Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Ranking Every Season From Worst To Best
4. Season 1
Why It Was Great
Being the first season, it had to sell us the concept, setup the characters, introduce a big threat but not so big it couldn't be topped, establish the tone, and do so in a way that would ensure enough viewers to get a second season, and that people would return for it.
Season 1 is far from perfect, but it certainly did what it needed to. The dialogue was fast-paced and quippy, the monster-of-the-week storylines ran parallel to real world high school struggles, and best of all it did a great job of developing its central characters
Why It Wasn't
Being the first season, it was *very* rough around the edges in the early stages. The villains weren't particularly memorable, and the work on the vampires and demons wasn't that strong then and certainly doesn't hold up now. The Master worked well enough as the Big Bad, but is limp in comparison to what would come after him.
There are definitely signs of what the show would become, but it's still some way off it too, especially in the earlier episodes of the short first season.
Best Episode: Prophecy Girl (S1 E12)