The Treasures of Netflix Instant

I'm done with the semester, so I've got time to blog again!

I watch a lot of movies and TV. It's something I love, and I'm a good multi-tasker, so it's something I can do while I'm doing other things (Greek homework, for example). Now, for anyone who, like me, loves movies, Netflix Instant Watch is a godsend. It's packed full of fantastic titles that you can watch whenever you want, and that's just awesome. However, with such a huge store of movies, many of them crappy, how are you to find all the stuff worth watching? Well, that's where I come in. As a frequent Netflix Instant user, I'm going to tell you all the things you should be putting in your queue. You're welcome, world.

(Note: This is strictly movies I've seen. There are 100s of movies on Netflix I could recommend on reputation alone, but until I get around to seeing them, I won't really know. Also, I tried to keep the list mostly to less mainstream movies that you may not know about)

Documentaries

Exit Through the Gift Shop - A fascinating look at the world of street artists, it'll make you question "what is art?" That sounds kinda boring though, and this film is anything but. Filled with great footage and interesting people (particularly the enigmatic Banksy), it's really a must watch.

Dear Zachary - If you're going to watch this, you should go in knowing as little as possible. Just know that it's as emotionally raw as any documentary I've ever seen, and it will make you cry (I can probably count on one hand the movies that have made me cry, and this is one of them).

The Cove - Exposing an animal rights travesty becomes an honest-to-goodness spy movie, and the result is some of the most striking footage that you're ever going to see in a film like this.

Man on Wire - The gleefully insane true story of a crazy French acrobat who decided he wanted to tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. I can't recommend it highly enough, it's super-entertaining.

Animation

The Secret of Kells - Perhaps the most beautiful film I've ever seen. The artwork is designed to mimic the insular illumination from the Book of Kells, and it's unlike any other animation style you've ever seen. Just strikingly gorgeous.

Mary and Max - The surprisingly touching tale of a girl and the man with Aspergers who becomes her pen pal. It's got a lot of really funny parts, but the real triumph is how much emotion they're able to convey with the claymation.

The Essentials

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's my goal in life to get everyone I meet to watch this film. It's my favorite movie of all time, and it's on Instant Watch, you have no excuse for not seeing it.

Brick - Two names that, if there is any justice in the world, will be widely recognized in the coming decade: Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and director Rian Johnson. Brick is an incredibly bold and sure-handed directing debut from Johnson, a noir detective story set in a high school. It takes a little bit to get used to the slang Johnson has created, but it's well worth it, because Brick is a great story anchored by a tremendous lead performance from JGL.

Memento - You should see this movie. Like with Eternal Sunshine, there is no reason not to. It's one of the top 5 movies of the decade, and the film that introduced the world to Christopher Nolan (you may have seen some of his other films, perhaps Inception and The Dark Knight). Go watch it, thank me later.

Let The Right One In - This one is going to be a tougher sell, but I don't care because you need to see this movie. If you don't like watching foreign films because you have to read the subtitles, I don't care. I'm not a huge fan of it either, but it's so totally worth it for this film. It's hauntingly beautiful, and the young girl playing Eli gives an absolutely otherworldly performance.

Other Interesting Stuff

The Hudsucker Proxy - I've decided that I really like the Coen Brothers when they're doing zany comedies, like this and O Brother Where Art Thou. It's a glorious pastiche of film tropes, but it's plenty funny on its own merit, and Tim Robbins gives a great performance.

Big Fan - One of the most surprising developments of recent years has been the revelation that Patton Oswalt, one of the best stand-up comics working today, is a really good dramatic actor. This small film about a sports superfan who gets beat up by his team's star hangs entirely on Oswalt's performance, and he's really, really good in it.

TiMER - I stumbled on this one because it stars Emma Caufield (of Buffy fame). It's not a great movie, but it does have a really great sci-fi premise. It's an enjoyable film that I think a lot of people would like, and Caufield does a good job as the lead.

Stand-Up Comedy

Norm MacDonald: Me Doing Stand-Up - I love Norm MacDonald, always have. His dry, understated, sarcastic delivery just hits right in the sweet spot for me. This special is a great set by him, particularly a bit about the news which spirals into Norm describing what he would do if he were a serial killer. It's fantastic.

Louis C.K.: Chewed Up - It's almost undisputed fact in the comedy world that Louis C.K. is the best stand-up working right now. You should check him out.

John Oliver: Terrifying Times - You probably know John Oliver from his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show. If you like him there (and why wouldn't you, he's awesome), check this special out to hear him riff on American commercialism and Oreo pizzas.

Brian Regan: Standing Up/The Epitome of Hyperbole - Regan is one of the rare comics who manages to appeal to basically every demographic, and also the rare comedian who keeps his act clean. He's tremendously funny, and appropriate for most anyone. There are two of his specials on Instant Watch, so what are you waiting for? Seriously, if you don't like Brian Regan, you might be dead inside.

TV Shows

As great as the Instant Watch selection of movies is, the selection of TV shows is even better. The last decade or so has really been a golden era of TV, and Instant Watch allows you to catch up on a great many of the series that you missed.

Terriers - A poorly marketed and poorly titled show that couldn't find an audience and suffered an unjust early cancellation, Terriers is a show about two down on their luck Private Investigators, but that description really doesn't do justice to how great the character work is in this short-lived series. It's only 13 episodes, so you really should check it out. I guarantee that by the end you'll be wishing there were more episodes to watch.

Firefly - Another unjustly short-lived show. I'm listing these first because they're both fantastic and they don't require a big time commitment. I've literally never introduced anyone to Firefly and had them not like it. Watch it, and be prepared to fall in love with Nathan Fillion.

Buffy/Angel - See here for why you should watch this show.

Friday Night Lights - "But I don't even like football," you say. Doesn't matter. The show is about football, but it's about SO much more than that. It's a character-driven drama that is amazingly real and grounded. Plus, if you don't love Eric and Tami Taylor, you're a bad person.

Battlestar Galactica - One of the most ambitious shows of the past decade (perhaps ever), Ronald Moore took a ridiculous, goofy Star Wars rip-off and reinvented it as a gritty, powerful drama that is the best piece of of hard sci-fi from the 00s.

Arrested Development - The single funniest TV show of all time, and it's not remotely close.

Currently Running Shows

Parks and Recreation - I've discussed before my love of the NBC show "Community", and how it's hilarious and seems to be targeted directly at nerds like me. That said, Parks and Rec is the best comedy sitcom on TV right now. It's hilarious, but it's also a warm, upbeat show that cares deeply about its characters.

Breaking Bad - As detailed, I watch a LOT of different TV shows. As such, I have somewhat high standards for my TV watching. So, when I say that Breaking Bad is far-and-away the best show currently on TV, hopefully that means something.

The Buffy Wrap-Up

Rewatching all 7 Seasons of Buffy reminded me why it's my favorite show. Even at its worst, it's still witty and entertaining. At it's best, it mixes humor and drama as well as any show I've ever seen, and creates a real investment in its characters. Something that stands out on a rewatch, especially compared to many other shows in this genre, is how excellently plotted Buffy is. Few other shows in the fantasy/sci-fi genre show the structure and restraint that Buffy does. There are no lingering plotlines, no needlessly drawn out mysteries, just well built season-long arcs. It's a great show, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again with a more critical eye.

So, with that said, I want to give a quick overall synopsis of the show. I'll list the seasons in order of my preference, my 3 favorite episodes in each season, and my favorite 10 episodes overall.

Seasons
1) 2
2) 5

This is the top tier. These seasons are marked by both their consistency and their high points. Both are filled with lots of great episodes and few duds, and both have tremendous high points. All 4 of my top episodes come from these seasons. It's the consistency which separates them from Season 6, and the high points which separate them from Season 3.

3) 3
4) 6

I think these fall just short of Buffy's best. They aren't quite as perfect as the ones above. To me, though, they're still clearly better than the other 3. I would call these 4 the "great" Buffy seasons. While the others have their moments, these top 4 clearly stand out as the show's best work.

5) 4
6) 7

Both have more forgettable moments than great ones to me. They aren't bad, they just aren't the same level as the others. I rank 4 above 7 because a) 4 has Hush, and b) I hate Kennedy more than Riley.

7) 1

Only one Joss Whedon show has ever had a genuinely good first season (Firefly), so this is no surprise. It's only half a season, so it isn't even really fair to rate it on the same scale as the others.

Episodes

Season 1
1) Prophecy Girl
2) Angel
3) The Pack

Pretty simple. Season 1 has two really good episodes, and "The Pack" wins 3rd place by virtue of being ballsy enough to have students eat their principal.

Season 2
1) Passion
2) Becoming
3) Surprise/Innocence

It's hard to leave "I Only Have Eyes For You" out of this, but these 3 are so clearly the best 3. Buffy reached an emotional high point in Season 2, and all these episodes hit like a truck.

Season 3
1) Lover's Walk
2) The Prom
3) Helpless

Season 3 is the toughest because there are so many really good episodes, but not a lot as many really great episodes. These 3 barely beat out "The Zeppo", "Graduation Day", "Dopplegangland" and "Earshot"

Season 4
1) Hush
2) This Year's Girl/Who Are You
3) Pangs

Hush is perfection. The Faith two-parter is excellent. Pangs narrowly beats out the rest because it's so freaking funny.

