Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs Supernatural

Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs Supernatural

  • Buffy

    Votes: 39 53.4%

  • Supernatural

    Votes: 34 46.6%
  • Total voters
    73
I collect VHS tapes

I collect VHS tapes

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I didn't grow up watching either Buffy or supernatural, but i've checked out both as an adult pretty recently and honestly i think they're pretty equal overall. imo it comes down to mostly Buffy being sillier and supernatural being more serious. they both have their highs and lows, and i feel like they kind of balance each other out in different ways. curious what others think.
 
Supernatural ofc. Grew up with it, has its ups and downs but overall the cast was always spot on and amazing. Glad to see them in Boys. Hopefully they get back again for a new show.
 
I genuinely like both, but I think Seasons 1-5 of Supernatural are some of the best of that genre of TV. It's melodramatic because it's a CW show at its heart, but it's got enough funny/touching/action moments to keep you invested. The "monster of the week" episodes are better than the meta episodes, in my opinion, but there's enough building of the central plots that it makes sense at least, and the initial 'finale' was a good bittersweet ending.

Now past Season 5? You're dealing with the execs forcing them to pump out episodes because people were still watching it in high numbers, so don't expect the world there. There were occasionally some diamond in the rough episodes, even then.

If you're going to watch Supernatural, I recommend the blu-ray versions. The streaming ones lost the music licenses and had to add in a bunch of royalty free butt rock, which surprisingly kills off a major part of the show.
 
Both went on for too long but that also resulted in fun scenarios and fun episodes.

The quality in Supernatural felt more consistent to me though 🤷
 
I'm not sure I made it through the first ep of Supernatural. Didn't like X-Files much or Fringe either. Are those shows similar? I don't even know because I watched maybe a season's worth across the three.

Buffy meanwhile is probably on the TV Mount Rushmore and the spinoff was excellent as well.
 
2 of my favourite serial tv, but it is best to stop watching supernatural after season 5.

Can't really chose a best one, both have their merits.
 
Pejo said:
I genuinely like both, but I think Seasons 1-5 of Supernatural are some of the best of that genre of TV. It's melodramatic because it's a CW show at its heart, but it's got enough funny/touching/action moments to keep you invested. The "monster of the week" episodes are better than the meta episodes, in my opinion, but there's enough building of the central plots that it makes sense at least, and the initial 'finale' was a good bittersweet ending.

Now past Season 5? You're dealing with the execs forcing them to pump out episodes because people were still watching it in high numbers, so don't expect the world there. There were occasionally some diamond in the rough episodes, even then.

If you're going to watch Supernatural, I recommend the blu-ray versions. The streaming ones lost the music licenses and had to add in a bunch of royalty free butt rock, which surprisingly kills off a major part of the show.
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High disagree, the episodes about yellow eyes and later angels vs demons were the best supernatural moments imo.
ùit was like when the mentalist had those 2 episodes per season about red john.
 
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GymWolf said:
High disagree, the episodes about yellow eyes and later angels vs demons were the best supernatural moments imo.
ùit was like when the mentalist had those 2 episodes per season about red john.
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Difference of opinion. I think moving so quickly from local/smaller monsters to Angels/Demons was one of the worst ideas of the show. But, it does make sense viewed in the lens that the show was only supposed to be 5 seasons. As it ended up, I would have enjoyed smaller stakes until about season 7-8. The fact that they went Angels/Demons so quickly caught up with them with the shitshow that were leviathans and the MoL, because they had nowhere left to go.

I will agree that the Yellow Eyes plot was fantastic, probably the best in the show. But when they basically made killing angels with their special angel knives no big deal, it felt like a major 'jump the shark' moment. Like why the fuck are angels even fighting hand-to-hand to begin with when they could just explode their bodies with a voice, even lower ranking ones.
 
Both are good but I stopped watching supernatural because I didn't like dean. When I first started watching season 1 he was my favourite character but by the time I stopped watching I couldn't stand him. It's a shame because I like jensen as an actor, he was great in The Boys and big sky.
 
Supernatural drops off hard and stays bad for too long. Buffy suffers from becoming the Willow show but it only really has two terrible seasons, 4 and 7, and even then 4 had some great eps.

Angel clears both though.
 
TheUnicornGuy said:
Both are good but I stopped watching supernatural because I didn't like dean. When I first started watching season 1 he was my favourite character but by the time I stopped watching I couldn't stand him. It's a shame because I like jensen as an actor, he was great in The Boys and big sky.
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How the hell can anyone not like dean winchester??!
 
