Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I absolutely love Snyder: "You'll have to answer to MOO." One, it's just funny in an out-of-nowhere obsurd kind of way, and too, it's smart in that the acronym of the organization is how we English speakers describe the sound a cow makes, and cows of course, are herd animals: make one move in a direction, and the rest of the heard moves with them, much like the group of freak-out adults in the episode.

And I also loved how much joy Coredelia got out of using the fire hose on the adults. Oh, and Buffy using the pole she's tied to as a weapon, but strapped to it, can't see if she actually was successful in killing the demon.

I'm fairly sure this is the first, and only time we ever see Willow's mother. I think that friend Joyce had during the zombie episode at the beginning of the season might have also called Buffy "Bunny."

Your next episode is "Helpless;" I'm particularly interested in seeing what you think of this one. And then after, there's "The Zeppo," which I think is pretty funny. And then after that is a 2-parter where the season takes a major turn.

I like Helpless for the on-screen action. I didn't like it for some of the background it introduced, though of course that can pay off later.

By on-screen action, I'm referring to the fact that it felt like the show's writers/producers said, "let's do a straight-up horror flick." The chase scenes, the camera-spinny reveal of the creepy polaroids, the neglected childhood serial killer origin story, the set-up of killing the villain's captor (chief engineer from Enterprise), etc- all classic slasher flick stuff. The only thing that would make it more classic is if Buffy was wearing a cheerleader outfit.

I read that Whedon came up with the idea for Buffy because he thought it would be fun to take the typical horror movie victim and make her the hero, so it's odd and entertaining to make her (almost) the victim again.

But on-screen action aside, they throw a bunch of stuff at us that has potential to play out well but they're handled here in a very awkward manner:

1. Buffy's dad canceled because he has too much work? Divorced dads don't work like that- either they're just neglectful, or they bust their ass to see their kids those rare occasions they can to alleviate their guilt. So either there's something else going on with him (he's a monster, etc) or the show writers got lazy.

2. Buffy's test. Just seems so random and pointless and stupid, a cheap plot point to get us a horror movie and to take us to...

3. Giles is fired. This means, what, that there will be a 2nd new watcher this season? So they can't go with making him/her a villain again... so he/she will probably die at some point.

I was surprised and even a little disappointed that they resolved the Buffy/Giles fall-out so quickly, considering they were able to give other emotional conflicts enough time to play out satisfactorily. The relationship between Giles and Buffy is the most interesting in the show, and twice this season they introduced a conflict and resolved it quickly, while Angel won't un-angst himself from this show until he gets his own, and all the other boring teenagers play Dawson's Creek forever.

So anyway I think it's cool to introduce (re-introduce) daddy issues and Giles' place in the whole story, but they just went about it in a clumsy way in this one.

Next episode looks to be Xander heavy and comic, so off I go (I have to pick someone up near midnight, so I have plenty of time to kill before my Saturday night actually starts).

GKarsEye said:

I read that Whedon came up with the idea for Buffy because he thought it would be fun to take the typical horror movie victim and make her the hero, so it's odd and entertaining to make her (almost) the victim again.

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I think the point is to show that even though Buffy groans about the responsibilities her powers have saddled her with, by now there's no conceivable way out -- she's going to fight this battle no matter what. Also it shows that even when physically vulnerable, her resourcefulness and experience come into play (after a while, admittedly), which is her real strength.

GKarsEye said:

But on-screen action aside, they throw a bunch of stuff at us that has potential to play out well but they're handled here in a very awkward manner:

1. Buffy's dad canceled because he has too much work? Divorced dads don't work like that- either they're just neglectful, or they bust their ass to see their kids those rare occasions they can to alleviate their guilt. So either there's something else going on with him (he's a monster, etc) or the show writers got lazy.

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That's a bit of a generalization. My divorced dad was never totally neglectful, kept up on child support, and sent presents every birthday/Christmas. And when he was in town, he would often get distracted by other old friends and spend a lot of time with them instead of with me.

But yes, I think the writers got a bit lazy with Hank Summers.

GKarsEye said:

2. Buffy's test. Just seems so random and pointless and stupid, a cheap plot point to get us a horror movie and to take us to...