Season 5
1) The Body
2) The Gift
3) Fool For Love

The first 2 are my all-time favorite episodes of Buffy. The last spot could've been filled by any number of episodes, but I narrowly gave it to Fool For Love (honorable mention: "Intervention", "Triangle", "Checkpoint", "Crush", "Family"...man, this season is good).

Season 6
1) After Life
2) Once More With Feeling
3) Tabula Rasa

As I discussed at length in my season synopsis "After Life" is tremendously underrated. The OMWF/Tabula Rasa back-to-back is the perfect example of how well this show mixes comedy and tragedy.

Season 7
1) Conversations With Dead People
2) Storyteller
3) Him

I would never have expected "Him" to end up in my top 3 before this rewatch, but it's just so, so funny that I have to put it here above the rest of Season 7.

Overall
1) The Body
2) The Gift
3) Passion
4) Becoming
5) Hush
6) After Life
7) Once More With Feeling
8) Lover's Walk
9) Surprise/Innocence
10) The Prom

There you go. That's it, I'm done with writing about Buffy. To the two of you who have been reading this, I hope you enjoyed it. I've enjoyed writing it.

Buffy: The Final Frontier

And so we reach Season 7, the final season of Buffy. Coming into this, I remembered very few in the way of specifics from Season 7. I didn't hate it or anything, but it just seemed kind of inconsequential. That seems to be the general consensus on Season 7, people don't out and out hate it the way some hate Season 6, but it's pretty unanimously acknowledged to be lesser in quality than most of the other seasons, and fairly forgettable. So, after a rewatch, what stands out about Season 7, and is it better than I remembered (or didn't remember, as the case may be).


It's kind of fitting that Season 7 is so concerned with the Potentials, because there's a lot of potential in the season that I think is kind of wasted. It starts by returning to Sunnydale High, which I think is a great idea. A lot of the Buffy's best moments came from mingling monsters and high school, and to have Dawn there as a student, Xander around doing construction and Buffy as the counselor had potential to return to some of that greatness. In fact, two of my favorite episodes of the season, "Help" and "Him", make great use of that high school setting, and really feel a lot like episodes from seasons 2 and 3. The problem is that they abandon the high school far too early. Instead of developing characters there and making better use of the mystery surrounding Principal Wood, the show brings in the Potentials, who really are a serious problem for the season. Far too few of the potentials have any kind of personality. We're meant to care that these girls are being hunted and they're dying in fights, but for most of them we know as little about them as we do about the vampires and Bringers they're trying to escape. You either have to find really good actresses who can build a character with little screen time (which they did not), or you have to devote more time to at least a few of the potentials so that we actually care about them. It also helps if the one girl that we do spend a lot of time isn't someone that we hate (but more on that later). Imagine, if you will, an alternate Season 7 where the early going centers around the school. You could bring Willow in as a teacher, and have her, Buffy and Xander confront various supernatural problems at the high school, all while wondering about this mysterious and slightly shady principal. Perhaps these adventures have them crossing paths with the same few girls over and over again, girls who we get to know, who form their own semi-Scooby Gang with Dawn, girls who then turn out to be Potentials. Isn't that a better foundation for the second half of the season? A return to the high school, a reminder of where the show came from, and a chance to identify with some of these Potentials. I know, hindsight is 20/20, and maybe that idea wouldn't have worked out either, but I think they really missed an opportunity with the return to the high school.

The Potentials are the victim of what is really a problem for the whole season, which is a lack of focus. There are so many characters that we're trying to deal with, both new and old, and so much exposition to deliver that a lot of our characters get overlooked. This is particularly a problem in the case of our Scooby Gang. Xander, in particular, gets the short shrift. For large chunks of the season, he's relegated to repairing holes in the house and occasionally exchanging nerdy banter with Andrew. He's really marginalized. Other than him getting de-eyed by Caleb, can you think of one Xander moment that stands out in Season 7? I can't, and I just watched it. He's one of our three foundational characters! Similarly, Anya, after a terrific start to the season, gets placed on the back burner. "Selfless" is the second-best episode of the season, and it could have set up some great material for Anya (and Xander for that matter). Instead, she largely hangs out in the background of the house and occasionally says something threatening to Andrew. There's a great moment with her and Andrew in "End of Days", and it makes you go "where has she been all season?" It's a shame, because Anya is a great character, and she's treated pretty poorly this season, then unceremoniously offed.

There are 2 major problems in this season, but we'll get to those in a moment. Right now, I want to talk about what worked in Season 7. First of all, this season featured some really powerful imagery. Buffy has always been strong at the thematic use of imagery, Season 7 makes particularly good use of it. The final scene of "Lessons", with our introduction to The First, is fantastic as it takes on the forms of all our Big Bads, finally taking Buffy's form. There's the final scene of "Beneath You", with Spike embracing a cross while it burns him. There's Willow finally finding pure magic in the scythe, and glowing white. That's just a few examples of how this season uses imagery really effectively. There are visuals that really stick with you. There are 3 new characters added to our ensemble who really work well. The first is Principal Wood, who is a fantastic character who I kind of wish we'd seen a bit more of. The early misdirects are well-handled, until the reveal that Wood is actually the son of a Slayer. And not just any Slayer, but the Slayer who Spike killed. That's a great foundation for a character, and D.B. Woodside does a great job with him (unlike some of the other characters brought on mid-way through *coughRileycough*, he really gets the cadence of Whedonesque dialogue). He's a nice foil for Spike, and he provides the outsider's view that Season 6 was so greatly lacking.

We also get Caleb the "Priest" at the end of the season, and anytime you can get Nathan Fillion on your show, it's a good thing. Caleb is a delightfully evil villain, and knocks Buffy around physically like no one had since Glory. He's menacing, gives our Big Bad a physical presence, and Fillion knocks every line out of the park. It's kind of a heavy-handed, super-misogynist character, and could've really fallen flat in the hands of a lesser actor, but Fillion just nails the casual menace, and it makes Caleb work really well. The last character that really works in Season 7 is Andrew. Andrew isn't a new character, per-say, but he's much more prominent and in a drastically different role this season. There are apparently people out there who do not like Andrew. I do not understand these people. Andrew might be my single favorite thing about this season. He provides much-needed comic relief, but he also has a genuine character arc that has emotional resonance (I'll get more into this when I talk about "Storyteller"). He works well with basically every character, but particularly plays well off of Xander, Anya and Spike. Most of all, though, he's really hilarious, and even when he gets only a few lines in an episode, they're usually great.

The last real positive for this season is The First, who I think is used very effectively most of the time. I've already mentioned that great scene in episode 1 when we're introduced to The First, but the way it tortures our heroes is some great psychological evil, and I love how it often appears as Buffy. It's not a traditional Big Bad, but I'm ok with that. There are some problems with how they use The First, but for the most part it's pretty effective, and I like that it provides an enemy that Buffy can't punch.

So, with that said, there are two BIG issues I have with this season that really sour it for me. The first issue is the events at the end of "Empty Places", when everyone turns against Buffy. Now, normally I would just consign this to a single event in a bad episode and leave it at that. I mean, Buffy has had plenty of bad episodes, it seems kind of silly to pick on one scene when talking about the whole season. However, it's such a major event in the season and happens so close to the finale that it really throws a shadow on the whole thing. With very little reason, the entire group turns against Buffy and takes up Faith's side. It would be understandable for the Potentials to turn against her, I get that. They've suffered a harsh defeat and Faith is definitely "cooler" than Buffy. I can almost even buy Xander turning against her. I mean, he did lose his eye, he's probably not thinking straight. It's a stretch, but I could maybe buy it. For Willow and Giles to turn against her is patently ridiculous, and for Dawn to turn against her and actually kick her out of her house is totally unbelievable. This is their best friend, the hero who has saved the world at least 7 or 8 times. Now, on the eve of the apocalypse, they're going to cast her out??? Not only are they going to throw Buffy out, but they're going to stand behind Faith? It's such a terrible moment (the worst scene in the whole series) and at such a pivotal point in the season that it throws a pall over the whole ending to the season. It's such a massive miscalculation on the part of the writers, and it's hard to believe that no one realized what a huge betrayal of our characters this was.

The other major problem with Season 7, and this is the biggie, is Kennedy. We really only get one Potential developed into a full-fledged character, and she is an abysmal drain on the season. Kennedy is an annoying, badly-acted character who the show pushes on us whether we like it or not (we do not). Her relationship with Willow is rushed and never feels authentic. There are major emotional moments (particularly in "The Killer In Me ") between the two of them that require us to care about this relationship, and those moments just fall completely flat because there's no foundation there. For no readily apparent reason, Kennedy takes on a role as leader of the Potentials, The show attempts to bring her into our inner circle of heroes, but she's such a shell of a character that it kind of offends us to see her integrated into the Scooby Gang. I hate Kennedy. Hate hate hate. Just a terrible character.

With that said, some thoughts on the Season 7's best episodes:

Help: I really like this episode, and it's mostly because I really like the character of Cassie. The actress that plays her does a great job (I'm glad they were able to bring her back in "Conversations With Dead People"), and her plight really mirrors that of the Potentials (and Buffy in the early seasons). She knows her fate, she knows she has no future, and that's played out with just the right balance of sadness and resignation. In a lot of ways, this episode nails the themes of destiny and inevitability far better than anything with the Potentials ever does. I love Cassie's speech when Buffy confronts her halfway through the episode:

"You think I want this? You think I don't care? Believe me, I want to...be here, do things. I want to graduate from high school, and I want to go to the stupid winter formal... I have this friend, and it would be fun to go with him. Just to dance and hear lame music to wear a silly dress and laugh and stuff. I'd like to go. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to do. I'd love to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. And I'd love to see my cousins grow up and see how they turn out 'cause they're really mean and I think they're gonna be fat. I'd love to backpack across the country or, I don't know, fall in love, but I won't. I just never will."

