From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V2 #229 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Tuesday, December 5 2000 Volume 02 : Number 229 Today's Subjects: ----------------- b/dvd review [Todd Huff ] Re: b/dvd review ["marta grabien" ] b/newvideos1 ["Donald G. Keller" ] newvideos2 ["Donald G. Keller" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 18:40:39 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Huff Subject: b/dvd review This appeared on a public forum and is a review of the Buffy season one dvd (not available in the US yet). I consider the source reliable. - -------------------- Not a belated first attempt but triumphant quoting for the arrival of my Buffy series 1 DVD. I'll try and do a full review sometimes but for now: The packaging and presentation is excellent. Sound is good. Picture quality so-so (series 1 and 2 were shot on 16mm so basically the DVD picture is the same as the TV picture. I'd love to see series 3 though). Extras, not bad, especially for a TV show, often they have nothing. The usual stuff, commentry (on one episode which is fairly interesting), trailers, bios. It says it has the original pilot script but ti is actual the script from the televised pilot not the unreleased one (fingers crossed that the unreleased pilot is an extra on DVD). I really hope they were keeping some stuff back for further releases. It was good value for money for 12 episodes. Later series has more episodes so I'm not sure if they'll keep it in one set or split it in future. Compared to the videos and DVD's for other series though it's great value. Oh and you get a nifty lit episode guide with all sorts of interesting trivia in it. That is all. - ------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 19:50:11 -0800 From: "marta grabien" Subject: Re: b/dvd review > This appeared on a public forum and is a review of the > Buffy season one dvd (not available in the US yet). I > consider the source reliable. Is it available in England? If not, where? There are international Amazon.com websites. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 00:33:20 -0500 (EST) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: b/newvideos1 First, the news, from the new issue of the =Buffy= official magazine: on January 9th there will be a new videotape set released, titled =The Slayer Chronicles=. Now the game: anyone care to guess which six 3rd-season episodes are included? (Hint: I'm very happy with the choices.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 00:35:03 -0500 (EST) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: newvideos2 Made your list? Checked it twice? Here are the episodes: "Bad Girls" "Consequences" "Enemies" "Earshot" "Graduation Day" I&II I think this really does the job: that to me is the core of the 3rd season, the "crisis of Faith" arc, plus both the episodes that were delayed (Joss Whedon must love that!). I also feel vindicated, since at least two different episode guides I've seen gave "Consequences" really low marks, and I think they're way off base. It's a shame to not have "Helpless," or the other late-season episodes "Choices" and "The Prom," and I'm sure there's a contingent of people disappointed that the more popular comedic episodes, "The Zeppo" and "Doppelgangland" (as well as "The Wish") didn't make the cut either. But eventually the DVDs will come out. This connects to a thought I was having while reading the scripts: what constitutes The Essential Buffy? That is, if you had a person who wasn't willing to watch =all= the episodes (a mythical beast, in my experience, as I'll explain presently), what would you suggest they watch? My suggestion would be: 1st season: Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, Angel, Prophecy Girl (meaning the 1st season set is deficient for lacking the latter). 2nd season: Surprise/Innocence, Passion, Becoming I&II (which is the available set, with "I Only Have Eyes For You" thrown in) 3rd season: Bad Girls/Consequences, Helpless or Enemies, Graduation Day I&II (as the set goes) 4th season: Hush and Restless, obviously; This Year's Girl/Who Are You; Something Blue (As opposed to previous seasons, I'd argue that the 4th season main-arc episodes are the =least= important ones.) As I was saying, my experience is that watching =Buffy= is addictive: the people that I have lent tapes to watch them very quickly, and breathlessly ask for more. My favorite anecdote on this score is about a friend of Deirdre's who had only seen a few recent episodes and was asking her basic questions about the series (what's the Hellmouth, etc.) So Deirdre sat him down with "Welcome to the Hellmouth," and he was off. Deirdre watched about six episodes with him, then went to sleep; when she woke up he was partway through the second season. He was still at it when she went to work. She thinks he watched the entire first two seasons (34 episodes) in one sitting. And caught up with the subsequent two seasons not long after. I also realized at one point that I have absolutely no empathy for people who have had to catch up with the show: I know I sat down and watched the series premiere on a "what the hell" basis, and just kept watching; and if I'm not mistaken I've seen every episode when first broadcast (or within 12 hours on tape delay), meaning the =only= episode I've ever seen out of sequence is "Earshot." ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V2 #229 *****************************