Fannish things. And my first poll!

[frayadjacent]

I'm vidding a show I don't know as well as the other shows I've vidded.  And I keep learning new things about the show and discovering new feelings and I'm letting myself try stuff out without planning so much in advance and it's fun!  Also I laid down a couple clips at just the spot I was planning (on the bridge, of course) and then I watched six billion times and I like it.  :D  We'll see if that's still the case next time I open up FCP.

Tonight I'm going to try and get a friend hooked on Buffy.  So, time for a poll!

Poll #13754 Best Practices for BtVS Evangelism

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

View Respondents

If you were trying to introduce someone to BtVS and only had 2-3 episodes to show them, what would you choose?

View Answers

Welcome to the Hellmouth, The Harvest, and The Witch, of course!
4 (18.2%)

A couple of the better S1 episodes, like Angel and Prophecy Girl
3 (13.6%)

The beginning of the Angel arc: Angel, Lie to Me
0 (0.0%)

A few good standalones from any point in the series (e.g., Hush)
11 (50.0%)

Other. I will tell you!
4 (18.2%)

If you picked "other", what do you recommend?

View Answers

Also I'm in the middle of season 2 of Breaking Bad.  More words to come!

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

I just rewatched select episodes of s1 a few months ago, and, well... the show has not aged gracefully. The first season looks REALLY OLD, intensely 90s, gritty picture quality, everything is dark... I would seriously consider pitching some later episodes, if only to avoid accidentally scaring people away for production reasons. Hush is good. Anne is good too maybe?

Yay for vidding! What are you vidding? (If it's not a secret.)

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, they were really going for the B-horror flick satire in S1, huh? And as a vidder I regularly curse that crappy film they used through, what, S3? Ugh. At least they improved the lighting and music in S2 -- thank goodness for Christophe Beck!

Part of me is really attached to the notion of watching the whole thing in order, as unspoiled as is possible, like I did. I'm so glad I started in S1. But realistically I know a major reason why I kept watching at all was because it was a regular thing a friend and I did. If she'd just thrown the first three eps at me and then said, "you should keep watching on your own -- it gets better!" I'm not sure I would have.

(BTW, the icon is in jest! I don't actually think you're a hater. :D)

[thirdblindmouse]

My instinct is to say WttH/The Harvest + Prophecy Girl, but good stand-alones are how I got into the series.

[frayadjacent]

You know, that's not a bad idea. I also think of "Angel" as a good episode, at least by S1 standards. Though what with Twilight and TVD all that it might not seem as interesting of a story as it did to me at the time.

[thirdblindmouse]

Angel is an important part of the first season for sure, but Prophecy Girl is when the series really clicked for me, so if I was trying to sell the show to someone starting with the first season, I wouldn't want to leave it out.

[frayadjacent]

Same here RE: Prophecy Girl. That was good stuff.

[next_to_normal]

A few standalones. But which ones... it's hard to choose. I wouldn't go too late into the series, because of spoilers, but S1 is... mostly not great, and you want to capture all the facets of what the show is (drama, horror, comedy, coming-of-age, romance, action, etc.). Maybe Prophecy Girl, Lie To Me, and The Wish?

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, I definitely want to avoid spoilers -- I think "Hush" is as far as I'd go. (If my friend is anything like me she won't even remember having seen Spike or Riley if/when she watches on her own.)

"The Wish" is an interesting idea -- it shows the horror aspect of the show more than most early-season stand-alones. (Well, I should say the well-done horror!)

[deird1]

I wouldn't go with The Wish, simply because so much of it relies on knowing what the normal world they're contrasting it with is like.

[thirdblindmouse]

I don't think it does, entirely. It was the first or second Buffy episode I saw, and it did pique my interest.

[sanguinity]

No positive recommendations, because I don't know the show well enough, but seconding others' reservations about the beginning of S1: that season has a really weak beginning, and it utterly failed to interest me. I continued watching in spite of the beginning of S1, as opposed to because of.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, I think I enjoyed S1 more than many people -- my partner, who has seen most of the rest of the series, straight up refused to watch past the pilot -- and even I'm not sure I'd have watched it without a regular wine/popcorn date with a friend to entice me. (I also enjoyed the campiness.) Which is too bad, because in a lot of ways I find it quite charming and sweet, and I do like how it establishes a nice ensemble of more-or-less likeable characters for the rest of the series to build on.

[timetobegin]

depends how objective someone is to watching new shows, to be honest. I think the first three episodes aren't THAT bad really.

[frayadjacent]

I like them too! We seem to be in the minority, though.

[timetobegin]

Yeah

i mean i kinda go i'm going to watch this show, i'm going to start from the begining and i'll give it X episodes to draw me in, but i know my sister is like IF ITS NOT GOOD IN EPISODE 1 I'M NOT WATCHING EVER.

[frayadjacent]

OMG, with my partner it has to be good in, like, 10 minutes.

For me, it depends. I was pretty meh about Doctor Who for pretty large chunks, but I mainlined 6 seasons last summer in large part because of fandom. I wanted to watch -- and understand -- vids. I wanted to read fic and meta. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I still enjoy DW fannish creations more than the show itself most of the time.

I'm sure that if I started watching Buffy at this point, I'd blaze through S1 under the promise that it improves. But I wasn't involved in fandom when I started it -- it was what got me into fandom -- so I didn't have that motivation. Lacking that, I probably give up on a show after 3 or 4 episodes, unless I've heard great things from people I trust.

