But the book serves novices and obsessive Buffy fans equally well. Each episode of the first two seasons gets a snappy yet learned summary, including a "Quote of the Week," a quick recap of each love entanglement and relationship switcheroo (and no soap opera is tanglier than Buffy), a "Pop-Culture IQ" guide (when Oz hunts for Buffy--who's been turned into a rat--that's Michael Jackson's "Ben" he's singing), countless pop-up balloons of fun facts (Buffy was turned into a rat in order to free up her schedule to host Saturday Night Live), and a catalog of "Buffy's Bag of Tricks"--her weapons, plus all the spells, chants, incantations, and previously incomprehensible rock-band lyrics on the show.
There's way more than we can list here. Not only do we get an ample sample of dialogue nearly as clever as Seinfeld's, there are scenes from the original scripts that were cut for length and cast interviews. Every single vampire, demon, witch, zombie, mummy, werewolf, shape shifter, ghost, reanimated cadaver, invisible killer, prehistoric parasite, monster puppet, and psychotic robot on Buffy's acrobatic dance card gets its due.
Get this book, then send one as a gift. Friends don't let friends miss out on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.