Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Season 1 Wrap Up

So here we already at the end of the first season which isn’t surprising that its flown by so quickly especially considering that the show was a mid season filler and such only given a half season order of thirteen episodes, only to of course far succeed what anyone expected from the show and while many fans will often look to the later seasons when getting nostalgic about the show, it’s been a pleasant surprise to be reminded during this revisit of how many good episodes this first season had.

Okay so we had kind of a shaky start with the first three episodes (two of which made up the pilot) but by episode four “Teacher’s Pet” the show really started to find its way as the writers finally figured out how to write the show it seemed. The writers quickly finding the perfect blend of horror and humour which really made the show what it was and no doubt the reason it has never lost its popularity and perhaps the reason that producer David Greenwalt’s “Grimm” never gained the kind of popularity that this show had and unquestionably still has, even though as I write this “Grimm” has been confirmed as returning for a fifth season.

The other strength of the show is easily in the casting with Sarah Michelle Gellar really carrying the show, while receiving great support from the rest of the cast. Nicholas Brendon already knowing how to deliver a great one liner, while Alyson Hannigan is fun as the shy and retiring Willow she is at this point and a far cry from how irritating she would become in later seasons for those of us not being distracted by all the sexy lesbian witch antics. This always seems to be the case though for Hannigan, who somehow manages to turn her characters into the show biggest irritance the longer she plays them, but at least for now she is still fun to watch.

While the Scoobie gang at this point might be small in number, let alone far from the super powered group they would later become, the group still worked well with Willow and Xander chasing after Buffy and generally stumbling their way through these early threats while Buffy handled the slaying duties. That being said by the end of the season we can already see the group starting to grow with Giles breaking away from his books to show off his monster fighting skills, while Cordellia ,Techo-Pagan Jenny and Vampire with a heart Angel joining the ranks and helping to bring more balance to our core trio.

At the same time the monster of the week format that run throughout this season really keeps things interesting especially when the supposed big evil, the Vampire king “The Master” was kind of a non-event while certainly not helped by spending the whole series until the finale trapped in his lair. Yes he has some great moments which makes it less of an issue when he started making cameos later in the series aswell as on “Angel”. However as a threat he frequently seemed to be lacking something which I could never and still couldn’t place exactly.

So now looking forward to season 2 with the show having laid a strong foundation with this first season, the show really starts to get into its stride with the introduction of two major vampires Spike and Drusilla, a new slayer and most exciting the introduction of werewolf Oz! On the downside it is a season packed with romantic complications especially between Buffy and Angel whose relationship will prove to be one of the central plots of the next season something which was a source of much endless discussion for my female friends who watched the show which no doubt was the reason that it was one of my least favourite aspects of the season ahead….still lets not dwell on such things and end this instead by just enjoying Buffy rocking those sunglasses!