where Angel confronted Jennifer, the computer teacher. And all I can say is, OMG.

And to think that when Sky, in all their infinite wisdom, first aired the show they dumped it from the schedules after Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered which, IIRC, is the episode prior to this one.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I've finished watching Season 3, but I still think Season 2 was actually the better - it had a couple of real OMG story moments where the least expected suddenly happened (Angel's meeting with the computer teacher, and Buffy's confrontation with Angel at the end).

Shame we didn't put this on before, but the whole family is really enjoying it now. And what's even better is that it is aimed at a family audience - if this was made today on Netflix or Amazon Prime it would have been filled with sex and blood for shock value, rather than the plot and characters that makes it work.

 

[Bugg]

True, although I thought Season 3 was the most consistent season overall. Plus it had Doppelgangland. And The Zeppo. And Earshot. And Faith

 

[Overread]

One of the neat things is that as the series advanced it got a bit darker and matured a little; so when it was originally aired it had that effect of "growing up" with its audience a little. The subseries Angel also had a few darker moments within it.



In fairness I've been watching Supernatural and that's probably as close to a modern Buffy as you'd get, even tough Supernatural is a more male instead of female character focus and the script isn't as serious (there's a lot more filler episodes for "monster of the week" which really feel like filler inbetween big story events).

 

[thaddeus6th]

Season 2 was the first one I saw all the way through. And, as a Spike fan, it's perhaps my favourite season too, though it's been some time since I watched Buffy.