What was your initial, very first reaction to Buffy?

I was pretty much hooked within the first 20-30 minutes, as someone who was an outsider in high school at the time this show about a bunch of outsiders coming together and batting real and personal demons through school struck home with me.
The I Robot, You Jane episode was really ahead of it's time for 1996/97 with the internet being what it was then compared to todays oversaturation of the web for teens.
 
Honestly? I absolutely loved it. I thought it was so clever, funny and interesting. I never looked back.

I never thought it would be the case, though. The concept sounded absurd to me. I have never liked fantasy. So I didn't give it a chance. It wasn't until 2005 that I saw it for the first time.
 
I’m surprised you all remember the first time you watched the show. It’s really surprising. You all have a better memory than me 😂😂. Seriously I can’t remember the episode I saw. I was extremely young, I would say eight years old. Yeah yeah don’t ask me why my parents let me watched an horror series at 8years old. The one thing I’m sure is I have seen Buffy on the channel M6 on a program called « la trilogie du samedi soir « . Briefly, it was a combination of series (1-2 episodes per series) a Saturday night. I remember that because of the generic that haunted me for years 😂😂. Still today it’s iconic for many French people. Look at it :
I believe Buffy was combined with Charmed and Stargate or Roswell 🙂
 
My mum had always talked about Buffy when I was little, "oh I can't wait till your old enough to watch Buffy! Its my favourite ever TV show! She is so cool!" So I don't know what I was expecting, but when I saw a cute little blonde teenager I was a little shocked! I think I was expecting a great powerful beast of something haha. When I started watching, I thought it would be old and have old jokes, but I was instantly hooked and because my mum had the box set, we ended up watching a disc at a time!
 
The first Buffy episode I watched was grave, when i was 8 years old. I don't really remember my first reaction that well, but I think i just thought I was cool watching a show that wasn't for children, but I didn't really know what was going on. I Still wanted to watch season 7 when it aired and convinced my mom to watch it with me. I remember as a kid I was really obsessed, because I just thought Buffy was cool. I wanted to be Buffy. I bought a magazine with an article about Buffy season 7 and read that article soooo many times.

When I watched the first season on DVD years later as a teen I was so disappointed, since i was into highly serialized teen dramas. I didn't like the Motw format and thought it was outdated. I only kept watching, because my brother liked it and we watched it together. I'm glad i did, since I became obsessed during season 2.
 
I don’t remember much, but the first episode I saw was Out of my Mind on tv3 Ireland when I was 15 in 2002. Like @Buffycouplegoal, I didn’t really know what was going on, though I had some knowledge of the series from seeing it advertised in the GamesMaster videogame magazine of all things. The episode left enough of an impression on me to want to watch more episodes, but I only saw a few eps here and there from seasons 5 and 6 at the time, as I had more of an interest in other shows back then. I eventually became a big fan in 2009 when I started watching the first three seasons on Syfy UK.
 
I had only the vaguest awareness Buffy when it first aired, but became interested because Jane Espenson mentioned it in commentaries for Battlestar Galactica, a show I loved. Then it was several more years before I got around to trying it.

I enjoyed the first three seasons, but wasn't too quick about watching them, and then the pandemic came between me and my DVD source, the library. Once I got S4, I started getting really into it (despite the fact that The Initiative is probably my least favorite plot thread now), and watched the rest in about 2-3 months.

My initial reaction for S1 was that it was witty, though not great. But it grabbed me enough to keep watching!
 
V
Veronique
And now???
I thought the name was stupid and would probably put off a lot of viewers but they had an attractive cast, good writing, quippy dialogue and a plot that looked like it could go on for a long time. I watched both Buffy and Angel as they first aired then later in the 2012 time frame as a local station played one episode per weekday, giving five episodes a week and they did this for three complete cycles of Buffy. This made it easier to follow as you didn't have that long wait between episodes. The same station showed one complete cycle of Angel as well.

My first reaction was that it was a great show that had everything I was looking for in entertainment.
 
