Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)

[Darth Tater]

All summer I've been reading a quote by Joss Whedon saying "We're going to earn it (Buffy's ressurection)". Could it be he really meant they would "urn it"?

Ok, ok, corny (proof that I should be a Buffy writer) jokes aside, I was really dissapointed with the season premiere. I was expecting a worthy follow up to "The Gift", and quite frankly I was hoping for an episode to rival "The Body". It doesn't seem right that Joss Whedon made me care more about Joyce's death then about Buffy's!

Also, the scenes in this episode that were supposed to be the most moving were just ripoff's of scenes from the season finale. The Buffy and Dawn scene on top of Glory's tower could have been very moving, but instead it was just a boring re-hashing of their previous scene there.

I think this episode could have been saved if Buffy and/or Dawn had died when the tower collapsed. That would have created a real dilemma for the scoobies, since the death would have been from natural causes. The fact that they walked away just didn't seem right.

Sadly, too much emphasis was put on the biker demons. They should really win an award for corniest, most pointless villains ever. I kept waiting for one of the scoobies to make a wise crack about them, but no one did! Oh, and on the subject of jokes, it's pretty dissapointing when the funniest moment in a Buffy episode is Tara saying "Grr, Arg."

BTW, I'm a huge fan of BVS, and this season opener does not change that. The season premieres on this show are often dissapointing, since they seem to be treated like series premieres. The plots are simple, and the characters not very well developed. However, things that happen early on in the season always seem to become important by the end, and I'm looking forward to what will happen this year. I still consider Buffy to be the second greatest show on television, The West Wing being the best of course ;)

[galadriel]

I thought the season premiere was so-so. The scene where Giles leaves was wonderfully heartbreaking, and most of the scenes relating to bringing Buffy back were good as well. Buffy-bot added some sad scenes as well as some much needed comic relief, as did Xander and Anya.

The last scene wasn't that great, the metaphor of the bridge crashing was sort of lame--Buffy's first step of moving on from her death. The demon gang was pretty strange, but it could have been worse, I guess.

I'll give it a 6 out of 10. I'm sure the episodes will get better when the tone lightens a bit and they move on to new challenges.

[Darth Tater]

I think tonights episode will rock, just from the commercials. It looks like Spike might end up being apposed to what the scoobs did. The obvious (SPOILERS:) fact that Spike and Buffy's feelings for each other will surface this season, especially in the musical episode, will no doubt get some depth from the fact that he's finally thinking straight about this. He was all for bringing Joyce back, and boinking a robotic Buffy, but now he's really starting to mature into a character with (gasp!) a soul. One of the best moments of last weeks dissapointment was when he got upset at the Buffybot for talking about how hot he was.

[galadriel]

SPOILERS

I heard about the musical episode too, and it sounds hilarious!!!

I think Spike's obsession w/ Buffy is great, just because it's becoming an actual romantic attraction instead of just a weird vampire-y obsessive thing. i.e., he actually cares about her. Buffy, on the other hand, should not be getting into a relationship in the first place considering what's happened to her in the last months, especially not with Spike. Still, it's definitely going to be interesting....and incredibly funny.

[Darth Tater]

This weeks episode rocked!!!!!!!!!!! Buffy is back with avengeance!!!!! I can't begin to say how brilliant the acting and writing were this week! So nice to know that the season premiere was just a sickening error of some sort. It's so interesting to see these characters develop their imperfections. The scooby gang will never be able to accept that Buffy could be happier without them. They'll just never realize, the way Spike does, how wonderfull eternal peace can be. The groundwork for the Spike/Buffy relationship was layed out perfectly in the Heaven discussion at the end of the episode. Oh, and am I the only who thinks that Spike's grown a soul, maybe as a side effect of the chip or something?

[galadriel]

I loved this week's episode too! It does seem like he's got a soul. Me and one of my friends were speculating about that; she noticed that Spike started acting really strangely shortly after the ep where he almost gets the chip out. While he was obsessed w/ Buffy before that, only after his unsuccessful brain operation does he start to act like he actually cares about her. Maybe the operation messed up his head? I'm not sure about the validity of this, but I thought it was an interesting idea.

[Darth Tater]

Oh wow! The scene with Giles and Willow! I mean, wow, just wow!!!! This could trully prove to be the best season yet!!!!

You can't tell me that me and gabby are the only BVS fans here! Come one ppl, you're all geeks! (I can say it cause i am one) You must love this show! Admit it!

[Darth Tater]

Oh my, that Sales Loop was hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard since the first time I saw the opening credits of Monty Python's Holy Grail!!! This had to be the funniest episode of Buffy EVER! Oh, and those ads for the musical are getting me very excited!

[Darth Tater]

Tonight's the night! Buffy: The Musical!!!!! I am so incredibly excited about this episode, not only because it's a musical, but also because it's the first episode of the season written by Joss Whedon. There are some great writers on the Buffy staff, but none can compare to Whedon's brilliance. Last seasons "The Body" was better then all but one West Wing episode ("Take this Sabbath Day") IMO. However, we have to sit through some great, but inferior writing to get to his episodes. And then there's the fact that David Greenwalt, the worst Buffyverse writer, is basically in charge of Angel. But I'm getting off topic. Buffy the Musical! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Darth Tater]

Oh my God, that was absolutely brilliant! So much better then I could have ever hoped! Man I just don't know what to say, except "I've got a theory, I think it's bunnies!"

