Tom Dickinson is as much a writer as anything else.
The Whedoning is my review blog where I’m watching Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and other Joss Whedon stuff, all in order, and writing a blog post on each one.
The second week just wrapped up, so here’s a roundup of my reviews.
Frankly, “Teacher’s Pet” is a pretty uninteresting episode of Buffy, which is a bit of a surprise because it comes from David Greenwalt. There are some rather funny dialogue moments, but it’s not enough to save this episode. Overall, I think it’s the weakest thing I’ve reviewed so far, and yes that does include the film and the unaired pilot. Click here for the full review.
Buffy 1x05 - “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”
It seems to me from my limited research that “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date” hasn’t exactly been celebrated by Buffy fandom, and that’s not really fair to it. It won’t be making any top ten lists, but it’s a very good episode that’s significantly different from what’s come before and does a good job of showing the versatility of the show—even if the main antagonist is another vampire. Click here for the full review.
“The Pack” continues the trend of the previous episode, digging into the characters and using their personalities as an engine for drama as well as comedy. But unlike that episode, the main plot here suffers from some really lackluster performances. Even so, it has enough good moments to make it seem pretty entertaining, if inconsequential. Click here for the full review.
It’s often said that Buffy doesn’t really hit its stride until the middle of season two, but new fans take a look of “Angel” for a preview of what it’s going to be like when it does. Making Buffy personally invested in a vampire really brings something new to the table. Unfortunately, we needn’t get comfortable there, because the full ramifications of Angel as a character won’t be felt until next season. Click here for the full review.
Buffy 1x08 - “I Robot, You Jane”
The boy Willow is getting romantically entangled with turns out to be more than he had seemed at first. In other words, this episode seems in some ways to be a bizarre parody of the previous one. But aside from some extremely cheesy usage of technology, this episode held up pretty well. Click here for the full review.
I’ll be doing these roundups every week.
