Post "Buffy the Vampire Slayer || 4x02 || Full Reaction" by "Alley Box" from patreon

Jordan Haddow

I love how they set up Buffy as going insane. I think part of it was also her "spidey" sense telling her Kathy was bad. Buffy has a nasty habit of not listening to it. Also, the scoobies reaction was priceless. You could see their horror at the thought of having to take down a bad Buffy. They never had a chance. I also agree with the comment about Buffy being bad at sharing. I guess it's part of growing up a single child. Not having a sister around taking her stuff without asking. It makes a difference.

ADDButterfly

This is defintely one of my favorite episodes. Very funny and the monster isn't really evil. But I am so glad that you liked this one.

R J Walker (FumblesMcStupid)

Willow to Giles - Buffy's gone insane...so I sent her to you. One of my fav lines ever :D :D To be honest, considering Kathy is a soulless demon just wanting to go to college, I think she was doing an awfully good job at being a human lol And Buffy has NEVER been good at sharing! Kendra *cough*, Faith *cough* ;)

Nikolai5

They're realistically annoying though. It also shows that (even before demonic influences) that even though we side with Buffy we still see her as being flawed. Everyone has flaws, its one of the challenges of friendships, being able to deal with and overlook things that you find annoying about them.

David Neal

Who should delete what, and why? Or are you replying to something that has already been deleted?

Dan

Thanks for the audio remix - your voice is more readable in it.

Phoenix Dawn

Marti Noxon wrote this episode. I couldn't stand Kathy and Buffy's annoyingness but the way it is directed just makes it special.

John Kress

The volume seems to be very low in the last two videos. Is it the new mic?

Vicky N

Please delete

UTU49

Thoroughly enjoyed your reaction, Alley. I'm not sure this episode works as well for everyone as it does for some of us.

Leenis

I think by the end of season 1 Angel finds its' stride that it builds off of. I don't think Buffy hit that point till mid season 2. Both benefit from rich world building and character development.

Kevin Jank

Referring to Parker as Peter...I see what you did there! Haha

FernWithy

I actually think early Angel is stronger than early Buffy, just because the team knows what it's doing more and they're very familiar with two out of the three main characters, but 4th season Buffy is stronger than 1st season Angel.

Ryan Powers

If you try comparing it to buffy Season 1 it doesn't do too badly. Any thoughts I have beyond that border on spoilers.

Loves Bitca

I don't like Angel as much as Buffy, but I do like the show and appreciate it more than when it was first on. It takes a little time for it to decide exactly what it is and what it is about. It gets much better, as Buffy did/does, but the early episodes are still good.

Mary Kate

Also re: Buffy and Angel feeling different — I am of the opinion Angel takes some time to find its stride. Buffy in Season 4 knows very well what kind of show it is and Angel is still figuring it out. I know it’s impossible not to compare them as you watch side by side but I think it’s a good thing to keep in mind. I love love love Angel the show as much as I do Buffy but it will take some time to see why.

Superfan Giovanni

Volume improved version posted above by Alley

Eric Bushee

I like the current thumbnail, it's bold yet minimalist.

Kirby

"Buffy is always right!!!" Amen!

Danielle Murphy

absolutely same here.

Mary Kate

I love most of them! Doppelgangland is in my top 5 of all time. But this one just grates on me. I know Kathy is SUPPOSED to be annoying but maybe she just hit too close to home with the bad roommates I've had and I just get so enraged everyone isn't taking Buffy seriously. Lesson should be learned by now: Buffy is always right!!!

Stanley Zapata

Haven't finished the reaction but was watching on onehub and the episode audio is low trying downloading it and watching with a media player to see if it fixes it. Maybe you could turn on the subtitles next time, maybe that will help if there's audio issues

Dollface

I get the point of the episode but I still find it so painful to watch, the cringe of annoying roommates is too real.

Anthony

Your voice was quite loud in comparison to the show volume, and the download didn't seem to want to work, but otherwise loved the reaction!

Christoph Toifl

No sound in the downloaded version, online it works!

Johnny Coleman

No sound when I download it. I tried a windows and a macbook.