Selfless: The last great Anya episode. The interspersing of funny flashbacks from Anya's past with the horror of her present situation is really effective. The tone is managed really well, as the humor balances out an otherwise very drama-heavy episode. There's a discussion here that the show really needed to have. If Anya is a demon again, does Buffy have to kill her, and if so, what makes Anya different from Spike and Angel? The moment where Buffy runs Anya through with the sword is legitimately shocking.

Him: Nothing monumental happens in this episode, it's just really, really funny. It's a throwback to earlier episodes of Buffy like "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and is the only episode of the season that really takes full advantage of returning to the high school setting. Due to an enchanted letterman's jacket, all of our female heroes become smitten with high school stud RJ, hilarity ensues. It's got a ton of great visual comedy (Xander tackling the rocket launcher-toting Buffy outside of Wood's window is one of my favorite visual bits the show ever did), and tons of hilarious lines.

Buffy: "Willow, you're a gay woman...and he isn't.
Willow: "This isn't about his physical presence, it's about his heart."
Buffy: "His physical presence has a penis!"
Willow: I can work around it."

Willow: "Damn love spell. I have tried every anti-love spell spell I can find."
Anya: "Even if you found the right one, the guy would probably just do an anti-anti-love spell spell... spell."

Willow: "Aw, man, now I gotta start all over. Hecate hates that."

Conversations With Dead People: The episode that first really introduces us to our Big Bad, and it does so brilliantly. It's easily the best episode of the season, and it isn't hard to see why. It has 4 distinct sections, each written by one of the series' best writers (Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson and Marti Noxon). Dawn's story is the one I find least-compelling, but only because the rest are so good. The Whedon-penned Buffy section is excellent, featuring some funny, snappy dialogue and exploring the nature of Buffy's relationships. The reintroduction of Jonathan and Andrew is also great. It is also packed with plenty of humor:

Andrew: "It eats you, starting with your bottom"

Andrew: "That boy is our last hope"
Warren/The First: "No, there is another."
Andrew: "Wait. Really? Who's our other hope?"
Warren: "No, I was just going with it. It was a thing. He’s our last hope."

The humor of this section is mixed with darkness though (as Buffy so often is), and the last shot of Andrew stabbing Jonathan and his blood running onto the seal is legitimately sad. Jonathan has flirted around the edges of the show since Season 2, and he's really grown into a sympathetic and lovable character. Lastly, there's the Willow story, which is probably my favorite. Again, it's probably because I really like the actress who plays Cassie, and her conversation with Willow is at first touching, and then creepy. The whole episode is really a tribute to the tension you can create with just dialogue and solid acting. It's great.

Storyteller: I love Storyteller. It's Andrew-centric, and I love Andrew. Also, as I've written about in the past, I love it when movies/shows deal with the stories we tell ourselves. It's why I love movies like "The Brothers Bloom", "Memento" and "Inception". This episode explores that theme through Andrew's filming of our heroes. He's narrating a sort of documentary of what's going on, because "the story needs to be told." Only, Andrew's version of the story is a little fantastical, a little outrageous, and a lot vague on the fact that he killed his friend to open up the Hellmouth. It's a really funny episode, particularly his idea of what "Warren's" plan was ("We are as gods!"), but it's also very poignant. In the end, Andrew has to face up to the fact that he, of his own volition, plunged a knife into his friend, and we've seen enough of Andrew through Seasons 6 and 7 for it to ring true when Buffy yells at him to "Stop telling stories!" From the beginning, Andrew has always lived in a fantasy world. When Warren started going off the deep end and Jonathan started feeling guilty, he just wanted to be a comic-book supervillain, delivering dramatic speeches and jetpacking away. He never admitted that they had done anything wrong. By the end of this episode though, things have changed. Before switching the camera off, he looks into it and announces "I killed my best friend. There's a big fight coming up and I think I'm going to die. And I guess that's how it should be." He's stopped telling stories, and reality has reared its ugly head.

Things You Should Be Watching

As somewhat of a pop culture nerd when it comes to TV and films, it is my sworn duty to alert you all to the great TV shows you should be watching, particularly since so many of the shows I love have low viewership. I'm going to list 3 shows and tell you why you should be watching them.

1. Community

I looked back over my posts, and I was surprised that I haven't written in depth about this show before. It's 4 episodes into its third season, and since its start, it's been the most consistently funny and innovative show on television. So why, in particular, should you watch it?

1) It features an absolutely amazing cast. As it was originally conceived, Joel McHale was going to be the centerpiece, and he's fantastic, but the rest of the cast is so strong that it morphed into a full-on ensemble comedy. McHale is joined by a rejuvenated Chevy Chase, Alison Brie (showing her range by starring in both this and Mad Men), Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nichole Brown and the wonderful Danny Pudi. The main cast is joined by a strong stable of recurring characters and guest stars like John Michael Higgins (Arrested Development, tons of other things), Malcolm Jamal Warner (Cosby Show), Dino Stamatopoulos (basically every significant late night comedy of the 90s), John Oliver (The Daily Show, Awesomeness), Betty White, Patton Oswalt, Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire), John Goodman, Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks) and others. The cast is full to the brim with great actors, but the cream of the crop is Donald Glover, who absolutely crushes every single line delivery. For a quick sampling, check out this video:



2) Community features a group of writers who are willing to push the envelope with what a TV show can do, and the result is a show that is unlike anything else. You're never quite sure what you might find on the next episode of Community. They've done movie parodies, a zombie episode, a claymation Christmas episode, and a Dungeons and Dragons-based fantasy episode. The creme-de-la-creme, though, is "Modern Warfare", an episode in which a game of paintball assassin turns into a 30-minute action movie, complete with all the standard tropes of the genre. Community is the master of genre parody and meta-commentary. They'll poke fun at anything, including themselves, and they do it brilliantly.

3) It's a show made by geeks, which means it almost feels tailor-made for me. The writers love sci-fi and fantasy and weird, obscure, nerdy stuff, and they're willing to show it. This means that Community isn't for everyone, I realize that. It isn't going to resonate as deeply with a lot of people as it does me. However, it's such a brilliantly written show with a great comedic cast, even if you don't catch all of the references or connect with the particular brand of geekiness, it's still really, really funny. My sister, who by no means shares my geeky tendencies, loves the show (even though it took her a few episodes to get invested). If you enjoy TV comedy at all, it's a show you should check out.

2. Parks and Recreation

Where Community is a show that probably won't appeal to everyone I cannot think of any reason why someone would not enjoy Parks and Rec. Especially if you enjoyed "The Office", you should absolutely check out Parks and Rec (it's created by two of the writers largely responsible for "The Office"). Even if you didn't like "The Office" though, you should watch this show, because it's better than "The Office" ever was. Parks and Rec isn't just the best comedy on TV right now, the only comedy I would put it behind ever is Arrested Development. That's the kind of roll this show is on right now. It struggled to find itself in its first season, trying a bit too hard to be a clone of "The Office", but once you make it through those 6 episodes, it takes off. What's so great about it?

1) Again, it's the cast. Great comedies are highly cast-driven, so it's no surprise that P&R shares this with Community. The cast of P&R is a veritable "who's who" of comedic all-stars. The regular cast includes the great Amy Poehler (SNL, Baby Mama, Arrested Development), Aziz Ansari (Funny People), Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), Rashida Jones (The Office), Chris Pratt (Moneyball), Adam Scott (Party Down, Step Brothers) and Rob Lowe (West Wing, tons of other things). Recurring characters/guest stars include Louis C.K., Andy Samberg (SNL), Ben Schwartz, Megan Mullally (Will and Grace), Patricia Clarkson (tons of stuff), Will Forte (SNL) and Will Arnett (Arrested Development). There hasn't been a better ensemble cast since, well, Arrested Development. As with Community, there's a breakout star of this cast as well: Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson. Ron Swanson, the staunch Libertarian (despite holding a position in the government) and all-around man's man, is one of the great TV characters, and it's to Offerman's credit (along with the writing staff) that he's a fully realized character, not just a caricature. Check the videos below to sample the Swanson.





2) P&R is an amazingly good-natured show. Most comedies on TV are, to some extent, abrasive and mean. I mean, consider Seinfeld and Arrested Development, 2 of the all-time great comedies. Both are populated by terrible people largely doing terrible things to each other. Most comedies go that way, and it's plenty funny, but Parks is different. It's a cheerful show where the characters all seem to genuinely like each other (even Jerry). That doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happens, it just means that there's a general tone of camaraderie and joy that pervades the show, and it just makes it fun to hang out with these people. We're laughing with the characters, not at them, and it makes all the difference.

Seriously, you should check out Parks and Rec. Seasons 1-3 are on Netflix Instant Watch, it's well worth your time.

