Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Season 1 Box Set


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Television/Supernatural Drama DVD 1:
Interview - Joss Whedon (Creator) and David Boreanaz (Actor)
Audio Commentary - Joss Whedon (Creator) (Episodes 1 and 2 only)
Original Pilot Script
Trailer - Buffy
DVD-ROM content - Screensaver

DVD 2:
Gallery - Photos
Music Video - I Quit by Hepburn (4:02)

DVD 3:
Biographies - Cast and Crew
Rating
Year Released 1996-1997
Running Time
DVD 1: 170:39 minutes
DVD 2: 172:19 minutes
DVD 3: 172:29 minutes

(not 176 minutes each as stated on packaging) 
RSDL/Flipper Dual Layer
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director Various
Studio
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Fox Home Entertainment
 Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
Nicholas Brendon
Alyson Hannigan
Charisma Carpenter
Anthony Stewart Head
Case Transparent Amarays in Slip Case
RPI $79.95 Music Walter Murphy

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) (Disc 1 only)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ?Yes Smoking No
Subtitles Dutch
English for the Hearing Impaired
French
French Audio Commentary (Disc 1 only)		 Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, during credits (Episode 9 only)

Plot Synopsis

    Buffy The Vampire Slayer was something of a reasonably fun film released what seems likes aeons ago but was actually only in 1992. It was pretty much a harmless piece of fun, most noteworthy probably for the appearance of Kristy Swanson as Buffy. Since that time her career has basically gone the way of the vampires slayed by the slayer - to dust. However, the film obviously had enough of an impact for somebody to reinvent the concept as a television series and that someone is Joss Whedon - who happened to write the original screenplay for the film. Whilst the film pretty much sunk without too much trace, the television series has had somewhat more success and has amassed four seasons - not bad going for a series in the United States. However, the main reason for that success has possibly less to do with the series itself but rather more to do with the star of the show - Sarah Michelle Gellar. There are possibly good reasons why but they totally escape me at the moment, but perhaps they are not unconnected with the fact that she is a past winner of the sexiest girl in the world title, according to some of those useless polls that seem to be conducted by certain magazines and newspapers more concerned with sensationalism rather than journalism. Still, we all need our fantasies and this one satisfies many a male one. For the ladies there is the best looking vampire in the world in David Boreanaz. However, it has to be said that despite the rather inconsistent stories for Season 1 of the show, the series has in general been well received and it is not hard to see why.

    This three DVD box set contains the entire first season of the series, with the episode details being:

    Welcome To The Hellmouth - (Episode 4V01, first U.S. broadcast 10.03.1997). Buffy Summers is trying to start a new life at a new school and town, in Sunnydale, but cannot escape the fact that she has to fulfil her destiny as The Slayer - a not inconsiderable task when one considers that Sunnydale is at the mouth of hell.

    The Harvest - (Episode 4V02, 10.03.1997). Buffy has her hands full in trying to prevent The Master fulfilling his destiny in escaping Hell in order to rule the world. The first two episodes were originally a single pilot for the show.

    Witch - (Episode 4V03, 17.03.1997). Some people will do anything to be a cheerleader and things get just a little out of hand when one former star of the cheerleader history of Sunnydale High decides to return to her old haunting ground - in her daughter's body. Nothing is too much trouble as Buffy finds out.

    Teacher's Pet - (Episode 4V04, 25.03.1997). When their science teacher meets an untimely demise, Buffy and her classmates have a new substitute teacher - who inspires the male members of the class to great deeds. Trouble is, even hormonally-charged teenage males have a slight problem with making out with a beautiful bug. Err, Buffy to the rescue of the virgin males?

    Never Kill A Boy On The First Date - (Episode 4V05, 31.03.1997). Being a slayer imposes certain restrictions on a social life - for some reason teenage boys have a little problem in being dumped whilst their date heads off to slay vampires. Still, an attempt is made at a date but it goes terribly wrong for Buffy as she has to despatch The Master's latest warrior, and gets worse when her date thinks this sort of excitement is a good reason to go out on even later dates.

