Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24627 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Dutch
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 528 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Vampire-slayer Buffy Summers moves to Sunnydale, a Californian community located above the "Hellmouth", a phenomenon which explains the local graveyard's overpopulation of vampires and other supernatural beings. Angel, a mysterious loiterer, starts flirting with Buffy and gives her helpful tips on how to cope with the local nasties. However, he turns out to be a vampire, which complicates the future of their relationship. Buffy makes friends with school outcasts Willow, a computer nerd, and geeky Xander. But she excites the enmity of high-school princess Cordelia. The season's prime villain is the Master, a Nosferatu-looking vampire lurking under the town. Giles, Buffy's mentor, looks things up in books and demonstrates the exact same look of puzzlement actor Anthony Head used to demonstrate in those horrifying instant coffee ads. --Kim Newman

DVD Description
Disc Content & Special Features

DISC ONE:
Episode 1: Welcome to Hellmouth
Episode 2: The Harvest
Episode 3: The Witch
Episode 4: Teacher's Pet

Special Features:
Joss Whedon/David Boreanaz Interview
Buffy trailer
DVD-ROM content, screensavers & Buffy weblinks
Pilot script
Commentary, Episodes 1 & 2 contain Joss Whedon commentary

DISC TWO:
Episode 5: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Episode 6: The Pack
Episode 7: Angel
Episode 8: I Robot, You Jane

Special Features:
Music Video 'I Quit'
Photo Gallery

DISC THREE:
Episode 9: The Puppet Show
Episode 10: Nightmares
Episode 11: Out of Mind, Out of Sight
Episode 12: Prophecy Girl

Special Features:
Cast biographies

Special Features

• Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen 4:3
  
• Audio: Dolby 2.0 Stereo
  
• Languages: English, French
  
• Subtitles: English, French, Dutch, English for the hearing impaired
  
• Total Running Time: 8 hours and 48 minutes approx.
  
• Region Code: 2

Customer Reviews

Season 1 : An Introduction to the Buffy Universe
Its wonderful to watch the original series where Buffy, Xander, Giles and Willow are introduced. The episodes on the DVD are stunningly sharp although there aren't that many special features.

My favourite episode is The Puppet Show. Sid is a great character and I can understand why they used him in the game. I also like the season finale.

Definitely worth buying!

Welcome to the Hellmouth
I remember watching these when they were originally on BBC 2 at 6 o'clock but I must say that I do not remember them being so good. It is my usual assumption that the first season of a new TV series are not as those of later seasons, but I feel that many of this seasons episodes must be up there with some of the best of all seven of the Buffy seasons. Of particular note is the season finally, with its mixture of comedy and tragedy, is in my view one of the best episodes of any such show I have ever seen.

Despite the quality of the episodes, I feel that for a special edition the boxed set is rather thin on the ground with only the basics biographies and a couple of interviews. On the plus side, however, the episode guide included in the boxed set is both informative and humorous, with comments on the continuity of each episode as well as notes on some of the background and in-jokes of each episode. All in all a great boxed set despite the lack of extras.

Where it all began...
In the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer we see a show with plenty of original ideas that hasn't yet really hit its stride. The season explores creator Joss Whedon's original premise for the series: the blonde girl who is usually the helpless victim in horror movies is given the power to fight back. Unlike in later seasons, however, these episodes lack a linking story. The central villain, the Master, is kept largely in the background between the first two episodes and the last (with the exception of 'Never Kill a Boy on the First Date'), and the rest of the season is made up of stand-alone episodes.

Many of the strengths of the series can be seen in the first season. The dialogue is sharp and the acting is generally strong. The show intelligently modernises some of the conventions of the Gothic genre: possession, invisibility, nightmares coming to life, etc. Here, however, they are used to tackle 1990s issues including the dangers of internet chatrooms, domineering parents and child abuse. This latter theme is central to the season. The show is about schoolchildren forced to deal with dangers caused not only by the supernatural but also by the everyday world around them (see 'Out of Mind, Out of Sight' and 'Nightmares', for example). Buffy is both the protector of the innocent and an innocent in need of protection, a tension that creates much of the show's dramatic effect.

The season is visually impressive. From season 2 onwards, the graveyard scenes were shot in a studio carpark, but here they are filmed on location and are effective enough to make the move to a set seem like a mistake. The special effects aren't bad, though do seem dated: at this time, vampires turning to dust was still the big dramatic effect.

There are weaknesses in the season. The friendship between Buffy, Willow and Xander is never developed: they meet in the first episode and by episode 3 are lifelong friends. Compare this with the later introduction of characters such as Oz, Anya and Tara and we can see the ways in which the writing matured as the season progressed. The action sequences seem a little tame, particularly in the first two episodes; again, this improved in later seasons.

Despite its faults, however, this season comes alive in the final episode, 'Prophecy Girl'. This is beautifully acted and gives a clear glimpse of what the show would become. It captures the reality of death in a way that few episodes would: only 'Passion' and 'The Body' (seasons 2 and 5 respectively) really match it. Alyson Hannigan conveys the real horror of murder, while SMG hits the perfect balance between acceptance of fate and the struggle to resist it.

BtVS season 1 is a good start to a great series. It's a good introduction to the characters and to the themes of the show and sets things up nicely for the better seasons that followed.