[ryan]

that was awful :) You can just hear the writes crying out "Where do we go from here? Where does the plot go?".. If you ask me, that shows going down, real fast.. they should've left buffy dead and ended it. Anyone else noticing something lacking in these past few episodes on the new season?

[Darth Tater]

ryan, you gotta be kidding me, this season started out so so, but that episode was brilliant! Simply brilliant! Where do we go from here was exactly what the characters are thinking because their whole world just changed.

[Darth Tater]

Well, I've watched the musical 4 times now, and it gets better at every viewing! I know almost all the songs by heart, which is cool to me, but which my family ain't too happy about ;) I think my favorite line in the whole episode is probably Giles': "She needs backup. Anya, Tara..." Cracks me up every time!

[galadriel]

I heard tell from one of my friends that the producers are considering releasing a soundtrack for the musical! I'm definitely going to buy it if they do.

[ryan]

You peopel are nuts :)

[Darth Tater]

I can't imagine having the daunting task of writing the follow up episode to "Once More, With Feeling." And an amnesia episode? These things always suck. Or at least they did till "Tabula Rasa." Compared to the musical, well, it's not fare to compare anything to the musical so I just won't. Tabula Rasa was brilliantly funny, and at the same time it broke my heart. Xander fainting, Joan the Vampire Slayer, Randy the Hero ("You never showed me affection like that dad!" or something like that), Rupie and Anya (though they seemed to pronounce it Enya, very amusing) and of course "I think I'm gay." All classic. And then it all ended. It's all over. It's all changing.

Until next week, when Amy is finally de-ratted!!!!!!!

[ryan]

any bets on what will happen next week? :) i suppose.. a flash flood through the city that leaves a bunch of leeching squid all over the place isn't out of the question

[galadriel]

i will never get over the image of giles and "randy" (spike) hugging. weird. :D

[Darth Tater]

Oh man, oh man, that was incredible! And I'm not just talking about the ending, but yeah, I am talking about the ending! The nerd trio of doom is hilarious, especially with their Boba Fett obsession, and there's the return of Amy, and the emotional stuff with Tara and Dawn, and research sucking without Giles, and Spikes booty call, and then, and then Buffy and Spike bringing the house down! Oh man that was brilliant!

[Bregalad]

That WAS brilliant, and I AM talking about the ending! Golly gee willikers but that was the hottest scene i've ever seen on tv!
Of course, the rest of the show was just fine too, but that last scene! Woooo-hoooo! ;)

[galadriel]

spoiler alert for both BTVS and Angel:



it's a good thing that they're not doing crossovers with Angel this season... with Buffy and Spike being all lusty, and Angel being the father of Darla's child.... things could get *very* complicated, if they aren't enough already! I can just see it:

Angel: You slept with Spike????
<at the same time> Buffy: You slept with Darla???
Angel: It's... Spike! At least I'm a vampire. You're the slayer!
Buffy: So? I slept with you!
<brief pause>
Angel: I was... going through difficult times.
Buffy: I was dead!!!

ok, i'll shut up now. ;)

[Darth Tater]

ROTFLMAO!!! I would give anything to see that scene!!!

OK, time for a rant.
I think everybody knows by now that the theme of this season of BVS is Growing Up (there's many other themes related to that one, like the building theme of Addiction, but Growing Up is obviously what it's all about.) Now on to my real point

At other Buffy related conversations I read on the net there's been a lot of discussion lately of Buffy's immaturity. People have cited her refusal to talk about the kisses with Spike as evidence of this. However, I have a very different theory about why she didn't want to talk about those events.

In "Going Through the Motions", the first song in the Musical, Buffy clearly states that she doesn't want to die, but rather that she wants to be alive again. She's living in a world that isn't real to her. She can't feel, because her senses are now accustomed to heaven, which has become her reality.

Right before the first kiss, Buffy sang "This isn't real, but I just wanna feel". When she kissed Spike it was a way for her to escape (though very temporarilly) the hell that is reality. Using Spike to excite herself sexually was always a short relief, but both times the end result was obviously worse. Spike was under the impression that she was showing her true feelings for him, being blinded by his lust (which btw, I think is a natural thing all vampires have for the slayer, but that's a totally different topic). So afterwards he wanted to discuss this. However, she wanted to forget it, wanted to put it behind her. She was ashamed of what she did, and probably hurt even more by reality after that temporary relief. She told herself it would never happen again and then told Spike the same.

But each time she needed more. Like the drug of magic for Willow, Buffy has become addicted to Spike (remember his lines from the preview for the next episode, something like "I'm in you now, you'll always need more", something along those lines.) And this leads me to my final point: the only way for Buffy to end the addiction is to get rid of the drug, meaning she has to kill Spike. Chew on that for a while!

[galadriel]

Very good points, Darth. I hope they don't kill off Spike, I really do like him. I'm not sure if he's actually in love with Buffy, and it's certainly unhealthy for them to have a relationship that's so much founded on lust, but he's still a really cool character.

Maybe he could go join Angel in LA. Well, that's incredibly unlikely, but it would be amusing to see the conflicts between those two.

[Darth Tater]

LOL, that'd be awesome, doubt it'd happen, considering the network change, but it would be really funny if it did.

Great episode this week. Amazingly, they pulled off the addiction thing without sounding too much like an afterschool special. Hopefully Willow will return to being the sweetest character on tv like she was in the first seasons.

One problem though: Spike seemed to be naked in every other scene, but we never got to see Buffy without at least his jacket on! Totally unfair! ;)