I don't think I saw many early eps at all. I liked Angel, I vaguely remember him losing his soul, I did not remember Spike at all, I did catch an odd episode of Angel the show but no I don't remember Suprise/Innocence. I only 'refound' Buffy through Spike. I'd just finished listening to the Sookie Stackhouse audio books, loved them, had a serious crush on Eric and was looking for videos from the new series True Blood on youtube when I stumbled across a Spike fanvid. The rest as they say, was history.

Re True Blood, I did buy a couple of eps off Itunes but I did not like it - too far from the books and a bit over the top. The guy playing Eric wasn't too bad though.:D I was also dissapointed in the next book in the series that came out back then and have not continued with it. Thought the author had lost the feel of the story and was just after the dollar.

my autopilot "Joyce was important too!" no autopilot here - Joyce was obviously hugely important to the way that Buffy developed. Joyce was a very real charachter, with failings and strength. I think Spike said as much in the show. I loved him and Joyce together. Only natural when he'd had such a great relationship with his own mother. I really liked that Joyce, if not trusted him, liked him and she did treat him like a young man.

My mum had her fair share of problems and things I wish I hadn't learnt from her, lol. But so do I. So do we all. She was never less than supportive for anything I did, even when I learnt to weld and build truck bodies and hung out with the boys. :D