Episode reviews from a first time watcher
POSTED BY: fredgiblet
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 07:40
VIEWED: 16323
PAGE 5 of 10
Episode 211: Ted
I don't know how many of you are the appropriate age (or living situation) to remember, but for me, seeing my parents kissing grosses me out and they are married. I can only imagine what watching one of my parents frenching someone else would be like *shivers*.
If a potential stepparent started talking to me in the middle of school the day after we met, I'd be pretty creeped out myself. Ted struck me as a little off from the first moment he came on screen. It was interesting to watch how the only person who saw him as off was Buffy. John Ritter did a good job of playing the creep. I have to say, they did a good job of foreshadowing ("Not wired that way", "The Machine"), And I didn't really figure it out until Buffy stabbed him.
It was painful to see Buffy thinking that she killed someone, but then at least she reacts better than some people in the series do.
The story was just a little lacking with Xander explaining the whole thing in the last minute, though it was probably neccesary for the plot (after all, if they knew what he was then the twist is pointless).
A solid ep, with some great acting, hampered slightly by the story.
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Episode 212: Bad Eggs
Poor Buffy, getting in trouble with her mom because she has to protect people. Seriously I would have probably have told my parents by now, just to get them off my back (with the side benefit of having an excuse whenever I wanted to do..anything really).
The Xander\Cordelia thing still seemed contrived and unrealistic, but at least it's funny.
I'm very glad my school never made me do the whole egg thing, it's very dumb and besides...they poke things into your ears and suck out your strength. It is amazing the number of thigs that can be crammed under a high school, Hellmouths, Bezoars, geez what's next?
The scenes with Angel and Buffy were funny, I would not mind being David Boreanaz..at all.
I think that the possessed people sequences were way over dramatized, but the storyline was sound and pretty decent. All in all, a pretty good filler ep.
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Quote:
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Two suggestions.
--rest snipped for brevity--
Thanks for the advice. I watched episode 204 tonight. It was OK, but I realize that Spike is the only character I really like so far. Buffy, Xander and Willow just don't do it for me, not enough to want to watch "Monster of the Night" on a regular basis. The Firefly characters are so much more enjoyable to spend time with.
I can now see that Smallville borrows rather liberally from Buffy. Another show I've never really gotten into.
How many more weeks until season 3 of BSG?
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Quote:And my favourite exchange of the entire series.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Episode 212: Bad Eggs
WILLOW: You boiled your young?!?
GILES: It does show a certain Macchiavellian ingenuity. . .
(And later, when Xander attempts to eat his own young. The facial expression.
)-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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In the interest of brevity I will be combining all future two part episodes into one review.
Episodes 213 and 214: Surprise and Innocence
After watching the first part of this I have to reiterate, I would most definitely would not mind being David Boreanaz. The relationship is moving along quite nicely (I wonder how long that's gonna last?).
Oz and Willow are progressing nicely as well. Oz is a welcome addition and Willow is finally getting a guy.
One thing that bugs me is the gangs apparent belief in the death of Spike and Drusilla, personally I would think that they should assume alive until proven dead.
Wait, what? Jenny isn't Jenny? Did I miss something? Oh the plot twists abound.
The scene at the docks was great, the emotion was palpable. I have to ask though, why did Angel jump in the water after Buffy? Sure we haven't seen her swim (that I can remember) but she should be able to.
Another question, why do the boxes for the Judge interlock? And open in one direction? I would think that they would be designed to NOT open OR fit together, but that's just me.
Of course we now come to the end of the first part. Angel and Buffy...um...consumating shall we say, nicely done scene IMO, and then Angel doing the screaming thing. This is most certainly not good.
Part 2:
I'll be following the system that buffyguide.com (and I believe a lot of the fans) uses and calling bad Angel Angelus and good Angel Angel.
This is interesting, Angelus is back...minor plot twist. Angel is my fave character, and I have to say, Angelus kicks ass, an excellent villan on par with Spike.
As for Xander\Cordelia\Willow, it had to happen sooner or later, but IMHO it was a little overdone, I still think that the romance isn't realistic and Willows reaction seemed a little overboard.
I don't particularly like the whole Judge thing, first there's the minor thing I mentioned before, but the big thing is how they kill him. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rocket launchers and the like, but the whole thing smacked of cop-out. It was like in Return Of The King "no man can harm me" "oh really? well I'm a woman so there" "Blarg I am dead". I just expected a little more from the whole immortal demon thing. I also know that that wasn't the point of the episode, but still.
The interactions between Buffy and Angelus, and the realization that it was her that caused the change were extremely well done. The talk with Giles at the end was a little touching as well, in any other series this would be a season finale.
This was actually the episode that got me hooked. Up until this point I was still on the fence about the series, but now I own the whole thing. A great piece of TV.
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Quote:I likewise was irritated by that until I realized they can’t exactly “check for bodies” with vampires. Either Spike & Dru burned up in the church, or they didn’t. There’s really no way for the Scoobies to know for certain, but since the bloodsucking duo haven’t made their presence known for some time, I can understand them lowering their guard.
Originally posted by Fredgiblet:
One thing that bugs me is the gangs apparent belief in the death of Spike and Drusilla, personally I would think that they should assume alive until proven dead.
Quote:I actually loved the bit with the rocket launcher. It was climactic enough to satisfy me (I mean, c’mon, rocket launcher), but it also undercut convention enough to be funny as well (“What’s that do?”). In the end, I felt proud that Xander of all people had outwitted the demon and that the creature had been dispatched in such an efficient, cinematic, and entertaining way. Besides, they’ll be plenty of other smackdowns with übermonsters later.
