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Watching Buffy S7
Nov. 30th, 2002 01:40 amI have several friends who visit me to watch the latest Buffy episodes. Tonight one of these friends dropped by, so we watched "Help", "Selfless" and "Him" and ate large quantities of Tortilla chips.
It was the fourth or fifth time that I watched each of these episodes. It struck me again how there were many references to earlier episodes, in the shape of flashbacks, quotes, parallels and casting: Buffy talking about killing Angel, the "kick his ass" line, D'Hoffryn's talisman, Olaf the troll (played by the same actor who played him in "Triangle", many rabbits, a flashback to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", a flashback to the musical episode, Spike talking about Dru's visions... Lots of references - and not just in these three episodes. This year, ME really caleidoscopes through the earlier seasons, no doubt about it.
For us fans this continuity-fest is great fun. But there are things that could have been handled better.
To me it feels like ME had trouble timing the various arcs and tones right. "Him" could have been so much better, if Spike had been set up in Xander's closet one or two episodes earlier. Spike could have been semi-normal in "Him" and less mute. It seems like ME forgot to move him out of the basement in time, and suddenly, on the advent of "Conversations with Dead People" they went'oops'. "Help" should have ended with Buffy telling Spike to get out of that basement (the scene with Cassie's father could have been cut and some of Cassie's 'I want to live' speech). In "Selfless" Spike should have moved in with Xander.
"Help" and "Him" are not suitable for frequent viewing. Too many redundancies make some of the scenes quite painful. I hope I never have to listen to Buffy and Dawn discussing love and boy friends ever again.
BTW, am I the only one who finds Dawn's high school trials excessively boring? And does anyone else feel utterly squicked out by the subliminal visual message of Buffy + Dawn + Xander = core family? All those scenes where Xander has the "man about the house" air - eeek! I find Xander a lot less painful than Dawn, who is pretty to look at but boring and shrill. Her voice is so grating. Oh, and the way Xander's yellow hard hat crops up all the time? So not subtle.
I enjoy Season 7 tremendously. There have been some outstanding episodes. But there are some pacing problems. Fortunately, with CwDP the pace picked up. I am now as much on the edge of my seat as everybody else. I just hope we get another episode before Christmas.
It was the fourth or fifth time that I watched each of these episodes. It struck me again how there were many references to earlier episodes, in the shape of flashbacks, quotes, parallels and casting: Buffy talking about killing Angel, the "kick his ass" line, D'Hoffryn's talisman, Olaf the troll (played by the same actor who played him in "Triangle", many rabbits, a flashback to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", a flashback to the musical episode, Spike talking about Dru's visions... Lots of references - and not just in these three episodes. This year, ME really caleidoscopes through the earlier seasons, no doubt about it.
For us fans this continuity-fest is great fun. But there are things that could have been handled better.
To me it feels like ME had trouble timing the various arcs and tones right. "Him" could have been so much better, if Spike had been set up in Xander's closet one or two episodes earlier. Spike could have been semi-normal in "Him" and less mute. It seems like ME forgot to move him out of the basement in time, and suddenly, on the advent of "Conversations with Dead People" they went'oops'. "Help" should have ended with Buffy telling Spike to get out of that basement (the scene with Cassie's father could have been cut and some of Cassie's 'I want to live' speech). In "Selfless" Spike should have moved in with Xander.
"Help" and "Him" are not suitable for frequent viewing. Too many redundancies make some of the scenes quite painful. I hope I never have to listen to Buffy and Dawn discussing love and boy friends ever again.
BTW, am I the only one who finds Dawn's high school trials excessively boring? And does anyone else feel utterly squicked out by the subliminal visual message of Buffy + Dawn + Xander = core family? All those scenes where Xander has the "man about the house" air - eeek! I find Xander a lot less painful than Dawn, who is pretty to look at but boring and shrill. Her voice is so grating. Oh, and the way Xander's yellow hard hat crops up all the time? So not subtle.
I enjoy Season 7 tremendously. There have been some outstanding episodes. But there are some pacing problems. Fortunately, with CwDP the pace picked up. I am now as much on the edge of my seat as everybody else. I just hope we get another episode before Christmas.