I'm pretty insistent on watching shows all the way through in order as well. But many people aren't as spoiler-phobic as me, or generally as invested in their television shows. :D

[timetobegin]

ahaha yeah, some people need it to hook them straight away.

I usually stand by 3-5 episodes rule UNLESS my flist is raving about it and then i might give it more time. the whole first season of parks and recs kinda sucks but it gets soooo good later.

I don't understand not being invested lol.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, 3-5 is probably about right. Though I still haven't made it that far with "Lost Girl" and "Farscape". I'll get there some day!

Aw, I love S1 of Parks and Rec! But I think I'm the only one, ha ha. It gets better for sure, but I just find Leslie so freaking adorable. I want so squeeze her!!

I don't understand not being invested lol.

Yeah, same here! I watched very little TV until I discovered Buffy a few years ago. It sort of ignited a hunger to get involved in these stories and characters on another level.

[timetobegin]

ahaha Lost Girl season 1 is great, but later it gets annoying. Farscape....never gets better but it gets more addictive!!!

Leslie is the besttttt

[littleheaven]

My sister recruited me with (by pure random accident - she found some eps on a video tape) Beauty & The Beasts and The Zeppo. Not the best eps (although I do love The Zeppo), but they did the trick.

I'd definitely go for a few good standalones. I really liked Earshot, Hush and maybe Fool For Love, as a great look back at the whole slayers-though-history thing. Gah, it's hard to pick just three.

[frayadjacent]

Aw, I love "The Zeppo" too! Funny, I think of that episode mainly working by turning the foundations of the show on its head -- it's interesting to imagine what it would be like if you weren't familiar with Buffy in the first place.

"Earshot" is definitely on my short list.

[littleheaven]

I think it worked, because it was Xander being an outsider looking in, as I was, being a new viewer. I've always had a soft spot for the more humorous episodes, actually. Hence why I found a lot of season 6 & 7 hard going.

[frayadjacent]

Oh, I could see that! On reflection I don't think The Zeppo would have worked for my friend because what she'd probably dig most about the show, at least at first, is the strong, independent female characters. Which, of course, Buffy, Willow, and Faith absolutely are that in The Zeppo, but it's not the highlight of the episode. It's part of the background in Xander's story.

I love the funny episodes too. And the sad ones. I love all the episodes! (Well, maybe not all. But most!)

[rebcake]

While I adore the episodes wherein the characters are not exactly themselves — Halloween, Band Candy, Something Blue, OMWF etc. — those don't necessarily grab people new to the show.

For Dad-type people, I always start with "A New Man". For littler kids (10 and up, I'd say) "Halloween" can still work well. For people I know will like Spike, there's no harm in starting with "School Hard", amirite? If I'm confident of my audience, I'll try the 1-2-3 of "Pangs", "Something Blue", and "Hush". If they aren't hooked by then, I'm not sure what would do it.

I watched out-of-order, but I do think S1 has a good proportion of good episodes. If only it were prettier! The first 5 minutes (Darla!) would have grabbed me, had I seen it before S2.

[frayadjacent]

One of my many fond memories of watching BtVS for the first time is laughing with surprise and satisfaction at the first scene in WttH. (Heh, I guess that would also be my first fond memory of watching BtVS for the first time!)

I feel like I had a near-ideal first-watching experience: I watched the series almost completely unspoiled with a friend over the course of about a year. Of course, the first four or five months of that year were spent on S1 and the first half of S2, after which point I picked up the pace considerably.

Watching 3 eps in order isn't a bad idea. It would settle her in with the characters and story a little more, maybe be a bit more of a hook?

(She's a late 20-something, likes action heriones, liked Dollhouse. So an easy sell. I'm not sure if she'd like Spike? I mean, statistically speaking it's likely, but I can't say for sure.)

[next_to_normal]

Oh, if she liked Dollhouse, then maybe one of the early Faith eps might be good to show her?

[frayadjacent]

Ha ha ha ha what an awesome icon for talking about Dollhouse!! I will never stop laughing. :D

I bet she would have gotten a kick out of that!

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm probably just going to echo my peers here. The problem with starting at the beginning is that the beginnings of shows are not the shows. They are like the teenager version of the show and they are still figuring shit out.

Going with major turning point eps can be tricky, since the impact hinges on involvement with the characters.

With that said, I may be in the minority, but as much as I love Hush, it's a terrible introduction to the show. Its tone is very different, you don't get as much banter, and a lot of it hinges on interpersonal relationship continuity. Also, you have to explain why Spike is tied to a chair.

If you know your friend very well, figure out what elements of the show they'll respond to. Pick two episodes that really bring that across and another unrelated show-being-show episode like School Hard or Homecoming or Earshot.

[zanthinegirl]

When I've actually done this I show Hush, Fool for Love, and Once More with Feeling. Very different episodes, but extremely well done stand-alones. I've yet to show these to someone and not have them hooked by the time the curtains close on a kiss, God knows!

[frayadjacent]

Wow! I'd feel bad about all the spoilers with that! But for someone who doesn't care about spoilers that could be good.

[frayadjacent]

Sound advice, my friend.

That was my concern about "Hush" too, but I'm not sure if the point is to introduce her to the tone of the series so much as to show her that the show gets better after S1.