antennapedia

Ah, so I'm not the only one who came to it late! I found it in 04, and promptly spent way more than I care to recall on all the box sets :)

I did the math and figured out that the Chosen box was the cheapest way to get the whole thing, even though it gave us two copies of season 1. I can always give season 1 away some day, after all! To share the addiction!

I, too, find a profound joy in shiny, innocent Scoobies and a curvy Buffy. Seeing Giles' excitement in facing a brand new sort of menace never ceases to enchant me. And the flappy cuffs! I was beginning to think I was the only one who adored Giles' cuffs flapping in the wind. He was just so...Gilesy then.

I got into Buffy late as well, just after watching the School Reunion episode of Doctor Who and being intrigued, as Buffy was obviously the source material. I still love the show and am thrilled that it's being continued in the comic books.

Tony Head was deliciously evil in "School Reunion". Mmm.

Cuffs! Cuff love! I thought nobody else had noticed!

And you can't forget the collar that was always askew--one side tucked in and one side sticking out. Had to be on purpose.

I love that icon. That's so him.

It's our two year Buffy anniversary as well. We spent the entire Christmas week watching the show nonstop. It was one the best vacations we'd had in a long time.

We were watching at the same time! Eee! Though not quite-- we did most of our watching in the month of January.

I think S1 Buffy was arguably the best. The story arc was well thought out, the characters weren't the obnoxious people they turned into by S7, Giles was a complete hottie, and the monsters were great. There was no Dawn, no lame-ass potentials, no Andrew, Joyce was still alive and clueless, and I really liked Principal Flutie. I'm not saying that the other seasons didn't have tons of fantastic stuff in them, but for setting up the story, building empathy for the characters, falling in love with the concept, season one has my vote. I've never seen another show that captured its audience quite so completely, ever before or since. I watched Buffy from the time the movie came out. I was overjoyed when I found out they were making it into a television show. It was so new and different and so completely cool. It really was a phenomenon and I don't think we will ever see innovation like we did with that show again.

Principal Flutie was a hoot. Though I am also very fond of Snyder and his ears.

Season 1 has the sensawunda going for it. You only get that once, and ooooooh, it's sweet while it lasts.

Principal Flutie was a hoot. Though I am also very fond of Snyder and his ears.

That's the kind of woolly-headed, liberal thinking that leads to being eaten! ;-)

Wow, I miss both those characters. I also rather liked the way Giles especially interacted with Snyder.

That line slaughtered us. We loved Snyder from that moment on, as we were intended to love him. In a hating sort of way, mind you.

Armin Shimmerman's stock in trade is playing characters one inevitably loves in a hating sort of way. It's not just Quark or Snyder; I think I may even have seen him in a similar role in some otherwise mediocre show like "Charmed".

I second the motion. I only started watching after the series finale when friends were discussing it at work.

The classic seasons (1-3) will always be my favorite.

Part of it is that only season 5 approached the awesomeness that was the season 2-3 arc. And no baddie was ever as bad as the Mayor. Yay for Jimmy Stewart gone horribly evil!

I have still to see season 1 and 2. I remember when the series came on tv over here in NZ, I thought, "god that sounds like crap", so never watched it. Then I get addicted to it, probably still my number one fandom, and have kicked myself all this time about not seeing the first two seasons.

I have season 2 box set on order, so waiting patiently for that, must remember to ring tomorrow and nag them into getting it.

Oh my goodness. There is so much good stuff in Season 2, including the series of episodes that turned me into a raving fan instead of just a plain fan.

We started Buffy late as well. I think it was during season six that we accidentally caught OMWF at a friend's house, and didn't quite understand why he was so excited. Then the next semester we had to catch the ghastly early train to Boston, and it was only those FX re-runs that got us up in the mornings on time. I think we started in around season four (randomly), right when Giles was transitioning to the jeans and sweatshirt look.

Mind you, seeing the episodes out of order and edited was confusing, so we bought the DVDs as soon as we could.

Television is a terrible way to watch television. DVDs are so much better. SO much better. Think about what Fox did to Firefly. Out of order, some eps not broadcast, pre-emptions, irregular schedules-- it takes dedication to watch a show and make some sense of it. And then once you're watching, commercials every ten seconds, overlays on the picture, more ads during the programming itself... Awful.