3. The Sing-Off

And now for something completely different. As I've detailed in the past, I'm a complete sucker for singing competitions, while at the same time acknowledging that they're honestly pretty terrible. The Sing-Off, however, is a show that I don't feel bad at all endorsing. It's a singing competition for acapella groups, and it's awesome. The first 2 seasons were shortened, and just ran for a week during the holidays. This year, they're giving it a full season, and if you appreciate acapella, you should definitely check it out. Unlike something like American Idol or X-Factor, even the worst acts are pretty good and display strong musical competency. And the best groups? Well, let's just take a look at some of them:







The groups this season haven't been quite as strong as last year, but there are a few stand outs. In particular, the 5-person group Pentatonix is my favorite. They've got an incredible bass singer and beatboxer, and they do things with their arrangements that make them sound like no acapella group you've ever heard. They're really, really fantastic.



The other great thing about the show is its panel of judges, which is actually filled with talented singers who know what they're talking about when it comes to acapella. They aren't mean-spirited, but they do point out when something isn't working, and they bring up points that I would otherwise miss, which is really what you want your judges to be doing. Plus, unlike the judges on other singing shows, they've got credibility as artists, so when they're really impressed, I'm impressed. Also, Ben Folds is awesome.

There you go, 3 shows you should be watching. I've done my duty. If you want to miss out on this goodness, it's no fault of mine :).

My New Nickname

Yesterday, we went to this awesome swimming hole (where it was actually cold enough that I got goosebumps!) with a bunch of the street kids that Shannon has gotten to know. One of our favorite kids, Jeffrey, gave me a new nickname:

Como Papel Blanco, or "White Like Paper"

Yep, that sounds about right.

Lessons From La Ceiba

Things I've learned in Honduras:

- Sometimes, the water pipe bursts and no one knows where the cutoff valve is, so the kitchen floods. Then, there are no stores open to sell the parts to fix the pipe, so you just don't have water for the night, and you take showers by pouring cups of water on yourself from the jug of clean water.

- Sometimes, when working on building furniture, the power will decide to go out, and you just can't use your power tools for a few hours. No biggie.

- Sometimes, life gives you lemons, and all you can do is make lemonade. Sometimes, though, life gives you sweat, and there is nothing delicious you can make from sweat.

- Sometimes, there's a horse at the door.

- You can salsa dance to "Stand By Me". Who knew?

- Even in Honduras, without speaking a lick of Spanish, my grandmother can still manage to make friends with the lady at the store, and convince her to turn the music off because it was too loud.

Summarizing Season Six of that Slayer Show

I'm running out of different ways to title these posts.

Season 6 of Buffy is easily the most polarizing season among Buffy fans. Everybody loves Seasons 2 and 3, and even if there are difference of opinion as to how good Season 5 is, everyone pretty much agrees that it's at least pretty good. Everyone is pretty agreed on the fact that Seasons 1 and 7 are below-par for Buffy seasons, and that Season 4 is a definite drop-off from 2 and 3. Season 6, though, elicits a much wider range of opinions. For some people, it's their favorite season, or at very least on par with the greatness of Seasons 2 and 3. Others consider it the worst season, just a depressing slog. According to an aggregate ranking, Season 6 has both the best Buffy episode ("Once More With Feeling") and the worst ("Doublemeat Palace"). So, where do I come down on this highly polarizing season?


I've long been an ardent defender of Season 6. It's a season that really stands out in memory because it's filled with really iconic moments. I've gone back and watched individual episodes from Season 6 maybe more than any other season. On a full rewatch though, the season has some pretty glaring faults that it's hard to ignore. It's a really ambitious season, trying a lot of different things and taking a lot of risks. When that works, it really works. When it doesn't, well, things get kind of rough. On the whole, I'm still overwhelmingly positive about Season 6. I'd much rather have a show that is ambitious, even if it means failing sometimes, than one that is stale and boring. Still, there is enough that doesn't work to keep me from lumping this in with 2,3 and 5 as the best seasons.

So, what works in Season 6? Well, the first thing that really works is Buffy's resurrection. We knew Buffy had to come back. I mean, the show isn't called "The Generic Vampire Slayer", it's called Buffy, so we knew she'd be back after her death at the end of Season 5. So, when your audience knows what's coming, how do you make it interesting? Joss Whedon's answer to that question was, in my opinion, pretty brilliant. Buffy is brought back, but it isn't a cause of joy for her. Bringing characters back from the dead has a long history in super-hero comics (which Buffy is heavily influenced by), and it is always considered a good thing, rarely are the implications of it discussed. Buffy turns that on its head, by having Buffy brought back not from Hell, but from Heaven. It's a fantastic twist that sets the pace for the rest of the season. Buffy's arc over the course of Season 6 is to figure out how to deal with life, not just grown-up, adult life, but with life itself.

Another thing that works well for me is The Trio. A lot of people disagree about this, but I like the 3 nerds. They aren't the traditional "Big Bad" that Buffy has faced in the previous seasons, and that's ok, they don't have to be. As I said above, the "Big Bad" in Season 6 really is "life". Our heroes are grappling not with some overwhelming evil that wants to bring about the apocalypse, but with the simple truth that life is hard, and the choices we make have consequences. On top of that backdrop, the Trio gives us both a sense of continuity and some comic relief. The dynamic between the 3 of them works really well, and I think their arc is really believable. Warren was a pretty despicable figure when he was first introduced in Season 5, whereas Jonathan has always been pretty likable. It makes perfect sense, then, that as the season goes on, Warren gets more extreme and violent, and Jonathan becomes more and more wary as he realizes how far they've gone. Andrew is a follower, and far more than the other two is wrapped up in fantasy, so he backs up the stronger leader (Warren), and doesn't have a problem with what they're doing because it isn't real to him. I like the lightness they bring to the season (which badly needs it).

There are some more things that really work well, but I'll address those in the individual episode segments below.

What doesn't work then? Well, it's mainly two things, and they're very significant. Neither is a complete failure, but they're definitely flawed. The first is the Buffy/Spike relationship. Here's the thing, I don't have a problem with the idea of this per-say. In fact, the Buffy/Spike dynamic yields some of my favorite moments from early in the season. It makes sense that Buffy would gravitate towards Spike after being resurrected. He wasn't part of the group that brought her back, he isn't going to constantly ask her if she's ok, and he knows what it's like to be "between two worlds", as it were. So, the general idea isn't terrible, and for the first third of the season (through Tabula Rasa), it works pretty well. The problem is that it's much less effective in execution than it is in theory. What it ends up doing is making Spike a much less effective character. Instead of being the comic relief and "point out when Buffy is being an idiot" guy, he's just a major downer for most of the season, either brooding or pining for Buffy or having sex with her. He's just no fun anymore, which is a shame, since he's the most fun character on the show in Seasons 4 and 5. This season really lacks that "stop being stupid, guys" character that Buffy has always had. It's Cordelia in the first 3 seasons, and Spike in 4 and 5. Spike stops filling that role though, and the show suffers because of it. Again, while a Spike/Buffy relationship makes sense on a character level, the way that relationship evolved just didn't make for entertaining TV. It was all self-loathing and depression, which is ok for a stretch, but I don't need a whole season full of it. The other problem is what I dealt with in the last post, which is the problem of Spike's lack of a soul. What exactly does that mean? What makes him different from Angel? It all kind of comes to a head in "Seeing Red", where Spike attempts to rape Buffy. Is this who Spike really is? Does it matter that he doesn't have a soul? If the show had drawn a sharper line between lust and love, or between souled and unsouled, this might have worked better, but it's all kind of twisted. So, while it isn't all bad, the storyline as a whole drags the season down.

The other big complaint I have is with Willow's arc, which comes so close to being great, but gets really muddled by the "magic = drugs" metaphor that the show pushes on us. The basic problem is that the show suddenly decides that magic is bad, or at least that the overuse of magic is bad. This is after 5 seasons where we've never been given any hints that this is the case. Magic has certainly been portrayed as something that can be used for evil or good, but there's been no evidence of it being addictive. Season 6 has a problem in that it completely changes the rules on the fly. Willow has done very powerful magic before, and she's done simple magic just to get things done, yet in Season 6 this suddenly becomes a bad thing. As the season goes on, we get these clumsy magic as drugs metaphors. Willow goes to the magic equivalent of a drug den, she gets "hopped up on magic" and crashes a car, then they get rid of all her magic paraphernalia and Willow acts like she's in withdrawal. It's all very heavy-handed, not to mention unnecessary. The metaphor doesn't need to be there. A line in "Wrecked" sums up what this plot line should have been, when Willow says "if you could be plain old Willow - or Super Willow? Who would you want to be?" The allure of power makes a much more compelling addiction than the "magic addiction" the show portrays. This should've been about Willow's inability to give up power and her lust for more of it. This makes much more sense for the character, and much more sense in the show's mythology. It isn't the magic itself that is bad or addictive, it's the longing for power that is addictive. It would also make Willow's turn at the end make that much more sense. The show gives lip-service to this idea, but it's so muddled in with the drug metaphor that it's completely unclear. It's a shame, because I like where the plot goes in the end with Willow's turn to the dark side, it's just that the story along the way isn't focused enough and makes too many missteps.

Seeing as those two problems are really the two major storylines of Season 6, you might think the season is somewhat of a failure. Again, though, those plots don't completely work, but there is good stuff in there. Despite the faults, there are a ton of powerful emotional moments mixed in. Also, most of the big failures of the season come in one stretch in the middle of the season. Basically, the first 8 episodes (through "Tabula Rasa") and the last 7 episodes (starting at "Hell's Bells", though some would disagree with that one) are really solid, and the middle 7 really struggle. Those two runs, and a handful of episodes in particular, are really high quality, because when Season 6 hits, it hits hard.