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Totally pointy. It shows us that the Watcher's Council ain't necessarily nice guys, or at best hidebound/stuffy/ubertraditionalists with no real concern for the girl they're using. Remember, as far as they're concerned, slayers come and go routinely. Heck, with Faith in play they've already got a spare.

In other words, they have about as high a regard for the slayer's life as Bush had for the basic Army grunts he sent into Iraq.

GKarsEye said:

1. Buffy's dad canceled because he has too much work? Divorced dads don't work like that- either they're just neglectful, or they bust their ass to see their kids those rare occasions they can to alleviate their guilt. So either there's something else going on with him (he's a monster, etc) or the show writers got lazy.

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I don't think the "too much work" excuse was genuine. Her dad just didn't want to get together with her, and that was the reason he gave. I don't think he really had to work. He was blowing her off and just gave a half-assed excuse.

2. Buffy's test. Just seems so random and pointless and stupid, a cheap plot point to get us a horror movie and to take us to...

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Except it did actually tell us something about the Watchers' Council and how they treat Slayers.

In seeing how the Watchers' Council approaches a Slayer, it shows us how Giles has been changed as a person as a result from his time with Buffy. And though Buffy feels betrayed by Giles, seeing how the Watchers' Council treats him helps Buffy see what he has to deal with. Take his anger toward her in "Revelations" when he accuses her of having no respect for his job. She sees now what pressures the Watchers' Council put on him. This episode shows us that the Watchers' Council has no respect for the Slayer.

I don't think the "too much work" excuse was genuine. Her dad just didn't want to get together with her, and that was the reason he gave. I don't think he really had to work. He was blowing her off and just gave a half-assed excuse.

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Yeah but why... last time he was there he was trying to keep their relationship strong, so this just comes out of left field.

Ok so even if you look at it from the watchers council's perspective, and they don't value slayers' lives, the test is still silly. First of all, you're testing them without their powers to test their intelligence or resourcefulness- but slayers do have powers. It's a ridiculous hypothetical that they're forcing. More importantly, you're possibly killing off a veteran fighter who's already proven herself a valuable resource.

This is a typical lazy TV/movie convention that creates danger for no logical reason. Yes it shows us the nature of the council, which is important I'm sure, so this is what I mean when I say they introduce good ideas awkwardly here.


Zeppo was pretty fun- took a while to get going and the zombie bomb plot was silly but the whole idea of doing the show from Xanders' perspective while everyone else is battling the greatest evil ever ever (seem to be a lot of those lately) was cool. I'm a fan of these episodes where the turn things around (as ancient threads about The Corps Is Mother and Intersections In Real Time can attest to I'm sure).

Favorite part was Xander interrupting another one of Buffy and Angel's interminable ultra-emo dialogues.

GKarsEye said:

Yeah but why... last time he was there he was trying to keep their relationship strong, so this just comes out of left field.

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Probably because he thought he had to since he was her father, but having spent more and more time away from her, he grew comfortable with the idea of not having to bother with her.

Ok so even if you look at it from the watchers council's perspective, and they don't value slayers' lives, the test is still silly. First of all, you're testing them without their powers to test their intelligence or resourcefulness- but slayers do have powers. It's a ridiculous hypothetical that they're forcing. More importantly, you're possibly killing off a veteran fighter who's already proven herself a valuable resource.

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But they don't look at the Slayer as a veteran or even really as a person, just as a weapon that the Watchers' Council wields. Think of how Kendra was forbidden from doing anything other than slaying and studying for slaying. Buffy refused to be boxed in, though Giles did initially try; she was just more of a force of personality than he could handle in the traditional Watchers' Council way. And just because slayers have powers doesn't mean that they couldn't find themselves in some circumstances where they didn't; if the Watchers' Council could do it, then there's bound to be bad guys out there that would know how to do it too. Also, as much as it is a test, it's also supposed to be training to teach the slayer how to deal with a situation in which they cannot rely on their powers the way they otherwise always do.

The deeply cynical -- and where the Watcher's Council is concerned, I can occasionally be cynical -- might also see the test as an easy way for the Council to bump off a slayer who's being uncooperative.