I have a Supernatural Tattoo, so I´m probably a bit biased.
The lore. The chemistry. The humor. It´s just brillant. Yes, it fell off after Season 5 and it took some time (and showrunners) to get back on track, but it got amazing again.

I loved Buffy too, but I´ve rewatched SN many times more.
 
Buffy/Angel by a mile

For the long term effect it had on pop culture in terms of long story arcs and the way characters were written its by far the more meaningful of the two.

Also: Agree Angel>Buffy. Wesley alone is one of the most satisfying character arcs in TV history.
 
Supernatural S1-5 > Buffy > The rest of Supernatural


Pejo said:
If you're going to watch Supernatural, I recommend the blu-ray versions. The streaming ones lost the music licenses and had to add in a bunch of royalty free butt rock, which surprisingly kills off a major part of the show.
Click to expand...

Damn, did they at least manage to keeep Carry on my Wayward son?
It's not Supernatural without the season finale opening with "The road so far" to that song.
 
Saw the title, and it sounded like a crossover series.

Supernatural jumped the shark big time (worse than Buffy), shortly after the JDM era.

Angel stayed good throughout.
 
both good but didn't really like the Adam storyline in Buffy and hated all the Chuck and angelboy episodes in later supernatural.
 
Supernatural. Easy.

Buffy was a good show, but it was way over-hyped on the sex appeal of its characters. And its very apparent that had it run for the same length of time that Supernatural did, it would no doubt have worn out its welcome.

Great supporting cast, but frankly Supernatural's was better.
 
I think the first 3 seasons of Buffy (and particularly 2 and 3) was about the best genre TV will ever be. They so encapsulated the high school experience into character and narrative elements in ways that formed the very foundation of my adult self. Firefly would have done it for my adulthood I think, had it gotten a few more seasons to really sink its hooks into pop culture. 'bout due for a rewatch, I think.

X-files is something that was MY LIFE at the time, but now looking back I don't recall much of it. Probably worth a rewatch as well as it's be a loooooong stretch since I've spent any time with Mulder and Scully.
 
Avid Reading Horse said:
I'm not sure I made it through the first ep of Supernatural. Didn't like X-Files much or Fringe either. Are those shows similar? I don't even know because I watched maybe a season's worth across the three.

Buffy meanwhile is probably on the TV Mount Rushmore and the spinoff was excellent as well.
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Xfiles and Fringe are NOTHING alike. And both of those are NOTHING like Supernatural. Other than having 2 leads (3 in the case of Fringe) as the main protagonists. I think all 3 are excellent
 
DeafTourette said:
Xfiles and Fringe are NOTHING alike. And both of those are NOTHING like Supernatural. Other than having 2 leads (3 in the case of Fringe) as the main protagonists. I think all 3 are excellent
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Ehhhh, dunno about that. You can draw a LOT of parallels between all those shows and some clearly inspired others. Sure, go frame by frame and there are a lot of differences, particularly as each show wore on, but the premises of all three are quite similar.

Contrasted with Buffy, which has a VERY different premise even though the "monster of the week" format is shared there as well.

All are excellent though, for sure. I'm not really aware of any current show that really captures the appeal as these older ones either. Either they are too serialized and thus feel drawn out plotwise or they lack a good partner/team dynamic embedded in an episodic format that doesn't get overwhelmed with personal trauma nonsense that distracts from the immediacy of events.
 
jason10mm said:
Ehhhh, dunno about that. You can draw a LOT of parallels between all those shows and some clearly inspired others. Sure, go frame by frame and there are a lot of differences, particularly as each show wore on, but the premises of all three are quite similar.

Contrasted with Buffy, which has a VERY different premise even though the "monster of the week" format is shared there as well.

All are excellent though, for sure. I'm not really aware of any current show that really captures the appeal as these older ones either. Either they are too serialized and thus feel drawn out plotwise or they lack a good partner/team dynamic embedded in an episodic format that doesn't get overwhelmed with personal trauma nonsense that distracts from the immediacy of events.
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Right now, the best sort of serial/not serial show is Tracker. It has nothing to do with the supernatural but the format is episodic with an overarching story (with a b sub story) that pops up in less than half the episodes.
 
