I found Buffy late in season 2 when I moved to a brand new apartment complex that was so new that they didn't have any of the cable lines hooked up yet. I was far away from the big city and the only channel I could get over the antenna was the WB. I turned on my TV to my one channel, expecting to quickly turn it off in favor of PlayStation or a movie. WB was rerunning "Surprise" and "Innocence" to refresh viewer's minds in the lead up to the finale. Despite not knowing what the hell was going on, I was hooked. Then came the frantic search for the 24 episodes that came before "Surprise"; a very difficult task in 1999 with no iTunes or TV on DVD yet.

I caught Buffy once or twice in the first two seasons, but it was always as a sort of background thing, with distractions, so it was never anything that really grabbed me.

Then when I moved out here to California, on that first Tuesday (I'd moved out just before the new seasons were starting), 8:00 rolled around and all the people I was with (including MM, Aimee, and a few others) told me to sit down and be quiet. I proceeded to watch Alice and was unalterably hooked by the end.

I caught Buffy once or twice in the first two seasons, but it was always as a sort of background thing, with distractions, so it was never anything that really grabbed me.

Sean is me, only it was moving back to Seattle and getting cable, and I wasn't watching with anyone, and "Anne" came on, and I watched it, and soon I felt like I was cheating on X-Files.

Anne. Not Alice.

I must have gotten confused by waitress "A" names.

I have to thank Megan for hooking me on Buffy. I had seen part of an episode here and there and had blown it off thinking it was pretty lame and cheesy. When I started working where I'm working, I met Megan. Shorly after I started working there, I got cable, on the day my cable was installed, Megan said to me, "You have to go home and watch Bufffy at 8PM." (This was during Season 3.) I came back the next day and I was hooked. I just looked at her and said, "I have many questions."

I think season three was extra fertile ground, for that. There was Faith! And there were illicit smoochies with Xander and Willow, and you knew Angel and Buffy were a big thing, but you hadn't seen season 2, and season 3 was all star-crossed. It was all intrigue, no fatigue, if you were a new viewer. And there was the Mayor. So, so, so, so good.

Is it just me, or did Sunday evening turn out to be a lot easier to do the watch-and-post than Tuesday?

I downloaded Season 5 of Buffy off the campus network on the recommendation of a friend my junior year, during a very depressing time when I both had mono and wanted to break up with my basically live-in girlfriend, but was too chicken.

I ended up watching the whole thing in a weekend. Bought the Season 1 DVDs, watched them and Season 6 in some weird alternating fashion, then started catching up on earlier seasons (Season 2 came out in January of that year. Seasons 3 and 4 were found through much less convenient internet means, as I could not wait for DVD releases.) Angel joined soon thereafter. At the same time, I was watching Season 7 as it aired.

Everything was done by February, except for the last episodes of season 7, and seasons 4/5 of Angel. Firefly, I had downloaded the pilot, and mourned its cancellation a few months too late. I could tell you my top 10 episodes, and had done marathons with a few friends including "The Top 5 Most Depressing Episodes of Buffy" (angst-heavy). I had seen the musical at least 6 times.

It was a crazy period.

Since then, I've been a TV fiend. Before that... never watched it.

I can remember looking forward to Buffy before it started because the movie was one that my friends and I would quote constantly ("Now it's retro", etc) and the buzz was that the TV show would be darker but still funny.

And, lo, it was, and it was good.