By popular demand
Feb. 15th, 2003 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperWell, okay, because ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
princessheacock asked me for further Buffy commentary and because I haven't actually posted any in a while. I have still been keeping up with my shows the last few weeks, I just haven't had the opportunity to write about them. Here's a nice long post to amend that problem.
There were, for me, several things to like a lot in the last Buffy episode, though in some ways I'm kind of agreeing with those who say that there's too damned much speechmaking in recent episodes. Blah blah blah we're up against the ultimate original evil blah blah blah we're all going to die if we don't stay focused blah blah blah. This time around it was Giles' turn to make the speech, but it doesn't change the fact that it was Yet Another Speech being made. Enough speeching already, and make with the plot advancement!
One other thing about Giles' behavior in this last episode that vaguely bugged me was his interaction with the Chinese girl who's joined the ranks of the Potentials. Now, on the one hand, I think it's cool that there is a language barrier and I like that there is this international flavor to the ranks of the Potentials. But seeing Giles being pretty inept at actually interpreting what the girl was saying to him was cute once. Multiple times, it started to get annoying, and it makes me wonder how the hell he managed to convince her to accompany him to the States to begin with. Especially with the circumstances at hand. Plus, he was shown always talking to her in English; I think maybe I'd have been less annoyed by the attempt at portraying a language barrier if he'd at least once tried to speak Cantonese to her.
Now, that said... it's about freggin' time that we actually got to see what happened to Giles when the Bringer attacked him, and I did like his "instinct" speech that he was improvising for the girls to explain how he knew the Bringer was there. I liked that he was making it up out of whole cloth, that he in fact admitted such to Buffy in private later, and that they didn't have him do something totally asinine like trip over his own feet just after claiming to have developed this alleged "instinct". Giles does have a few clues; he doesn't need to be a figure of ridicule. And having Spike tackle him was just as effective an interruption to his speeching. ;)
Speaking of Spike (and backtracking a bit into the previous episode), I did rather dig the whole subplot involving his chip deteriorating, even if it did happen awfully quickly. But then again, having something implanted in your BRAIN deteriorating at all is bound to have some bad effects really quickly, so. I liked seeing some evidence that the Initiative is still out there... and that Riley was also still out there and willing to go along with whatever Buffy asked. Though I was rather stunned that all of the equipment was still down there in the complex beneath the city!
I liked, just as a random note, the scene where everyone else was busy discussing the Willow-turning-into-Warren situation, while Spike staggered into the front of the frame and keeled over. That was rather artfully done, even aside from the "eek! Spike!" factor.
And in general the whole chip subplot was a good way to advance Buffy's stance on him... and to make the moral call as to whether to let his chip be removed. Good way to set Spike up for really taking a stand as the season advances -- as Buffy claimed to Giles in the last episode, it should be his soul now that dictates his behavior, not the chip. It was also a good way to set up the rest of the gang cluing it that she is still harboring tender feelings for him.
And while we're on the topic of tender feelings... I like Kennedy, and I like that she's not only non-magical, but that she also generally thinks the whole magic thing is faerie tale crap but that she acknowledges that it's important to Willow and therefore it's cool with her. It makes her a very good contrast to Tara, and that's needed for Willow right now.
I am not sure whether I think Kennedy and Willow as an item are moving too fast, though, especially since Willow was very specifically guilt-tripping about (at least figuratively) "killing" Tara by letting herself be attracted to someone else. And now Willow and Kennedy are all hand-holdy, gushy-eyed chicks in love at one another; on the one hand I'm charmed and on the other hand I'm wondering if I saw enough of Willow working through her grief and guilt for her to be at this stage with a new love interest now.
I liked the fact that Andrew did not fall back into the influence of the First. He's been making a lot of noise about how he's all about the redemption now, so it was good to actually see the guy making himself useful to the Gang. And who knows? Maybe Andrew'll keep growing a spine.
