Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2: Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest
Welcome to the HellmouthWritten by Joss Whedon; Directed by Charles Martin Smith
The Harvest
Written by Joss Whedon; Directed by John T. Kretchmer
I took my own advice from my previous post and watched the two-part series premiere of Buffy, with commentary by creator and writer Joss Whedon. I've watched these two episodes a few times (although, as far as I can recall, I've only watched the rest of the season once) and my opinions of them remain pretty much unchanged: they're okay, but they clearly have a long way to go. As anyone who has seen the unaired pilot can confirm (and if you haven't seen it, you should definitely seek it out - it's hilarious, with some chubby girl who can't act playing Willow), it was made by a crew who didn't seem to have a very good idea of what they were doing. Couple that with an extremely limited budget, and the result is that, more often than not, it comes across as cheap and tacky.
At the same time, though, there's much to like. As someone whose most recent recollections of the show come from the unpleasant Seasons 6 and 7, it's a pleasure to watch the core group of Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles actually behaving in character and indeed even interacting as if they actually like each other. Also, there is some nice atmospheric camerawork that seems to be pretty much thrown by the wayside as the series continues. Oh, and non-gay Willow. How weird is that?
I'm going to give these two episodes each a 6/10, with a tentative 6 for the season overall (although that might change once I've watched the whole thing again). I'm not sure if I'll continue to rate every single episode - ask me again this time next week when I take a look at... shudder... The Witch.
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