The Buffy Thread

I agree with Catie 100% on this one. It was a good episode, story-wise but the writing was terrible. The line "One bite stand" pretty much sums it up for me.

Jeff

 

> I didn't catch who wrote this one

David Fury & Jane Espenson got credit. So it's not like the writers were unfamiliar with the show. After reading the comments here, I started thinking about the writing. And after further review, yeah, it was a bit flatter than some episodes.

I think the reason I didn't mention anything about the writing is that I approach the show with more of a "what happens" view as opposed to "how it's conveyed"... if that makes any sense. Plus, when I posted my comments, less than an hour had passed since I watched the ep, so maybe I was still trying to sort through the whole ending.

Not a perfect episode, to be sure, but I'm glad we're getting movement on all the subplots.

> The Kitten, The Witches, and the Bad Wardrobe

... that's a great website name. The site is located here, if Google is to be believed.

-SJ

 

Unfortunately I'm a television snob, SJ. I'm very picky about almost every aspect of the show. The writing, the acting, the directing, the cinematography, etc... Most of the time the eps are great, with very few and forgiveable problems. But the writing in this one was just not very good at all. Jeff hit the nail on the head with the "One bite stand" line. I think they were just trying too hard to be punny. If you have to try that hard, that should be a clue as to it shouldn't be done.

The link to the Kitten board (as it's known to uberbuffygeeks like myself) is not directly to the home page of the board, but it is the correct board. And let me warn everyone right now, it's a Willow/Tara site. That means most of the people who post are VERY much into W/T, and 95% of them are gay. And 99% of that 95% are lesbians. So if you bouffet of that kind of thing, don't go to the site. But, if that kind of thing doesn't bother you, let me suggest the "Different Color Pens" page, which is the W/T fan fic. And let me further suggest the fic "Terra Firma" by Tulipp. I think it's now in the archives. It's the most powerful, touching, and believeable fic I've ever read. It pickes up almost where season seven has. It is incredible.

Oh, one more thing. Since the vast majority of the posters there are big W/T fans, they are very bitter (VERY angry) about Tara's death. Many of the posts (and threads, as a matter of fact) in the Kitten portion of the board are dripping with venom and disdain. It's kind of difficult for me to read through, since I don't share the hatred which most of the posters possess. But they do have some valid points occasionally.

In short, read at your own disgression.

 

Ok, so the Buffy-thon is this Saturday (November 30th at 3pm.) Catie and I are starting to get things together. So if we could get a headcount, that'd be wonderful...

So far I think definates are: LauedGilnd, Tom, Jason and Maureen (however later), and Jeff..

Please post an RSVP By Friday.

If any of you need directions... PM CATIE.

THANKS!

Cally

 

Yes I will definitely be there at 3 pm

 

I'll be there, but I may have to take off at 5 or 6. There's a birthday party I have to go to in Madison...

Jeff

 

Just a reminder that the Buffy-thon is tomorrow (Saturday, November 30th) at 3pm at my apartment. If you need directions, PM me and I'll be happy to oblige.

I'm planning on having snacks (pretzels, chips, taco dip, cookies, etc...) and depending on how late things go, ordering pizza or chinese or whatever is the consensus. I will have plenty of soda (Pepsi, Coke, Cherry Coke, A&W Root Beer, Sprite, 7-Up) as well as milk, water, coffee, orange juice, egg nog, tea, and lemonade. If you want to drink anything else, you are more than welcome to bring your own. There is a Kohl's Food Emporium across the street from my apartment, so quick trips to the store won't be an issue.

Oh, two more things about my place -- no smoking in the apartment, and for the allergic folk - I have a cat and two rats. The cat will most likely stay away after checking everybody out, and the rats are in a cage, so they won't be an issue. Unless you have problems with Bubonic Plague. Then just deal.

Looking forward to seeing Buffy, Xander, and Willow as youngens, with very dark photography and bad sound!!

 

Oooo - I forgot to review this week's episode.

It's very hard for me to do this with no spoilers. I don't know how you manage, SkyJammer. Anyway, I thought it was very good. A big improvement over last week's ep in the writing department. And talk about plot development! We finally know who our Big Bad really is. And being a huge Willow fan, I just revelled in the alley scene with her and Andrew (you know, Tucker's brother). The good cop/bad cop scenes were precious. Oh, how I love this show.

I do have tons of speculative questions, tho. I don't think I can stay spoiler free if I ask, tho. Things like, the building that was blown up did not look like the building in the establishing shot. In other words, I don't think the building that was destroyed was the building we think it was. And, what about the other (former) regular cast member we saw at the end of last week's show?!? What's up with that? I have my thoughts, but should I not share them here as to spoil things for other people? Arrrrggghhhh!!!