Amy... I kind of liked seeing her back, though I would have liked to see the Wicca group at the college specifically turn her aside when it was revealed that she was apparently completely bullshitting them and had thrown a hex onto Willow out of sheer spite. I was, however, very relieved that Willow turning into Warren turned out not to be a product of her own magic going wonky. We've done that plot already this season and I prefer to see a Willow in command of her power even if she isn't quite in command of her emotions... and now, at least, we're beginning to get a Willow more in command of her emotions again, which is good. It leads to shining moments of the old gently geeky Willow, and the humor we've missed with her from her earlier seasons. This last episode, I was quite charmed by Willow's support of Buffy as Buffy tried to figure out what to do about the principal. "I'm going to wait for that sentence to come around again before I jump on." Hee.
I was also quite amused about Buffy's observation about the weirdness of going out to dinner with a principal. "A young, hot principal with earrings..." Hee hee.
And now that we're getting into the whole plotline about the principal, that was fun. We've been wondering all season what his deal was, though the "he's got his office RIGHT OVER THE HELLMOUTH, he must be Drenched in Evil" thing got a little bit too heavy-handed for my taste this past episode. I really liked, however, that he turned out to be not only freelance, but the son of a Slayer, raised by her Watcher. I totally hadn't seen that one coming... though I at least did figure out before they outright said so in the episode who his mother must have been. My brain went, "WAIT A MINUTE... he's black, he's in his thirties, OHMIGOD Spike killed his mother."
I liked in general that we got to find out that at least one Slayer has in fact lived long enough to have a child, and that, apparently, the son of an active Slayer does not inherit her power. Or at least did not in this particular case. But I do agree withmamishka that it would have been nice to see Wood finding out who Spike was drawn out a little longer.
I really did like the last moments with Buffy and Spike, though, when she told him point-blank that he couldn't leave because she wasn't ready for him to not be around yet. And that we didn't see her actually answer his probing question about how the principal fit into the picture.
So all that was fun. Though for once I have to admit that I have actually been more intrigued by what's been going on on Angel lately than I have been by what's been going on on Buffy.
The episode in which Angel was de-souled again was far and away the best thing I've seen on that show in some time. It had me and Mimi andsolarbird all going until the very end, "Naaaah this can't be happening, this is too easy..." And then "OH". The fact that we actually were buying into the whole fantasy aspect of the episode was pretty much evidence that we'd stopped trusting the show enough that we thought that what we were getting shown was plausible reality. That we were wrong was immensely pleasing and showed that Angel isn't out of surprises yet.
David Boreanaz has been in fine, FINE form as Angelus again. He is obviously having a great deal of fun with it -- and honestly, I've rather missed Angelus. ;) He's all about the Happy Shiny Fun Evil, and he's been particularly devastatingly witty this time around. And devastatingly clever as well.
More evidence that the show isn't entirely out of surprises yet has come with my having been dead certain that out of the set of characters who usually interact with Angel, Connor was the most likely suspect to have made off with his soul. I very much like that I was wrong... and that for once Connor seems to have been knocked out of whiny mode and is actually working with the others, now that L.A. is going quite literally to hell. He can't work alone, not anymore. It's good to see him actually contributing.
I'm really tired of the whole angsty-broody Gunn/Fred relationship though. I've never really liked the dynamics of the relationship between them and I really don't like them now, especially now that Gunn's getting hyper-possessive about the threat of Wesley moving in on Fred. Just for once I'd like to see Fred grow herself a spine, give Gunn what for, and clear the air between them. And I'm tired of Gunn constantly sniping at Wesley. It's reduced Gunn to having no apparent function except whining, and both Mimi and I were hoping he'd be the one who'd bite it this past episode. Since we were thwarted in that, I'm at least hoping that with L.A. in its current crisis he, like Connor, will shut the hell up and get back to the business of saving lives and being all champion-y.
But, let's get back to the show lobbing a couple more surprises at the audience: one, the Beast not actually being the thing running the show, and Cordelia being the one being manipulated, not Angel!
