From skeptic (or indifferent) to fan?

[Quarkfan]

Just wondered what about Buffy (or the Whedonverse in general) may have resulted in you moving from skeptic (or indifferent) to becoming a "fan" of the series.

For myself, it was "The Body" (I started watching in Season Five). At that time, the dvds were just coming out, so I watched the last three seasons before the first four. There is something inclusive about Whedon's vision that doesn't say, "we are all the same, let us hold hands," but rather "we are all very different, and that is not only okay but also necessary". It seems to be reflected in the varied opinions within this forum regarding non-BTVS topics, which is great.

"The Body" brought this together, and brought me to Buffy...and then everything Whedon.

FYI: I may cite responses (anonymously) in a paper I am working on...Just wanted you'all to know ahead of time, as I am new here and do not want to mislead anyone.

 

[nerd4hire]

I've told this story before, but I was a Buffy skeptic, although also an Angel fan. Hush is the one that got me, and I only turned my head to the TV, because I noticed out of the corner of my ear the characters stopped talking.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Just wondered what about Buffy (or the Whedonverse in general) may have resulted in you moving from skeptic (or indifferent) to becoming a "fan" of the series.

For myself, it was "The Body" (I started watching in Season Five). At that time, the dvds were just coming out, so I watched the last three seasons before the first four. There is something inclusive about Whedon's vision that doesn't say, "we are all the same, let us hold hands," but rather "we are all very different, and that is not only okay but also necessary". It seems to be reflected in the varied opinions within this forum regarding non-BTVS topics, which is great.

"The Body" brought this together, and brought me to Buffy...and then everything Whedon.

FYI: I may cite responses (anonymously) in a paper I am working on...Just wanted you'all to know ahead of time, as I am new here and do not want to mislead anyone.

I was totally a skeptic. From what I had heard of the show - it sounded campy and cheesy. I just couldn't imagine myself being into it. I was more of a "realism" kinda girl. Also, back then, I had this wierd prejudice to sci-fi. I'm not sure why. I'm sure I had the wrong idea about it. I never really watched TV, and so I would rent stuff on DVD later on.

Then a coworker insisted I borrow the first season to watch. I was sick, and taking time off work, and had nothing else to do, really. So I watched it. And I loved it. I thought it was insanely entertaining and witty and very unique, nothing like any show I'd ever seen. I loved the characters and the scenarios and the layers and man, the subtext. I absolutely fell in love with Buffy. She was a modern female warriorin my eyes, someone I could relate too, and way cooler than Xena. I loved the concept of the show, of a girl chosen to fight the vampires. One girl in all the world...And I loved how this was not her choice, it was fate and all. She had to learn to live with her calling.

I often wonder what would have happened if my coworker hadn't forced me to borrow that DVD set. I know I would have never rented it on my own. Buffy is such a huge part of my life...it's wierd to think I might have never discovered it. The show calms me...everytime I'm stressed I pop in a DVD and watch one of my favorite episodes. It's my own little world I can get lost in.

So anyway. I watched the whole show through borrowed DVDs from her. Then I discovered the rest of the Whedonverse...and the rest is history so they say. 😉

 

[PurplePoof]

I think if I hadn't discovered or gotten into the show as a youngster when it first started airing I would've NEVER given it a chance, given how snobby I am now...

 

[xaphania]

A couple of friends tried to convince me to watch it for about a year before I finally gave in. They would talk about it all the time, and tell me how great it was - but I didn't believe them.

The name, for one, put me off - plus I remembered seeing a few minutes of an episode waaay back and my memory told me that it looked boring (the part I remember seeing was a library expositiony scene...)

Anyway, earlier this year I was doing a year abroad in France where I had no TV and no internet - I was living on TV shows on DVD in my spare time XD So when I had a £12 HMV e-voucher to spend, and BtVS showed up in the first page of offers, I figured 'ehh, why not?'