Saw the next two eps. Don't really have much to say 'cause so much stuff happened, most of it in a pretty expected but satisfying way (specifically that I've been waiting for the shoe to drop re: Faith, and it's dropping).

Buffy's turn to "bad girl" was hard to swallow, since her discomfort with Faith's way of life was there from the beginning, that didn't change, yet now all of a sudden she wants to be like her. But the murder is a nice twist, and continues the running theme of Buffy's life: every time she risks doing anything outside her prescribed path, she is punished.

Ooh, how 'bout this: Buffy is credited for being this ultra-feminist, role model for women show, but the fact that Buffy suffers horrible consequences whenever she tries to think for herself is actually a misogynistic view of strong women. Yeah, take that, Whedon.

lol @ Angel's intervention. Can you imagine a worse fate than being chained and forced to listen to him lecture you?

So next up is "Doppelgangland," which I think is funny, then "Enemies," which is another arc episode, and then "Earshot," which the network refused to broadcast. I won't say why the refused to broadcast it until after you watch it, though you'll probably figure out why on your own.

In my last post I said I was waiting for the show to drop. Of course I meant "shoe" not "show," and even that wouldn't have made much sense because the saying I was thinking of is that you wait for the other shoe to drop, which doesn't even work in this context, so... yeah, there's that.

On-call for work, so I may end up finishing the season tonight.

GKarsEye said:

In my last post I said I was waiting for the show to drop. Of course I meant "shoe" not "show," and even that wouldn't have made much sense because the saying I was thinking of is that you wait for the other shoe to drop, which doesn't even work in this context, so... yeah, there's that.

On-call for work, so I may end up finishing the season tonight.

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OK, now I feel uncorfortable, because it made perfect sense to me (The other shoe being the final act of turning?) and They "dropped" (Brought it out to the surface) that plot development big time

When it comes to Angel, the curse is lifted when he has a "perfect moment of happiness," which this show pretty much equates to sex. Now, look, I love me some sex, but I wouldn't call it a "perfect moment of happiness" most of the time.

Faith's turn to full-on evil is a bit hard to swallow. She was about to actually torture Buffy, and is ready to bring forth some sort of demon takeover, just because she's jealous? That's silly. I guess the mayor as father figure is supposed to be the psychological explanation here. Oh well we'll see how it plays out.

I loved good-Angel-pretending-to-be-bad-Angel punching Xander in the face. You know he was just thrilled to have an excuse.

Ok, one more than it's off to finish work and then bed.

vacantlook said:

So next up is "Doppelgangland," which I think is funny, then "Enemies," which is another arc episode, and then "Earshot," which the network refused to broadcast. I won't say why the refused to broadcast it until after you watch it, though you'll probably figure out why on your own.

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Xander: "I can't believe one of us would shoot up the high school for no reason"
Cordelia: "Because that would never happen in an American high school?"

Um... Columbine?

Columbine happened a few days before "Earshot" was scheduled to air. It's still one of my favourite episodes.

Yup, Columbine. Earshot was filmed before Columbine happened, but with the broadcast date being soon after, the network decided to not show it. It wasn't the only episode in Buffy history that the network refused to show, either.

And, while the episode is a brilliant way of showing why shooting up a high school and/or committing suicide is not a great idea, I think the network kinda had a point.

I've used the clock tower scene in my teaching. It's one of the show's finest moments.

GKarsEye said:

When it comes to Angel, the curse is lifted when he has a "perfect moment of happiness," which this show pretty much equates to sex. Now, look, I love me some sex, but I wouldn't call it a "perfect moment of happiness" most of the time.

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The sex thing is a misconception, actually -- they play with it over on "Angel" the show. Think back to the Buffy/Angel tryst. It wasn't the sex, it was the afterglow. Afterglow with the girl he loved, who loved him back.

That would count for me, anyway.

KoshFan said:

And, while the episode is a brilliant way of showing why shooting up a high school and/or committing suicide is not a great idea, I think the network kinda had a point.

I've used the clock tower scene in my teaching. It's one of the show's finest moments.

GKarsEye said:

When it comes to Angel, the curse is lifted when he has a "perfect moment of happiness," which this show pretty much equates to sex. Now, look, I love me some sex, but I wouldn't call it a "perfect moment of happiness" most of the time.

