In reading through the comments on Mark Watches, I had no idea that Season one was so universally disliked!
Buffy and Angel 1: BUFFYNANGLE4EVA!!!!!1!
Is it better the second time around? Or the third? Or tenth? This is the place to come when you have a burning desire to talk about an old episode that was just re-run.
Season One has Hyena!Xander! That's a win right there.
Disliked? Well, it's obviously pretty weak in comparison to the other seasons, and it's rough around the edges, but I do like it.
Looks to be a lot of Xander hate, though, which saddens me. It completely baffled me when I discovered that was a Thing. I understand some of the reasons, but still.
Xander didn't tell Willow about Angel's soul.
Yeah, maybe I'm still bitter.
that and leaving Anya at the altar are really the only things i can come up with off the top of my head. i love Xander. always wanted him and Cordy to end up together.
He and Cordy would have rocked together. She wouldn't have put up with his crap and he wouldn't put up with hers. And they both saw the good parts of each other.
Season 1 is better than Season 6. Except for the Season finale.
Personally I think Season 1 is better than all the other seasons (though not by much with regard to 2 and 3). The stunts weren't as spectacular, and there was a certain amount of cheese, but I actually liked the characterizations, story arc, and tonal balance between horror and camp best back then.
Season 1 Xander has some serious Nice Guy tendencies, which aren't terribly endearing.
Matt,
I could be persuaded of this stance. I definitely like Season 1 better than 5, 6, 7. Although I tend to like S4 better than most, I probably would rank S1 over S4.
So, I guess S1 is in my top 3.