I think it was about midway through season one that I was hooked. I was still in France, but it was exam time in which I had one exam over a period of four weeks, so boredom. I was too impatient to order online and wait for the delivery so there were several journeys back and forth on the tram over those four weeks between the Leclerc supermarket and the Fnac in the city centre to get the rest of the seasons XD

And now my two friends are constantly gloating that they were right and I was wrong blah blah 😀

 

[itsxpaperdoll]

The first time I watched BtVS, I was like, 13 years old and they were just broadcasting s6 on Dutch TV. I don't know which episode it was I watched, but I remember everyone being there, including Giles, and I loved it. Then I wanted to keep watching, but somehow after that one episode I never watched it again, until I bumped into Cangel. We watched, if I remember correctly, Something Blue, and i fell in love again, but this time it was more lasting ^^

There is something inclusive about Whedon's vision that doesn't say, "we are all the same, let us hold hands," but rather "we are all very different, and that is not only okay but also necessary".

^ I think that was also what I liked. Especially the second time. The first time I rember most of all how the fantasy and creativity struck me.
But, to answer your question, I was quite sceptical before I started watching again. I still remembered how much I liked it the first time, but I had grown and changed so much in the 5 years between. Back then I was really into fantasy and everything, now, well, not so much. But the wormhole leading to the Buffyverse sucked me right back in 🙂

 

[Lauryn Summers]

I was against Buffy...skeptic, rather. I saw clips and such when flipping through channels and thought the makeup for vampires was pretty pathetic and it all just sounded so dumb to me. my suitemates started watching it at the end of last year and I still turned them down ("nah...not my kind of show"). Finally I finished my finals (three days before I went home) and desparatly needed something to do, so I borrowed the first season from my suitemates. I finished it in 2 days. After that, AOL video and sidereel were my best friends. Let's just say I went from skeptic to avid fan in a very short amount of time. I love it now of course, or I wouldn't be here! 🙂 I still go back and watch it every so often, though my plan to watch Angel over the christmas holiday took a downfall when my laptop harddrive decided to crap out.

Long story short: When I first watched it, I watched all 7 seasons in a month. THAT'S obsessed. I watched "Chosen" at 3am...a night before I worked at 7am. THAT was a fun shift.

 

[Lyri]

I watched BtVS from the very beginning, when BBC2 started airing the eps when I was about 13. I liked the show, but I tuned in every week to get my Xander fix. I had a HUGE crush on Xander and that was basically the only reason I watched the show.

That is until 'Becoming PT2'. That was the episode that really sucked me in and made me anxious to know what happened next, and of course it was a season finale that hooked me, so I had months to wait for the next episode.

 

[Sweetescape]

I was never a skeptic becuase i threw myself into it one very boring day 🙂 and watch season 1 in the same day i was hooked!

 

[Five]

When I was 9, I had this whole big Buffy fan thing. Because it was hype, and it made kids who watched the show look soooo mature (or so we believed). Problem is, I could never watch one minute because it scared me to death. But I did read one or two Buffy books. Mostly I just bought them. I watched Charmed instead, it was less scary (and, as I was to discover years later, extremely less good, less well-written, less well-acted, etc. etc.) and I actually managed to watch one whole episode from time to time.

Then, I had the "Hating Bouffi" period (Bouffi's a French word for "plump", it's pronounced almost the same way. It was sarcastic and all. Come on, I was 11!). Like hatred-hatred. Of course I didn't know the show. I was all prude and stuff and knowing Buffy was boinking Spike didn't make me want to watch that at all. I thought it was perverted (again with the 11 thing.).
However, two friends of mine were totally into it. (I was then 14. Not that you care. It's just, I started dating things and all.) As a favour to them, I watched the first season. I didn't love it, I thought it was okay, entertaining, so I agreed to watch the second season. The first half made the same effect and then "Innocence" came. That's when BTVS became - to me - a great show. I was totally into it from then. I remember "Becoming" shook the hell out of me.

And here I am, now, a total Buffy sucker. I still can't decide what show's my second favourite, between Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Pushing Daisies, Friends, Angel or Skins. (I should add I lost my Charmed addiction along the way. I was 15 and that day I became a man.) But I know BTVS is my favourite. I watch it and every time it's like "woah. This is one of the greatest works I've ever seen. It's amazing. It's the show of my life. I get it. I absolutely, entirely get it, and it gets me." Now I look like I'm in a sect or something. Oh, well.

