Whenever “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has come up in nerdy conversations, I always got a pretty big gasp when I admitted that I’d never watched the show. I had nothing against it or anything, I just never got into it. The show debuted in 1997, which was my senior year of high school, a period of my life when I started to shy away from some of my geekier leanings (I opted for a car over a Nintendo 64, for example.) Of course I have since come to my senses and embraced my nerdy ways, but still the whole Buffy issue just sort of slipped through the cracks.

Well, a few weeks ago, a friend decided it was time to correct this issue, and he lent me the first few seasons on DVD. He told me that Season One was pretty cheesy and the special effects were atrocious, and that I could skip right to Season Two if I wanted. I said that if I was going to do this thing, I would do it all the way through, and start from the very beginning with Season One.

I even watched the original movie.

I won’t talk too much about the movie, as it was pretty awful. It certainly wasn’t a good horror flick, and it fell flat as a parody as well. Maybe it could be considered camp, but I think that’s even a bit of a stretch. Kristy Swanson’s a babe, but that’s about as much as I can find in terms of a redeeming quality for the movie.

On to Season One of the TV show. My friend was right – it is pretty hokey. The first thing I noticed was that the show was filmed in <shudder> full screen. Now that’s a scary thought, but I guess that was just how TV shows were made way back in 1997. Then there’s the show’s open. It doesn’t just have credits, it begins with a voice-over explaining what the Slayer is, then there’s a little bit of show, THEN comes the cheesy theme song, complete with screeching guitar riff, a black cat jumping into camera, and a vat of witches’ brew complete with bubbling sound effects. Yikes.

Moving on to the story, the show quickly sets up the premise that their town is on a “Hellmouth,” which conveniently explains why there is a never-ending stream of vampires, demons, and other miscellaneous bad guys for Buffy to fight every week. The show also quickly establishes that there is a larger mythology to the show that will be explored throughout the season/series, but that there will also be standalone episodes mixed in. This is a formula that X-Files made famous, and many other shows (Smallville et al) have used as well. Although the monsters of the week in the first season of Buffy are not particularly surprising: a witch, a dummy, an ignored girl who wants revenge on the cool kids, etc. These are all sort of staples from the horror-genre, but Buffy usually provides enough of a twist on these themes to make them unique.

And of course, what WB show would be complete without the usual high school drama, the teen angst, and of course, the love triangles? Willow loves Xander! Xander loves Buffy! Buffy loves Angel! But having Angel be a vampire adds an interesting Romeo/Juliet twist to their back-and-forth, which is a nice touch.

So Season One wasn’t amazing, so what, I was warned, right? Besides, despite the cheesiness factor, it was still entertaining, and I’m curious to see what happens to these characters as the show progresses. I’ll continue to post with thoughts on the show as I make my way through the seasons. Oh, and one final question: I know that Angel spun off after the third season – will I lose anything by watching Buffy straight through and then Angel, or do I have to watch them concurrently, like they aired?