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.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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 :).
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 :).
Saturday, October 15, 2011
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.
Como Papel Blanco, or "White Like Paper"
Yep, that sounds about right.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
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.
- 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.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
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."
"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."
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