Justafox305

I also love the Scream Movie series, especially the First Scream movie! They are filming the 5th scream movie. Also I've been seeing a gif of the zoom in of Buffy'/SMG's eyes and now I know where it comes from lol

Dave Miller

Just a couple more audio comments. You've been using AAC in previous videos, and this one used MP2. The stock Windows video player wouldn't even play the audio channel. VLC would play it, but the audio would drift. Also, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, VLC wouldn't play the first few seconds of video, even though it would play the audio, whereas the Windows video player played the video from the beginning (like I said, though, no audio). One thing that was interesting was that during the post-episode discussion, I could definitely hear two separate sound tracks overlaid, as if the external mic and camera audio were both encoded. As far as volume, I did have to crank it a bit more than usual, but I could definitely hear it. I ran the whole thing through Handbrake real quick, converting the audio to AAC, and that did resolve everything except the echo.

Jessie

Really missed the captions on this episode 😭

Kirby

Exactly right.

Kirby

Lol, at least you gave it a try. I love this episode. Actually, I love all the comedic Buffy episodes. I rate them all pretty high.

UTU49

I thoroughly enjoy any kind of Giles appreciation.

Kitty

“Ssh. Don’t engage.”

UTU49

Yeah, I wouldn't have minded having Kathy in the background for a couple more episodes, but I'm very glad they didn't go the lazy route and do this Kathy story in episode 1. I think the fact that Kathy was in the last episode makes everything funnier. We don't see Kathy as a single episode character. In fact, throughout the entirety of this episode, we have no idea how much of Kathy we are going to see. While a viewer is in the middle of this episode they have no idea how much Kathy will be on the show. I think that makes everything funnier.

UTU49

I describe this episode as primarily comedic... very successfully comedic. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest when this episode doesn't work for some viewers. Alley, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Season 4 is ___ , but also ___ , and yet it's also ____ ____ .

Dusty

Not to nitpick but the volume seemed kind of low and when I increased it, I noticed a bit of an echo when you were talking. So the new mic setup might need a tiny bit of alterations :)

Bryce Carlson

Blain H Granado

A personal favorite episode. The editing, the sound design, the music cues, the absurdity of the situations...comedy gold. I use that multiple edit close-up gif with Buffy eyeing the ketchup dropping from the burger quite a bit lol

Tekkarath

Okay since there seems to be a bit of variation on issues this episode how about we start putting what we're watching on and such. For me, I had the white noise and I definitely noticed the tinny quality, I did not however get the low volume some people are talking about. I'm using windows and played it in Potplayer at like 40% volume. So the volume was more than fine for me. The tinny quality was mostly when Alley was talking before and after the video, it wasn't as noticeable during the episode. Hope this helps someone.

Superfan Giovanni

Hilarious! I used to really like this episode but now I view it as a masterpiece, Alley's reaction really let me see it again anew.

Denni Caid

"On the plus side, you killed the bench, which was looking shifty."

Superfan Giovanni

Buffy and Oz on patrol together is even more fun than I remembered, Seth Green's characterization and the writing were on point.

Jeffrey

The music reminded me of The Zeppo

Jeffrey

I think that it was one of the first heavy auto-tune songs.

Miricat

Buffy is always campy when appropriate, but in this episode they took it to 11.

Jeffrey

My sound problems: Alley was loud and had echo, the show was too quiet.

Superfan Giovanni

Also Alley's reaction to Buffy's roommate going through her clothes was hilarious!

Superfan Giovanni

I love seeing Buffy and Willow walking on campus at night, it's such an early season 4 staple. Also I have newfound appreciation for "townie" Xander showing up at the college cafeteria.

Stephen Mintac

Fan favorite filler-ish episode <3

Ed Badalucca

Dead ass, I stopped listening to the radio around this time because of annoying-ass songs like this that got extra heavy rotation.

Devon Martin

I am so excited for you to experience season 4 5 6 and 7 😉😉😉

Devon Martin

Oh em gee! I love "living conditions" - just as much as I love Cher 😍😉😊...I have been following you since mid season 3 and I know we could be buffy beasties lol....I am an OG buffy fan

Lucy Young

I love the funny episodes, probably the one I've rewatched most in season 4.

Mary Kate

Just watched, nope, still don't like this one at all, haha. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Shaun Houghton

Episode's message: Demons are people too.

Shaun Houghton

It is very low.

FernWithy

Yeah, probably something like that. (Though you could see the rumor mill start churning if it turned out that Buffy was also initially a suspect with Ted and Kendra... But we'll look away from how *that*! ;p)

Richard Lucas

I thought she was going to become eventually part of the gang, like Cordelia did

Richard Lucas

Well Buffy did come across as a bit nutty, but still Buffy. So I wouldn’t have thought possessed as much as .. enraged maybe. Or superego blocked?

