My First Look At Buffy

I was just browsing through channels one day when I saw a vampire baring its fangs. I had always been interested in Vampire lore, so I stayed on the channel to watch - I didn't know it then, but it was the 'Reptile Boy' episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - I liked what I saw, and it was a back-to-back feature showing two episodes daily. I saw the next episode and was hooked for life.

I have now seen all the seasons, starting from lighthearted, quip-filled Season 1 and going all the way to a much darker and more violent but thankfully, still quip-filled Season 6. Of course, I have my favorite episodes, and episodes that I just do not like; characters that I like and absolutely detest (Drusilla, Faith, Cordelia and Doc, and often, Dawn Summers, in that order)

I have to admit that the series held me enthralled and I used to wait for the episodes to be aired (although I was seeing reruns) until I got my own DVD set. All the characters have evolved and bear almost not resemblance to the roles portrayed in Season 6 (but more on that later). This series can claim a first - the only one that made me want to watch more, the only other series that holds my attention is 'The Simpsons', and I watch it with almost as much avidity as I do Buffy.

I thought I liked Angel (Sure, he was broody, dark, strong and silent), but he palled after a while and Spike, surprisingly (and against my will) took center stage, sometime in Season 4 and held that position as much as Buffy did till the end.

I am going to go season by season and episode by episode, exploring the saga - but let me say at the outset, the one character that I really like, having watched all the episodes is SPIKE or William The Bloody; who entered the series as a small-minded, mean English Vampire with a penchant for mischief, mayhem and killing vampire slayers, stayed on to get his ass kicked by Buffy and a host of other characters, got a government microchip embedded in his head to neuter his psychopathic tendencies, and went on to become the Champion who saves the world from the First Evil in the last Season.