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WELCOME TO THE HELLMOUTH (1x01)

A review by Mikelangelo "MikeJer" Marinaro

Writer(s):	Joss Whedon
Director:	Charles Martin Smith

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Review
Minor Pros/Cons
Foreshadowing
Quotes

Score
Awards
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Review

Congratulations, you've somehow managed to make your way to my first 'Buffy' review. This is a fantastic series which happens to start off not so fantastic, but still decent. The biggest reason why people have such a poor perception of this show is simply its title, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's corny and dumb-sounding and it makes people stay away from the show, which is truly a shame. Don't let the title or those couple random episodes you caught pieces of on TV (and not in context within the season) scare you away! The series is dramatic, scary, funny, action-packed, and sports a whole array of moral issues cleverly camouflaged in metaphor.

Anyway, S1 does have huge consistency problems that are largely rectified in future seasons. I generally recommend starting with School Hard (2x03) for newcomers. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be entertained by in this first season and the two part pilot for the more open-minded. Now, on with the review!

This is a great introduction to the multi-dimensional characters of the show. For what the episode needed to do I'm not sure it could have been any better. From the very first scene I knew I was watching something different; something that played with my expectations. That continued through a lot of this pilot episode. When Jesse, Xander's friend, utters his first words I already strongly dislike him because he reminded me of your typical guy on shows like The OC. To my pleasure, though, Jesse is killed off very quickly.

Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing. What's important though, and ultimately why I like this episode, is how quickly and adeptly I fall in love with all the main characters. Since that's the most important part of what a pilot episode should do, this episode scores high and accomplishes its goal. Also, Willow's very cute.

Minor Pros/Cons (+/-)

+	Principal Flutie’s speech to Buffy in his office and the re-taping of her report card.
+	Xander and Buffy’s first meeting.
+	The second library encounter (see quote below).
+	Buffy owning Angel in their first meeting.
-	Luke is far too corny.
-	The Master is pretty corny too and not all that interesting.
-	The early dream sequence. Excessively hokey.
-	The music is very B-movie corn. This is a problem during all of the first season and won’t be mentioned again (even though it is a negative in every episode this season).

Foreshadowing

The cross Angel gives to Buffy is boxed. This is the first hint that Angel is a vampire.

Quotes

BUFFY:	What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series?
GILES:	Ah, w-w-w-yes.
BUFFY:	Did you get the free phone?
GILES:	Um, the calendar.

Score

85 /100

B+

Just misses the mark of excellence. Essentially, a great episode that's rough around the edges and/or slightly flawed. Extremely fun to watch.

Screencaps

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Comments (17)

1.	Jamie Oliver Jul 29 2006
	Although by no means a perfect episode. It is a strong start and is rarely dull. Characterisation is perfect from the start apart from Darla but she develops later in the season. It is great to see someone review this series properly rather than some of the poor reviews on other sites. Well done.

2.	Amy Aug 3 2006
	About the music, are you talking the background music or the Bronze music? Because, to be honest, I really liked the Bronze music from this season. I was even hoping I could find a list of it somewhere. Anyway, I have to say I love the way this episode was set up, especially with our introduction to Darla. At first you think she's the typical soon-to-be-dead schoolgirl afraid of monsters, and then you discover she's the monster. Just the first example in a long line of Joss's infamous genre benders.

3.	mikejer Aug 3 2006
	I was referring to the background music, not the Bronze music.

4.	bjarmson Nov 4 2006
	It's by no means a fully mature episode of Buffy, but there are a lot of things to like about it. The acting by all the principals (including Principal Flutie) is very good right from the start. The dialogue is far above what is found on even good shows. A few throw-away moments define just how good this show would become. In the girls locker room scene two girls are dicussing the new girl, Buffy, and one says, "What kind of a name is Buffy anyway?" Then says "Hi Aphrodesia" to another girl, and mentions something her friend Blue said. Later Cordelia mentions her name, Aura. Absolutely hilarious dialogue, that on most shows would be banal filler (is Joss "The Man" or what). A second moment is the first get together of the Scoobies in the schoolyard. Xander starts babbling on about how he and Buffy are old friends (they met in the hallway earlier), and Jesse (his best line) says "is it me or are you babbling," to which Xander replies, "it's you." Also Buffy's meeting with Principal Flutie and her interactions with her mother are subtle, funny, and flawlessly acted. Altogether about as good as it could probably get for a first show on a miniscule budget.