    The Pack - (Episode 4V06, 07.04.1997). What is the difference between hormonally charged teenage boys and animals? Not a lot it seems as the rat pack at Sunnydale High recruits a new member in Xander and proceeds to create havoc under the influence of ... hyenas.

    Angel - (Episode 4V07, 14.04.1997). Being a slayer still imposes certain restrictions on a social life - but exceptions can be made for a mysterious hunk. Unfortunately Angel has a secret and it is not one guaranteed to foster close relations between him and Buffy. Still, we all have little secrets and he does look great (at least that is what my sister tells me - this is her favourite Buffy episode).

    I Robot... You Jane - (Episode 4V08, 28.04.1997). Being a brainiac imposes certain restrictions on a social life - and Willow finds out the hard way that Xander may be immune to her charms but The Corruptor is not. Of course, she does not know it is The Corruptor and does not know what she did to resurrect his reign of terror. The trouble is how to stop it before she becomes the next victim. Word of advice - blind dates suck.

    The Puppet Show - (Episode 4V09, 05.05.1997). It's school talent show time once again at Sunnydale High, but to enter may be the last thing you do. And your heart will certainly not be in it. The process of elimination leads to Morgan, the ventriloquist but when he is found organless, the puzzle becomes much murkier - until Buffy talks to the dummy.

    Nightmares - (Episode 4V10, 12.05.1997). Things go from bad to worse when everyone's nightmares start becoming reality, including Buffy's own worst nightmare. When a mysterious child starts turning up at school and things start happening, Buffy puts two and two together and comes up with five - but ends up solving the situation anyway, just in the nick of time and to thus thwart once again The Master's desire to return to the surface to rule the world.

    Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - (Episode 4V11, 19.05.1997). Not quite as innocuous as a certain song from a few years ago. She went to school but no one noticed her - not even when she disappeared. Now she is back to wreak havoc upon those that ignored her, most notably mega-bitch Cordelia. But how do you combat someone who was invisible before she was invisible? Buffy will find a way, in a bit of light relief from slaying vampires, and the F.B.I. certainly express their interest in the goings on at Sunnydale High.

    Prophecy Girl - (Episode 4V12, 02.06.1997). It is the end of the season so we must go out on a high, mustn't we? So when dear old Giles finally comes into possession of the Codex, thanks to a certain vampire with heart, and discovers the full prophecy of The Master and The Slayer, let's say he is not thrilled. Nor is Buffy but hey, this is destiny so you may as well go out fighting. So she does, as The Anointed One leads her to The Master for the Rumble In The Jungle - as in the sewer jungle. Trouble is this one does not get past the first round... or does it?

    Like many a television series, the first season is a little inconsistent as the whole production tries to find its feet. However, this was certainly received well enough by audiences and it has gone on to bigger and hopefully better things since. There are certainly some high points to balance off the mediocre bits, but in general this has suffered quite well at the hands of time. Obviously Sarah Michelle Gellar is the key to the whole show and whilst she demonstrates nothing quite approaching superb acting, there are plenty worse around making lots more money than she from the art at which they do not excel. She does a pretty fair job overall and at least grows a little into the role as the season progresses and by the end there is a definite feeling of improvement in her performances. Similarly as they grow into their roles, Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon grow decidedly less annoying and offer generally better than decent support. Charisma Carpenter has Cordelia down pat from Episode One so obviously this is a role with which she is totally familiar. The rest just fill in the gaps as necessary - Anthony Stewart Head gets decidedly less nerdy as the show goes on - generally to good effect. Overall, from a performance point of view, this is not at all a bad effort. The main issue here is the somewhat inconsistent, and at times unoriginal, story lines. None were especially grotesque, but there are obvious draws from a certain well known Twilight Zone episode, as well as a certain Luc Besson film that already had a remake in Hollywood. Despite these minor issues and inconsistencies, the season as a whole was certainly watchable and did enough to merit continuation for subsequent seasons. That in itself is no mean achievement for a mid-season replacement series, and I sincerely hope that the only reason why it succeeded was not because we get to see Sarah Michelle Gellar in assorted tight clothes, short skirts and so on.

