Slayers
We recently finished up our watch through of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's definitely a show that has its ups and downs, and there are definitely aspects of where the story goes that I would have loved to be different but ultimately, I walked away a huge fan. So much so that I was eager to jump into this pseudo-sequel series.
Obviously, the big draw here is the returning cast. You've got Spike and Giles and a whole host of other returning actors which lends a great legitimacy to the production. James Marsters has done a number of audiobooks over the years, and the experience really shows. In particular, he pulls you into the first chapters really well.
That enticing opening unfortunately doesn't quite last. The plot gets convoluted quickly and I struggled a bit through some of it. It sometimes felt the "alternate universe" plot was used here just based on which returning actors they could get a hold of rather than what best suited a return to Buffy. I personally would have loved for this to be 8 or 9 individual monsters of the week episodes with Spike as the lead rather than trying to shoehorn in as many characters as possible. Ironically, it even felt like it was written as a weekly show at times with a lot of exposition getting repeated.
It's very fan fiction-y. There's definitely some enjoyment to be had from it and the production values are excellent. It would have been great to see if they could have hit their stride with season 2 but it wasn't to be. If you're a huge Buffy fan it's worth a casual listen, if only to hear Spike and Giles one last time.
