Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People

“I mean, I was afraid to talk to you in high school. And now we’re, like, mortal enemies.”

Here we have it, then; a proper arc episode, which develops the mysterious Big Bad. Oddly, there’s no Xander, one of the main trio of characters (behind the scenes issues?) or Anya. But the focus on Buffy, Dawn and Willow all individually, their paths crossing only thematically, makes them all the more emotionally vulnerable for being alone.

Dawn and Willow both get visitations from the dead which seem designed to undermine themabd the team for the upcoming hi-jinks. Fortunately Willow realises she isn’t talking to Tara when the suggestion to never do magic again is extended to a suggestion of suicide, puncturing the illusion. Dawn has no such epiphany, enduring an episode of poltergeisty weirdness only to be told by “Joyce” that Buffy will turn against her. Oh, and Andrew and Jonathan return to Sunnyvale, with Andrew being encouraged by “Adam” to kill an unsuspecting Jonathan, who dies serene.

Buffy’s story is cleverer, as a recently resurrected vampire turns out to be an old acquaintance and psych major, which leads to reminiscing and psychoanalysis; I love the scene where Buffy uses a tomb as a psychiatrist’s couch. These are great character scenes, establishing both Buffy’s inevitable superiority complex and the guilt she feels about it. And, just to add extra dramatic spice, Spike is killing and siring people again. Some monsters are unexpectedly people, but those we think of as people can also turn out to be monsters.

A change of direction, then, getting the arc back on track. And a bloody good episode.

Buffy the Vampire: Same Time, Same Place

"I thought you were with Giles, studying not to kill people?"

This is, of course, an episode all about Willow and her return to Sunnydale. Naturally, Alyson Hannigan gets (and deserves) lots of screen time after the token cameos of the previous episodes. Naturally, there's a magical twist as neither Willow nor the Scoobies can see each other, and there's a nasty troll in town that flays people.

It's also a Jane Espenson episode and Espenson is, Joss Whedon notwithstanding, the other "name" writer on Buffy. This episode makes it obvious why; there's her trademark witty dialogue, of course, but that's not the only way she really gets Buffy. Unlike Whedon she tends not to do the format-busting episodes, but takes a very, very Buffy idea, traditionally, as here, a rather obvious metaphor, and moulds into something superbly crafted, funny and heartwrenching all at once.

This episode is awfully clever in how it handles the conceit that Willow and the others can't see each other- the opening scene in the airport, and the scene with spike in the school basement, are masterful. It's awfully convenient to the plot, though, that Anya can see everyone...

Other stuff happens, of course. Dawn is starting to not be an annoying teenager and actually do Scooby stuff, such as the solid research she does here, and Michelle Trachtenberg gets to show that she's rather good at comedy. Anya is still having trouble at work. But when it's all over, and Willow has suffered an awful lot, what makes your eyes well up a bit is Alyson Hannigan's bloody brilliant acting as Willow is so very happy to be accepted again by her friends. So, yeah, the season pretty much continues to be amazing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doublemeat Palace

"You're better than this!"

Yes, I know: it's been far too long. But from now on, aside from a mini-break between seasons, there'll be no non-current TV in this blog that isn't Buffyverse. Promise. I'm going to finish this marathon and enjoy myself in the process.

Anyway, this is an intrinsically depressing episode about the awfulness of fast food and the sheer soul-destroying and profound bleakness of working in such a restaurant, with its crushingly monotonous processes, made much worse by the fact that, as Dawn insightfully points out, Buffy is the Slayer and will therefore be doing such soul-crushing work for the rest of her short, violent life. So let's get Jane Espenson to write it and leaven all this with wit and humour, although I suspect I may see a moderately subtle vegetarian subtext here. But it's a nice little one-off tale, with a nice twist, and shows us the depressing economic reality of being the Slayer.

Oh, and this is the first episode of Buffy I ever saw, at uni, courtesy of my housemate. It kept my attention, although I took a while to become hooked.

Sub-plots include Willow's cold turkey from magic, this season's rather strained metaphor for drugs, with Amy as her bad influence friend whom she finally rejects- yay Willow- and Anya's and Xander's festering doubts about their upcoming nuptials. Anya's old demon mate is fantastic; I don't usually single out guest stars but Kali Rocha is brilliant.

