• About the Site
• Grading

• About Me
• SuperJer.com

• Abbreviations

Welcome to Mike Marinaro's (a.k.a. MikeJer) home for in-depth Buffy the Vampire Slayer reviews, articles, links, and discussion. If you wish to learn more about who I am, jump to the About Me section. As time permits I will be, at a moderate pace, going through every single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will be taking notes for my reviews and will approach them from many angles including fun factor, character development, foreshadowing, pacing, and more. Please be aware that most of my reviews contain SPOILERS of not only the episode reviewed, but of episodes potentially anywhere in the entire series. I have already seen the entire series several times on DVD. The purpose of these reviews is to not only share my opinion on the episodes and seasons with others, but also to attempt to unravel the many layers of depth this series offers.

One of the most exciting things for me to do when re-watching these episodes is to notice things I never saw before, especially instances of foreshadowing. I would also like to mention that I am not a professional writer nor an English Major, so there will undoubtedly be errors in my writing. I'd like to encourage you to let me know about these errors so I can correct them. E-mail or PM via the forums is preferred for this (see below for address).

I love BtVS so much I want to share that appreciation with other fans of the show. I also am frustrated by the lack of good review sites for this or any other television show. Most sites don't have everything I want in them. For example, one site will have great episode reviews, but no season reviews. Or vice versa. Which also reminds me, if any of you want something on the site that isn't here, let me know, I might just want it on the site too.

Keep in mind that these reviews will not be going up on a regular basis. It all depends on when I have chunks of spare time. One day I may put up three or four reviews while I also may not put up any for a week or two. Who knows, maybe it might be more consistent than that, but I can't guarantee anything. After an entire season has been reviewed, I will do a comprehensive review of the season as a whole and display the average episode score for that season as well as my own personal score.

From time to time I may get an urge to write up an article about something involving the show. If and when I post an article it will be located in the Articles section. I plan on posting a notice in the news section above (with a date) when I put up any new content. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these reviews as much as I enjoy writing them. Feel free to send me questions or comments to mikejer(at)gmail(dot)com.

I recommend starting to read my reviews at When She Was Bad (2x01), as my Season 1 reviews are not up to snuff with what came after it and will, in time, be completely rewritten. Or you can simply click on the 'reviews' link above to access my entire database of Buffy reviews. Note that you can add your own comment to any review at the bottom of that review. The 'podcast' link will take you to a list of my own mp3 recordings discussing various aspects of the Buffyverse in greater detail. The 'links' section is a collection of links that I've found particularly useful or fun. Additionally, the 'discussion' section is a forum to discuss any and all things in the Whedonverse. I will moderate this forum the best I can to weed out any nonsense. Feel free to chat about my reviews as I love extra discussion. You could point something out I never thought of, and that's always a good thing.

I am 23 years old and have a B.S. in Computer Science from Western Washington University. I currently live in Kirkland, WA and work with the Xbox Operations Center as a Tools Developer. My full name is Mikelangelo Marinaro. Interesting to note is that in a moment of crisis during my first year of university, I nearly became an English Major. However, now that I've graduated I'm very pleased I stuck with the much more valuable Computer Science Major (no offense to all you English Majors -- I respect all of you a great deal!). If you're interested in getting to know me better, feel completely free to send me an e-mail to chat.

I was raised Catholic and still respect and hold the core values of the religion at heart, even though I do not attend services often. I hate politics (both parties!) but consider myself fiscally conservative and socially moderate. I love cheese (Buffy's so mine) and listen primarily to symphonic music, or at least music with melodies (I'm a fan of late classical). I love beautiful things: music, imagery, and thought. But I also love to analyze things and think about them in a logical manner. I have a small group of close friends and I like it that way.

My long-term career goal is to become an innovator in the area of game development. By innovator, I mean I want to change the fundamental way games are played. I'm interested in tapping games for their full artistic and entertainment values, not unlike what Joss Whedon has done with television. Most games don't even bother thinking about the story or having developing, likeable characters, and the rare few that do stop short of going all the way. I'm thrilled at the thought of changing that by helping to design and develop my own games. It's safe to say that I have a genuine passion for doing this. The way I see it, it's only a matter of time before I'm in place to realise this dream. :)

I occasionally love writing articles, essays, and papers about things that interest me. Buffy the Vampire Slayer now has my undivided attention as the best television show I've ever seen. In case you're wondering, my other favorite shows include, in no particular order: Firefly, Seinfeld, Angel, Freaks and Geeks, and Star Trek: TNG. New shows I'm watching regularly are Battlestar Galactica, 24, and Heroes. In time I may write Angel and/or Firefly reviews with a similar structure to the ones on this site (don't expect anything until I'm done with BtVS though). A sampling of my favorite movies includes Donnie Darko, Memento, LotR: Fellowship of the Ring, Shaun of the Dead, The Ring, Pulp Fiction, and Pan's Labyrinth.

Here's a photo of me around mid 2007:

If you live in the Seattle area and want to hang out, just e-mail me and we'll work out the details. Also, to the none of you girls interested, I am currently single. :)

This site is hosted on my friend, SuperJer's, server. There you can find an assortment of random funny things like his flash Counter-Strike cartoon, McDiddys, along with well-made CS maps for both versions 1.6 and Source. Every now and then one of us writes an article about something random (I posted a rant about the Java Programming Language a ways back). I must warn you about the superjer.com forums though. They are completely un-moderated (in the traditional sense) and can be quite crazy at times. For somewhat saner dialog about these shows, please post in the Whedonverse forum which I'll moderate the best I can (click on 'discussion' above).