"I'm just trying to tell you that we have nothing in common beyond both of us liking your penis…"
Ok, so this was a so-so episode, a "monster" of the week story for the first time in ages, treading water, and not advancing the plot in any way. To an extent, it's filler. In fact, it's noticeable that Sarah Michelle Gellar gets little screen time. And yet, amongst the silliness, there's an important message about how unreasoning sexual repression and intolerant religious Puritanism can wreck lives. The monster here is not the bunch of poltergeists, but that evil old woman.
All the same, there's a certain clunkiness and disposability to the episode, and the moral message feels somewhat tacked on. There are some nice character moments, though, the most legendary of which is Giles, at an open mic night, wowing everyone with his version of The Who's Behind Blue Eyes, and that look on Alyson Hannigan's face. Also, Buffy and Riley wanting to have constant sex is funny. Anya gets all the best lines, as usual, and the argument in the ice cream van ends with genuine hilarity. I love the fact that she throws a massive wobbly because they went for a whole day without sex!!! All the characterisation is spot on. The Earth literally moves while Buffy and Riley are having that strange, oddly gracious looking sort of sex that TV characrters tend to have.
It's just that, well, there isn't much to say about this episode, and it's the first one for a long while that I'd go so far as to call skippable. Can we start to get the season moving towards its end, please? There's oddly little sense of tension, considering that this is the eighteenth episode of twenty-two. It's been a great season so far but I'm a little worried about the fact that I can't see much epicness on the horizon. There's Adam, but we viewers aren't exactly much invested in him. Here's hoping there'll be more to say about the next episode…
No comments:
Post a Comment