Buffy Season One

Josh Whedon's flagship series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a wonderful series. Over the course of seven seasons, Joss and company have fleshed out wonderful mythologies and created memorable characters. Unfortunately, most of that happened after season one. Only 13 episodes long, season one is the shortest and easily the weakest of the 7 seasons. the first few episodes are unremarkable but necessary in order to understand the main characters. What sets this series apart from most other tv shows is the careful attention to characterization and dialogue, traces of which can be picked up even in the early episodes. For the most part, Buffy and the gang battle a different monster every week (including a robot and a giant praying mantis woman, I'm not kidding you), and it's pretty ho-hum for the first half of the season. Around episode 7, however, you start to see the method to the madness. At 13 episodes, it's a short neough season where you can invest yourself in it, and worst-case scenario: you will have wasted a few hours and 20 bucks. But if you find yourself liking it just a little, especially towards the end where things really start to pick up, you're in for a treat and a serious financial commitment. Chances are, if you devote some time to it, you'll like it, and then you'll have to run out and buy all 7 seasons. Plus you'll need to figur eout how you're going to get your friends to watch a show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"...