Buffy season 2 and 3 is the best of both, but Supernatural has 5 great seasons vs Buffy's 2. I still like Buffy Seasons 1, 4, and 5 though.
 
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Where do I start with supernatural? just s01?
I always wanted to see some of it. I have good vibes from yt shorts from it
 
rofif said:
Where do I start with supernatural? just s01?
I always wanted to see some of it. I have good vibes from yt shorts from it
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I gave the first 4-5 eps a good go. You just gotta remember it was a CW show from like 20 years ago, so the budget is about $5 and a pack of smokes. Still, it's refreshing to see some very young actors at the start of their careers and the CW casting call of exclusively smoking hot women is in full effect :P

Apparently the streaming versions have dull bland music versus the licensed rock of the network show and that drastically impacts the feel. I wonder if you can get the BRs for cheap.
 
Supernatural is so all over the place quality wise even in the early seasons when Kripke was involved. Might as well be a totally different show from season to season lol

Buffy is decent throughout and has the advantage of not running for about 20 too many seasons.
 
jason10mm said:
I gave the first 4-5 eps a good go. You just gotta remember it was a CW show from like 20 years ago, so the budget is about $5 and a pack of smokes. Still, it's refreshing to see some very young actors at the start of their careers and the CW casting call of exclusively smoking hot women is in full effect :P

Apparently the streaming versions have dull bland music versus the licensed rock of the network show and that drastically impacts the feel. I wonder if you can get the BRs for cheap.
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how do I know which version I am watching?
 
Fbh said:
Damn, did they at least manage to keeep Carry on my Wayward son?
It's not Supernatural without the season finale opening with "The road so far" to that song.
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It comes in and out, surprisingly, on streaming. It's like they had to negotiate the licensing on a per episode basis or something. Most often it's just bland royalty free stuff. Regardless, the show loses its identity HARD without the soundtrack.

Blu ray is definitely the preferred version.
 
Supernatural is definitely my kind of show, but it should've ended after season 5. Sure later seasons had some good moments (especially season 11) and some really great single episodes (like Baby), but a lot the main storyline was just fighting another evil and the boys going through some new personal drama. The series finale was also ruined by covid, preventing more fan-favorite characters from making appearances.

Buffy was definitely more campy, especially during season 1, but that didn't prevent me from watching (and liking) the whole thing. Some drama was REALLY good, like the stuff with Buffy's mother or with Buffy's 'return'. The ending was definitely better and I still remember parts of it. Angel getting his own spin-off was also very cool and I enjoyed a darker theme of that show.

Overall Buffy is probably higher quality as a whole, but I have stronger feeling towards Supernatural and I love the first few seasons.
 
rofif said:
Where do I start with supernatural? just s01?
I always wanted to see some of it. I have good vibes from yt shorts from it
Click to expand...
Yeah, start with the first one. Sure there are some bad episodes like the one with the Bugs or the killer truck. But later episodes even make fun of them. The show was pretty self aware and listened strongly to the fanbase.

Heck, they even brought back some actors from one random episode of the first season in season 15.
 
Trunx81 said:
Yeah, start with the first one. Sure there are some bad episodes like the one with the Bugs or the killer truck. But later episodes even make fun of them. The show was pretty self aware and listened strongly to the fanbase.

Heck, they even brought back some actors from one random episode of the first season in season 15.
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hell yeah
 
Supernatural got worse the longer it went on. Never even watched the last couple of seasons.

Buffy is the far better show... but I still prefer Supernatural.
 
Seasons 1-5 of supernatural are some of the best television ever made. I'll stand by that. The budget really lowers what they could accomplish but the overall story was impeccable. I've only gotten through season 1 of Buffy so far and really liked it. I should get back into it.
 
Supernatural, no contest for me. Although I would be willing to consider Angel a great contender (would still put Supernatural on top though).
 
Buffy, of course. How is that even a question?

ZoBeISs.jpeg
 
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First 5 seasons are pretty dam close. Buffy didn't need seasons 6 and 7. Supernatural just continued far too long and went off the deep end. The first 5 years with the yellow eye demon, was really good.

One has Faith and Faith > Buffy.
 
Ozzie666 said:
First 5 seasons are pretty dam close. Buffy didn't need seasons 6 and 7. Supernatural just continued far too long and went off the deep end. The first 5 years with the yellow eye demon, was really good.

One has Faith and Faith > Buffy.
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Only one has a Scooby Doo episode, though
 
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