My opinion on Buffy. . .
May. 21st, 2003 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasGood episode. Lousy season.
For what it was, the episode was good. But the rest of the season had painted that episode into a very disadvantageous position to begin with. I mean, the way they ended it -- the place they went to for an ending -- was good. But the rest of the season did not position the storyline in a place to reach that ending gracefully.
Consider the season as a chess game. The opening moves were strong. The midgame is where you try to develop position, and get yourself set up and positioned for the endgame. Then, in the endgame, you go out to actually win.
Ususally, the endgame is the last two or three episodes. In this case, they were doing midgame dicking around until the actual last hour. And they only bothered to move a knight and two pawns into position for the endgame, leaving the bishop, queen, and the rest of the board pretty much wherever they happened to be.
Then they handed this board, which was basically a mess, over to Joss for the final episode, and said, "Okay, pull a win out of this one."
So, he had to use the "Look, A Monkey" defense, twice. That's when you yell, "Look! A Monkey!" at your oponent, point over their shoulder, and when their back is turned, you move a couple pieces. Willow's spell was a monkey, so was the amulet. Completely random, they didn't do anything that meant that they deserved those monkeys, they were just given them. "Ooo SpookyWillow Is SO POWERFUL that she can just CHANGE THE UNIVERSE! I wonder why she didn't, y'know, do ANYTHING the rest of the season? Oh, that's because her spell is MAGIC MONKEY! YAAAYY!"
With that cheating, Joss did manage to scrape together a win, or at least a stalemate. It wasn't a loss. And there were a couple brilliant moves in that endgame -- some wonderful visuals, and, in general, the characters started acting like themselves.
Of course, this means that Giles was actually simply that poorly written all season, because, all of a sudden and for the first time this season, Giles acted like Giles -- willing to take risks, understanding that Buffy typically faces things that the Watcher Council just didn't know existed, willing to give advice, but fundamentally supporting Buffy. First time all season he didn't try to cut her down in a petty, petulant whiny, anti-Gilesish manner. I figured that, all season, we were really looking at "subtly corrosive Evil Giles, cleverly sabotaging Buffy's leadership, in order to Destroy The Scoobies."
Nope, we were just watching "Incredibly Poorly Written Giles."
First time all season that people acted like geeks and it was okay and not something to be ridiculed. Trogodor The Burninator!!
First time that people actually acted as if they were smart. I mean, mostly. I still can't figure out why they needed to put all the Potentials actually IN THE HELLMOUTH before the spell went off. Why didn't they just do that spell the night before?
For what it was, the episode was good. But the rest of the season had painted that episode into a very disadvantageous position to begin with. I mean, the way they ended it -- the place they went to for an ending -- was good. But the rest of the season did not position the storyline in a place to reach that ending gracefully.
Consider the season as a chess game. The opening moves were strong. The midgame is where you try to develop position, and get yourself set up and positioned for the endgame. Then, in the endgame, you go out to actually win.
Ususally, the endgame is the last two or three episodes. In this case, they were doing midgame dicking around until the actual last hour. And they only bothered to move a knight and two pawns into position for the endgame, leaving the bishop, queen, and the rest of the board pretty much wherever they happened to be.
Then they handed this board, which was basically a mess, over to Joss for the final episode, and said, "Okay, pull a win out of this one."
So, he had to use the "Look, A Monkey" defense, twice. That's when you yell, "Look! A Monkey!" at your oponent, point over their shoulder, and when their back is turned, you move a couple pieces. Willow's spell was a monkey, so was the amulet. Completely random, they didn't do anything that meant that they deserved those monkeys, they were just given them. "Ooo SpookyWillow Is SO POWERFUL that she can just CHANGE THE UNIVERSE! I wonder why she didn't, y'know, do ANYTHING the rest of the season? Oh, that's because her spell is MAGIC MONKEY! YAAAYY!"
With that cheating, Joss did manage to scrape together a win, or at least a stalemate. It wasn't a loss. And there were a couple brilliant moves in that endgame -- some wonderful visuals, and, in general, the characters started acting like themselves.
Of course, this means that Giles was actually simply that poorly written all season, because, all of a sudden and for the first time this season, Giles acted like Giles -- willing to take risks, understanding that Buffy typically faces things that the Watcher Council just didn't know existed, willing to give advice, but fundamentally supporting Buffy. First time all season he didn't try to cut her down in a petty, petulant whiny, anti-Gilesish manner. I figured that, all season, we were really looking at "subtly corrosive Evil Giles, cleverly sabotaging Buffy's leadership, in order to Destroy The Scoobies."
Nope, we were just watching "Incredibly Poorly Written Giles."
First time all season that people acted like geeks and it was okay and not something to be ridiculed. Trogodor The Burninator!!
First time that people actually acted as if they were smart. I mean, mostly. I still can't figure out why they needed to put all the Potentials actually IN THE HELLMOUTH before the spell went off. Why didn't they just do that spell the night before?
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Much agreement but...
Date: 2003-05-21 06:48 am (UTC)I think Anya and Xander were poorly used all season, occasionally given a couple of scraps of nifty writing to work with but mostly lame.
Willow's spell wasn't a monkey (which in my nomenclature would be "Halley's Comet") but her sudden belief in her own abilities to do magic and not go all veiny because Buffy and Kennedy tell her so... that's the monkey/comet.
I think the problem with this season is that Buffy tried to be a conspiracy show a la '24'. Watching the Biography episode about Buffy, Joss had it right: Buffy was never about the Monster of the Week (or the season), it was about the characters.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-22 09:07 am (UTC)I liked the most was the characters were back to
acting and talking like their old selves. There
was
the witty banter, the inteligent planning and they
simply got the job done with a minum of whining and
bemoning how bad things are.