For the record, I am spoiler free with Buffy. The only "spoilers" I see are the promos for the next week's episode. I spoiled myself silly for "Seeing Red," and will never forgive myself for it. So, all the thoughts and opinions I have about future plot lines are pure personal speculation. I have no "Inside information." I do get more info after the episodes have aired, but not before. It's difficult at times, but it's definitely worth it.

So, overall, a 9/10 for me.

 

> Oooo - I forgot to review this week's episode.

Same here; I still have yet to post my full review online; getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday (including making pies and slicing my finger on a can lid) took up my time Wednesday. Let's see what I can remember from that sleep-deprived haze I call Tuesday night....

> It's very hard for me to do this with no spoilers. I don't know how you manage, SkyJammer.

Years of practice and getting yelled at when I forget.

I was just gibbering after this ep. My basic thoughts were "This is not good... and this is the ultimate storyline." I think my reaction would've been better if I was up on full Buffy continuity, but still it was enough for me to just sit there, mouth open wide in disbelief.

> I just revelled in the alley scene with her and Andrew (you know, Tucker's brother). The good cop/bad cop scenes were precious.

Oh, total agreement -- the alley scene was great. Great writing there, and in fact, all the scenes with Andrew were well done. You feel so sorry for this pathetic dweeb, even though he was one of the nemeseseseses last season.

> Things like, the building that was blown up did not look like the building in the establishing shot.

Oh, good -- I wasn't the only one who thought that. I thought it was just my lack of Buffy knowledge showing.

> And, what about the other (former) regular cast member we saw at the end of last week's show?!? What's up with that?

I was mad that we didn't find out that. As mentioned in some of my reviews, I don't watch the show until 10pm our time, syncing it with the West Coast feed. Now normally, I do watch the teaser, because it might take some time to get my tape and my friend's broadcast syncronized, so I might have to FF to the opening credits. This time, though, I didn't even watch the teaser since I wanted to experience the resolution of last week's ending fresh with my friend.

And we got nothing.

::Sends Evil Thoughts to Joss::

Great episode, season is in full-swing, and next episode is in... January most likely.

::Sends More Evil Thoughts to Joss::

And I'm almost spoiler free about Buffy. I know some things as far as hiring certain actors/actresses, that sort of thing, not because I search these things out (you're talking to a guy who didn't even watch any of the trailers for AOTC until after seeing the movie), but because certain people just talked about it like it was common knowledge, but to me it wasn't.

As far as episode-specific spoilers, I think an episode can be considered fair game for spoiling after 1 week, unless someone asks to keep it secret. Perhaps even 3-4 days is enough. Your thoughts?

-SJ/No, not your Evil Thoughts.... ;-)

 

Great thread so far! Hope outsiders are allowed in to discuss as well.

 

Everyone is allowed to post! Welcome. And I love your avatar!

 

Thanks for hosting the gathering Catie and Cally, it was very fun! I'm glad I finally got to see some Buffy.

 

You're very welcome, Dawn. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Or at least pretended to enjoy it.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was nice finally hosting something at my place. We'll have to do it again! There are a bunch of story arcs we can watch. Like the Buffy/Angel relationship thing, the Buffy/Faith thing, the Dawn as the Key thing, and so on, and so on. Six years in the can, we can do this for months!! I'm up for it. What do you say?

 

Sorry I couldn't make it--In addition to the 11-hour workday, I've managed to come down with the flu, or something resembling it. Not a very fun weekend here. Blah. I will be at the next one, guaranteed. I just need it to be after Xmas sometime, when my home is set up, work is a lot slower, and I don't feel like death. Hope it was fun!

Jason

 

Just wanted to throw in my thanks here, too, Catie. It was a good time. And, nice to meet you Laura. So, what else did you guys do/watch after I left?

Jeff

 

Yes, it was very nice to finally meet you, Laura. I hope we didn't scare you too much.
I try to keep them civil, but it's an uphill battle sometimes.

Sorry to hear about your work day and impending illness, Jason. You and Mo will definitely have to come next time.

Glad you could make it Jeff, even if it was only for two eps. After you left we bounced around all over the place. We even watched "Hush". Jealous? I think we watched an episode from every season but the third, because, well, you know why. Tom refused to watch the musical, otherwise I'm sure that would have been on in a second. We'll make him watch it next time. That, and "The Body". It's a heavy one, but well worth the weight. (Intentional pun. Like it?) Because of my severe anal-retentive nature, the complete list of episodes watched is as follows:
"Welcome to the Hellmouth", "The Harvest", "Hush", "Fear, Itself", "Conversations With Dead People", "Him", "Life Serial", "Pangs", and "Intervention", which was on TV on channel six. It was weird not being able to pause and rewind. But we managed. Note most of the episodes were funny ones. If I would have thought about it sooner, I would have put on "Triangle" with Olaf, the Troll God. "Ha ha - puny receptacle!" I would have loved to put on "Tabula Rasa", but if you don't have strong backgrounds for the characters and haven't seen "Once More, With Feeling", it just looses a lot of it's humor. Looking back at the list, we didn't watch any from Season Two. Oh well. We'll hit that next time.