    From that perspective, fans will need no hesitation to indulge and that may be the one great problem here. If you are not a fan, this is not going to be a release that is going to give you an opportunity to sample the series without indulging in a fair few dollars to get the whole series. Like many, I was eager to see how this translated to DVD, and the overall conclusion is... disappointingly.

Transfer Quality

Video

    Why is this release a disappointment? Well, in very simple terms it is for one reason - the video transfer. I appreciate that this is a television series, and therefore we would not be expecting the sort of quality we find in feature films. However, I would think that we were at least expecting something that looked better than a good VHS tape.

    Since this is a television series, it has to be noted that Season 1 was filmed in a full frame format (I believe subsequent seasons are filmed in a widescreen format) and therefore what we have been presented here by Fox Home Entertainment is in the correct aspect ratio. The transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    There may be an amazing consistency in the quality of the video transfers for the twelve episodes, but it has to be said that this is not a good thing. By the end of twelve episodes of these transfers, I was just about ready to throw the three DVDs away - it gets very tiring watching this sort of quality transfer, especially for something in the order of nine hours. The overall transfers are quite dark in nature, which means that shadow detail is pretty poor in general - which does not help the shows much when they are filmed in a lot of dark places. The transfers are anything but sharp and overall present a diffuse image that seems to me to be worse than the original television broadcasts in many ways. I certainly do not remember the television broadcasts being as grainy as these transfers. Whilst the grain never becomes really ugly, the sheer consistent presence of it makes these very difficult transfers to watch. Obviously these transfers are not what I would call clear. Overall detail is average at best. There does not appear to be any significant low level noise problems with the transfers.

    Colours are in general only reasonably well rendered - these are not vibrant transfers and the colours end up with a darkly muted look to them that again does not do the shows any favours. Indeed, the general feeling of darkness that permeates these transfers in the visual sense does detract enormously from the enjoyment I feel. You can forget anything approaching over saturation here, and colour bleed was not an issue either.

    There did not seem to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is a consistent, albeit generally quite minor problem throughout the transfers with aliasing. On a couple of occasions it does become quite ugly - an example is at 11:08 of Episode 11 - but this is the rarity. There also seems to be a consistent problem with aliasing on any panned shot during the series to a greater or lesser extent. There was one instance of a slight pause in the video stream at 40:28 of Episode 10. Apart from a couple of flecks in the last episode, there was no real problem at all with film artefacts.

    All three DVDs are Dual Layer efforts, with presumably two episodes per layer.

    One slight annoyance is the fact that after every episode we have to endure the copyright notice for The Netherlands and Belgium - and this is not skippable.

    Overall, a huge disappointment in general and certainly not what I was expecting. You may find you need to spend some time fiddling with your television brightness and contrast controls to get a more watchable image.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks to the entire series, with each DVD having an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack and a French Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack. On DVD 1 there is an additional English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack that applies to Episodes 1 and 2 only. I listened to the default English soundtrack only, apart from some sampling of the English Audio Commentary soundtrack. A minor annoyance is the fact that the soundtracks are not selectable from the remote on DVD 1 and 2, but are on DVD 3 - at least on my player.

    The dialogue comes up clear and easily understood in the transfer. There was no problem with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original music score for the series comes from Walter Murphy, and a fairly innocuous bunch of efforts they are too. Nothing really memorable here at all, apart from the theme tune - and after twelve straight episodes, even that starts to outstay its welcome well and truly.

    Whilst it may be flagged as a surround-encoded soundtrack., there is actually very little use made of the surround channels apart from during the end credits. I was perhaps expecting a plethora of rear channel effects here, but they sadly did not eventuate. The overall soundtrack though is actually not too bad considering the source is a television series. It was generally a nice bright, distinctly stereo effort that has a nice enough presence to it. It does the job well enough without being truly memorable. The bass channel is obviously a no-show here.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    There is not much on offer here, but this is to some extent expected in a television series. What is presented here is done so in a reasonably well thought-out manner.

