My Buffy/Angel rewatch 2009

I bought the full series box set of Buffy nearly a year ago now, having previously bought the Angel box sets. I never really got round to watching the Buffy DVD’s only watching a few episodes here and there.

I really wanted to do a re-watch of both shows, start to finish and I’ve finally started to do so. I’m going to watch them together, meaning Buffy s1-3 first than Buffy s4-7 and Angel s1-4 alternating and finally finishing off with Angel s5. Hopefully, providing I don’t lose interest in doing so, I’ll be doing mini-reviews of each episode and then a season review once I’m done with each season.

There’ll probably be quite a few spoilers in the reviews as this is a re-watch and not my first time round but hopefully they’ll be enjoyable.

Here are my reviews for the first lot of episodes:

1.01 Welcome to The Hellmouth

More enjoyable than I remember, a great introduction to all the characters, apart from Angel (who we see very little of) and Darla, all of the characters seem pretty much the same here as they do later in the show.

Great opening teaser. Although it doesn't feature Buffy, it starts the trend of turning horror movie clichés on their head (the blond girl being the vamp not the sleazy guy).

Great cliff-hanger ending as well, (Luke about to bite Buffy). I think the episode was originally aired as a two-parter but its just as enjoyable own its own. (7.5/10)

1.02 The Harvest

Buffy's first end of the world. There was a lot from this episode than I remembered and again it was a lot more enjoyable than I thought. It’s an extremely well plotted pilot episode(s); we learnt pretty much everything we need to know about the characters, Sunnydale and vampire lore. The thing with Jesse was an especially good introduction to vampires and who they truly are. However both Angel and Darla are quite annoying compared to their later selves. (7.5/10)

1.03 Witch

The first 'monster' of the week storyline and a very good one. Considering the importance of witchcraft later on in the show, retrospectively its fitting for the first weekly story to be a witchcraft one. I liked the suspense and doubling back of the storyline (first Amy's a witch, then its her mother!) It’s also the first time the Scoobies and Giles worked together properly which is always fun. A great a really creepy ending as well. (The mother being trapped in the statue) (7.5/10)

1.04 Teacher's Pet

One of Buffy's more gross episodes; I'm really not a fan of bugs so this isn't my favourite episode. Still I liked it being Xander centric, focussing on his crush on Buffy. I also really enjoyed Buffy, Willow and Giles working together (even though the whole thing was pretty obvious from the get-go) and Angel's appearances- though given what we know about him later why couldn't he have defeated the fork vamp himself?? I guess that’s another difference in the early characterisation on Angel, which deeply changed as the show went on. (5.5/10)