Well, I'm sure all of you who didn't make it are just seething with envy right now. Do you seethe with envy? Do you seethe with anything at all? Or must seethe always appear in gerund form? Jason, a little help here.

Anyway, I'd love to host another, or at least attend one that someone else is hosting. Most likely after the holidays, when everyones lives settle down a bit. And a tree takes up so much darn room, I wouldn't want to take up any precious seating room.

So, all in all, I'm glad those who came came, sad those who wanted to didn't, and am looking forward to another, and I promise not to overcook the brownies.

 

10½ hours of continuous Buffy and there still wasn't enough Willow.

 

You're very welcome, Dawn. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Or at least pretended to enjoy it.

Hey now, I actually enjoyed it! No pretending here. So when is Buffy on apart from midnight on saturdays? I think I'd like to watch it.

 

Damn, you guys went nuts! I am actually kinda jealous about "Hush", too...

Yeah, we definitely have to watch the musical next time, Tom be damned!

Oh, and Dawn, Buffy season 7 is on Tuesday nights 7 PM on UPN. There are also reruns of old episodes on FX, but since I don't have cable, I don't know when those are.

Jeff

 

I don't want to be damned.

 

I do believe the word "seethe" is fully functional on it's own, but I give you kudos for remembering what a gerund is--most people have blocked out sixth-grade grammar classes and have no idea what a one is.

I can't believe you didn't watch the musical--I want to see that really badly (I only caught about 15 minutes of it once), so I guess that's on the list for the next meeting. I guess you'll have to have an all-Willow night for Tom sometime, which I wouldn't mind partaking of either (she's too cute). Glad you guys had fun!

Jason

P.S.: Special question for Catie:

How many "active" slayers can exist at the same time (i.e., Kendra & Buffy, Faith & Buffy, etc.)? Aren't they supposed to "stand alone" against the vampires? Or is it a "one-slayer-per-region" rule? What gives?

 

? I don't remember the word "gerund" coming up in any of my school lessons.

 

I'll warn everybody right now. This is going to be a long one.

So Jeff, was the party really that much better than ten hours of Buffy? I didn't think so.

I'm very glad you really liked the show, Dawn. The high caliber of writing and production values of the show is something not seen very often on network television. I mean, did you see the detail in the muscluar structures when that guy was flayed alive? Let's see the folks over at "Everybody Loves Raymond" pull that off.

As for the show schedule, it's on the FX network (35 on Time Warner Cable) Monday-Friday, 6am-8am and at 5pm-7pm. There are reruns in syndication on Saturday afternoons around 4ish and Saturday nights (Sunday mornings) at 12:35am, both on channel six (Fox affiliate). The new (well, now we're in reruns since we're done with November sweeps, but they are from the current season, which is Seven) shows air on UPN (channel 24) Tuesdays at 7pm. That is, if there isn't a STUPID BUCKS GAME preempting the show, as there is this week. I think I saw in the viewer's guide that this week's Buffy will be shown at 10pm Saturday night.

Tom, there's never enough Willow on the show for me. We'll definitely do a Willow night. We'll get to see her all broken hearted, vamped out, and recently gay! And we'll get to hear her sing three lines!! We WILL be watching the musical next time. You can go sit in the bathroom for fifty minutes.

Jason, thanks for the grammar lesson. Of course, I could have gotten off my butt and sauntered over to the dictionary, but this was much easier. And you will have to make it next time.

As for your query of the "one girl in every generation" clause in the Slayer contract:

At the end of Season One, Buffy dies, albeit briefly. (She drowns, but is brought back with a little mouth-to-mouth by Xander.) Since the Slayer was technically dead, a new Slayer was called to take her place. That would be Kendra, the Jamaican/Irish apparent cousin of Miss Cleo. So Kendra was the true current Slayer, since Buffy was supposed to be dead. When Kendra was killed, she had to be replaced. So Faith came along. Now, many people wondered that when Buffy died, again, at the end of Season Five, why wasn't a new Slayer introduced. That's because right now Faith is the true current Slayer. Until she dies, there will be no other active Slayer. There are Slayers in training, but none of them will get the gig until the reigning queen is knocked off. The fact that Buffy is still hanging in there is just a perk, really.

Does that make sense at all?

In a bizarre way, it kind of reminds me of the plot of a great Cary Grant movie, "My Favorite Wife." Which was remade in the late '60s as a Doris Day film, "Move Over Darling." If you want to understand why, go and rent one of them. I recommend the Cary Grant version, although Doris Day isn't that bad. You can thank me later.

 

Makes you almost wonder why someone doesn't technically kill each new active slayer and bring them back from the dead to create an army of slayers... Just a random thought.

 

It's so crazy it just might work!