Hi, every episode of Buffy (and Angel, and Firefly) is streaming for free on Facebook
In what’s apparently a bid to capitalize on our collective nostalgia for a time when we could all appreciate the works of Joss Whedon sans eyeroll—and, perhaps not coincidentally, for an era when its website was just a dumb place to post college pictures, and not the ineptly run online battlefield where the 21st-century mind war is being waged—Facebook announced today that it’s uploading the entirety of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly to its Watch library of shows. The shows are free for anybody with a Facebook account to watch, although they will feature mid-episode ad rolls.
The real push here, though, is Facebook’s attempt to get users hooked on the social media platform’s new “Watch Party” feature, which allows you and your friends to hop into a room online and watch an episode together, talking about all the Big Bads, bad outfits, and that time Angel turned into a wee little puppet man. Since all three series were already available on Hulu, Watch Parties are presumably the big draw of this new push, alongside participation from some of the shows’ cast and crew, including an intro video from Sarah Michelle Gellar herself:
:The episodes are available through a new licensing deal between Facebook Watch and 20th Century Fox Television. And honestly, we kind of wish we could have been there for said negotiations, mostly to be a fly on the wall when someone asked, “Hey, y’all want Dollhouse, too?” and the room got all quiet and awkward and weird.