After Life: My all-time most underrated Buffy episode. An aggregate ranking lists it as the 81st ranked episode, which is below-average, whereas I have it in my top 10. I think it's close to a perfect episode. It's basically part 3 of the season opener, starting immediately where "Bargaining" ends, with Dawn having found out that Buffy is alive. There's some great stuff at the beginning of this episode as Dawn leads a dazed, numb Buffy back to their house and starts to clean her up. The best moments in the episode, though, are between Spike and Buffy. When Spike sees Buffy coming down the stairs and realizes that it is really her and not the Buffy-Bot, it's incredibly powerful. He's the one that recognizes Buffy's hands are damaged from clawing her way out of a coffin (having done it himself), and he and Buffy have this exchange:

Buffy: "How long was I gone?"
Spike: "Hundred forty-seven days yesterday... um, one-forty-eight today. 'Cept today doesn't count, does it?"

This is followed later in the episode by probably my all-time favorite speech from Buffy, when Buffy visits Spike in his crypt:

Spike: "I do remember what I said. The promise. To protect her. If I'd done that, even if I didn't make it, you wouldn't've had to jump. I want you to know I did save you. Not when it counted, of course. But after that. Every night after that. I'd see it all again, do something different. Faster or more clever, you know? Dozens of times, lots of different ways...Every night I save you."

Those are the two things I wanted to highlight, but this episode is full of great stuff. More than that, it lays the foundation for almost every major plot line for the season. Regardless of how you feel about how each of those plots ended up, this episode does a marvelous job of setting them up. Buffy's relationship with Spike is here, the revelation that Buffy was pulled out of heaven, Buffy lying to her friends, all here. We also get the first little foreshadowing of the magic pulling Willow away from Tara when they cast the spell to solidify the demon. The only thing that really holds the episode back from perfection is that the actual demon is pretty lame, with Buffy's traditionally bad CGI. On the whole though, it's a great episode of television.

Flooded: I just wanted to include this here for the scene where Giles confronts Willow about raising Buffy. Anthony Stewart Head is unbelievably good here, as he calls Willow a "very stupid girl" for doing that spell, then they have this exchange:

Willow: "I did what I had to do. I did what nobody else could do."
Giles: "Oh, there are others in the world who can do what you did. You just don't want to meet them."
Willow: "Okay, probably not - but they're bad guys. I am not a bad guy. I brought Buffy back to the world and maybe the word you should be looking for is 'congratulations.'"
Giles: "Having Buffy back in the world makes me feel indescribably wonderful - but I wouldn't congratulate you if you jumped off a cliff and happened to survive."
Willow: "That's not what I did, Giles!"
Giles: "You were lucky."
Willow: "I wasn't lucky, I was amazing. How would you know anyway? You weren't even there."
Giles: "If I had been I'd have bloody well stopped you! The Magicks you channeled are more primal and ferocious than you can hope to understand, and you're lucky to be alive, you rank, arrogant amateur."

Giles is great. The lack of Giles, as much as it made sense for story reasons and was necessary because Anthony Stewart Head wanted to leave, really hurts this season.

Once More With Feeling: Now how great is this episode? For all of the various crazy things that Buffy has tried, doing a musical is by far the most ambitious. Seriously, to do a musical with actors who are not experienced singers, and to do it on a weekly TV schedule, is completely insane. There's no way they should've pulled this off, and yet it works like gangbusters. It's most people's favorite episode, and while I won't go that far, I do think it's fantastic. What makes it so great is that it isn't just a gimmick. The episode tackles the major ongoing storylines and includes some big revelations about our characters. They say in song what they won't say on their own, and it leads to an episode that is hugely entertaining, but also highly significant from a plot standpoint.

So, the most important question with a musical episode is, "Are the songs good?" Opinions on this may differ, but I think they're quite good. Matt was less than impressed, but he's entitled to his (wrong) opinion. The cast members who aren't singers do a respectable enough job holding up. Anya and Xander's song in particular is a lot of fun. The cast members who actually can sing (Tony Head, Amber Benson, James Marsters) each have their moments. In particular, I really love when Giles sings. All the songs are cleverly written with fun lyrics, and the episode is filled with clever little lines. I think one of the biggest laughs of the whole series is just the little "They got the mustard out" snippet, and I love Willow's "I think this line's mostly filler" in one of the songs. The episode is funny, clever and most impressively it manages to not be a gimmick. The plot, the character beats, and the emotional impact works on its own merit, but is enhanced by the use of the musical as a storytelling device. It's really impressive, and really, really entertaining.

Tabula Rasa: Now this is an episode that I'd forgotten how much I love. The Buffyverse features a few instances of characters losing their memories, and they're pretty much uniformly great. "Tabula Rasa" is no exception. This episode really feels like the writers having fun, and it's filled with jokes. I mean, this episode features Giles sword-fighting with a skeleton in a room filled with bunnies. That's amazing. Other highlights include:

- Spike believes he's Giles' son, Randy Giles. ("Why didn't you just name me 'Horny Giles' or 'Desperate-for-a-shag Giles'? I knew there was a reason I hated you!")
- Really, Spike/Randy is great in this episode. His instinctive hatred of Giles ("Dad can drive. He's bound to have some classic mid-life crisis transport: something red, sporty, shaped like a penis."), his assertion that he must be a "On a mission of redemption. I help the hopeless. I'm a vampire with a soul!" (Buffy: "A vampire with a soul?" How lame is that.")
- Anya accidentally conjures a multitude of bunnies out of thin air, then whacks Giles on the head because "I feel compelled to take some vengeance on you."
- For the second time in the series - Willow: "I think I'm kind of gay"

As funny as the episode is (and it is very funny), it ends on a tragic note, as everyone gets their memory back and realizes what Willow has done. Watching Willow and Tara break up is all the more tragic, since we've just watched the two of them meet and fall for each other again. Even in their memory-wiped states, the two are drawn together. They seem so perfect for each other, and yet they've been torn apart by Willow's choices. Buffy is often at its best when mixing humor and tragedy, and this episode does so really well.

Hell's Bells: A lot of people really hated this episode and the way Xander and Anya broke up. I actually don't have a problem with it, and I think the foundation for it was well laid-out. Consider the arc of their relationship. It started more out of convenience than anything else, Anya needed someone to go to prom with, and Xander couldn't get anyone else. They just kind of fell in together, and Anya, as a former demon, happened to fit in with their group. They got engaged in the face of the apocalypse, when it looked like the world would end. As we see in Xander's reticence to share the news of their engagement, he clearly had some doubts about that once it turned out that the world was not going to end. We've seen in limited glimpses that Xander's parents have quite a bit of marital discord, and it's something that he's ashamed of. We also hear in "Once More With Feeling" that there's doubt and discontent hiding under the surface that they aren't talking about. While Anya seems to be fully gung-ho about their wedding preparations, Xander always seems a little reticent, kind of brushing it off. At no point does Xander's match Anya's excitement for the wedding. When the wedding does arrive, it's not so much the faked visions of the future that freak Xander out, it's seeing his disfunctional parents and, perhaps even more so, it's the fact that this is really happening, there's no backing out after this. In the face of such a huge commitment, all of those lingering, hidden doubts and uncertainties become magnified by 100, and that's why Xander freaks out. I think there's plenty of justification presented in the lead-up to this episode to make the break-up work. Besides, this is a Joss Whedon show, did you really think that he was going to let a couple be happy? He's particularly cruel in this episode, since we get the contrast of Xander coming undone with Anya's joy and excitement (Anya practice her vows: "'I, Anya, promise to love you, to cherish you, and to honor you, but not to obey you, of course, because that's anachronistic and misogynistic and who do you think you are like a sea captain or something?"). Emma Caulfield is particularly adorable here, which makes the end, with Anya slowly walking alone down the aisle, so heartbreaking.

Seeing Red/Villains/Two To Go/Grave: I warned Matt when he started "Seeing Red", "If you watch this one, you're going to have to watch the next 3 as well." And, sure enough, that's what happened. This is basically a four-part season finale, and it's pretty much impossible to stop once you start watching. Tara's death at the end of "Seeing Red" is fast and brutal. We've just seen Willow and Tara get back together and be blissful and happy, and then suddenly, with no long, dying speech, Tara is dead. That leads into the crazy roller-coaster that is the last 3 episodes.

"Villains" might be the best of these episodes start-to-finish. As Buffy is rushed to the hospital, the blood-splattered Willow goes to the Magic Box and absorbs all the dark magic from the books, turning her hair and eyes black and informing us that things are going to get really bad (though I don't think anyone would've guessed just how bad). She then goes to save Buffy in a heartbreaking scene where she magically remove the bullet and heals Buffy, then stares at the bullet and quietly says "It's so small." It's a quiet moment before the storm, made all the more sad because Buffy and Xander have no idea that it's Tara that Willow is really talking about here, not Buffy (not to mention that at the same time, Dawn is finding Tara's body and not knowing what to do). Then the hunt for Warren is on, including a great scene where Willow stands in front of a bus and stops it dead in its tracks, Magneto-style (fitting, since this is Joss Whedon's take on the Dark Phoenix story). Finally, she tracks him down, and in a scene that really is shocking, given how much we've learned to love Willow over the years, she sews his mouth shut, slowly bores the bullet into his chest, then with a casual "Bored now," rips his skin off.