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The sex thing is a misconception, actually -- they play with it over on "Angel" the show. Think back to the Buffy/Angel tryst. It wasn't the sex, it was the afterglow. Afterglow with the girl he loved, who loved him back.

That would count for me, anyway.

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I alwasy thought it was what KoshFan said. Perhaps we are just both idealistic romantic pussies

Also, I'm not sure whether Britain actually aired the school shooting episode. We were so far behind you guys, that people would have forgotten all about Columbine over here when it aired.

Well I just figured it would be the actual sex- or, more specifically, the orgasm- because at that moment you're not thinking about anything else, no distractions, just pleasure and joy. Angel spends lots of alone time with Buffy, cuddling and smootching and whatever, being all lovey-dovey, but there's always a shadow of frustration, doubt, fear preventing him from having the curse lifting.

Whether any of this is true- or, more likely, that I'm over-thinking it because I'm procrastinating from bug fixing- my observation was more about how the mayor thought that if Angel slept with Faith, the curse would be lifted. Angel is clearly not in love with Faith, so the implication is that it's sex, not love, that can give you that "perfect moment." Now it's certainly possible the mayor was just wrong, but the whole point of this character is that while he comes off as a silly goofball, he's actually really sharp. Hard to believe he'd just be wrong about something like that.

But then again he was out-played by Giles and Angel.
Here's why I sometimes love the sci-fi/fantasy genre: that bit at the end where Faith says something like "I'm the best actor in the world" and there's a slow reveal to Angel saying "2nd best." So melodramatic, so over-the-top, but so damn cool. That really only works in the context of, like, vampires and shit.

Earshot- poor Jonathan.
I don't quite love the episode as much as you guys- mostly just because it's put together awkwardly, though the ambition was good. Mostly I think it bothered me that he's gonna kill himself with a sniper rifle? Felt like a cheap way to reveal what should have been a really powerful twist (suicide vs murder). But the rat poison reveal was the kind of stupid/funny thing I've been enjoying the most in this show.

Favorite episode of the series thus far is The Zeppo. I actually think I'll watch it again after I finish the season, it's so damn entertaining. I like the one-off quirky episodes more than the heavy arc stuff.

I think one's opinion of Doppelgangland will depend entirely on how big one's crush on Willow is. Me- I can take her or leave her. I like her character well enough, but I also remember how she was the ultimate fantasy of teenage boys everywhere, and I'm too old for that. She's a fine actress (her reaction to finding out about Xander's cherry popping was wonderful) and is fun to watch in the group context, but sometimes the excessive cute can be grating. So I enjoyed the episode well enough. Let's put it this way- I'm more of a Faith guy than a Willow guy.

GKarsEye said:

Whether any of this is true- or, more likely, that I'm over-thinking it because I'm procrastinating from bug fixing- my observation was more about how the mayor thought that if Angel slept with Faith, the curse would be lifted. Angel is clearly not in love with Faith, so the implication is that it's sex, not love, that can give you that "perfect moment." Now it's certainly possible the mayor was just wrong, but the whole point of this character is that while he comes off as a silly goofball, he's actually really sharp. Hard to believe he'd just be wrong about something like that.

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Well, he's not the only one to get it wrong over the course of the various shows. At this point in S3, Angel himself probably doesn't know the difference. But he learns.

GKarsEye said:

Here's why I sometimes love the sci-fi/fantasy genre: that bit at the end where Faith says something like "I'm the best actor in the world" and there's a slow reveal to Angel saying "2nd best." So melodramatic, so over-the-top, but so damn cool. That really only works in the context of, like, vampires and shit.

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One of my favorite Angel lines. Plus Boreanaz played "evil" very slightly differently from the S2 version.

GKarsEye said:

Mostly I think it bothered me that he's gonna kill himself with a sniper rifle?

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That's bothered me too. But the rest of the episode is so great it's never really gotten in the way.

GKarsEye said:

Let's put it this way- I'm more of a Faith guy than a Willow guy.

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Called it.

Though Jonathan's planned use of a sniper rifle to kill himself is indeed awkward, I can forgive it since the episode gives us Buffy learning that Giles and her mother had sex on the hood of a police car twice. LOL