Menu

    Decently themed throughout, with each menu having a broad standard as well as displaying some individuality across all three DVDs. The style is consistent but the visuals are different on each menu, which certainly avoids a boredom problem in general. Some minor audio and animation enhancement is noted in the movements out of the menus to the episodes themselves. The menus do not appear to be 16x9 enhanced. Rather depressingly, there are some typos floating around, especially in the spelling of Whedon and Boreanaz. The special features on a particular DVD can only be accessed from within the menu for each episode, and not from the main menu for the DVD.

DVD One:

Interview - Joss Whedon (Creator) and David Boreanaz (Actor) (4:15)

    Not especially inspiring stuff and providing only a brief introduction to the show itself. Presented in a Full Frame format, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. I would hardly rate this as an essential inclusion, but my sister definitely disagrees.

Audio Commentary - Joss Whedon (Creator) (Episodes 1 and 2 only)

    I have only briefly sampled the commentary, but from what I heard it is a decent enough presentation. There did not seem to be too many great insights into the show, but enough to keep this above average, despite his slightly monotonous presentation style. He does however give away a few surprises from later episodes. One peculiarity here is that once you select the commentary option from the menu, the episodes start playing immediately - with the French subtitles on. I failed to find a way to turn the subtitles off as the subtitle button on the remote is locked out during play back. If this is common to all players, then this is a serious mastering problem indeed.

Original Pilot Script

    The first two episodes were originally intended to form a single feature length pilot episode, and this is the script for that. The thought of pushing the skip forward button for umpteen pages did not enthral me after nine hours of viewing, so I only briefly sampled this. If this is your bag, and it certainly is not mine, interesting enough and reasonably well presented.

Buffy Trailer (1:13)

    This would seem to be the promotional trailer for the VHS tapes, presented in a Full Frame format, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Not exactly awe inspiring stuff either.

DVD-ROM content

    You want to know why I consider this sort of stuff to be a blight on DVD Video? This is the reason. Toss the DVD into your DVD-ROM drive and our old friend PCFriendly fires up the DVD and takes you to a selection menu. Select DVD Online Destination and it automatically (providing your Internet connection is up) takes you to the website for the show. Well at least I presume that is what it does for all it did for me was come up with a message " Fox.com - Sorry, you have arrived at a page that is no longer available..." and the usual apologetic blurb. Really sensational stuff for a new release DVD. So you then can click the DVD Screensaver option- which then enables you to load a screensaver program. Everything was going fine until I went to install the screensaver as instructed and got the error message "QuickTime For Windows Error - System initialization failed". Four attempts and four failures - so I have no comment upon the screensavers at all. Upon DVD-ROM content I have a lot to say - but none of it is polite. Please guys - forget this sort of rubbish unless you can actually get it to work properly.

DVD Two:

Music Video - I Quit by Hepburn (4:02)

    An okay song that has tenuous links to the series I suppose. Presented in a Full Frame format, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, it suffers from very minor aliasing issues. Adequate is the best way of describing this unless you are a fan of the band - the bass player is kind of attractive though.

Gallery - Photos

    Twenty seven unannotated promotional photos and stills from the show that serve little purpose at all other than to take up space. There is not even a decent photo of Alyson Hannigan, making things doubly worse.

DVD Two:

Biographies - Cast and Crew

    At least this is a little more interesting. Each cast member is provided with both a character biography and their actual biography. By DVD standards, these are reasonably extensive and reasonably informative. The unusual character biography however is certainly a serious plus.

R4 vs R1

    This has not yet been released in Region 1.

Summary

    Whilst I would ordinarily be over the moon with the release of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, this is to me a monumental disappointment. The video transfer is simply too dark and suffers far too much from grain and aliasing to be deemed easily watchable. In the end I found this a chore to sit through, which really sums up how bad I feel the transfer is, for this should have been a lot of fun to watch. Whilst I would hope that Fox Home Entertainment will be releasing the other seasons on DVD real soon, I really do hope that the video transfers get a better deal than we got here. Perhaps the situation is source material related, but I simply do not recall the television broadcasts being this dark and this prone to grain. The presentation of the boxed set though is very good and it is a classy looking product from that point of view.
 
 

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
22nd November 2000

Review Equipment
DVD Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Built in
Amplification Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL