Every few months I try watching this show, but never get past more than 30 minutes. It’s just awful. I honestly don’t understand how any adult can like this. The dialogue is banal and forced. The acting is stilted and fake. It’s all so perplexing. This is really no better than Charmed or Beverly Hills 90210.
Can someone explain it? I’d seriously like to enjoy this show since it’s such a fan favorite, but I don’t see the appeal.
Agreed. I’ve seen a couple of episodes (a friend was obsessed), and I found them cheesy and stupid. It’s like a bad soap opera, but with melodramatic vampires. To each their own, I suppose, but I found it painful to sit through (but fun to ridicule).
Edit: I guess I can understand why it appeals to girls, though - it’s all relationship drama and 90210-esque plotlines, and I guess it’s cool that girls will watch supernatural vampire stuff. And really, the only people I’ve known who are into that show are girls and gay guys. I suppose I’m just not the target audience.
I actually agree I missed the whole Buffy phase and have tried to watch episodes but banal certainly seems to fit. SMG is a charisma vacuum as well.
I can see it appealing to kids and teenagers. But so much of the fanbase is made up of adults And not just geeks, but bonafide critics as well.
Perhaps I’m missing something. Is the Willow character supposed to be mildly retarded? She talks like it. And I watched a scene where she was actually afraid to walk off her high school campus on her last day of school because she was afraid it was a trick and she would be grabbed and pulled back to school for four more years. And she wasn’t joking. I just don’t get it.
All of my friends (males in their late 20s to early 30s) love this show. But I’m with you guys; I just don’t get it. While I don’t think the show is terrible, it really isn’t anything special, but if you listen to some people (like Herc from AICN) it’s the greatest thing to ever happen to television. To me, though, anorexic chicks beating the crap out of vampires while spouting off atrocious post-modern dialogue does not a great show make.
Now, while I do dig Firefly and the first story arc of Astonishing X-Men (that’s the only arc I’ve read so far), I’m afraid I go against the grain in my appraisal of Joss Whedon. Most people hail him as some sort of writing god or a creative genius, but personally I think he’s “just okay” at best.
But then that’s just my opinion, and what do I know.
Willow had a rough time in high school…she’s a bookish type, and High School is not kind to those types.
I agree on Gellar. I watched the show despite her…for the other characters.
I much prefer Angel, though.
I could never get into Buffy, and I just watched the first disc of the Firefly set, and I think I know what it is about Whedon that irks me a bit – every character he writes is the wittiest person in the world. They always have the right quip or truism available. Nobody has a conversation, they have one-liner competitions to see who can be the cleverest. Now Sorkin often did the same thing, but there’s a difference between writing highly educated White House staff (most of whom work in communications) and writing high school kids and space pirates.
Yeah, i have that same gripe with Gilmore Girls.
Yeah and when they have a quip that doesn’t work, the person comes off as being mentally handicapped. Angel is a better show, but still the rough dialogue is still there.
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| Originally Posted by BobClark Charmed |
At least charmed has the lovely Ms. Milano going for it.
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| Originally Posted by BobClark Yeah, i have that same gripe with Gilmore Girls. |
See… I don’t have a problem with Gilmore Girls. Lorelai Gilmore’s background sets her up to be that way. Rory is simply following her lead. They are the only two that really push the wittiness.
Right there with you on the lack of Buffy love though.
Wow, more then 10 posts in and still not one Whedonite threating to have our sacks cut. As for the show itself, I hear that you have to get to season 2 and that 1 was indeed sub-par. The problem is I’m a completest and every time I try to make it through season 1, I get really bored at the dialouge and the crap effects that I wind up putting it on the shelf. Maybe sometime I’ll make it, but not anytime soon.
…
I am …
SHOCKED at this thread.
I respect that people don’t like some things.. but seriously, this is one of the best shows that came on the air ever. Angel is slightly higher in my books but it might have faultered if it went to 7 seasons (but I would have loved to have taken the journey).
I have yet to meet someone who has sat down, watched all of the episode in season one, in order, and not falled in love with the show. I showed it to my wife, someone who was not a fan and MOCKED the show and me for watching it. I sat her down and said here.. watch it, it really is good stuff. She did… and then I had to buy the next season so she could see that (we’re up to season 5 however I’ve seen every episode).
