<p>For example, I could just git pull and then git checkout HEAD-1. But is there a way of seeing the differences before deciding whether to git pull or not?</p>

Do a
```
git fetch
```
first to update your remote tracking branch. Then use
```
git log ..origin
```
to see what has changed in the "origin" branch. Then you can do a
```
git pull
```
if you are satisfied with the changes.