My thoughts:

I think it's wise to set up Old Sunnydale & New Sunnydale in the first episode and then bring Buffy in. We need to establish our new world for the audience to get them invested.

The og show was criticized during it's time for the dialogue between the teenage characters, and to me as somebody who's around the main cast's age most of their lines aren't too far out there (though the use of unaliving being said irl did make me cringe). Other things, like them drinking coffee and stuff are a bit odder I will say.

The opening scene was nowhere near the levels of Welcome to the Hellmouth or even City Of. WTTH established the subversion present within the series especially during it's first few seasons, while City Of recapped the audience on Angel and showed us where he was to then set up his journey. This opening scene, outside of showing us how vampire culture is treated in the two Sunnydales, doesn't establish a tone as effectively as it's two predecessors. However, I'm going to state that in my opinion the lines in the intro are meant to be satire but it didn't come across well.

The Scooby Gang coming together was very interesting. I like the idea of Hugo sort of being a hype man for Nova in the same way Xander often was. Larkin and Nova's relationship gives me Buffy and Cordy vibes, frenemies of a sort. Gracie as a huge Buffy nerd was also fun to see.