Richard Lucas

I love how we are getting to meet all the people you would in college: teachers, TAs, potential new friends. I feel like the ‘lightness’ of the season might be how many people feel when they graduate from the ‘darkness’ of high school to the freedom of college. Season 4 is in my top 3, right after 5 and 6, so I hope you enjoy it.

Tania

I've always loved this episode too. It's underrated by the fandom.

Richard Lucas

It sounded ok to me.

Richard Lucas

“Do you believe in life after love..”

Danielle Murphy

the lowkey lusting after giles is a fucking mood. always.

Sika6061

I'm sure others have posted this, but because I'm in medias res right now..."Um. Can we back up a few steps?" LMFAO!!! Oh, that was hilarious. Now, back to the show.

Mary Kate

One of my least favorite episodes, haha. I hate hate hate it when Buffy is being gaslit and no one believes her (see also: Ted.) It's been awhile since I've watched it, though, since I usually skip it, so I'm looking forward to it!

Tim Pierce

I just use headphones.

Rob

I’m glad it’s not just me hearing things. I could hear Alley’s voice with an echo and it was slightly distorted. I usually watch on my iPad and never had any issues before. This time I had the volume maxed out but it was still just a moderate volume level. As for the ep. Kathy always annoyed me but it is a funny ep. I loved the exaggerated sound of clipping toenails.

Prue

I love this episode and I love Kathy! She was supposed to be annoying but I just found her hilarious. I wish she would have become recurring at least, but I'm happy that we got this episode regardless. I'm also glad you enjoyed it! Many Buffy fans don't, sadly

Superfan Giovanni

Yeah experiment with microphone input levels in audacity, sit where you will be sitting when recording and test it at 100%, 95% 80%, likely based on your distance it will be in the 92%-96% range, just record yourself talking at normal mic distance and look at the wavform, if it's maxed out completely lower the input, if it's a tiny straight line, get closer to the mic and try higher input levels.

CeNedra

Love your reaction! I can see you'll enjoy season 4 🤣

Superfan Giovanni

You're correct Sir Deb, after getting to look at the wavform, there is a constant background noise, it doesn't seem to be room tone, it almost sounds like PC internals, like the mic is too close the fan or the wrong mic was selected, combined with a variable bitrate, peaking/clipping audio.

OliveJus

Just commenting to say what a good idea roommate agreements are! I was in college 2005 - 2009 and that definitely wasn't a thing at my school. It would have saved me a lot of grief lol.

Collinson

Ahh such a perfect score. The toenails hitting the floor and especially SMG eyes. So good.

Collinson

Yes I agree just as Alley says some episodes need a few views to appreciate just like The Zeppo. Wink wink.

Erica Schaefer

I love how much you're loving this one. This is definitely an ep that has grown on me as I have gotten older and gotten more life and roommate experience as opposed to the first time I watched it at 15.

Kitty

This pun made me tear up in laughter.

Collinson

Rather than add another thread I’ll add my experience here. Volume was slightly low during the episode, then normal during the episode talk but with a slight echo. Episode was perfectly watchable just commenting for help on editing.

TheMew

As much as I love all the serious episodes and moments in both series I really love all the humor and it's all still funny to me after all the years and more rewatches then I can count of both shows. So for me I've always liked this one. I think it's hilarious and get a kick out of all the Buffy and Cathy stuff every time.

Kitty

I love this episode. Anyone who has had a roommate should understand it in depth. So many quotable lines. Love the direction and the camera work. I always find it soooo funny that all these reactors and all her friends never believed Buffy. She's BUFFY! She knows! I remember watching this the first time and yelling at everyone for not believing Buffy.

Kyle Jordan Ashley Brown

Ye I love Buffy! And season 4 is definitely another great season to start.....I know what you mean about the lighter tone too. Buffy's comedic timing is just 🥰 x

Shashank

SMG’s comedic acting is so good here, just like the Scooby movies. We’ve had funny episodes before, but Buffy herself hasn’t really had a chance to go over the top with the comedy until this one. The nails, the milk, the stare ….so many iconic moments. Your reaction made it even funnier! sometimes people are thrown with the lighter tone here on a first watch.

matt

One of my all-time favorite scenes is Oz and Xander guarding Buffy. It must be like working at the zoo and being told to check the locks on the angry lion's cage.

Tobijah

Yeah I got white noise and audio got out of synch with the video, but I had way worse mic issues so I can't judge, I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually before the really good eps.