Cordelia being the one who took out Lilah -- HUGE surprise, there. And now that we've seen her do that, all the other things we've seen Cordelia do this season are now very intriguingly called into question. We've never seen her eyes go white when she's had a vision before... which makes one wonder exactly who, if not the Powers That Be, is sending her fake data. We still don't know why Cordy popped back out of whatever heavenly dimension she went to at the end of last season. And to be honest... we could even possibly argue that we don't know for certain that what we have among us is truly Cordelia or a very clever deception. It would seem to be a case of "usually the real Cordy but sometimes she's being messed with" -- because Cordy certainly had a shining moment when she had the courage to offer Angelus the prize of herself if he coughed up some data that legitimately would help them save the world... and the courage to tell him to fuck off when the data he did provide proved insufficient.
Still though... we must also wonder, if Cordy was being manipulated when she got the "vision" about how to re-ensoul Angel, why did Lorne seem to sense Angel when he read him? Sufficiently large power confusing his psychic abilities?
And while we're on the topic of what the Sufficiently Large Power might be...
The plot has done a very good job up till now of distracting the audience by the sheer amount of power that the Beast has been able to command. With as much power as it's packing, it was very easy to buy that it was the Thing in charge. Now that we're finding out it's not... it's very tempting to speculate as to whether it is under the thumb of the First, since the First is known to be active in Sunnydale. And it's rather difficult to think of something else suitably badassed that could be behind all of this. It would be nice if the First was in fact carrying out a coordinated, multi-city effort; it would make sense, too, since we've certainly seen evidence over on Buffy that the Bringers have been busy all over the world, wiping out potential Slayers. And even destroying the Watchers' Council.
We know one other thing which may also be evidence that the First is behind what's going on in L.A.:
Faith is coming.
FAITH IS COMING! I cannot remember looking forward to an episode of Angel this much in some time. ;D The question of what the heck is up with Faith has been on my mind ever since the whole "take out all the potential Slayers" thing started up this season on Buffy. Faith has been tucked away in jail all this time... but apparently that's about to change. Has the First launched this assault on L.A. because that order of magnitude of destruction has been needed to get Faith out into the open so she can be taken out?
I look forward to finding out.
princessheacock asked me for further Buffy commentary and because I haven't actually posted any in a while. I have still been keeping up with my shows the last few weeks, I just haven't had the opportunity to write about them. Here's a nice long post to amend that problem. There were, for me, several things to like a lot in the last Buffy episode, though in some ways I'm kind of agreeing with those who say that there's too damned much speechmaking in recent episodes. Blah blah blah we're up against the ultimate original evil blah blah blah we're all going to die if we don't stay focused blah blah blah. This time around it was Giles' turn to make the speech, but it doesn't change the fact that it was Yet Another Speech being made. Enough speeching already, and make with the plot advancement!
One other thing about Giles' behavior in this last episode that vaguely bugged me was his interaction with the Chinese girl who's joined the ranks of the Potentials. Now, on the one hand, I think it's cool that there is a language barrier and I like that there is this international flavor to the ranks of the Potentials. But seeing Giles being pretty inept at actually interpreting what the girl was saying to him was cute once. Multiple times, it started to get annoying, and it makes me wonder how the hell he managed to convince her to accompany him to the States to begin with. Especially with the circumstances at hand. Plus, he was shown always talking to her in English; I think maybe I'd have been less annoyed by the attempt at portraying a language barrier if he'd at least once tried to speak Cantonese to her.
Now, that said... it's about freggin' time that we actually got to see what happened to Giles when the Bringer attacked him, and I did like his "instinct" speech that he was improvising for the girls to explain how he knew the Bringer was there. I liked that he was making it up out of whole cloth, that he in fact admitted such to Buffy in private later, and that they didn't have him do something totally asinine like trip over his own feet just after claiming to have developed this alleged "instinct". Giles does have a few clues; he doesn't need to be a figure of ridicule. And having Spike tackle him was just as effective an interruption to his speeching. ;)
Speaking of Spike (and backtracking a bit into the previous episode), I did rather dig the whole subplot involving his chip deteriorating, even if it did happen awfully quickly. But then again, having something implanted in your BRAIN deteriorating at all is bound to have some bad effects really quickly, so. I liked seeing some evidence that the Initiative is still out there... and that Riley was also still out there and willing to go along with whatever Buffy asked. Though I was rather stunned that all of the equipment was still down there in the complex beneath the city!