Loved it so much 😍😍😍😍😍!!! I cried so much when Angel, Buffy, Tara, Joyce and Spike died and when Xander lost his eye, and when Dawn slept in the same bed as the Buffybot 😭😭😭😭😭.
 
I was 7 when I first saw the show. It was a summer rerun of one of the season 1 episodes. The WB played Buffy reruns on Mondays after 7th Heaven. I really can’t remember which one was the first. I wanna say it was “Angel” or “Nightmares”. But I was always into the supernatural, from shows like Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark. I was hooked. I clearly didn’t understand the metaphors. Just the literal monsters, and the girl who saved the world from them. I began religiously watching as it aired throughout season 3, and continued to stay with the show, and Angel, through the end of their runs. Buffy was the first TV-DVD I ever bought. I ended up collecting all the seasons of both, and firefly, and now I have Dollhouse on Blu-ray. And I have both buffyverse shows on iTunes so I can watch them on my phone or on my fire stick.

It is insane to me that the show is almost 25 years old. Definitely my reactions and opinions have changed over the years, but it’s still my go-to.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
I thought the name was stupid and would probably put off a lot of viewers
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Me too. You only understand the irony of it if you watch the show, and a lot of people would avoid doing that in the first place. That's why I think if they do a reboot, it really should have some more dignified name. Maybe just "Slayer"?
 
I started watching Buffy when I was in the tenth grade, same age as the Scoobies, so I felt like I was at the optimal viewing age 🙂 On some level that made me feel more connected to the show/characters and I liked watching them grow up and go through high school the same time I was (and still am)
 
Stake fodder said:
Me too. You only understand the irony of it if you watch the show, and a lot of people would avoid doing that in the first place. That's why I think if they do a reboot, it really should have some more dignified name. Maybe just "Slayer"?
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At the time the name didn’t seem stupid to me, but then again, I was used to watching shows with silly names such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back then lol. Yes I agree the name probably put off a lot of viewers and still does.
 
No - you can't change the name, the name is the test! If you can't get past the name you fail the test - if you fail the test you don't get Buffy and - more to the point - you don't deserve Buffy.

I nearly failed - I was an idiot.

Buffy is not a show for idiots.

Though the idea of a remake fills me with icy horror and what they call it would be the least of my worries. But renaming the remake to trawl for a wider, but less enthusiastic, audience would to me say they didn't have any faith in the quality of the show and were more interested in ratings than actually being any good. Plus half of what gives Buffy such iconic status is the fact it has a unique and memorable name. Give it a more generic one and it will just blend in with every other of the bazillion shows that there are out there at the minute.
 
Stake fodder
Stake fodder
Excellent points! Though I hope they will do a reboot with new characters, not a remake, in which case there would be no Buffy.
I watched buffy first when I was 7, my friend in elementary school reccomended it to me. I dont remember it that much because I was a kid, but I remember seeing it and IMMEDIATELY falling in love. I thought Buffy was so cool, and I wanted to be her. I became obsessed very quickly and made stakes during recess.
 
I watched season one as it aired in the UK, making a excuse that my kids wanted to watch it, I was hooked straight away , re watch it many times since bought the DVD set and watch it now when working out
 
When it first came out it replaced Charmed on the Network I was watching it on. I was not happy. I remember watching Welcome to the Hellmouth and calling a friend right after to complain that it is not the same. It was around Season 2 that I fell in love 🥰
 
Well, of course I knew about Buffy before I ever watched it. It was a very populate show. Several people had reccomended it to me, but I told them I had no interest because I didn't care for fantasy (I still don't. There are very few exceptions). I never had any interest in watching it when it aired.

It wasn't until 2005 that I watched it for the first time. A coworker convinced me to give it a try. I was very sick at home for several weeks, and she came over and brought me the DVDs.

Literally the pilot was it for me. I was completely hooked. I LOVED IT. I've never looked back 😉
 
I first brought the DVD season 7 because I was very young and thought it was Daphne because I recognized Sarah Michelle from the Scooby Doo Movies. I remember the first episode I watched was Lessons so to me Dawn has always been there. I didn't fully understand what was happening but I liked Buffy and was infatuated so I brought the rest of the seasons.
 
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