Tobijah

My room mate went crazy and attacked me and then jumped out the window... they can't find any friends and family and probably find her records were falsified. So they shrug and let it go, Buffy while initially being a suspect, would also possibly have a case for suining the school for getting beaten assaulted in her dorm by a student with fake info, so they let her bestie move in and repair the room and hope that's the end of it?

Bisibia

Same I used to hate it... And now its hilarious. I wonder if the nature of Twitter trolls and Reddit memes has affected comedy to the point that annoying people have become funny again.

Samiah

One of my top favorite episodes. Great reaction!

David Neal

That being said, I didn't have any significant volume issues in this reaction.

Tobijah

Yeah I got white noise when I recorded stuff, sometimes lowering the volume can fix it, if you lower your input volume on the main computer volume controls that kind of gets rid of it. Or lowering the master volume on, in your case, audacity. Try recording some little sound tests of a few seconds and listen back to them with your earphones in, it's a lot of trail and error but you can find an optimum configuration eventually. With all this said don't be disheartened it's not un-listenable, just keep trying things as you go and eventually you'll get it.

Val

This is the first time I noticed how much closet space there was!!

David Neal

You might want to open up the OS's mixer settings. That mic being good might also mean that its default is to be fairly quiet on spoken word, so it doesn't overwhelm if you were to be singing full volume opera arias into it. You may need to increase its default level in the settings.

Kelly Walker

This is an exceptionally rewatchable episode. So many hilarious bits done so cleverly. And so relatable.

Tobijah

As someone whos working on audio for a lets play type thing I won't plug here audio is a fucking nightmare. I use soundcloud, but when I plugged in my earphones with an in built mic it would switch over to using that, so all my mic positioning and settings did nothing. You also have to set the input source on your device and usually on the recording program itself or you end up using your in built devices inferior mic. So many things to look out for. That's before you tweak the gain settings and get the gain and the physical positioning of the mic right... Nightmare.

Andrew Pulrang

This episode has grown on me over the years. I love the detail that part of what makes Cathy so annoying is that she’s just weird in quite normal and typical ways. She loves Celine Dion. She’s passive aggressive. She’s inconsiderate. She’s got a little bit of OCD. If the show had been made a decade later she would probably always be drinking Starbucks.

Daniel

The reason Buffy is "off" is because her soul's missing... and we know how important souls can be for your behavior. ;)

RubyDian

This ep is fun for a kind of slice-of-life light-hearted monster of the week. Relatable, and not world-ending dire, and the editing was super funny lol

Lonelyjesse

I loved your reaction (as always). Can't wait for the rest of season 4 ^^.

David Neal

This episode reminds me so much of "Witch" in season 1. The level of switcheroo, the subtle clues that are there the whole time but so easy to not notice.

Dave Ford

Oh, and as others have said - I think the audo was slightly louder for your commentary on this one, but the episode audio was still way quiet. Your audio was being clipped in places though - something's definitely not right with your levels if this is as loud as you can record. I'd go through all the mixer controls you can find and check to see if something doesn't look right.

TheyCallMeJeff

Someone likes Marti Noxon's sense of humor ;) I hated this episode when I first saw it but on repeat viewings, it is actually quite funny and completely tongue in cheek the entire time. And Marti Noxon maybe the best writer to write dialogue for Oz, it's always on point. Some of the writers seem to have trouble writing dialogue for Oz but she nails it.

MStar

Great episode, super funny, I love the direction on this. Anyone else listening on headphones have the right/left sound out of sync after the 50 min mark? And a bunch of white noise? Just checking if it's my headphones or not

Steve Quast

If I was a soul-sucking demon I wouldn't want to be treated like I'm 900 years old, either. Rude much?

Dave Ford

They say the devil has all the best tunes. In this case, it's Celine Dion . On loop. It's a hugely fun episode - not least for Buffy both being absolutely correct and also totally insane at the same time and also the juxtaposition between her whining about how awful Cathy is while Willow was quietly putting up living in party central.

