Buffy 1x1 - Welcome to the Hellmouth

BTVS Episode 1x01 "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Review

Rating: 8/10

Thoughts: My rating might be a bit off cause I don't have a baseline yet, but as a pilot I thought that was really good! It set up the whole plot really well, it was interesting to me that Buffy was already aware and semi-experienced as a Slayer, cause I wasn't sure if we were gonna start the show with her already established like that, but I like it. Also I wanna appreciate the fact that the concept of the show surrounds having a girl as the chosen one, I know that wouldn't be a big deal now but having an incredibly strong yet feminine character seems like it was pretty subversive for that time. I already knew that Buffy was a very feminist/women-centred show and I think I'm really gonna appreciate that aspect of it. The set up of her being at a new school is a pretty classic show intro, but its effective at introducing the characters and lore without having too much exposition. I really loved the part where Giles is telling Buffy she needs to use her senses to find the vampire, and she ends up finding one just by looking cause it shows how incredibly perceptive she is. But then she ended up missing that there was a second one because she was relying on her assumptions of what a vampire is and didn't actually use her senses. I think that was a really interesting character moment and might foreshadow her having to learn to rely less on her biases. The actual vampire plot seems pretty standard so not much to say, like theres an evil coming, vampire voldemort etc, but its interesting that the timeline is so short so seems like the plot will end up moving pretty fast? Also ended on a cliffhanger so I really need to find out what happens next. I'm really curious to find out about how much the general public knows about vampires, cause it seems like nothing right now, and also how she realised she was the Slayer and grew into that role, especially because her mom doesn't seem to know? Could be wrong.Characters:

**- Buffy: ** My MVP! I really love her as a main character, she's just so likable, and I just love how snarky and nonchalant she is while fighting and that she was so kind to Willow. Her arc does feel fairly obvious, like clearly she's gonna get over the whole I'm retired thing and accept her duty, and it's a little cliche, but I don't mind too much because she's literally 16 and that's a crazy amount of pressure to be fair

- Xander: immediately annoying but not enough to dislike him yet so neutral

- Willow: so sweet and I actually didn't know her character was that shy or nerdy but I think I'm attached to her already because Alyson Hannigan

- Cordelia: kind of a bitch but also kind of funny

- Giles: I was so creeped out when he first appeared but I quickly realised he's actually fine but like he should learn personal space

- Mysterious man that I suspect is Angel but not sure: Initial dislike because I hate mysterious and edgy male characters

- Jesse?: NPC

Out of context notes:

"never trust a british man" "hi im an enormous slut!" "tfw i see my teacher at the club..."