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Posted: |
Nov 20, 2001 - 3:05 PM
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By: |
Cooper
(Member)
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Originally posted by Ron:
Sorry, gang, but I cannot find any of the Buffy threads....there's a few recently generated threads and
then the entire history of the messageboard has been regurgitated in random order sans all original
posts and replies.
I think, perhaps, this is the work of Molloch...he's still in the computer systems and he saw us Buffy
fans and zapped the FSM Message board.
Last night's "Angel" -- an interesting show which, for a little while, I thought was wandering aimlessly
in search of a theme.
But when the theme crystallized, it was a WOWZER!
I'm gonna MISS Darla, believe me. Julie Benz' character was finally able to grow along with the
"besouled" infant she was carrying. In a way, I think the soul of the baby was actually becoming part
of her. The act of ultimate sacrifice was unexpected (by me) and the writers had convinced me no
baby would be born.
And her words to Angel -- something like "We can never make up for all the things we did" -- strikes
dead center at Angel's quest for redemption. This was a very nicely scored sequence, too. I didn't
catch the music credit, but it recalled to me the best scoring of the series.
Letting Angel go, Holtz (sp???) suprised me. I actually thought he'd turn on the demon-ally and start
killing demons. His final words were rather strange, though, and it's hard to say what might happen.
Could he MAYBE join the cast and staff of Angel Investigations????????
Looking way forward to Buffy tonight!
Ron
Back in a few (I hope) with a post on last night's Angel.
--Coop
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Posted: |
Nov 21, 2001 - 12:37 AM
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By: |
Cooper
(Member)
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Actually, Ron, page 27 was the second page I glanced at. Didn't see anything remotely recent on the 2nd, went straight for the 27th...and there it was. Just lucky I guess.
***Buffy Spoilers follow; 11/20 episode**
Tonight's Buffy... Wow. A scorcher. This episode totally messed with my expectations...about nine times.
Loved the psychology; it was almost as if Spike was using his knowledge that the Slayer may no longer be normally human to push her closer to him and further marginalize her from the others. Now that they may both be, officially, "mutants," neither one thing or the other, are they made for each other?
And, after three years, it was great to see the "De-rat Amy" campaigners get their way. Talk about a tribute to the detail obsessives!
This can't be good for Willow, and it looks like Tara has some serious heart ache in store for her. Once I saw they were going to keep her on the sidelines to pine from afar and hope her girl wiccan will learn to toe the line a little better, I thought ouch, ain't going to happen.
I wonder, though, if Tara won't in some way be instrumental in helping Willow avoid falling into the abyss of corrupting power.
Awesome.
As for the trio of geek, master-criminals, I can only wonder how they're going to avoid having Buffy's inevitable clash with them be a fight more in keeping with a super-hero serial like Batman or Superman than Buffy. But maybe having Buffy experience a conventional superhero tangle is the point of these guys.
Angel:
Ron, I liked the scoring over those two, key Darla scenes too. Rob Klar (?) has been employing that theme here and there, but it almost became an elegy in the final scene (which I never saw coming). Nice, melancholy stuff.
I like this Holtz guy, that they're adding layers to him. I liked his weird, hard to read, pause at the end, allowing Angel to flee. What does it mean? And how can that be worse than killing him on the spot? Maybe we'll find out.
I can't say I've ever seen as bizarre a scenario as a vampire pregnancy/problem birth being resolved in such a manner.
It was really something how they found a way to give Darla's death meaning and tragic weight by having her made more or less human again via the mysterious powers of the unborn vamp tot.
I guess we have at least one more week of new stuff, then I'd bet on a brief hiatus for the holidays.
--Coop
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Posted: |
Nov 27, 2001 - 5:03 PM
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By: |
debi
(Member)
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I'm baaaaaak. And thanks Ron, for reposting the musical reaction posts. You're a dear!
Sorry, guys, life intervened and I just couldn't get to the PB for a couple of weeks, and when I could, I couldn't find the thread! Good thing Ron e'd me.
