It is really fun seeing all of the elements of what would make the show great come together over this first season.

What’s most interesting to me in rewatch of this episode is how it’s kind of an inflection point for TV. Nighttime soaps were pretty much dead. X-Files was a hit + WB’s only other hit drama was 7th Heaven, and Buffy is kind of a combo of those shows. (Reductively)

I think many of the ideas were better in concept, maybe due to budgetary constraints and maybe not yet having a strong stable of directors.
Dodgeball scene is a fun idea but fails because it’s shot too… traditionally? Obviously? Likewise, when the show leaves its standing sets, it just feels off.

106 The Pack doesn’t really work, though not for lack of trying. Problem is that the metaphor is muddy. Is it about toxic masculinity? Cliques? Not helped either that Buffy is pretty sidelined.
Still there is some good stuff here.

“Buffy wants to be a normal girl but her responsibilities as Slayer prevent her” was surely part of the initial pitch. It’s flirted with in 101-104 but someone must have left Spider-man comics in the writers room because it’s front and center here and that clarity makes the episode sing.

Sorry, 105.

It really is fun seeing them figure out the show. You don’t really get that any more. Everything (scripted) arrives in its final form.
So worth watching series that did 22 eps per season for multiple yrs to see how they cracked the show in real time.
You’d never get a pointless shot like this now