After a crazy ending like that, surely "Two To Go" couldn't top it. Ha. Two To Go features more of Dark Willow rampaging around and trying to hunt down Jonathan and Andrew, the two remaining members of The Trio. Due to Whedon's propensity for killing characters, she feels legitimately frightening. When she threatens to turn Dawn back into a ball of energy, there's real menace in it. When she finally pummels Buffy in the Magic Box, it leads to my favorite scene in the whole series. As Willow declares "No one can stop me now," a blast of energy knocks her out of frame, and Giles is standing in the doorway saying "I'd like to test that theory."

GILES IS BACK!! Oh man, I love Giles. The way Anthony Stewart Head quietly delivers that line, then goes on to subdue Willow is simply fantastic. The show so badly missed his presence, and to see him again says that everything is going to be alright again. As Willow says, "Daddy's home," and he's going to help set things straight. I think there are some flaws with this episode, but all the stuff with Willow works like gangbusters. I really enjoy her showdown with Giles, where she rages at him, still resentful at him from that confrontation in "Flooded". Then, of course, there's the fantastic Willow/Xander scene at the end. What doesn't work for me is the Buffy/Dawn stuff. When Buffy delivers a big speech or has a big emotional moment, it almost always works for me. Here, for whatever reason, it just feels sappy and overwritten. All the dialogue just feels oddly stilted, it just doesn't really work. This would be a problem, except that the other major speech is so freaking phenomenal. It's a great moment where Xander faces down the terrifying Dark Willow. He doesn't try to fight her, he doesn't even try to persuade her to not end the world, he just wants to be with his best friend and tell her he loves her in spite of herself. Xander has been a screw-up himself for plenty of this season, and here is his moment of redemption. It isn't a fist fight that saves the world, it's one broken person loving another broken person. That's powerful stuff, and the simple dialogue combined with the powerful imagery hammers home the emotional impact of what has happened. Willow will face a hard road ahead, but the darkness recedes as she weeps in Xander's arms, and with the rage gone, she can finally start to feel her loss and begin the process of dealing with it. It's one of the best scenes Buffy ever did, and redeems what could otherwise have been a lackluster finale.

In the end, the finale is much like Season 6 as a whole. It's very ambitious, it stretches for a lot of big emotional moments. It isn't perfect, and some stuff doesn't work, but when it does work, it's amazing.

The Beauty of the Stars

Read this tonight in one of my readings for class, and I just had to share it. So clearly visible, yet I had never thought of it. This is from Stuart Burgess, a mechanical engineer and professor.

"The Solar System is positioned about two-thirds of the way out from the centre of the Galaxy, which is far enough away from the galactic bulge to keep the night sky dark...if the Earth were located in the galactic bulge, the night sky would be 'ablaze' with light...Big Bang cosmologists are fully aware that the Earth has an ideal location. However, this remarkable fact is not considered to be significant because secular astronomers assume that the Earth's position was determined by chance...

If the stars were uniformly spaced with the same distance between each one, there would be no distinctive star patterns in the sky and the sky would look monotonous in every direction. However, the actual spacing is very non-uniform and this produces varied and beautiful patterns in the sky such as the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades...

The book of Job describes how God has 'adorned the heavens 'By His Spirit' (Job 26:13). Modern telescopes have revealed the astonishing degree to which God has indeed adorned the heavens with beauty. When we look up at the stars and galaxies with powerful telescopes, there are countless beautiful colours, shapes and patterns to behold."

Buffy, Take 5

Ah, Buffy Season 5. Many believe it is the last good season of Buffy (I disagree), and for a while I considered it my favorite season. So, does it hold up? Is it as good as remembered, or even better? Does it compare to the lofty standards set by Seasons 2 and 3, or is it more in line with the more disappointing Season 4?


Frankly, I love Season 5. For me, it falls just behind Season 2 in the season rankings. What makes it so great? Well, Season 5 has, without a doubt, the most well-plotted season arc, with almost every episode contributing something to the ongoing story. In this way, it's very much the opposite of Season 4. Where that season felt disjointed and wandering, this one is tightly focused basically from the word go. Everything is there for a reason, and every time a question threatens to go unanswered, Whedon and company milk just the right amount of suspense before addressing it. It's a master class in setups and payoffs, which is why the season finale, which weaves all those gathered elements together, is the best of the series (which is saying something, since this is a series filled with great finales). There are some significant problems which keep it from being better than Season 2, and it doesn't have quite the emotional resonance of that season, but it's still plenty powerful, and a fantastic season of television.

So, when we're talking about Season 5, we have to start with the big surprise we get at the end of the first episode, Dawn. Suddenly, a teenage sister pops up out of nowhere, and nobody seems to be bothered that she's there. In fact, they all seem to think that she's been there all along. What the heck is happening? It's a bold thing that Whedon did here. Bringing in a new character with no introduction, and then not bothering to explain it until 5 episodes in? Ballsy. So, the question is, did it work? A lot of people really don't like Dawn, but I have no real problem with her. I like the dimensions she brings out in the other characters, particularly Spike. She's bratty and annoying, but frankly, she's a 14 year-old, they're all bratty and annoying. For the most part, her character felt believable, brought something new to the table, and her introduction was handled well.

Along with Dawn, the other big new character is our big bad for the Season, Glory. I love Glory. She's not as good a villain as Angelus or Mayor Wilkins, but she's pretty great nonetheless. She's hilarious, but also a genuine threat. By having her beat the crap out of Buffy in their first encounter, the show tells us early, this bad guy is not to be messed with. She may be crazy (and have hilariously incompetent minions), but she's still plenty dangerous.

I also love the addition of the Magic Box as the gang's new headquarters. It gives Giles a purpose, something he lacked last season (as well as giving us one of the series' best sight gags). It also gives Anya a job, which really is fantastic. Anya's development into a blunt, money-loving, capitalist ex-demon is one of the best things about this season. So, thumbs up to the Magic Box.

On the positive side, Riley leaves! On the negative side, Riley is still there for the first half of the season, and he's even more useless than last season. Without the Initiative around, Riley is really pointless, and he feels perfunctory for the whole time until he leaves. Since his relationship with Buffy never really felt like it was long-term, he just doesn't serve much purpose. So, the first 10 episodes of the season with Riley are, on a whole, the worst batch. I'm also not really a huge fan of the way they got rid of him, which seemed to happen a bit too quickly for my taste, but he's gone, so on the whole, a positive.

The other interesting character development that has to be talked about in Season 5 is Spike. I'm of two minds about Spike. On the one hand, I love me some Spike. He's a great character, and the fact that he hangs around more with the team and plays a more prominent role in this season is excellent. On the other hand, the implications of his behavior really kind of mess with the show's mythology. Is Spike a good guy, even though he doesn't have a soul? Can he really fall in love with Buffy, even without a soul? The show's answer seems to be "yes", which raises all sorts of problems. I think the show could have made an interesting point about the difference between love and infatuation if it had shown Spike as being attracted to Buffy, but not really being able to truly love her without a soul. It doesn't do that though. Spike's actions, particularly standing up to Glory's torture, show that this isn't just basic lust, it's more than that. To me, that's a problem. If Spike can love without a soul, what does that mean for other vampires, Angel in particular? If Spike can love with a soul, if he can be a good guy, what does that mean for Angelus and his killing sprees, and how much blame does Angel deserve for that? The Buffyverse never really makes it clear what exactly a soul means, and the case of Spike makes the whole idea of "vampire = evil" a lot more fuzzy. On a plot level, it works well to keep Spike heavily involved in the group, but from a character perspective, I'm not so sure it works in the mythology of the show.

These are the small things though, the character details. On the whole, the season is a tremendous success. Not only is the season-long arc brilliant, but it includes my two favorite Buffy episodes ever. Lets take a look at those episodes, as well as some other favorites.

The Replacement: Of the two major Xander-centric episodes (along with "The Zeppo"), this is the one that I unabashedly love (which is not to say "The Zeppo" is bad, but this one is better). First off, it's a hilarious episode, particularly when the two Xanders get together (Giles: "He's a bad influence on himself"). On top of that though, it's a turning point for Xander's character. After a season of being a worthless layabout, Xander sees that he's actually capable of success, and it didn't take what Xander thinks is magic coin to do it (It happens it's just a flattened coin, "Hey, it is cool. Washington’s still there, but he’s all smooshy. And he may be Jefferson.").

Fool For Love: The episodes of Buffy and Angel which focus on the history of the Spike/Angel/Darla/Drusilla group are almost always great, and this one is no exception. There is a lot of great backstory for Spike here, which informs a lot of his actions for the rest of the series (of course, we have to overlook that troublesome soul business I talked about above). He's a dreamer, a poet, a hopeless romantic, but one who has constantly been rejected. It's that rejection that leads him to become a vampire in the first place. It's that history of rejection that makes Buffy's rejection of him such a powerful scene. When she tells Spike that he's beneath her and throws his money at him like he's some kind of prostitute, it's a crushing blow to the poor guy. Even after being hurt so badly though, he's still too much of a romantic to kill Buffy when he sees her sitting sadly behind her house. It's not just a great Spike episode though, it's a great Buffy episode as well. Spike explains to Buffy that every Slayer has a death wish, something that will come back into play at the end of the season. It's one of those really great mythology-building episodes that Buffy is so good at.