I liked, just as a random note, the scene where everyone else was busy discussing the Willow-turning-into-Warren situation, while Spike staggered into the front of the frame and keeled over. That was rather artfully done, even aside from the "eek! Spike!" factor.
And in general the whole chip subplot was a good way to advance Buffy's stance on him... and to make the moral call as to whether to let his chip be removed. Good way to set Spike up for really taking a stand as the season advances -- as Buffy claimed to Giles in the last episode, it should be his soul now that dictates his behavior, not the chip. It was also a good way to set up the rest of the gang cluing it that she is still harboring tender feelings for him.
And while we're on the topic of tender feelings... I like Kennedy, and I like that she's not only non-magical, but that she also generally thinks the whole magic thing is faerie tale crap but that she acknowledges that it's important to Willow and therefore it's cool with her. It makes her a very good contrast to Tara, and that's needed for Willow right now.
I am not sure whether I think Kennedy and Willow as an item are moving too fast, though, especially since Willow was very specifically guilt-tripping about (at least figuratively) "killing" Tara by letting herself be attracted to someone else. And now Willow and Kennedy are all hand-holdy, gushy-eyed chicks in love at one another; on the one hand I'm charmed and on the other hand I'm wondering if I saw enough of Willow working through her grief and guilt for her to be at this stage with a new love interest now.
I liked the fact that Andrew did not fall back into the influence of the First. He's been making a lot of noise about how he's all about the redemption now, so it was good to actually see the guy making himself useful to the Gang. And who knows? Maybe Andrew'll keep growing a spine.
Amy... I kind of liked seeing her back, though I would have liked to see the Wicca group at the college specifically turn her aside when it was revealed that she was apparently completely bullshitting them and had thrown a hex onto Willow out of sheer spite. I was, however, very relieved that Willow turning into Warren turned out not to be a product of her own magic going wonky. We've done that plot already this season and I prefer to see a Willow in command of her power even if she isn't quite in command of her emotions... and now, at least, we're beginning to get a Willow more in command of her emotions again, which is good. It leads to shining moments of the old gently geeky Willow, and the humor we've missed with her from her earlier seasons. This last episode, I was quite charmed by Willow's support of Buffy as Buffy tried to figure out what to do about the principal. "I'm going to wait for that sentence to come around again before I jump on." Hee.
I was also quite amused about Buffy's observation about the weirdness of going out to dinner with a principal. "A young, hot principal with earrings..." Hee hee.
And now that we're getting into the whole plotline about the principal, that was fun. We've been wondering all season what his deal was, though the "he's got his office RIGHT OVER THE HELLMOUTH, he must be Drenched in Evil" thing got a little bit too heavy-handed for my taste this past episode. I really liked, however, that he turned out to be not only freelance, but the son of a Slayer, raised by her Watcher. I totally hadn't seen that one coming... though I at least did figure out before they outright said so in the episode who his mother must have been. My brain went, "WAIT A MINUTE... he's black, he's in his thirties, OHMIGOD Spike killed his mother."
I liked in general that we got to find out that at least one Slayer has in fact lived long enough to have a child, and that, apparently, the son of an active Slayer does not inherit her power. Or at least did not in this particular case. But I do agree with
mamishka that it would have been nice to see Wood finding out who Spike was drawn out a little longer. I really did like the last moments with Buffy and Spike, though, when she told him point-blank that he couldn't leave because she wasn't ready for him to not be around yet. And that we didn't see her actually answer his probing question about how the principal fit into the picture.
So all that was fun. Though for once I have to admit that I have actually been more intrigued by what's been going on on Angel lately than I have been by what's been going on on Buffy.