FernWithy

How did they explain that to Buildings and Grounds? Like, "My roommate tried to suck my soul, and we broke the closet door and the window while I was fighting her..."? ETA: It occurs to me that you could actually do a Halloween blood drive with the "help a vampire in need" poster. Like, with an asterisk, "*blood may also be used by patients in need, on the off chance that there are more of them."

tc3

I tend to rate the funny episodes a bit lower than the more dramatic or serious (uh, painful) ones, but this one is a classic, IMO. It’s masterclass in tone. From the writing to the directing and of course the acting; SMG is able to show off her comedic skills and go pretty broad with it, all while keeping her performance grounded as the same Buffy we’ve known for three seasons. And of course now we see why the show didn’t make Buffy and Willow roommates immediately; they needed the space to tell the roommate from hell story. And I love that Buffy isn’t a perfect roommate herself - even before the soul sucking. Also, Angel and Buffy both kind of become homicidal maniacs when losing their soul, but uh, how does Buffy make it look so adorable? Drinking the milk from the carton and letting it spill all over the floor is so petty and stupid. And completely iconic.

Alley Box

dudeee!! 🥺 ur the best thank you! send me what exactly u did to fix it and i will try my best to copy it as well!

Alley Box

👀

BOO

Audio is kinda wonky, is that just me? Like it's very quiet and I think it's buzzing a bit? May have to play with mic settings

Isac christensen

Quote of the day "really Garbage truck?" Alley December 20th 2020 PS: keep up the good work really good reaction :)

Calvin Allen

Have you seen any Buffy memes or gifs on social media? That Buffy glare from this episode is one I see a lot

Steveo

I never hated this episode but wasn't a huge fan when I first saw it. As I've rewatched it I've grown to like it more and more. Kinda like The Zeppo 😆

Patrick Armbruster

I love how you renamed Parker as Peter when discussing the episode afterwards. we _know_ you like Spiderman... ;)

Superfan Giovanni

Instead of just being a complainer I downloaded this episode and Angel 1x02 and I have remixed the audio on both, solving most of the issues (as much as can be done in post) and I'm sending them to Alley in case she wants to swap out the links by editing the posts, won't effect comments nor delete anything.

Alley Box

thats the best compliment ever 🥺

Dan

Well, Buffy filled in the form appropriately... Do you have special accommodation requirements? ☐ Ground floor/wheelchair accessible ☐ Quiet/no music block ☑ Extra room for camera crew and action sequences

HuntingSwan

People hate on this episode but I'm with you Alley, I LOVE it! The editing in the episode reminds me of you, it;s so funny!

Zoë Johanson

It's Cher time, Buffy.

Meredith

I think anyone who lived in a dorm with a roommate can relate to this episode 😂

Steve Quast

That is one huge, well-furnished dorm room.

Alley Box

thank you for the feedback!! i also noticed white noise but didnt know that was an option, i will look for it on my software :)

Luke

So good!! LOL

Paul Thomas-Humphreys

Oh... this episode... I actually used to live with someone who played that Cher song on loop! It used to drive me crazy!

Steve Quast

Joss Whedon will then replace Rick Roll with Cher.

Steve Quast

That Cher song was literally all over the radio at this time. If you didn't hear it at least 50 times a day, it meant you were locked away in a cave someplace.

Kirby

I think Kathy is supposed to be annoying.

Bisibia

So... I don't wanna sound like I'm arguing or anything, but the mic sounds great on my end. I don't hear the low volume or the tinny sound... it's actually coming across super clear. It's much better than last video, and better than your original setup. The only thing I've noticed is some white noise when there's not much sound on the episode... you might want to check out the effects on whatever editor you're using and see if they have a white noise reducer or sound cleaning tool. Turning down the treble or high end, and turning up the bass might help that. But I think it's a massive upgrade overall.

Dollface

Volume sounds fine to me but Alley's voice sounds like it's clipping like the high end is being boosted.

Superfan Giovanni

Oh no sorry needed, you're awesome! I'm watching right now, it's a killer installment.

Alley Box

ahh im sorry. i thought i did raise the volume and did the 1-.2 db on audacity but maybe i did it wrong or exported wrong. sorry to anyone having problems with this

Collinson

It's decent enough. It's a process keep with it.

Collinson

Will replace with a Rick Roll later.

Superfan Giovanni

The mic volume is low and tinny, either due to export/encoding aac/m4a or an initially too low recording from whatever mic you were using this time PC, air pods or AT2020. The AT 2020 can be up to 12 inches away, has a side register so you talk into opposite side that says "back" I made that mistake for 300+ episodes myself. The actual show volume is very low too, unless you're using a new source or the copies you have use different sources/encoding it's from the new setup. Ideally you want -1.2 db for vocals from you and just use source volume levels from the DVD rips/files you use. Also you want to use a neutral export container format like 16bit wav audio in an mp4 container, no mkv, no Avi. That way Apple tv users, android chrome os users and everyone in between can watch it.