Checkpoint: Another big step forward in the overall story of Buffy, as she finally stands up to the council which, wouldn't you know it, really doesn't have any power over her at all. There's a lot of great stuff in "Checkpoint" as the council examines Buffy's friends and her rather unorthodox methods of demon-fighting. Also, I always love episodes where Spike and Joyce interact, as they do here, sharing a mutual love for the soap opera Passions. There's a lot I love in this episode, but the moment of Buffy standing up to the council is the big

The Body: I'm going to try not to go on too long about this, but that's going to be hard, since "The Body" is my all-time favorite episode of television. It's incredibly hard to capture the emotional impact of death onscreen without it feeling forced or manipulative, but this episode nails it. There's an incredible rawness to "The Body", starting with the decision to leave out any background music. It seems like such a small thing, but it changes everything. There's a stillness to the episode that really captures that feeling of "what now?" that comes from the death of a loved one. Everybody feels like they should do something, but no one knows what to do. This is best embodied by Anya who, as a former immortal demon, doesn't understand death and how to cope with it, which leads to this incredible scene:



It's the "Joyce will never drink fruit punch again" bit that gets me. It's hard to process death completely, you just can't really comprehend it, but it's the little things that finally make it hit home. I know that was the case for me. When my grandpa died, I didn't really cry much on the day it happened (I'm not much of a crier). It was later, when I was sitting there talking to my mom, and she talked about how Bopa had been a great card player, particularly Bridge, and I realized that I hadn't really seen that side of him often, and now I wouldn't. That got me crying (also, it went from there to the fact that Bopa would never see his grandchildren get married, and then things got a good bit more teary). The other thing that struck me in particular is Tara's line when Buffy asks if her mother's death was sudden, to which Tara answers "No...and yes. It's always sudden."

I won't go on any more about this episode, though there is plenty to talk about, but I do want to mention Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting, which is truly outstanding, especially in the first scene, where she finds her mother's body. It's all one continuous two and a half minute take, and Gellar is brilliant in it. In the opening moments of the episode, where she calls out to her mom, "Mom? Mom? Mommy?" the way her voice breaks when she says "Mommy?" is heartbreaking. Also, the moment where she yells at Giles "we aren't supposed to move the body!" before she realizes that she just referred to her mother as "the body". It's incredibly powerful stuff, and SMG makes it believable and raw. Everyone is great in this episode, but she deserves special mention.

Great, great episode. It's a crime that it didn't win boatloads of awards.

Intervention: And we move from the most tragic, heart-rending episode of TV that I've ever seen to one of the funniest episodes of the season. One part of this story has Buffy going off on a "vision quest", which is alright (Giles sets her off on the quest by jumping in and out of a circle and "shaking my gourd"). It includes the important thematic moment of The First Slayer telling Buffy that "Death is your gift", but the thing that makes this episode so great is the other half of it. That other half features the group mistaking Spike's Buffy-Bot for the actual Buffy. This leads to lots of greatness, especially when the real Buffy shows up, which just goes to show you that you can't go wrong with having dopplegangers in Buffy episodes. Some highlights from the Buffy-Bot:

- She addresses Anya with the question "How is your money?" Of course, Anya finds this entirely appropriate
- Spike did not program the Buffy-Bot to pronounce "Giles" correctly
- [to real Buffy] "Look at you. You look just like me. We're very pretty"
- "Angel's lame. His hair grows straight up, and he's bloody stupid."

Also, this episode features one of my all-time favorite Buffy lines. When the tortured Spike sarcastically tells Glory that the Key is Bob Barker, Glory's minion responds: "We will bring you Bob Barker! We will bring you the limp and beaten body of Bob Barker"

The Gift: My second favorite Buffy episode, and the best season finale the show ever did. It's the perfect resolution to the season-long build. The first half of the episode has the gang planning how they're going to get disrupt Glory's ritual and save Dawn. the best part of this section is Buffy's interplay with Giles, starting with her refusal to talk about what should happen if the ritual begins.

Buffy: "We're not talking about this"
Giles: "Yes we bloody well are! If Glory begins the ritual...If we can't stop her ..."
Buffy: "Say it. Come on, we're bloody well talking about this, tell me to kill my sister!

I love that with Buffy insisting Dawn must not die at any cost, Giles is willing to stand up and say that it's insane to let the world end, even if stopping it means killing Dawn. We later get a softer, quieter scene between the two of them where Buffy says that with all she's had to deal with, killing Dawn would be the last straw. "It doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting." How do you live in a world where you have to kill your sister? Buffy knows that she can't. So, even with Giles' objection, Buffy's rousing speech as they set off to face Glory is as follows.

Buffy: "Remember: The ritual starts, we all die; and I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn."
Spike: "Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?"
Giles: "We few, we happy few..."
Spike: "...we band of buggered."

That's just the set-up though, the real action is the big fight with Glory, which brings everything from the season into play. First, Willow weakens Glory by sucking the sanity out of her mind and restoring it to Tara. Next, Glory battles the Buffy-Bot before finally kicking its head off ("Hey, did everybody else know that the slayer is a robot?"). The real Buffy proceeds to fight her, using the Dagon Sphere (which it seemed like the writers had completely forgotten about, but nope) and the troll hammer from Anya's ex-boyfriend troll (both suggested by Anya, "Here to help, wanna live."). Meanwhile, the seriously creepy Doc, from earlier in the season, has defeated Spike and starts making tiny cuts on Dawn to start the ritual. Buffy wails on Glory until she turns back into Ben, who Buffy cannot bring herself to kill. This leads to an amazing moment where we get to see Badass Giles again, as he kills Ben after explaining that he's not a hero like Buffy. Buffy reaches Dawn, but it's too late, and finally the overall thematic significance of the season becomes clear. Buffy and Dawn being family, and more than family, having the same blood. The Slayer's death wish, and death being Buffy's gift. Everything that has been set up throughout the preceding 21 episodes pays off as Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world without killing her sister. The season ends with a shot of Buffy's tombstone, with just a couple short lines perfectly encapsulating the essence of who Buffy was.

Xan, The Vampire Reviewer: Season Four

Ah, Season 4 of Buffy. As one must, Buffy made the transition from high school to college, and it was not without its rough patches. On the whole, I've always considered Season 4 to be one of my least favorite seasons of the show, ranking only above the shortened and still finding its legs Season 1. As such, I haven't often revisited episodes from this season. So, after a rewatch, do I still feel the same way?


The short answer is: yes. Season 4 has some excellent moments, but the high points of the season are mixed in among a lot of mediocre episodes. Now, I'm going to be rather harsh on this season, but I want to emphasize that even an average episode of Buffy is, in my opinion, better than most of what you'll find on TV. So, while I'll dwell more on the bad, there's still plenty of good here.

First, lets talk about the cast. On the plus side, Spike is back! One of the best things about Season 2, and guest star in Season 3's best episode, Spike's return is a welcome addition to the Buffy cast. Now, the reasons for keeping Spike around are kind of vague, and there becomes less and less reason not to kill him as the season goes on, I don't really care, because he enhances the show so much. He adequately fills in the role Cordelia vacated of being comic relief, and telling our heroes when they're being stupid. This is probably the best Spike season, before his motivations start getting fuzzy in seasons 5 and 6. Also on the plus side, the addition of Emma Caulfield as a regular cast member playing Anya. Anya is also primarily a comic relief character, and Caulfield really does a fantastic job with the part. Anya also adds another dimension to Xander though, one that is sorely needed to keep his character from falling by the wayside. She is much better integrated into the cast than another new cast member who I will get to later. On the negative side, we have Buffy's new beau, Riley Finn. Look, Riley isn't terrible. In theory, I like the idea of Buffy being with someone "normal" (even if he turns out less normal than originally thought). That's a logical next step after breaking up with Angel. However, even aside from the Initiative stuff (which never really works for me), I just don't think he fits the tone of the show well. Joss Whedon (and his writers) have a definite style to their dialogue, and you've got to deliver it with the right wit and cadence, and I don't think Marc Blucas ever really managed it. Amidst the rest of this cast, he's just really, really bland. You never feel invested in Riley and Buffy, he always feels like a stopgap, not a serious partner. That's a real problem given how prominent he is in this season.

The whole Riley/Initiative/Adam story which is the real backbone of the season really is problematic. It's easily the weakest season-long arc. It isn't so much that they're bad ideas. As I've said, Riley is ok in concept. The Initiative is interesting in concept. It presents a contrast between Buffy's old-school, magic, stake to the heart approach to demon killing and the Initiative's technological, scientific, military approach. Buffy trying to work with them, only to find that she doesn't fit into their structured methodology, it's a good idea. Adam is interesting in concept. This being that stands halfway between human and demon and waxes poetic about philosophy, but is also a completely unstoppable foe, that could be really interesting. All of these are good ideas, but they're all half-baked. We get one episode of Buffy trying to work with the Initiative, that's it. They were just kind of there. It's the same with Adam, we don't spend nearly enough time with Adam to be invested in him as a major villain. That means that we get a pretty cool little fight scene when Buffy offs him, but there's no real emotional payoff, there's no thematic significance. That's probably why the fight with Adam comes in the penultimate episode, not in the finale, and why this season has the weakest finale of any season (I know some people disagree with this. Those people are wrong). There's just very little flow to the season.