The show is 90210ish, I will give it that. However it was so much more. It had a good sense of what High School was like, to be the nerdy bookworm geek(willow), the unpopular goof off (Xander) the popular clique cheerleader(Cordillia) and the new kid, feeling out of place(Buffy). It took all off those types and made a great show topped off with some great adult actors who just made you BELIEVE dispite the silly premise of vampires, demons, werewolves and human hienas(sp). The conflicts were always about an internal issue going on, a strife that meched with the storyline. Also it probably was the first show I noticed that had a whole season long storyline, a thread that slowly built to a climactic conclusion each and every season. There was fallout too, that was probably the downfall of the show in its later seasons. They couldn’t have a character DIE and just have the next episode as ho humm.. they had continuity, something that every show could use.
If you tuned into one episode and just thought it was plain old stupid, I get that… because the continuity of the show made it at time, hard to just tune in and watch, probably why the DVD sales have been so great. I strongly recommend that if you think the show is stupid and just don’t get it, go to netflix join up, check out the first seasons DVD’s and watch them in order and if it isn’t your cup of tea, well then you’ve at least given it a fair shake. Note, it only got better in season 2 and 3.
Apparently this thread should be “Join me in not liking Buffy”. I am a fan of the show, but not a diehard. I don’t have convincing argument other than once you get past season 1, it does gets better; with season 3 being my favorite.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t take the show very seriously. I just watched it to have fun, see some vampire and demons and stare at SMG. I agree that the show probably isn’t for everyone, but then again neither is Lost, or Alias, or Desperate Housewives, or SG-1, or Night Court.
Edit: I am a 30 year old man
Edit #2: Die hard fans who defend this show to the death scare me
I seriously doubt anything anyone brings up in this thread would convince BC (or anyone else) to change their mind about the way they feel about the show.
I think the episodes I saw were either season 3 or 4, and they were terrible. Like a high school play, or Saved by the Bel. A bunch of 30-year-old high school kids spouting hip dialogue, and then it cuts to some goth vampires wringing their hands together and talking about ruling the world.
The worst part was that one guy friend of Buffy’s, the class clown goofy dipshit. Every one of his lines was some smart-assed and unfunny attempt at humor, and I wanted very badly for him to die.
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| Originally Posted by myPandaNY … It had a good sense of what High School was like, to be the nerdy bookworm geek(willow), the unpopular goof off (Xander) the popular clique cheerleader(Cordillia) and the new kid, feeling out of place(Buffy). It took all off those types and made a great show topped off with some great adult actors who just made you BELIEVE dispite the silly premise of vampires, demons, werewolves and human hienas(sp). |
Nope. I saw beautiful, hip kids exchanging humorous quips and jokes. The outcasts I knew looked like, well, me. Check out Freaks & Geeks for a good portrayal of high school misanthropes. This was more like geek wish fullfillment where the “outcasts” are painted as pretty people with magic powers. Again, I can see why this appeals to kids.
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| If you tuned into one episode and just thought it was plain old stupid, I get that… because the continuity of the show made it at time, hard to just tune in and watch… Note, it only got better in season 2 and 3. |
I watched at least five and I’m pretty sure they were all from the middle to late in the series. It was the trite dialogue and high school theater level performances I choked on, not continuity problems.
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| Originally Posted by Martianman I seriously doubt anything anyone brings up in this thread would convince BC (or anyone else) to change their mind about the way they feel about the show. |
I doubtthat as well. I’m just trying to understand why it appeals to other adults.
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| Originally Posted by BobClark Nope. I saw beautiful, hip kids exchanging humorous quips and jokes. The outcasts I knew looked like, well, me. Check out Freaks & Geeks for a good portrayal of high school misanthropes. This was more like geek wish fullfillment where the “outcasts” are painted as pretty people with magic powers. Again, I can see why this appeals to kids. I watched at least five and I’m pretty sure they were all from the middle to late in the series. It was the trite dialogue and high school theater level performances I choked on, not continuity problems. |
Well more power to you, I dig the show because it was some fine writing, had a super hot chick that I would have gladly slept with and some fine storytelling not to mention some cool fight’s for a weekly show.
Note I am 29. And everyone I know that likes the show is around my age or older.
ehhh.. with the exception of my now converted wife who is 21.
further edit… the sleeping with part was BEFORE I was married.. yeah… gotta throw that disclaimer in there or I might be Bobbitized.
I’ve never seen one episode of that show. I can’t stand the whore-bitch who plays Buffy. I’ve never seen Charmed, Gilmore Girls, or Angel. When I do watch TV I watch Family guy. Now THAT is a real TV show.