The episode in which Angel was de-souled again was far and away the best thing I've seen on that show in some time. It had me and Mimi and
solarbird all going until the very end, "Naaaah this can't be happening, this is too easy..." And then "OH". The fact that we actually were buying into the whole fantasy aspect of the episode was pretty much evidence that we'd stopped trusting the show enough that we thought that what we were getting shown was plausible reality. That we were wrong was immensely pleasing and showed that Angel isn't out of surprises yet.David Boreanaz has been in fine, FINE form as Angelus again. He is obviously having a great deal of fun with it -- and honestly, I've rather missed Angelus. ;) He's all about the Happy Shiny Fun Evil, and he's been particularly devastatingly witty this time around. And devastatingly clever as well.
More evidence that the show isn't entirely out of surprises yet has come with my having been dead certain that out of the set of characters who usually interact with Angel, Connor was the most likely suspect to have made off with his soul. I very much like that I was wrong... and that for once Connor seems to have been knocked out of whiny mode and is actually working with the others, now that L.A. is going quite literally to hell. He can't work alone, not anymore. It's good to see him actually contributing.
I'm really tired of the whole angsty-broody Gunn/Fred relationship though. I've never really liked the dynamics of the relationship between them and I really don't like them now, especially now that Gunn's getting hyper-possessive about the threat of Wesley moving in on Fred. Just for once I'd like to see Fred grow herself a spine, give Gunn what for, and clear the air between them. And I'm tired of Gunn constantly sniping at Wesley. It's reduced Gunn to having no apparent function except whining, and both Mimi and I were hoping he'd be the one who'd bite it this past episode. Since we were thwarted in that, I'm at least hoping that with L.A. in its current crisis he, like Connor, will shut the hell up and get back to the business of saving lives and being all champion-y.
But, let's get back to the show lobbing a couple more surprises at the audience: one, the Beast not actually being the thing running the show, and Cordelia being the one being manipulated, not Angel!
Cordelia being the one who took out Lilah -- HUGE surprise, there. And now that we've seen her do that, all the other things we've seen Cordelia do this season are now very intriguingly called into question. We've never seen her eyes go white when she's had a vision before... which makes one wonder exactly who, if not the Powers That Be, is sending her fake data. We still don't know why Cordy popped back out of whatever heavenly dimension she went to at the end of last season. And to be honest... we could even possibly argue that we don't know for certain that what we have among us is truly Cordelia or a very clever deception. It would seem to be a case of "usually the real Cordy but sometimes she's being messed with" -- because Cordy certainly had a shining moment when she had the courage to offer Angelus the prize of herself if he coughed up some data that legitimately would help them save the world... and the courage to tell him to fuck off when the data he did provide proved insufficient.
Still though... we must also wonder, if Cordy was being manipulated when she got the "vision" about how to re-ensoul Angel, why did Lorne seem to sense Angel when he read him? Sufficiently large power confusing his psychic abilities?
And while we're on the topic of what the Sufficiently Large Power might be...
The plot has done a very good job up till now of distracting the audience by the sheer amount of power that the Beast has been able to command. With as much power as it's packing, it was very easy to buy that it was the Thing in charge. Now that we're finding out it's not... it's very tempting to speculate as to whether it is under the thumb of the First, since the First is known to be active in Sunnydale. And it's rather difficult to think of something else suitably badassed that could be behind all of this. It would be nice if the First was in fact carrying out a coordinated, multi-city effort; it would make sense, too, since we've certainly seen evidence over on Buffy that the Bringers have been busy all over the world, wiping out potential Slayers. And even destroying the Watchers' Council.
We know one other thing which may also be evidence that the First is behind what's going on in L.A.:
Faith is coming.
FAITH IS COMING! I cannot remember looking forward to an episode of Angel this much in some time. ;D The question of what the heck is up with Faith has been on my mind ever since the whole "take out all the potential Slayers" thing started up this season on Buffy. Faith has been tucked away in jail all this time... but apparently that's about to change. Has the First launched this assault on L.A. because that order of magnitude of destruction has been needed to get Faith out into the open so she can be taken out?
I look forward to finding out.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-15 07:02 pm (UTC)<3 Sean Astin.
Much drool.
Good episode. Yummy director. Happy goodness all around. :)
Re:
Date: 2003-02-16 06:32 pm (UTC)