5.	ali Feb 18 2007
	I love the pilot. I think that for a first episode the pilot did a very good job. The charcters were introduced very well, each one of them got a specfic role and characteristic that remain constant through the show. Dont get me wrong the charecters evolve alot thourgh the show but they still kept their uniqe charectaristic. The main theme of the show was also well intreduced and brought up a very powerfull issues such as frindship, sacrifice good versus evil, responsibilty and more. The pilot stresses that not everything we see is what it is, darla is actually the predator and buffy the blonde tiny girl is the protector, the hero. The pilot greatest succses is that it made me care for the charecters and wanting to discover more about them and that's the biggest succses of any pilot. This is defentlly the best pilot of the best tv show i ever see!!.

6.	Tranquillity Apr 22 2007
	Interesting that you mention the music as, on my most recent re-veiwing of season one i found the background music downright bizarre! It is just so cheesy how almost every episode in season one ends with 'feel-good' 'everything's ok' music - Thank goodness this particular feature dissapeared after a short while!

7.	Latoya May 1 2007
	I loved how Xander reacted to Buffy. He was skate boarding, easily making his way through the crowd and then spots her walking. He keeps his eyes completely fixed on her with a love/lust at first sight thing. And then goes right into the school railings. And the Freudian slip when he bumps into her later. He meant to say "Can I help you?" and insteand says "Can I have you?".

8.	Marie May 11 2007
	I disgree, I liked the episode. Yes, it was cheesy, but it was so different from any other TV show that it was actually enjoyable. I think one of the main things that made this episode, and in fact the first season, fun to watch is the dialogue. It is loaded with funnny phrases and things, which makes the show completely enjoyable.

9.	mikejer May 11 2007
	Marie, you disagree with what? I along with all the commentors liked this episode too.

10.	Marie May 14 2007
	I'm sorry, my mistake. I could tell that the other commentors liked the episode, but you seemed like you didn't like it to me. I guess I just didn't read it carefully enough. The sentence "Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing." is mostly what made me think you didn't like it. Sorry again.

11.	mikejer May 14 2007
	It's no problem. If all else, look at the score for a quick judgement of how I thought of an episode. I will be rewriting all my S1 reviews after I'm done with S7 though.

12.	buffyholic Oct 3 2007
	I love this episode. For a pilot, this is very entertaining. We meet the characters (they are so cute here!) and we immediately fall in love with them and the show. The dialogue is amazing. I had a lot of fun rewatching this one again. Buffy and Willow are the cutest.

13.	Austin Oct 4 2007
	I think B's "prepare me speach really sets the tone for how emotions are going to run in this show

14.	XenaGuy Mar 23 2008
	bjarmson said, (Nov 4 2006)

15.	XenaGuy Mar 23 2008
	Hmmm ... I didn't "copy my comment in case of failure", and it got lost ... Basically, I included this quote ... "The acting by all the principals (including Principal Flutie) is very good right from the start." I agree with all except Nick Brendon, who I think started the series with as much polish as your typical high-school actor in an amateur play. Example: "You dropped your-r-r-r ... stake?" That delivery dropped me right out of the story. His improvement in the first two seasons was noticeable, and by Season 2's end, he was quite respectable. This is not a knock on Nick, I'm a fan. But, face it, compared to the rest of the cast, he was a novice actor when the show was cast. Otherwise, I loved the pilot, the Darla twist was one I didn't see coming at all, and the main characters grabbed me from the beginning scene. I didn't care for The Master's presence though, I normally don't like SuperVillians that are relatively powerless. It's like, why kowtow to him? What can he do if you tell him to take a hike?

16.	Ray Jul 27 2008
	"Repeat viewings of this episode wear on you as you begin to notice the low budget and cheesy music more after each viewing." I also agree with this sentiment. When I first started watching Buffy (on a formal basis) I decided to watch it from the beginning and to be honest, this episode wasn't disappointing at all. Sprung Monkey's performance at the Bronze both rocked and was very fitting ("Oh, I just wanna believe, can you hear me, can you see me, what's inside of me, oh, I just want to believe, if my life it has a purpose, help me to believe"). Pilot episodes usually aren't the strongest of many series', being because they have the difficult job of drawing in the viewers, setting the atmosphere, introducing the characters and the premise of the show while still being entertaining and not overloading. As far as the cons go, I actually thought the beginning dream sequence with the angel's statue, cemetery, books, cross, and the Master (the Master isn't really that scary but he's hilarious) was actually pretty cool. I can see why you feel they're hokey, but I hope we can at least agree that it's not as hokey as, say, the Knights of Byzantium :-p...

17.	mikejer Jul 27 2008
	As you'll notice in my review of "Spiral," I don't let the Knights off the hook in the slightest. :)

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