This isn't, perhaps, a particularly great episode to return to, and there's a certain hint of mid-season treading of water. But even a mediocre episode of Buffy is superior to most other telly. It's good to be back.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Intervention

"The ancient shamans were next called upon to do the hokey pokey and turn themselves around."

Buffy has has a tough time lately. So much, in fact, that she's thinking about packing it all in, as hinted at rather a lot lately. This wouldn't be good for the longevity of the show, so here we have an episode which mainly consists of Giles convincing her not to do it. And while we're at it we get a bit of Stone Age Slayer history, a bit of character development of Buffy herself, who feels she's losing her humanity as the Slayer, and a lot of stuff about the series theme of Buffy needing friends around her. There's also a bit of inevitable foreshadowing for the end of this season with the line "Death is your gift".

Anyway, Giles thinks the solution for Buffy's angst is to take her seep in to the desert for a magical and surreal lesson in prehistory. And while Buffy is gone much farce ensues as Spike is introduced to the Buffybot (remember the Buffybot?) by Warren, with whom he is soon having kinky sex. The Buffybot, not Warren. And, naturally, much hilarity with mistaken identity ensures, and it's funnier than it sounds. Jane Espenson is good at writing this sort of thing.

 In season arc news, Glory has finally worked out that the key is a person, but she thinks it's Spike. And he bravely refuses to talk under torture to protect Buffy's sister. That's love, or something. And Buffy, in spite of the Buffybot, is truly grateful. But the season is clearly drawing to a close...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I Was Made to Love You

“I go online sometimes, but everyone’s spelling is so depressing.”

I know it’s been a while, but we’ve just moved in to a new house and I’ve just had a massive exam for work, all in the last two weeks. The blog will return to normal as life returns to normal and the cardboard boxes slowly get emptied. In the meantime, here’s an episode of Buffy for your delight and edification.

Yes, I realise that the concept of Warren making a science fiction sex robot has some serious things to say about the objectification of women, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a very silly idea, Yes, it is a comedy episode, and the witty lines are of a standard one would expect from Jane Espenson, but it’s hard to shake the suspicion that she deliberately set herself the challenging task of writing a quality episode from what she knew was a silly idea. This is not an easy task, and, brilliant writer though she is and excellently written though this script may be, the episode does not succeed in overcoming the intrinsic silliness.

The idea almost redeems itself, however, with a wonderfully metatextual joke as the scoobies just accept the existence of the robot with a knowing wink to the conventions of the genre within which they exist: Buffy usually deals with the tropes of horror, not sci-fi. The only character who does not react in this post-modern fashion is Warren himself, both because of his character and because he seems, at this point, to belong in sci-fi rather than horror.

Aside from all this we have character stuff. Early on there is a surprisingly mature conversation between Buffy and Xander which further deepens the trend in recent episodes to emphasise Xander’s sudden maturity, what with his job and that. His comments to Buffy seem surprisingly worldly-wise, but the recent development of the character  means this does not seem out of place. I also like the fact that uber-capitalist Anya has been making heaps of money with online trading. Oh, and there’s a rather interesting scene in which Giles, rather menacingly, threatens Spike with bad things if he does not leave Buffy alone. My girlfriend rather enjoyed Giles and Spike’s male on male encounter…

The episode begins with Joyce beginning to throw herself into life again after her recent brain issues. She’s beginning to throw herself back into dating and beginning to look more like her old self. Or so we thought. The ending of the episode is one of the most upsettingly shocking things I have ever seen on television, but I’ll let you make that decision for yourself.

Dollhouse: Briar Rose

“I mean, don’t get me wrong- I heart my porn. But this…is cool!”

There are times, blogging several TV series at once, that things come close to being confused. This episode’s title reminds me of Grimm, while the fact that it is written by the excellent Jane Espenson reminds me of Buffy. But enough of lesser TV programmes. This episode of Dollhouse absolutely knocked me sideways! Before I say anything else… Alan Tudyk was great in Firefly. But here he is Sublime.