I don't particularly like the whole Judge thing, first there's the minor thing I mentioned before, but the big thing is how they kill him. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rocket launchers and the like, but the whole thing smacked of cop-out. It was like in Return Of The King "no man can harm me" "oh really? well I'm a woman so there" "Blarg I am dead". I just expected a little more from the whole immortal demon thing.
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Quote:'Cause they are two very different beings, with very different styles and personalities.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
I'll be following the system that buffyguide.com (and I believe a lot of the fans) uses and calling bad Angel Angelus and good Angel Angel.
You'll meet "bad Angel" later. . .
-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Quote:
Originally posted by StakeTheLurk:
I actually loved the bit with the rocket launcher. It was climactic enough to satisfy me (I mean, c’mon, rocket launcher), but it also undercut convention enough to be funny as well (“What’s that do?”). In the end, I felt proud that Xander of all people had outwitted the demon and that the creature had been dispatched in such an efficient, cinematic, and entertaining way. Besides, they’ll be plenty of other smackdowns with übermonsters later.
I don't disagree on any particular point, but my point was that they built it up as invincible and then they say "Well no forged thing can hurt him so let's just blow him up" It's not the climaticness of it, or the coolness of it (both of which were great) but the play on words that pissed me off. It's like I said, they did the same thing in Return Of The King and it pissed me off then too.
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Quote:Well, both BtVS and RotK are referring to a much older tradition in fantasy literature, that of the “misleadingly-worded prophecy, curse, or protection spell.” One key element of fantasy and horror literature is always that while supernatural beings and powers exist, they are bound by their own set of rules. Thus, the tellers of folklore on which fantasy & horror is based can simultaneously invent a terrifying monster (often to explain some unknown real world problem) and the rules to control it (thus, if the real world problem affects you, it’s because you weren’t following the rules to keep you safe). To tell an entertaining tale, a useful way of creating suspense is to create a seemingly invincible curse or prophecy--so that the audience can’t imagine how the heroes will survive--and then have the heroes spot some ingenious loophole and save the day. This traces back to folklore, where people would use the supernatural rules to their advantage—the average person can hardly be expected to go toe-to-toe with a demon, but if the demon has to obey certain laws they may be able to outwit it.
Originally quoted by Fredgiblet:
I don't disagree on any particular point, but my point was that they built it up as invincible and then they say "Well no forged thing can hurt him so let's just blow him up" It's not the climaticness of it, or the coolness of it (both of which were great) but the play on words that pissed me off. It's like I said, they did the same thing in Return Of The King and it pissed me off then too.
It is this tradition that both BtVS and RotK are making an homage to, since both owe a great deal to folklore and earlier fantastic stories. RotK takes a much more traditional approach, however, in that the specificity of the Witch-king’s prophecy is used against him (“No man can kill me!” “I am no man!”). Since LOTR is trying to present itself as an epic in the ancient style, it pretty much has to use some traditional tropes this to establish its cred.
BtVS, on the other hand, is as much a deconstruction and reinterpretation of traditional horror fantasy as it is a horror fantasy story, so it takes a different approach. Had they used the standard technique of finding a loophole in the wording, the final confrontation would have been more like this: “No weapon forged can kill me.” “My wiffle bat wasn’t forged so take that!” In other words, they would have used the specificity of the prophecy (i.e., it only protects him from things that have been “forged”) against the Judge. However, Xander realized that contemporary advances in weapons technology made the entire prophecy irrelevant. It’s not so much that they’re playing with the wording of the prophecy as completely ignoring it.
“That was then, this is now.” The Scoobies were so used to battling these ancient demons with ancient weapons that it just took them a while to realize that their arsenal could expand beyond the fifteenth century. The Judge, meanwhile, is a dinosaur, a relic, totally out of place in the modern world. His time has come and gone and he doesn’t realize it—he doesn’t realize how much the world has changed (we get some that earlier on from his dialogue: “Spiffy?”). That’s what I really appreciate about the rocket launcher sequence--it’s not so much that they’re following the ancient rules by using the letter of the law against the Judge so much as breaking the rules because they cease to apply, because times have changed. I’ve always felt it’s just a very entertaining and appropriate spin on the “misleadingly-worded prophecy” trope, one that very much fits the show.That said, I can understand why you’re less than satisfied. Just bear in mind that this situation is an important tradition in fantasy fiction and having grown out of folklore, probably satisfies some psychological need among most people. So, it’s something that can’t really be avoided in fantasy literature—however, as indicated above, new and original spins can be put on it.
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Episode 215: Phases
Ah yes, romance, Willow/Oz is apparently progressing slowly (much to Willows dismay), and Xander/Cordelia is a little bumpy because Xander isn't a one girl kind of guy. Oh and Buffy/Angel is on hold because he wants her dead.
In this episode we get to see the first of two (so far) truly bad Werewolf costumes. *sigh* allowlances must be made for budgets (and usability) I suppose.
Giles is great, getting excited over a new monster showing up, "my books and I are in for a fascinating afternoon".
Kane (Cain? Caine?) is an ass, it's too bad he doesn't get killed, but the conversation where he thought Giles and Buffy were together was classic (if just a little crude). I'm surprised at Buffy's control, I would have broken a few of his bones by halfway through the episode. But the bending the gun thing was cool.
The commiseration between Cordelia and Willow was an amusing shift from the normal relationships.
The scene with Xander confronting Larry was painful to watch, just about blew a circuit laughing. The post-Larry conversations with Buffy was great too.
Does nobody notice when bodies go missing in Sunnydale? I mean when they've already been buried I can understand no one noticing, but when they are still above ground and no one comments on them going missing?
Oz being the werewolf should lead to some intriguing developments down the road, and Oz and Willow kiss (all together now, AWWWWWWWWWW).
A pretty good episode marred by a horrendous werewolf costume.
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