I first watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer the series back in 1999 when they first started showing it in India on the cable channel Star World. I think they showed the seasons almost back and it probably stopped airing with the last episodes in 2004. I must have seen all but a handful of episodes and among them is one that I desperately wanted to see and even missed the reruns due to some reason or the other. After the series got over I was still looking to see if there was some way that I could catch it on tv.
The episode in question is the 5th season opener, “Buffy vs Dracula”. Earlier this year I started watching the series starting from episode 1, downloading the episodes via torrent and watching them at my leisure. I just finished the 4th season last night and this morning got the 5th season opener. I guess I had some different expectations and although this is a good episode, I would have done it differently had I been Joss Whedon. There was a lot of comedy in this show and I did not like the way that Drac was treated. I mean, he is no ordinary vampire, he is the Count!
Although I can’t really find fault with the actor who portrays Dracula – for a single tv episode Rudolf Martin did a good job. But I feel that the episode should have been more dark with the outcome more ambiguous. The ending is almost comical and slightly demeaning to a character as grandiose as Dracula. They did connect the Dracula story with the cast of Buffy – what with Xander becoming like Renfield for Dracula and then Giles getting distracted & seduced by Dracula’s female vampires, much like Jonathan Harker. I would have a much darker episode with Buddy & Dracula becoming lovers or something and probably do a 2 part episode. This could have been a bigger thing in Buffy-verse but that’s just my opinion.