It’s typical of Dollhouse that really great ideas are used without them even being the main focus of the episode. Echo is imprinted with the personality of a disturbed and abused little girl, modified by Topher to reflect that little girl as a well-adjusted adult: the best possible outcome for her. Echo, equipped with this imprint, is able to act as the best possible counsellor to give the girl real hope and real chance. Unlike much of what we’ve seen so far, this is a genuinely good and heart-warming use of a doll. Such a pity that the moral basis of what the Dollhouse is doing is still just as dodgy.

Ballard is on fire! He finds the Dollhouse with such incredible speed that you wonder how the hell it took him so many episodes to do it! He knows where the building is, he has the original architect to guide him. What could possibly go wrong?! I mean, it’s not as though this Stephen Kepler dude could turn out to actually be A) Alpha, and B) completely doolally! Stephen Kepler may not be a real live person, but his dialogue is still amazing. I mean, look at that quote up there!

The ending is really quite exciting. Ballard finds Echo and has a big confrontation with DeWitt about ethics and that. Alpha scars Victor as he did to Doctor Saunders. And, of course, Alpha kidnaps Echo (after imprinting her with some weirdo) and buggers off with her. It’s all kicking off. Dollhouse is bloody great at the moment. I love it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Triangle

“According to everyone who isn’t me, it was kinda gradual.”

This is the episode after which Riley dumped Buffy, so obviously it has to be all about her moping. It would be unrealistic otherwise. The only way to handle this in a manner which entertains the viewer is to do a bit of comedy. Enter Jane Espenson. There are lots of funny hi-jinks involving Anya’s ex, who she turned in to a troll, which, I think, kind of works as a metaphor for all men.

The basic conceit is that Buffy is heartbroken and therefore amusingly upset about the slightest possibility of anything spoiling the relationship between Xander and Anya. It’s very cute and silly. Buffy may be moping, but at least she’s less annoying than she would have been without this nice bit of humour.

One thing which is very noticeable about this episode is that the subplot about Willow starting to go off the rails in her hubris about use of magic becomes, for the first time, a real worry. Once Giles disappears for a bit, she is worryingly arrogant, taking things from the shop without permission and refusing to acknowledge Anya’s concerns, which, however annoyingly expressed, are legitimate. This is going to lead to some kind of confrontation soon. What impresses me is the way this is developing in such a way that it does not seem out of character.

There’s a happy ending. Anya and Xander, at least, are together and happy and the troll is banished to an unknown dimension, possibly the world without shrimp! The final scene, however, in which Giles dines with Buffy and Joyce, is ominous: Dawn overhears that she is not “real”. We have a cross between a teenager and an existential crisis, and these things never end well.

Angel: Guise Will Be Guise

“You’re deeply ambivalent.”

“I am, and I’m not.”

Oh goody. Jane Espenson finally writes an episode of Angel. I’d been looking forward to this. It’s interesting, though, that the tone is very different from her Buffy episodes. What humour there is here is good, but it’s much toned down as is appropriate for this more serious show, and largely centred on Wesley’s klutziness. This is interesting, of course, this being a Wesley episode and all, and one that further advances his slow journey from klutz to bad-ass.

Obviously, the conceit of Wesley having to pretend to be Angel for the whole episode, and filling the shoes pretty well, is a good one. It has the potential to have been trite, of curse, especially the bit about Wesley getting a shag under false pretences and then redeeming himself, but it avoids that in the execution through good character development and a knowing postmodernism. There are plenty of other knowing winks to the audience, too. From the “Swami” to Gunn’s “Walking real quick was the plan?” to the comment about Angel being “a eunuch”. I also loved the bit where we found out that our putative sacrificial virgin has, in fact, managed to knock up quite a sexual history.

This is about as light-hearted as Angel gets. Time for the season arc to get really, really serious, I suspect…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Replacement

"If Xander kills himself, he's dead!"

I suppose we can say that the four core characters of this show are Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles. All other characters are to some extent secondary. And yet, of those four, Xander arguably has the least depth by some way. His role is of the archetypal clown, the comic relief, and as the other characters become ever more superpowered and uber-cool, it's becoming increasingly urgent for the character to get some development beyond his well-established self-doubt, notwithstanding Nicholas Brendon's superb performance.