Greg Bryant: PLEASE don't bother with X-Files, you'll just get frustrated. Although Chris Carter SEEMS to be going somewhere in the first 3 seasons, it becomes rapidly apparent that unlike Mike S & Joss W of Bablylon 5 and Buffy-- Carter NEVER HAD A PLAN. Instead of tying up old threads (most of which he's obviously become bored with) he invents new ones...which he then doesn't follow up on either.
Re: Buffy, the most perceptive thing I've read was actually from a late-comer who said she'd never watched the show because: "I mistakenly thought it was just a show about vampires." This show has levels upon levels and the cool thing is, whereas adult metaphors have been explored ad nauseum on fantasy shows from Twilight Zone to Star Trek (and all its spinoffs), no TV show had explored coming of age in a metaphoric way. The central figures in most if not all SF/Fantasy shows are adult. What My So Called LIfe tried to do, this show succeeds at mightily. Doesn't take itself as seriously as MSCL did, which helps. But with High School depicted as a literal hell--and a heroine who resists her slayer role (a stand-in for adulthood & all it's unwanted responsibilities)--you've got some great metaphors cooking. And Whedon just keeps piling them on, while always remaining emotionally true and chockful full of humor...sort of like life.
BTW, I love the Simpsons for pretty much the same reasons I like BtVS--intelligence, irreverent humor, in-jokes, and still... a lot of heart.
I'll come back to post about the musical later--Coop, I'm glad you got on board after a re-viewing.
And Zap--Whedon is working on that soundtrack, but sounds like he's having the same probs Chris Beck ran across in trying to get a score CD released--execs (at Fox?) don't think it'll make enough money. Hello? Freaking Farscape is releasing a score CD now. Just about every SF show has, EXCEPT for Buffy. So, what, are they all losing money? I doubt it.
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Posted: |
Nov 28, 2001 - 3:53 PM
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By: |
Cooper
(Member)
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Debi, great to have you back on the board! And I don't want to hear any more of this "...life intervened" nonsesne. I mean, we''re talking about Buffy here. Sheesh!
Your comments about The X-Files were dead on; if you're like me, it's nigh well impossible to keep from screaming when someone professes love for Chris Carter's confused, hyper-obfuscating train-wreck of a narrative while thumbing their nose at Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show which never forgets its story or themes for an instant, not even in the course of a musical episode...and yet still delivers more mystery, more cryptic, foreboding, ominous drama than the Mulder and Scully set knows it's got a jones for.
Great, great Buffy last night. Here we are at episode 10--I think--and I'm having a great time feeling out who's going to become the "Big Bad" this season...and entertaining the idea that this may be the year they forgoe that tradition and try a three ringed circus approach, what with Willow becoming an unstable, unwitting gateway for demonic forces, Spike having some creepy, new fun man-handling a physically vulnerable, "mutant" Buffy (catch that semi-head lock he put her in?), and a geek trio of aspiring supervillains.
For me, Alyson Hannigan just tore this episode a dramatic new one as Buffy again delivered some of the rawest, most impactful drama on film or television. Initially, I feared Willow would undergo an instantaneous shift to the dark side; she'd just cross George W's simplistic, dividing line between good and evil and that'd be that. But to give her self-awareness as she falters, I think, is going to make this much harder, more affecting to watch. Tragic. George Lucas ought to pay careful attention to what they're doing here, or I fear Anakin Skywalker's turn to the darkside will be a pretty cartoony affair. Which isn't to say Willow's going to slip entirely into the abyss, but I'd put money on her being on the brink for a while. I can't think of another actress more suited to be there at the moment. But then everyone on this show's great.
Late addition:
From a visceral standpoint, there was some great direction in this episode, too; Willow's tripping sequences at Wreck's carried a queasy, eroticized kick (when good people go bad, you gotta show what the allure is, no?), and the mood there almost had a heavy, Lynch-like, decadent aesthetic. Great stuff.
Finally, what did you guys make of this exchange early in the episode:
Buffy: "You're bent!"
Spike: "Yeah, made you scream, didn't it?"
Keeping in mind the context, could that have been a double entendre addressing not just Spike's manner but, uh, some physical trait of, uh, you know...his anatomy? Sounds off the wall, sure, but then with these writers you never know. I had to be hearing things, right? Yeah, I'm SURE that's what it was.
--Coop
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