I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer a whole lot. I want to watch it again, and I like writing about it, so why not do a series of reviews on each episode? Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to A Tour of Sunnydale.
The very first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - ignoring the unaired pilot episode that it shares most of its plot with and the terrible original movie - is Welcome to the Hellmouth. It is the first part of a two-parter along with the next episode The Harvest, and is written by showrunner Joss Whedon, and is the only directorial contribution of Charles Martin Smith to the series. According to The Phi Phenomenon, Welcome to the Hellmouth is on average considered the 40th best episode of the show, placing it comfortably within the top third of episodes in terms of quality. Due to the importance of... well, a first episode, the length of this review is likely to be significantly above-average, especially as I discuss a lot more specific character stuff.
From its opening moments, one thing is abundantly clear about Welcome to the Hellmouth: This is decidedly, unavoidably the 90s. The opening scene whereupon a hapless girl and a dangerous-looking boy sneak into a school and the boy reassures the nervous girl that they're all alone seems straight out of a cheesy PSA. That is, right until the girl turns out to be a vampire and murders him.
It's decidedly a bold statement right out of the gate, and it works as both a nice little moment of subversion in its own right and as a punchy, to-the-point mission statement for the entire show, but it's ultimately of so little consequence that it feels like a waste of something as momentously important as the first scene in what will become a 244 episode epic spanning 2 different shows.
But we've got more important things to do, as our protagonist lays in a bed and sees freaky visions: Weird monsters, a demon who looks like he'd be unsettingly comfortable invading the Internet, and a particularly distinctive vampire. It's clear they're prophetic, and we wonder why the girl is having them, and also why we're lingering so unbearably long on this scene. Later on we'll learn the girl is the titular Buffy, and that she's the Slayer, the one girl in all the world chosen to stand against the vampires and other forces of evil (mostly other forces of evil, as it'll turn out)
I was surprised by how immediately present Buffy was in Welcome to the Hellmouth something I'll be saying a lot throughout this review. Practically from her very first line she's just there, fully formed as the character I've grown to love so much. She's obviously green: this is season 1 Buffy, the child who wants to leave her duty behind and simply live a normal life. She knows how to slay vampires: Throughout the episode she displays admirable initiative, knowledge and general effectiveness at her job, be it in her quick assessment of the situation with the dead boy in the locker, the decisive action she takes at the Bronze, or the cocky swagger she puts on to taunt the vampires into attacking her in the final showdown in the mausoleum.
A character who definitely doesn't just materialize as impressively fully-formed as Buffy is Xander, who is introduced to us being cool on a skateboard before failing completely because of horniness, and who we are to understand is a loser. In the first season Xander will have plenty of opporunity to demonstrate he is both an idiot and a complete loser, but in this episode he's actually presented as funny, good looking, perceptive and surprisingly cool, which makes it seem like his only social flaw is hanging out with Willow and Jesse. We'll talk about Willow later, but Jesse's entire role in this episode appears to be being exactly Xander but creepily horny all the time. He's not well done, and whilst in the whirlwind of everything that's happening it may not be obvious what his fate is, it certainly is evident on a rewatch in the minimal amount of effort put towards giving him a personality.
The other character who just appears to poof into existence fully formed is Willow, who is exactly the early-season Willow Rosenberg I adore so much. She's a pushover and a shy wallflower, but she's kind-hearted and gentle and willing to help complete strangers. There's a couple plot beats that don't work very well, mostly in the scene in the Bronze: It's already evident even this early on that Willow digs Xander big time, but yet she says she can't talk around boys she likes, and it's awkward how quickly her shy attitude goes away upon hearing Buffy's advice, but both of these come across as oversights rather than intended character traits.
To round of the original four Scoobies is Giles, the librarian and Buffy's Watcher, who is introduced as a more exageratedly British and twee version of himself than we'll grow to know. It's honestly kind of annoying at this point, and he comes across as a much more one-note character than he is, essentially just a less creepy Merrick from the original movie. Still, I respect the clever way he is used to seamlessly merge exposition into the show: What Buffy doesn't know he explains for obvious reasons, whilst her backstory is a constant source of beffudelment to him, which he explains as much to himself as to Buffy or the audience. It works surprisingly well, and it actually took me a while to realize I was being exposited to.
Another major character introduced in the episode is Angel, who is basically a completely different person from what he quickly morphs into. He's got the mysterious and handsome part pat down, but otherwise he's got a mysterious trickster vibe to him, and you get the feeling he's warning Buffy of an impending threat as much for his own amusement as any other reason. He's snarky, funny and likeable: A more handsome, grown up, mysterious Xander. He's decidedly not the Angel I remember from early Buffy: I actually want to see more of this character.
