Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Good First Episode

I don't have time to do the full Key Episodes treatment of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the moment, but last week I introduced a new person to the show and the episode that I chose to introduce him turned out to be a good one. Remembering that season one can be off-puttingly low-budget and nineties for some modern viewers, I skipped to 2x3 "School Hard," the episode which introduces fan favorite villain Spike. In addition to setting up the season 2 big bads, this is an episode that gives every recurring character at least a little something to do, from Willow and Xander and Cordelia's comic relief, to Giles's portents of doom, to Angel's confusing ally-or-not/boyfriend-or-not status, to Buffy's mother's warm but concerned parenting, to Principal Snyder's suspicious interference.

It's also an episode that focuses on the central conflict of the show: Buffy's struggle to balance her roles as teen girl and Chosen One vampire slayer. She actually has to be in two places at once in this episode, hosting a school event while preparing for an apocalyptic vampire feast, plans which are disrupted when the vampires literally come and invade her life. Buffy's friends, family, and assorted schoolmates at first seem like liabilities, causing her to worry and to have more people to protect, but ultimately help and save her, readily participating in plans at their own risk and coming to her rescue when she's down. To me, that's the message of the whole series, right there. A loving, supportive team of allies is always more powerful than any one person working alone, no matter how much of a superhero she may be.

Finally, when you come down it, this is a fun Die Hard type adventure with lots of crawling around ducts and getting increasingly dirty, and who doesn't like that?