Isolated thoughts on Buffy
Now, the sad thing is that I’m only at “What’s my line”, which means I have well over an entire season to go before I can hit the new DVDs I just received today (yay!). I might skip some of the terrible episodes — “Go Fish” comes to mind (as does, alas, “Beer Bad”, for my money the worst episode ever, which I just paid some actual real money for) — but still, there aren’t *that* many.
Plus I want to nap right now. I want to nap, but also I want to watch Spike while he was fun and evil.
I remember watching “What’s my line? pt 1″ with my mother (she watched the show for a while), and the total shock at the ending of the episode, even given all the clues they dumped earlier in the show. Kendra the what?
You know, I appreciate the show’s discussion of moral ambiguity (Angel in seasons 1,2; “Lie to me” s2). The discussion of friendship and responsibility (”Prophecy Girl”,s1 “When she was bad” s2, Angel in season 2), also. Yes, Buffy was good, and did good, but Buffy made mistakes and endangered people because of it (as did Giles, “The Dark Age”s2, “Helpless” s3 — there are always other examples, but the first three seasons I remember best, so there we go). As discussed in an old post at Sappho’s Breathing, there was always the knowledge that the Scoobies were good, even if they did the wrong things — bad things. (Xander in “Becoming”, Willow in the magic-is-addiction-instead-of-power story arc.) Spike, also, did a fair bit of saving Buffy (when it was more helpful to him than trying to kill her, anyhow). I felt that the nuance was something the show always did quite well.
The obvious part, of course, is the little blonde girl in heels kicking ass: the feminism in it. There were many comments made on the anti-father bias the show espoused, though I think Giles (ignoring his exit in s6) was a good-enough father figure to balance out some of it, and showing the idea that family is made up of more than just genetics. But in the end, who were the most grown-up characters? Giles, always, and perhaps obviously — but consider Buffy at the end, Willow at the end, and Xander at the end. Xander was the most adult (in the positive senses) of the Scoobies (excepting the wedding issue, which I also thought was entirely improbable). Of course he had no super powers, but I found it an interesting change to the show. Faith, on the other hand, had finally become an adult. (Faith was also a good example of ambiguity in the show: could anyone not love Faith & the mayor together?)
What I most liked, I think, was the emphasis on choices there was, but also on how chance can make or break things (this was best shown in “The Wish”). You make the choice to act, or not act, to do what you think is right or not, to do what is easy or not. You sometimes make the wrong choices, or choices based on incorrect information, and then you have to live with the consequences of those choices. (I never understood why there was no real payback for Xander’s lie in “Becoming” — the 3 second exchange in s6 or 7 was not nearly enough.)
But of course the best part of the show was that all of these were bound up in a fun show about killing vampires.
Update: hah, I’m reading old TwoP Buffy recaps (well, MBTV, then) and I forgot this line.
It’s a shame there’s no way Spike and Buffy can have a romance, because SMG and James Marsters together sizzle like a thick, fatty steak over a blazing mesquite fire. Especially in comparison to her scenes with Marc Blucas, which sizzle about as much as boiled cod drenched with gravy.
September 30th, 2004 at 11:42 pm
I confess: I read all of that and don’t know whether you like it or not.
October 1st, 2004 at 4:48 pm
I’ve never understood that about Xander’s lie, either. For years I kept expecting something, and then just a couple of lines… I suppose if there had been another season…
October 1st, 2004 at 5:55 pm
Let’s face it, when Buffy and Spike finally got it on, it put every previous relationship into the shade. Mind you, you should have seen what the BBC did to that scene when it went out in the 6.30pm slot. Butchery. I loathe Sky (Murdoch), but only Sky One ever treats BTVS or Angel with the respect they deserve over here. The BBC has never managed to show a Buffy series all the way through without continually breaking off for f***ing snooker competitions (I kid you not); Channel 4 dropped Angel after playing musical chairs around the schedules with it for a season or so. Eventually Channel 5 picked it up, but we’re now I don’t know how many seasons behind on terrestrial.