To round of this massive dump of new characters is Cordelia, who is just as one dimensional as she'll remain until the third season, but who is introduced brillianty: Initially appearing as a nice girl who helps Buffy out and who has a genuinely fantastic scene of bonding with her over fashion, she's soon revealed to be a terrible bully to poor innocent Willow who has the cutest and most heart-breaking reaction in the history of television, firmly cementing the until just moments ago sympathetic Cordelia as thoroughly unlikeable. It's effective television, and may in fact be my favorite moment in this first episode.
Beyond this run-down of character introductions there's actually surprisingly little to say about Welcome to the Hellmouth. Very little actually happens: Buffy moves into a new school, meets some people, doesn't want to be the Slayer, gets some cryptic advice, then has to rescue Willow. This is why I typically consider The Harvest the stronger part of the opening two - parter (Which is why it surprised me that it's number 67 on The Phi Phenomenon, considerably lower than Welcome to the Hellmouth), since Hellmouth is the setup for the actual plot happening in Harvest. That said, Welcome to the Hellmouth is a strong opening to the series. It's very effective at setting the tone the series will maintain for most of its first two seasons, and it has a lot of strong scenes (Buffy's meeting with Principal Flutie is fantastic, and there's some absolutely phenomenal mother-daughter dialogue between her and Joyce), as well as Joss Whedon's trademark witty dialogue. It's also masterful at making the large amount of exposition it presents go down very easily thanks to clever writing. Unfortunately, like a lot of the weaker first season, it really doesn't stand up to later Buffy and Angel, and feels somewhat disappointing as a result. Welcome to the Hellmouth is an appropriate introduction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that's kind of all it is.
Here's ranking and rating: The ranking is of all episodes of Buffy and Angel I've watched so far, with 1 being the best one, and the rating is out of ten in context of the quality of the show: I'm essentially trying to decide what 10% of quality of that particular show the episode belongs in. Because both shows are so good, this means negative ratings are not neccesarily a diss on the episode - I just think it's one of the show's weaker ones.
Ranked List
Rating: 3/10. I can't see liking many episodes of Buffy less than this one, but there's definitely a decent amount that are weaker.
The very first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - ignoring the unaired pilot episode that it shares most of its plot with and the terrible original movie - is Welcome to the Hellmouth. It is the first part of a two-parter along with the next episode The Harvest, and is written by showrunner Joss Whedon, and is the only directorial contribution of Charles Martin Smith to the series. According to The Phi Phenomenon, Welcome to the Hellmouth is on average considered the 40th best episode of the show, placing it comfortably within the top third of episodes in terms of quality. Due to the importance of... well, a first episode, the length of this review is likely to be significantly above-average, especially as I discuss a lot more specific character stuff.
From its opening moments, one thing is abundantly clear about Welcome to the Hellmouth: This is decidedly, unavoidably the 90s. The opening scene whereupon a hapless girl and a dangerous-looking boy sneak into a school and the boy reassures the nervous girl that they're all alone seems straight out of a cheesy PSA. That is, right until the girl turns out to be a vampire and murders him.
It's decidedly a bold statement right out of the gate, and it works as both a nice little moment of subversion in its own right and as a punchy, to-the-point mission statement for the entire show, but it's ultimately of so little consequence that it feels like a waste of something as momentously important as the first scene in what will become a 244 episode epic spanning 2 different shows.
But we've got more important things to do, as our protagonist lays in a bed and sees freaky visions: Weird monsters, a demon who looks like he'd be unsettingly comfortable invading the Internet, and a particularly distinctive vampire. It's clear they're prophetic, and we wonder why the girl is having them, and also why we're lingering so unbearably long on this scene. Later on we'll learn the girl is the titular Buffy, and that she's the Slayer, the one girl in all the world chosen to stand against the vampires and other forces of evil (mostly other forces of evil, as it'll turn out)
I was surprised by how immediately present Buffy was in Welcome to the Hellmouth something I'll be saying a lot throughout this review. Practically from her very first line she's just there, fully formed as the character I've grown to love so much. She's obviously green: this is season 1 Buffy, the child who wants to leave her duty behind and simply live a normal life. She knows how to slay vampires: Throughout the episode she displays admirable initiative, knowledge and general effectiveness at her job, be it in her quick assessment of the situation with the dead boy in the locker, the decisive action she takes at the Bronze, or the cocky swagger she puts on to taunt the vampires into attacking her in the final showdown in the mausoleum.