Convenient, then, that Brendon should happen to have a twin brother to share on-screen duties, because this episode may be a first step in exactly that direction. The conceit is quite clever; we're led, by misdirection, to suppose that a demon imposter has stolen Xander's life and is humiliating him by living it better than he can. Yet it turns out that both Xanders are real, it's just that one has all the confidence. But it's Xander, not one particular half of him, who gains the promotion and gets a really, really nice apartment. He's moving up in the world.

Incidentally, this is an interesting time for me to watch this episode; I've recently found a new flat myself, and on Monday I'm going to move in, along with a certain lovely lady. I have to say that the viewing went a lot more smoothly for me, but my place is about a tenth the size of Xander's palatial luxury penthouse! I suppose that's the difference between the USA (population density 89 people per square mile)) and the UK (population density 663 people per square mile). Land is much cheaper over there./ Although I'm still not sure that a construction worker would really be able to afford a place like that.

Anya, too, gets a modicum of character development; she's becoming aware of her own mortality, and wants to settle down and do stuff. Meanwhile, Giles is now running the magic shop and Willow seems to be puzzlingly Tara-less. Spike's anger at Buffy continues to fester while his lifestyle gets grubbier and grubbier. Oh, and Riley gets the best line in a sparkling Jane Espenson script: "Doesn't it make everyone want to lock them into separate rooms and do experiments on them?"

But the main concern is the appearance of obvious cracks in the Buffy / Riley relationship; the line "Shall we split up?" is uttered at one point, which seems ominous. And the episode ends on Riley confessing how much he loves Buffy but admitting that "She doesn't love me." They're going to split up next episode, aren't they...?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A New Man

"I'm not even sure I could take you."

"That all depends on your meaning."

So, we get a Giles episode that really focuses on his unemployed, mid-life crisis, spare part existence. It's a good episode, as we'd expect from the pen of Jane Espenson. But Giles' issues, worryingly, are not really resolved. And we're left with the troubling idea that the Initiative may not be entirely a good thing.

This is only emphasised by the fact that, for everyone else, things are going great. Birthday girl Buffy and Riley are rather endearingly besotted in these early days of their actual being an item, with Riley gradually coming to understand what a big deal it is to be the Slayer, just how superhuman Buffy is, and how brilliant a tactician she is on top of that. He's a little awed. Plus, she's his girlfriend. I suspect the seeds may just have been planted for a future conflict of loyalties.

Also rather endearing is the rather gentle courtship between Willow and the very lovely Tara, a person you just want to hug. That spell with the rose is an obvious metaphor for romance, and possibly also for sex. The whole thing certainly ends with a bang.

Oh, and in other news, Spike has been evicted from Xander's basement to find a lair of his own. This presumably means that Xander and Anya will be doing a lot more, er…

Giles, though… it's rather clever how the first half of the episode sees his spare part status constantly highlighted. Everyone says the wrong thing to him at the party and it's made very clear just how directionless his life is. The worst thing is everyone's obvious sympathy for his predicament. And not only had Buffy failed to realise that she'd failed to tell him about the Initiative (even Spike knew!), even I, as a viewer, hadn't noticed his out-of-the-loop status on things Initiative. I suspect I wasn't the only viewer to have been surprised by this either. That's a clever bit of misdirection over the last couple of episodes.

He and Maggie Walsh are a hilarious double act in their mutual loathing, circling around each other with barbed comments as their weapons, and Giles doesn't exactly get the upper hand. "Buffy clearly lacks a strong father figure"- ouch.

Enter Ethan Rayne. Seldom has he been so much fun. He's constantly coming out with comments that nicely undercut the narrative, and you know how I love me a bit of metatextual fun. He's pretty much the writer's mouthpiece here, and the writer is Jane Espenson. That guarantees us a lot of fun. Ethan gets all the funniest lines.

