Techtite DVD Reviews

The Film: The first minutes of this series set the mood nicely. An innocent blonde girl is being led to a quiet area of the high school at night, much to her apprehension. Oh, I know, thinks the viewer; this is the typical first scene of a thriller, where the guy turns out to be a mad killer or something. Not so; no sooner does the young boy turn around, then he sees the girl is a vampire. Surprise!

Such scenes are typical for a series created by Joss Whedon, who always felt sad for the innocent teen girl who'd get attacked in the first 5 minutes of every thriller film. What if such an apparently "innocent" little girl wasn't so weak after all? Better yet, what if a certain other teen girl had inherent super strength, and lured monsters to their unsuspecting defeat? This darkly comical premise resulted in a cult hit film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Trouble is, Joss had little Hollywood muscle at the time, and in the process his vision was taken, edited, revised, and sugar-coated to be what Hollywood thought would sell better to larger demographics. Of course, they had no clue what they were doing, so the movie tanked...yet the original vision still stuck in the minds of Warner Bros., who needed a unique series for their then-new WB network. They gave Joss complete creative control to make a TV series, based on his original vision. The end result was the first big success for the network, and one of the best thriller series ever conceived for TV.

This collection is the first season; a mid-season, 12-episode saga, setting the stage for Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the not-so-sunny Sunnydale High she's transferred to after the film's events (which, for better or worse, the series picks up from). She soon learns that the school librarian, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), is a "Watcher," assigned as her mentor by a group who have trained all vampire slayers for several millennia. She also meets friends like the wallflower Willow (Allyson Hannigan), the self-absorbed Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and Xander (Nicholas Brendan), who has a very big crush on Buffy. She's also introduced to Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire who was cursed by gypsies long ago to retain his human soul, so he could forever feel the guilt of what he's done. He decides to atone for his past by helping Buffy in her quest to fight the evil forces at work here.

Even better for a series like this is, quite surprisingly, the writing. Action films and TV series rarely have much in the way of dialogue; by comparison, this series' witty one-liners are its best trait. Fans can often recite some of their favorite funny one-liners, like when Buffy in the series pilot nearly stakes Cordelia thinking she's a vampire sneaking up on her, only to have Cordy say, "What is your childhood trauma?" When Giles in the same pilot episode goes on and on about his knowledge of vampires, Buffy muses, "What, did you get the whole Time/Life series?" "Um, yes," muses Giles. "Did you get the free clock with that?" "No, the calendar." Amusing repartee like this is rarely seen in TV series of this type, and it's another welcome addition for fans.

The best part of Buffy, though, is that each season's saga is individual, with a "main" villain that is always defeated by the season finale...with either poignant or victorious consequences as a result. Much like any well staged serial, while there are small villains to defeat, there is one "super villain" which the whole season centers on. In season one, this super villain is a super vampire, who is trapped in a mystical barrier underneath the city, and continuously attempts to break free. Unlike other series which would have this villain undefeated until the series finale, this finite storyline ends in 12 episodes...namely, the 12 episodes in this DVD set! This makes for a very complete "collection"; one that doesn't leave you hanging with an open ended cliffhanger (which even X Files' season 1 and season 2 DVD sets leave you hanging with...even if I did indeed buy both of those, too!). Furthermore, every character's past is explained in some way here, making it easy for newcomers to the series to get up to speed.

So, how are the episodes themselves? For anyone who likes dark comedy in their thrillers, a la Evil Dead 2, there is no substitute. While I can't summarize all 12 here, I can mention my favorites. The forbidden love story between Angel (a vampire cursed with a soul) and Buffy (a vampire slayer) is explained via "Angel." In "Puppet Master," the gang finds themselves up against the biggest fear of high school; being cast in the school talent show...where a ventriloquist dummy may or may not be a monstrous killer. Of course, the best episodes bookmark the season, via the two-part prologue of "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest," and the gripping finale, "Prophesy Girl," where it is foretold the slayer who comes up against the super-vampire will be killed. Buffy's reactions to this news are so natural and well acted, you'll wonder why Sarah Michelle Gellar has yet to receive an Emmy nomination for this exceptional role.

Of course, the most well acted, classic, and poignant episodes are in the second season, which will be released a few months after this one. Not to spoil it for non-watchers, though let's just say the second season was to this series what Empire Strikes Back was to Star Wars. While this comparison portrays this first season as a "Star Wars" of sorts, well...why not? It is truly an exceptional series, that I recommend wholeheartedly to any fan of the vampire-thriller genre, or those who just like a good dark comedy.

The DVD: The resounding cheers of seeing this series offered on DVD, is followed by some questions as to why there are so few extras at all. Come on, guys; this is a mere 12 episodes, on three discs! Couldn't they have sweetened the deal a little, with a fourth disc of extras, or widened the discs to have less episodes on each disc, though more extras per episode? Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Disc one has the typical trailer (though it would've been nice if it was the original TV spots, not the commercial for the DVD itself!), plus DVD-ROM features that offer a screen saver and a web site link. Joss Whedon offers a few minutes of video time to give anecdotes about the pilot episode, though this is the same interview segment that was offered on VHS, nearly three years ago. Likewise for the additional 3 minute video clip, interviewing David Boreanaz and Joss Whedon (which, if memory serves, was offered in the three-tape VHS set called "The Buffy/Angel Chronicles"). There's also an audio commentary available from Joss Whedon, for the series premiere, though 1) it would've been nicer if Sarah Michelle Gellar was on hand as well, and 2) such commentary should've been available for at least one more episode...like, say, the season finale. I was impressed by one disc-one addition, though; you're offered the chance to read, on screen, segments of the original script for the two-part series premiere.

Discs two and three are even more sparse of extras. Disc two has little more than a "photo gallery" and a video interview by Joss about the episodes "The Witch" and "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" (which, again, was offered in the VHS collections some years back). Likewise for Disc three, which has only typical biographies of the stars, plus more video interviews by Joss for "Angel" and "The Puppet Show." (again; while nice, they are hardly DVD exclusives!).

Maybe the upcoming season two set will have more extras; it deserves them. After all, that was the series first "full" season, with all the cast in their roles to the fullest. It was also when Boreanaz and Gellar were given their fullest acting demands in the series, with Angel becoming the evil Angelus again, and Buffy coming to terms with possibly having to slay him before they're able to make him "good" again. Regardless, this is the season that started it all, and even if it's only 12 episodes, on three discs, it's more than worth preserving on a DVD shelf.

	Final Rating : Large Crater. Admittedly, the series did not truly pick up speed until its superior season 2. However, this is how it all began. Cool!
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Techtite's DVD Reviews!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

The Complete First Season

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