A character who definitely doesn't just materialize as impressively fully-formed as Buffy is Xander, who is introduced to us being cool on a skateboard before failing completely because of horniness, and who we are to understand is a loser. In the first season Xander will have plenty of opporunity to demonstrate he is both an idiot and a complete loser, but in this episode he's actually presented as funny, good looking, perceptive and surprisingly cool, which makes it seem like his only social flaw is hanging out with Willow and Jesse. We'll talk about Willow later, but Jesse's entire role in this episode appears to be being exactly Xander but creepily horny all the time. He's not well done, and whilst in the whirlwind of everything that's happening it may not be obvious what his fate is, it certainly is evident on a rewatch in the minimal amount of effort put towards giving him a personality.
The other character who just appears to poof into existence fully formed is Willow, who is exactly the early-season Willow Rosenberg I adore so much. She's a pushover and a shy wallflower, but she's kind-hearted and gentle and willing to help complete strangers. There's a couple plot beats that don't work very well, mostly in the scene in the Bronze: It's already evident even this early on that Willow digs Xander big time, but yet she says she can't talk around boys she likes, and it's awkward how quickly her shy attitude goes away upon hearing Buffy's advice, but both of these come across as oversights rather than intended character traits.
To round of the original four Scoobies is Giles, the librarian and Buffy's Watcher, who is introduced as a more exageratedly British and twee version of himself than we'll grow to know. It's honestly kind of annoying at this point, and he comes across as a much more one-note character than he is, essentially just a less creepy Merrick from the original movie. Still, I respect the clever way he is used to seamlessly merge exposition into the show: What Buffy doesn't know he explains for obvious reasons, whilst her backstory is a constant source of beffudelment to him, which he explains as much to himself as to Buffy or the audience. It works surprisingly well, and it actually took me a while to realize I was being exposited to.
Another major character introduced in the episode is Angel, who is basically a completely different person from what he quickly morphs into. He's got the mysterious and handsome part pat down, but otherwise he's got a mysterious trickster vibe to him, and you get the feeling he's warning Buffy of an impending threat as much for his own amusement as any other reason. He's snarky, funny and likeable: A more handsome, grown up, mysterious Xander. He's decidedly not the Angel I remember from early Buffy: I actually want to see more of this character.
To round of this massive dump of new characters is Cordelia, who is just as one dimensional as she'll remain until the third season, but who is introduced brillianty: Initially appearing as a nice girl who helps Buffy out and who has a genuinely fantastic scene of bonding with her over fashion, she's soon revealed to be a terrible bully to poor innocent Willow who has the cutest and most heart-breaking reaction in the history of television, firmly cementing the until just moments ago sympathetic Cordelia as thoroughly unlikeable. It's effective television, and may in fact be my favorite moment in this first episode.
Beyond this run-down of character introductions there's actually surprisingly little to say about Welcome to the Hellmouth. Very little actually happens: Buffy moves into a new school, meets some people, doesn't want to be the Slayer, gets some cryptic advice, then has to rescue Willow. This is why I typically consider The Harvest the stronger part of the opening two - parter (Which is why it surprised me that it's number 67 on The Phi Phenomenon, considerably lower than Welcome to the Hellmouth), since Hellmouth is the setup for the actual plot happening in Harvest. That said, Welcome to the Hellmouth is a strong opening to the series. It's very effective at setting the tone the series will maintain for most of its first two seasons, and it has a lot of strong scenes (Buffy's meeting with Principal Flutie is fantastic, and there's some absolutely phenomenal mother-daughter dialogue between her and Joyce), as well as Joss Whedon's trademark witty dialogue. It's also masterful at making the large amount of exposition it presents go down very easily thanks to clever writing. Unfortunately, like a lot of the weaker first season, it really doesn't stand up to later Buffy and Angel, and feels somewhat disappointing as a result. Welcome to the Hellmouth is an appropriate introduction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that's kind of all it is.
Here's ranking and rating: The ranking is of all episodes of Buffy and Angel I've watched so far, with 1 being the best one, and the rating is out of ten in context of the quality of the show: I'm essentially trying to decide what 10% of quality of that particular show the episode belongs in. Because both shows are so good, this means negative ratings are not neccesarily a diss on the episode - I just think it's one of the show's weaker ones.
Ranked List
Rating: 3/10. I can't see liking many episodes of Buffy less than this one, but there's definitely a decent amount that are weaker.
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