I can’t remember what Xander’s lie was! It’s obviously time I watched s.2 again. And s.1 and 3, for that matter.
October 1st, 2004 at 6:10 pm
Sorry, Michelle. The random bits only make sense really if you watched the show which, yes, I liked. Not the last few seasons as much, and I had arguments with some of it beforehand, too, but I liked the show a lot.
I didn’t mind that it took a while, but I think it took too long. And if there had been more seasons — no, no difference, I think the problem was when he spun off Angel, Joss stopped paying enough attention to Buffy.
Well, Buffy and Spike definitely had chemistry, I’ll give them that. I found Spike so irritating by then, though . . . I don’t know.
Season 2 is great when you want to cry. Or think — “Lie to me” (yes, one of my favourites, which I think seriously underrated) really showed the moral compass of the show, and marked a big turning point (which foreshadowed, I think, Surprise & Innocence quite nicely — including in the “hey wait, this show is SAD” aspect). Xander’s lie was when he told Buffy that Willow said to kill him (in the interests of people who might eventually watch this show, I’m not talking about the season arc of season 2), and not that Willow would be trying the spell again.
I just rewatched “The Wish” (where Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale), and it’s just full of such nice details.
October 1st, 2004 at 11:06 pm
Cool that you like it then! :)
October 2nd, 2004 at 5:07 am
I just love The Wish; I think it may be up there with my all-time favourites. And yes, now I do remember the lie. And yes, it was a pity that Spike became so slappable.
I think you have a point about Whedon becoming distracted after Angel. There are always great episodes after s.3 (and crappy ones before that), but for me, the first three ‘high school’ seasons have the best overall themes and ideas. S.3 remains my favourite, by the way.
October 2nd, 2004 at 11:58 am
My favourites would definitely include “The Wish”. Bored now.
I think I was disappointed by the ending of s3 in a number of ways (especially, I will admit, the Buffy-Angel arc: I still want them to end up together), and s2 (as I said to someone last night) was when I got totally hooked on the show (as opposed to just watching it) — “Lie to me”, which I will claim forever was one of the top 10.
October 2nd, 2004 at 6:20 pm
Ah, but before Angel heads off into the sunset, they get to COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DESTROY THE SCHOOL. The best bit of wish fulfilment ever for everybody who hated secondary/high school even the teeniest bit (and I hated mine big time).
Yep, Lie To Me is fantasticest.
May 8th, 2005 at 8:16 pm
wolfangel, i completly disagree with you, spike is what made the show one of the best on tv, he brought out EVERYTHING in buffy, sadness, happyness, etc.
he ROX
May 16th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Spike slappable? As opposed to Buffy’s perpetual stoneface, weepy Willow and her magic!crack, Puffy Xander who when he’s not being a complete bigoted asshole is just plain useless, and then there’s PodGiles…
Really, what is it with people always zeroing in on Spike? Annoying he may be, but that’s not something new, he was always talky and relentless from the start. Not all that different from how he acted in ATS season five. ::shrugs::
Sorry wolfangel, you and almost every other later seasons Spike hater seem to think that’s it a universal fact that Spike became a sucky character once he fell in love with Buffy. I know I should ignore it, but I can’t say it’s not getting on my nerves. I too prefer him evil, but I don’t think that makes me an idiot fangirl just because I still found him entertaining and worthy of my interest even when he wasn’t rolling around in a wheelchair or making empty threats about killing a slayer while having an imprisoning chip in his head.
And damn right Buffy and Spike had chemistry. That’s why they they become a relatively popular unconventional pairing post-becoming II and Something Blue. Joss and Marti may have done everything they could to get people to stop wanting them together, but they still had potential. A lot of Spuffy shippers can’t let go of what could have been, hence all the fanfic and general bitterness and anger that Buffy and Spike weren’t allowed the same chance that all the rest of the other couples on the show got.