And I decided to watch Angel a few months ago (I was already 18.). I never loved Cordelia in BTVS, I was never a big fan of Angel or Wesley either in BTVS, so it took me some time. I don't regret beginning it, I love it. (I love Fred. What, you hadn't noticed?)

When I have some time (when I'm 19 I guess), I'll watch Firefly. Ok I'm getting off topic.

So yeah, skeptic to fan. Totally. It reassures me to see I'm not the only one. It's gonna help me convert my reluctant friend, I hope.

 

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

i was never the skeptic, it was love at first sight lol but my ex was indifferent for a time. after i promised to watch firefly if he watched the first season of buffy... he sheepishly admitted he got hooked, and we watched it often after that... well up until about the yoko factor and then we broke up... not due to buffy of course, you know, other reasons haha

current boyfriend? no way, no how, will he ever, ever, ever, sit for a minute of buffy. i think he has made that clear on several occasions. ive given up on him lol.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Wow. It seems like most of the people on here have been into the show since the beginning. I feel like a newbie lol since I've only been into the show for a few years.

 

[PurplePoof]

It's very frustrating when you tell people how much you love this show and you get snickers or people looking at you like you're half retarded. Every friend of mine who gave me hell for watching the show who I convinced to start watching it got hooked...bad...but some people are more stubborn...GRR. And most of these people have terrible taste as it is, so it's utterly confounding to me where they get off being so "arrogant"...

 

[Ulrikke]

What brought me from being a Buffy-sceptic to being a fan of the show? Simple. I watched it. 🙂

 

[The Ferg]

I think for me it was just buying Season 6 and watching it within 2 days. 🙂

I did like it before hand, but I was never really "into it", you know? And before that, I didn't have an opinion. Someone just told me what time it was on.

 

[palabravampiress]

I was a skeptic. I'd seen the original movie and couldn't imagine a good show coming out of that premise. I mean, even when I was just watching for that guy from 90210, I knew the movie was no good. Also, the one or two episodes that I did happen upon didn't sit well with me. I walked away with the impression that it was all about boyfriends turning into monsters and trying to kill their girlfriends (which, to be fair, is sort of a running theme).

Then, one day, a friend of mine brought over a DVD of a show called "Firefly." I looooved it. After I had finished all of Firefly and run out to watch the movie, I craved more Joss. That's when another friend convinced me to give Buffy a try. I watched it from the beginning and, again, I looooved it. That led me to watch Angel, too, and now I am a devoted Buffy fan. It's hard to believe it, but there was a time when I did not give Buffy the time of day. Now, I love her and her entire Scooby gang (especially Giles).

 

[randiann]

I was never a skeptic. I caught the last have of "the puppet show" late one night and was hooked. I had no clue what show it was, but I knew it was great. Kinda forgot about it after awhile because I never happened to find out what the show was, and then about a year later I caught Buffy on tv (somewhere in the end of Season 2) and was competely and utterly sucked into the Buffyverse. I'd seen the movie, but I never thought a show could be that good until I saw Buffy.

By the way, I LOVED the movie. Of course, I was a kid when it came out. My sis and I, being the slightly odd children that we were, loved to re-enact scenes from it, especially when the one arm vamp (his name escapes me) dies at the end. We both loved it way before we knew the genius that is Joss.

 

[Randy Giles]

I was pretty skeptical of Buffy. Then I became a fan of Angel. And then I felt obligated to give Buffy more chances, and one day I suddenly just started loving the show. It took me a while to get into it, I really don't know why, but once I did I LOVED it.

 

[InsaneMystic]

I was a skeptic before watching it, back in '99 when S1 & 2 first aired here... I told you before, the German title of the show (and of many of the eps, too) is so silly that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" looks like Shakespearean poetry in comparison, lol...

However, a good friend of mine who was watching it from the beginning convinced me to give it a try, so I tuned in one day, and saw Willow walking up those museum steps in Inca Mummy Girl. :heart::buffy_wil:heart:

The rest is history. 😉