Gender Bender
And here I thought Gender Bender was about Bender joining the Ultimate Robot Fighting League…

Lie to me also introduces a relatively minor character that pop up periodically - Chanterelle/something else/Anne. Though you have to watch Angel to catch all of her arc. While she is not terribly important, it's cool because her integration into the two shows really does make it all feel like a connected world.

I think I saw it back when it first aired, or perhaps in an early rerun. Since X-Files was on Fridays at the time, I only caught it at random, so that was probably one of the eps that made me not worry so much about watching it all the time…

I remember seeing the Serenity trailer and wondering how it could possibly make anyone who didn't already love Firefly want to watch it. And I was a Whedonite who loved Firefly. I have no doubt the crappy trailer had much to do with the very low box office.

The best part of Fallen Angel…
was the special effects shot on the DVD. To make the weird shimmery movements when the invisible alien moved, they shot a guy in basically a giant orange condom hopping through the forest (you can see it on the DVD). Apparently when the crew got the video, they had no idea what it was…

They probably did promote it heavily because of John Ritter.

If I remember correctly, they even filmed a bunch of new Jonathan stuff for the credits.

*Spoilers*

*Spoilerish*

They viewed it as too kitschy, basically. Like, it wasn't as much fun when everyone was out excited about monsters and demons, so the monsters and demons stay home to catch whatever is on TV.

I would assume the date has something to do with the lack of comments.

*More spoilers*

*Thematic spoilers*

Agree partially re: the bones, but I think it can still be reconciled to some degree - that with extreme age and power, vamps begin to overcome their limitations to some degree. So, extremely old vampires might leave behind bones or somesuch, because it just isn't that easy to destroy them. It might be related to…

*Spoilers*

The show does eventually deal with the fact that so much shit is going down, though, esp. by the end of Season 3. And, Noel, you can look forward to a much more integrated school, with students who appear repeatedly, etc. (most notably Jonathan, who at some point you'll suddenly realize has been showing up in…

Really takes me back
School Hard was actually the first episode of Buffy I saw, just before I headed off to college. I thought it was great and meant to watch more of the show, but wound up having meetings on Tuesday nights, so couldn't ever catch it. I did catch up that summer, though (strangely, beginning again…

I prefer his classic line "I'm gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music. The music of pain."

It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember Amends being okay - not great, but not awful like the hospital ep in season 2 (whose only good moment was Willow's "frogs" freakout). What irritated me about Amends wasn't so much the episode itself, but the fact that it was not brought up again for four years.…

One quick, entirely unrelated note: make sure you watch the "deleted scene" or "special effects shot" or whatever for Fallen Angel. You will not be disappointed. It's absolutely hilarious. (It might be on the last DVD of the set, though - it has been years since I saw it, so can't remember).