Hey, I could have live-blogged the first episode of season five of House (which was awesome) but I had to record it because it's on ridiculously early here in the wholesome midwest.
And I didn't watch The Biggest Loser, either, even though last year at this time I was live-blogging about the man-boobs, or moobs.
So now I'm catching up with the 1990s, a period of time when I was either working on a Ph.D. or having babies and was basically too busy and/or brain-dead to watch a lot of television. I remember watching Northern Exposure and Third Rock from the Sun. And there was always MST3K. But I've never watched Buffy.
Not even one episode.
I know, right? The show that everyone says is the best show ever, and I've never seen it. Until now. Episode 1, Season 1 is playing--via Flixter--in a different window while I blog this.
So now you're dying to hear my reaction to this amazing cultural icon, right?
OK. I hate to say it, but horror is really not my thing. Call me crazy, but I tend to get creeped out by it. However, I'm a fairly adaptable curmudgeon, and I figure I'll get used to it. Vampires are way trendy right now. Again. I mean, they're sort of a classic ... Bela Lugosi, Dark Shadows, Anne Rice novels, Twilight ... it seems every decade has its vampire story.
But the Buffy seems so sort of ... well, simultaneously gory and stupid that I'm mostly watching the clothes.
I mean, come on, teenaged girls with pants that go all the way up to their waists? What could be more fascinating? They couldn't be more exotic if they were wearing Gibson Girl shirtwaists or bobby socks and poodle skirts.
So tell me. What's your take on Buffy?
Once the show reaches its stride, it's amazing. The first two seasons are very well-written, but have their cheesiness. If you can get past it, you should enjoy it, and the third-fifth seasons are almost perfect.
ReplyDeleteNever
ReplyDeleteseen
it.
I'm with bb. It started at a point in time when I was all Sarah-Michelle-Gellared out.
ReplyDeleteUm, yep. Never watched it. SMG (or Smidge, as the Fug girls call her) will always be Erica Kane's daughter to me.
ReplyDeleteI liked the movie, though.
Missed all of the 90's, myself. Someday I'm going to get the DVD set of Seinfeld and see what the fuss was all about.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the first season or two but my neighbor kept pestering me so I watched for a few weeks - and was totally hooked. Avitable is right..definite moments of cheesy. But overall? Excellent show.
ReplyDeleteYou have to keep watching it to be sucked into the Buffyverse, I believe.
ReplyDeleteNever saw it. And, I'm with you on horror generally. Not my thing.
ReplyDeleteFA
I'm further behind this curve than you are. I also never saw the film, although Kristy Swanson, the actress who played her in the film, was the object of a very inappropriate crush on my part.
ReplyDelete-J.
I loved the show - the cultural references are hilarious. When the show hits its stride is when they start poking fun at themselves (scoobies).
ReplyDeleteIt makes me wonder if there was a hellmouth somewhere near my high school.
Fiddledeedee
Buffy is absolutely awesome. It is smart, funny, moody, intelligent (cheesy sometimes) and not really all that scary. I adored it beginning to end, although my interest flagged a bit near the end, I caught it all later on re runs. Definitely worth a watch, in order if you can. I even have the book, "What Would Buffy Do" by a woman with a Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton and a PhD in religion from Columbia so it must be important, right? Buffy is truly one of my all time favorites.
ReplyDeleteMy take? I learned that while Team Testosterone and I were at church on Tuesday nights, Mr. D was a die hard fan. It was all about the pretty girl for that fan.
ReplyDeleteBuffy took a lot of their material from an earlier (and I think much better) vampire series called Forever Knight. I have the first two seasons of Forever Knight on dvd, but none of Buffy, if that says anything.
ReplyDeleteI've actually been to the town where Northern Exposure was filmed. It's a little town in Washington State called Roslyn. The show's producers put a lot of money into the town's infrastructure, so they had a good relationship with their hosts.
One of our favorite shows ever. Once you get to know the characters, they play around with them marvelously. Very witty. "Hush," in season 4, is both genuinely scary and funny, and not a word is spoken through most of the show.
ReplyDeleteBut the best tv show ever, at least on American tv, was The Wire. Which most people never even heard of, let alone saw. (It ended last year.) Just last week I met someone at a party who is in the middle of it, and he just about fell over raving about it. "Best show ever," he said. Every year I send my sister the latest season on DVD: "Best show ever." The problem with it is it's complex and dark, so some folks who try it can't stick with it. But for the rest of us, it's incredibly rewarding.