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.)

[thirdblindmouse]

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

[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?

[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.

[timetobegin]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.