"The Witch" (the third episode) is one of my favourite Buffy episodes from the first season, mainly for the "Macho Man" scene. ^^ And yes, they do start finding their footing after the first two episodes.

Also Angel is not as hot as I remember...actually not very hot at all...did the actor change?

Nope; it's always been David Boreanaz. I've never been a big Angel fan, but I found I liked him even less when I started rewatching it. Except Angel is cool in the second half of season two, but that had mitigating circumstances.

I find Angel to be somewhat of a jerk.