Best music in a Buffy episode
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 13:19
VIEWED: 7977
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I had no idea that the same guy wrote both eps and then left! Do you know what his name was, if he did anything afterwards? I actually really like the music in 'The Zeppo' too - that wacky violin thats playing while Xander runs about trying to stop the dead guys.
It's very funny how all the earthshaking events are taking place around Xander's own plot, but we hardly ever see them. Also, the moment at the end where Buffy thanks Giles for doing something recklessly brave which we never really saw, but provides a moment between them that serves as a sort of reconciliation for the events of 'Helpless'.
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I used to know his name, but it's one of those things that got pushed out of my brain so I could remember Microsoft's Excel Expert syllabus. Personally, I'd prefer to know the writer's name, even if I *am* paid to remember the other stuff.
I always meant to check where he went next but I never did. Must IMDB him.
Yep, same writer both eps. Two of my favourite episodes from that season. Pretty high up on the list of my all time favourite episodes!
I don't know about anyone else, but I always thought season 3 was the perfect Buffy season - perfect story arc, perfect bad guy, perfect character progression, perfect finale, perfect in every way. It still remains my favourite season even though two of my favourite characters - Dawn and Tara - had yet to show up.
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SHUT UP! I LIKE Dawn and Tara!
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I think season 3 probably was the best season too. Not as high on angst as season 2, which is really what Joss does best, and I think we could have used at least one more Faith-centric episode around 'Lover's Walk', 'The Wish' and 'Amends'. That said, those three episodes in sequence are the best run a Joss-series has ever had. But as for stand-ot episodes, it has the most of any season IMO. 'The Wish', 'Amends', 'The Zeppo', 'Bad Girls' (the introduction of Wesley!), 'Consequences', 'Enemies', 'Earshot', 'Graduation Day' (and I guess 'The Prom' if you like that sort of thing!) are all some of the Buffyverse's best moments.
It also lacked the kind of episodes that weakened other seasons - examples that spring to mind are 'Go Fish', 'Living Conditions', 'The Real Me (probably the worst Buffy ep ever).
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You didn't like 'Real Me'? I enjoyed that episode. Lots of teasing about the fact that none of us had a clue where Dawn came from, and also plenty of excuses to make fun of the other characters. I think my favourite moments were Dawn saying how Xander saw her as a woman (while she had ice cream all over her face) Anya playing the game of life and Harmony complaining to Dawn about her minions. Hee hee!
Although the overall arc didn't quite work (which I know was down to issues keeping cast members more than anything) season 4 has most of what I consider to be the best Buffy episodes - 'Hush', 'Something Blue', 'Pangs', 'Who Are You' and 'Restless' come to mind pretty much immediatly, but there are other greats in there as well.
'The Prom' I love for the "class protector" speech. It really gave a voice to all those people in the background who had been seen but not heard, and it was a nice to see that everyone knew something was wrong with Sunnydale, even if they wouldn't talk about it.
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My responses are so quick cos I'm slumped at a library computer revising so when the notification email arrives its "Yay!".
I violently dislike 'Real Me'. Harmony just pissed me off in that ep (actually in the whole of Buffy season 5), Dawn was at her whiney best (at this point I remember thinking 'Who is this brat ruining my TV show'), the fights were crap - in short I just hated it!
Season 4 was very disjointed - its hard to forgive them for 'Wild at Heart' and ruining a great character in the shape of Oz. Whilst Seth Green was heading for bigger things, I think they could have written him out in a better way than this. Season 4 did boast the funniest Buffy ep 'Pangs', as well as one of the standout trio 'Hush'. I wasn't a big fan of Captain Cardboard - at that point I found Riley quite a one dimensional character. I actually think the season with the smoothest arc was season 5. The two main plotlines of Glory and Joyce ran well together, and I felt it brought Buffyworld into place with the real world in a way that was never matched over the course of the show.
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My responses are slow because I'm teaching! I only hop online while my students are working on exercises. Poor things, learning excel on a sunny Friday morning... before a bank holiday weekend too!
Spoilers for season 5 and beyond!
Ah, see, I always loved Dawn. I never found her whiney. Well, a little in season 6, but considering she had discovered she wasn't really human, just an object of worship that was also possibly evil and could destroy the earth then lost her Mum and her sister in quick succession, spent almost a year hiding from a hell god before being used in a bloodletting ritual to end the world before seeing said sister end her life to save her and then spent an entire summer pretending that a goofy robot was her sister until she started bonding with it right up until she found it's dismembered body and then found her *real* sister had come back from the dead but preferred being dead to being with the sister on top of all the stable people she had relied on falling to pieces around her... I don't think she was nearly whiny enough!
I always wish we'd gotten to see more of what went on inside Dawn's head. They did a great job in season five (the scene in 'Blood Ties' when she cuts herself springs to mind) but in season 6 they only ever showed that she was upset - they never really showed why. I think the best example came during 'Bargaining' when Dawn wakes up in the middle of the night and climbs into bed beside the silent, recharging Buffybot. Such a simple, wordless scene that speaks volumes as to how much Dawn was suffering and how mixed up her life was.
I also loved how she progressed in season 7, although again we didn't see her nearly enough in my book. She was *so* much more mature and grounded than *any* of the potentials, and a lot harder working to boot. Aside from the RJ thing, she was also pretty much the only one who kept it together for the whole season. Given what that kid has been through, she's a hell of a lot more normal than she should be! [/end Dawnish ramble]
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Once Dawn found out she was the key, her character got a lot better. The loss of her mother affected her a lot because she was not a person with many ties to the world at all - really just her and Buffy (the whole Summers blood thing). Then she bonded with Tara and Willow which (comic spoiler):
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we are seeing to greater degrees in the comics, with the whole refusing to talk about being giant to Buffy, only to Willow
So I would say I liked Dawn after Blood Ties (exception constantly shrieking "Buffy!" in 'The Gift'!). Season 6 was a bit Dawn-light I felt, it was very Spuffy and Willow centric. Season 7 was more fun for Dawn, going back to Sunnydale High and becoming more central early on as a result of that. And I loved the scene at the end of 'Potential' between her and Xander - that whole ep was great for Dawn.
PS. The 'magic snow music' from Amends just came on shuffle on my i-pod. Timely!
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"You're not special. You're extraordinary." *sniff* *sniff*
Dawn and Xander. My favourite character and the love of my life...
Ooh, speaking of crying... the Buffy/Angel theme still has the power the make me sniffly. You know, the song that plays in season two a lot, including the season two finale. I love listening to that tune. So haunting...
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The music from the episode "The Gift"
-River
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For me it is HUSH.
Chris Beck pulled out all the stops for that one and regressed to a classic compositional style to generate the requisite 'creepy' factor! Just Brilliant. Plus it really established the Buffy/Riley love theme which is exquisite!
www.cirqus.com
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