The other issue to deal with in Season 4 is Willow's relationships, and there's both good and bad here. First of all, the dissolution of her relationship with Oz happens way too quickly. Apparently, this is because Seth Green asked to be written out of the show, so the writers had their hands tied and couldn't lay the proper groundwork for their break-up. That sucks, but it doesn't change the fact that it basically comes out of nowhere and really feels rushed. What saves that episode is that, quite frankly, Alyson Hannigan is fantastic at crying. Seriously, her scenes are absolutely heartbreaking. Despite the fact that the story could be better plotted, she absolutely sells the pain and desperation of a broken heart. Then there's Tara. [Now, quick aside before I talk about her effect on the show. I'm don't believe homosexuality is right, but I also don't believe sex outside of marriage is right, so Willow's lesbian relationship with Tara does not bother me any more than Buffy (or, for that matter, scores of other TV characters) having sex with multiple guys over the course of the series. I do not look to TV shows for moral guidance. What I do respect the show for is not having Willow be a lesbian simply for shock value, but as a natural evolution of her character. Willow and Tara are actually characters, not simply there to be "the gay stereotype". A lot of shows these days have that obligatory gay character, which to me is a far more offensive thing. Anyway, that's my rant. I'm not going to dwell on that aspect anymore, I'm simply going to talk about their relationship in the context of the show.] I think the development of the Tara-Willow relationship is actually really well-handled. There are good reasons for these two characters to be drawn slowly together, and it isn't until she's faced with the prospect of Oz returning late in the season that Willow really realizes what has happened, and how close the two of them have gotten. Willow's emotional journey from "Wild At Heart" through "New Moon Rising" is really the best piece of character work in this season. On the other hand, as I alluded to above, the show really struggles to integrate Tara into the core group. She gets a few moments here and there over the next few seasons, but in large part she's defined by her relationship to Willow. When you compare her to Anya, who similarly comes in through her relationship to Xander but very quickly settles into the group dynamic, it's a marked difference. It's not a big problem, but it is something the show doesn't ever really address.

Those are the big points. Ultimately, the season fails because the Initiative/Adam storyline isn't coherent enough, and the season as a whole feels disjointed. There are high points (some of which we'll get to below), but the low points are really low, and the season-long arc isn't strong enough to compensate for that. Two episodes are among the worst this show has ever done, "Beer Bad" and "Where the Wild Things Are". The former features a couple decent moments, but for the most part it's just a bore. The latter has, quite frankly, the worst A-plot that the show has ever done, and only 2 scenes save it from being the worst episode of all time, the Buffy/Anya fight in the ice cream truck and the gang finding Giles in a coffee shop singing "Behind Blue Eyes".

That's enough negativity though, what about the good stuff? Well, the high points of Season 4 basically come in 2 places. The first is episodes 8-10 ("Pangs", "Something Blue" and "Hush") and the second is the Faith 2-parter ("This Year's Girl" and "Who Are You").

Pangs: It's the character stuff that makes this one work. The main storyline about a Native American spirit out to avenge his people on Thanksgiving is one I don't particularly care about, but there are so many great jokes scattered through this episode, and a really great set piece at the end. Buffy's insistence on having a perfect Thanksgiving (Anya: "a ritual sacrifice...with pie"), Spike being pathetic ("A bear! You made a bear! Undo it! Undo it!"), people thinking Angel has turned evil again, the Willow/Buffy/Giles squabbling over political correctness (Buffy: "We don't say 'Indian.'" Giles: "Oh, oh, right! Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as 'bloody colonials.'"), all of the little bits are so great.

Something Blue: Willow accidentally casts a spell to make Spike and Buffy fall in love. That's really all I have to say about this episode. The Spike/Buffy/Giles dynamic in this episode is just aces. It's really hilarious.

Hush: Greatness. Just...greatness. This episode ticks all the boxes for a good Buddy episode, it has hilarious moments, it has great thematic significance, and it also manages to be legitimately scary. First, lets talk about the creatures. The Gentlemen are the scariest creatures ever featured on Buffy. Their huge, steely grins, the way they glide around effortlessly, the way they quietly clap when they procure the hearts of their victims and, oh yeah, the way they steal your voice so you can't scream when they cut into your chest. They're really quite terrifying. Then there's the humor. The episode is packed with great sight gags. As a writer known for his dialogue, it was a bold thing for Joss Whedon to completely take that tool away, and he still manages to craft some great moments. Just a few examples: Willow looking very serious and quickly scribbling on her white board, only to write "Hi Giles"; Xander and Buffy's attempted phone conversation, and their subsequent looks of disappointment; Also, of course, Giles' overhead presentation of who the monsters are, which is comedic gold. On top of all that though, there's the masterful was "Hush" deals with the subject of communication. At the beginning of the episode, no one can communicate. Buffy and Riley are lying to each other, unable to reveal their true selves. Xander and Anya are fighting, because he hasn't been able to tell her how he feels about her. Giles and Spike can't understand each other. Poor Tara can't get a word out in her Wicca group without being stomped on by the wanna-be witches. The irony, of course, being that they can speak, but they can't really communicate. It isn't until everyone's voices get stolen that they can really "speak", as it were. Buffy and Riley find out about each others' unique professions by nearly shooting one another in the head as they fight the monsters. Xander proves his love for Anya by fighting Spike when he thinks he's attacked her. Meek and shy Tara enhances Willow's power enough to stop the monsters. In "Hush", actions do speak louder than words. And at the end of it all, Buffy and Riley sit down because "We need to talk," only neither of them can find the words to say. It's a perfect episode of TV.

This Year's Girl/Who Are You: This will be much shorter than my Hush synopsis. I think this is a real highlight for Sarah Michelle Gellar, who gets to embody Faith after their body switch (Eliza Dushku does a good job too, she just has much less to do). This is a really pivotal arc for Faith, and paves the way for what happens with her in Angel. She gets a taste of Buffy's life and her responsibility, and it deeply affects her. What started off as a mocking exercise in front of the mirror, "Because it's wrong," is genuinely meant by the end, "You aren't going to kill these people, because it's wrong." When the two of them fight, Faith is fighting Buffy, but more than that she's punishing herself. She's seen the other side, and it's shaken her. She isn't fully changed, she isn't reformed yet, but her worldview is crumbling beneath her, which will eventually lead to her falling to pieces. It's a fantastic piece of character work, and a great piece of acting from SMG that really sells it.

So, there are highs to be found in Season 4, that's for sure. It's certainly worth watching, it's just not up to the standards of the 2 seasons the preceded it, or the 2 seasons that followed.

Telling Stories

I love a good story. If you've known me for a while, you may have noticed this about me. It's why I'm such an avid consumer of good TV shows and movies. It's why I love reading fantasy and sci-fi so much. It's not just reading or watching stories that I love though, I love to tell stories. I've never been good at writing stories, mostly cause I could never get the hang of writing dialogue, but I love to tell a good story. We've all been there when someone is telling a story, and they just aren't doing it very well, and we have to step in and go "no, no, you've got it all wrong. Let me tell it." I'm a storyteller, I love to tell stories well.

Throughout my life, I think I've told stories to myself. I think we all do this to one extent or another, but because of my propensity for storytelling and my overactive imagination, perhaps I do it more than most (In one of my favorite movies, The Brothers Bloom, one of the con-man characters says the line "There's no such thing as an unwritten life, only a badly written one"). I form the story of my life in my mind, and however ridiculous it seems at first, the more you tell it to yourself, the more certain you become that it will come true. When I was going into high school, I was sure I would play on the basketball team right away, heck, I'd probably start. Forget the whole "short and unathletic" thing, that was the story I had written for myself, so that's how it was gonna happen. Well, that's not how it happened.

I've crafted a lot of stories for my life. Most of them have not come anywhere close to being fulfilled. Let me tell you, my story going into high school was not to get cut from the basketball team twice and ride the bench for the other two years. My story going into college was definitely not to be single the whole way through it. My story for this year did not include not being able to find a job. My stories for my life, my visions of how I want things to be, they rarely come to pass, and that's a good thing.

I heard an excellent sermon last Sunday. It was, of course, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the pastor spoke about trying times, because just a couple weeks ago, the church had lost one of their own, a woman who had died. On a day commemorating tragedy, they were experiencing a tragedy of their own. The pastor, though, told an amazing story about joy coming through even in the face of tragedy and sadness, a story that he never would have predicted or expected. The thing that he said, the line that stuck with me, was this: "God tells better stories than I do."

"God tells better stories than I do." That's why it's ok that none of my stories have come to pass. If they had, I'd be in a very different place in my life right now. I'd never have had the time to invest myself in youth ministry. I would never have discovered my love for ministry. I never would have ended up here in Charlotte, attending seminary. "God tells better stories than I do." Even when I can't see the goodness. Many of the things that have brought me to where I am now have been hard to live through in the moment, but I would not change them if I had the chance. God has always closed the door to my stories in order to direct me somewhere better, even if I couldn't see it at the time.

"God tells better stories than I do." That's why I'm not worried that I again find myself in a story I didn't write. It certainly wasn't in the plan that I would be unable to find a job this fall, that I would be facing next month's rent and tuition payments with a dwindling bank account and few job prospects despite my searching. I did not plan this, and I would be lying if I said I was happy about it. However, I do believe that God has placed me here for a reason, and I believe that in his sovereignty, if he desires me to be in seminary than he will provide the means in such a way that all the credit and all the glory is his, not mine. God tells better stories because ultimately the stories aren't about me, they're about him. The more my story reflects the great storyteller, the better that story will be.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." - Proverbs 16:9