The fact that Giles would let down his guard to far as to get completely rat-arsed with someone as dangerous as Ethan shows us just how far his standards have fallen. Not that there's anything wrong, or un-Giles-like, about getting blotto every now and then, of course (it's the British way!), but Ethan is hardly an appropriate person to get pissed with. He really could have spiked Giles' drink with poison. And it's notable that the scenes of Giles and Ethan, two old has-beens talking about being sorcerers, are juxtaposed with a scene of Willow and Tara practising real sorcery, and being young to boot. No wonder Giles wakes up with a massive metaphorical hangover.

I love Spike's attitude- although his evilness is definitely slipping. I love Giles' scaring Maggie Walsh for the sheer Hell of it. I love "the mucus thing". The second half of the episode is pure enjoyable farce, although the extrajudicial imprisonment of Ethan certainly raises one's eyebrows in these… I was going to say post-Guantanamo and rendition days, but these things are very much still with us. 2000 wasn't that long ago. But in some ways it feels a more innocent age.

Or perhaps we're supposed to wonder a little. Could there be something rotten in the heart of the Initiative? And what's in the dreaded Room 314…?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doomed

"It's the end of the world."

"AGAIN???!!!"

Oi. I like Slayer. I saw them live back at Ozzfest '98, although there was no way I was going to brave a Slayer moshpit. I'm only little; I didn't fancy my chances of getting out alive. I'm a little annoyed at Forrest this week for describing them as "Thrash band. Anvil-heavy guitar rock with delusions of Black Sabbath." Grrr. Incidentally, I saw Black Sabbath at that Ozzfest, too. The original line-up. Even Bill Ward put in an appearance. Oh yes. But, alas, Buffy isn't too metal-heavy. At least the soundtrack at the party almost makes up for it: we have both the Hellacopters and Echobelly. Result!

Music aside, this is another good 'un. Yes, it can't hold a candle to Hush, but neither can many things. The whole structure is awfully clever, for a start- a deliberately hackneyed ritual-that-will-cause-the-apocalypse plot allows the show to poke fun at its own clichés, but more interestingly the familiar tropes allow us to see the carefully contrasted methods of the Scoobies and the Initiative to solving the same problem. Hence the long section cutting between the two groups planning their reactions to the three nasty demons in their distinctive ways.

Dovetailing nicely into this framework is another contrast, between Buffy and Riley. The episode actually picks off from the very moment the last episode ends, and there is awkwardness. Buffy very nearly dumps Riley, but he persuades her not to, albeit by methods which seem at times to cross the line into creepiness. This all feeds back into that old, familiar dichotomy: would Buffy be better off alone or do her friends make her stronger? You would have thought that The Wish, with its bitter, doomed Buffy, would have answered that for good, at least as far as the audience is concerned, but Buffy still has a worrying habit of cutting off her friends at moments of real desperation.

Riley makes a few telling points- part of this is indeed because of the bad stuff with her former boyfriend- but I'm not convinced he wins the argument. She eventually takes him back, but that isn't why. It's just lust, and he's just a rebound. Buffy will never love him as she loved Angel and he's the one who'll end up getting hurt. That's obvious from the start.

This theme sort of links to Spike's monologue at Willow (speaking of whom, where's Tara?) and Xander (speaking of whom, where's Anya?), trying to convince them that they're no use to her. Thing is though, it's Spike who's useless, to the point of attempting suicide. Only when he realises that he can do bad stuff to evil demons does he cheer up. Spike, against his better nature, is forced to be a hero. It's a nice and amusing character development and, yes, a positive step, but a line has been crossed. Never again can Spike be a full-on murdering baddie.

Oh, and "fag off"? Er, that means "cigarette off". It's gobbledegook.

Also, comments about Slayer aside, I really, really like Forrest. He's witty, cool, and I suspect a bit of a Mary Sue through whom Joss Whedon himself can exist vicariously in his own fiction. Riley is the boss, but Forrest just seems so much more intelligent and together. And I loved his riff on the Slayer being a myth and demons and vampires just being part of the animal kingdom!

Better than anything in the whole world, though, is spike's unconvincing American accent. James Marsters, an American actor, playing a Brit doing an unconvincing version of Marsters' own natural accent; surely the hardest task any actor has ever been called to perform!