Tag: reviews Page 5 of 7

The Police in Denver, 6/9/07

On June 10, 2007

I’m not what you’d call a hardcore Police fan, but I have all their albums and enjoy them quite a bit. I followed Sting’s solo career for a while too, but hopped off the train around the Brand New Day album, as the music had finally passed my boredom threshold. When I heard that the band was getting back together, I was excited. Could it be that the long-gone rock & roll Sting was returning at last? I was just a shade too young to see them back in their 80s heyday, so this could be my chance to see one of the few bands I really like and haven’t yet seen in concert.

I hoped the tour would come to Denver. And it did! With the top tickets going for TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. Two hundred and twenty-five freaking dollars. Probably more like $245 after Ticketmaster finishes extracting its pound of flesh. I got depressed when I heard this. Sure, I’d love to see The Police, but I am not in a place in my life where I have $250 to drop for them. I decided that I couldn’t see them after all, but I did not feel at peace with the decision. As the show date got closer, I got more and more bummed, feeling like I was going to miss the opportunity to do something I really wanted to do through circumstances I couldn’t control.

Then, somehow, something broke the spell. I think it was partly having a fantastic time seeing Stevie Nicks at Red Rocks on May 28th, partly balancing my checkbook, partly taking some steps to lift myself from the minor funk I’d been in. Anyway, I decided I was being ridiculous. No, I’m not going to spend $250 to see The Police, but I could still go! I’d gotten so used to sitting in good seats that I’d somehow forgotten it was possible to enjoy a concert from anywhere else.

So I determined that I could buy one of the $90 or $50 tickets and be perfectly happy. First, though, I thought I’d check out eBay and see if I could get a good deal there. Happily, the band chose to play 2 shows here, which attenuated the demand enough to make it a buyer’s market for secondhand tickets. I ended up paying $75.60 for one of the $250 seats! And that’s including shipping! Huzzah!

So I went, and had a great time. There was reason to be a bit wary. Not only had Sting veered well into dullness (for me), but the last thing The Police recorded was the wretched “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86”, which took a good song and vampirically sucked all the life out of it. The possibility existed that the entire show would be slow, jazz-inflected reinterpretations of Police hits. Happily, this was not the case. It was a rock & roll band on the stage last night, and I’m so glad I got out of my own way so I could see them.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 6

By paulobrian

On June 4, 2007

In Uncategorized

And now, season six of Buffy, in which the characters I’ve come to know and love begin to morph into weird, unpleasant versions of themselves, or else disappear altogether. This unsettling trend was somewhat remedied by the end of the season, but once that end had come, enough bad things had happened that the Buffyverse appeals to me less than it did when the season began. Still, even if the season was a net loss, there were still plenty of wonderful moments to be had. In particular, there was one shining episode which joins the all-time hall of fame.

*** The usual spoilery list of details below ***

Spider-Man 3

By paulobrian

On May 5, 2007

In Uncategorized

Here’s the thing about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies: they never let me down. Yes, there are always a few pieces I would have done differently if it were up to me. (HA! Yeah, easy to say.) Yes, they pick, choose, and rearrange bits of the mythos, and they leave out some important character pieces (like Spidey being funny). However, I think it would be a huge mistake to try to be stickler-faithful to the comics, and the translations that these movies do are full of great choices.

Mainly, what they do is choose excellent actors, give the characters emotional depth, and allow them to move through arcs that aren’t just about who punches the hardest, but who can summon the most inner strength, and what it costs to do so. By focusing on emotion, they faithfully render the spirit of the best Spider-Man comics. I hoped that Spider-Man 3 would continue this trend. It didn’t let me down.

*** From here, it gets spoilery. ***

Ghost Rider

By paulobrian

On February 24, 2007

In Uncategorized

I have never been much of a fan of Nicolas Cage, nor of Ghost Rider. The former always struck me as immensely overrated — capable of only a tiny range of emotions, generally unappealing in what he could convey, and ridiculous even when he means to be serious. As for the Ghost Rider, he’s from that period in the 1970s when Marvel was cranking out superheroes who started not as character concepts but rather as attempts to cash in on the popular trends of the day. I can almost hear the pitches for these guys. “Let’s have a kung fu superhero!” (Iron Fist.) “How about a blaxploitation superhero, like Shaft but with superpowers?” (Luke Cage, Power Man, from whom Nicolas took his last name.) “Hey, maybe a superhero who’s powered by disco music! She could roller-skate around and her superpower could be creating a big light show!” (The Disco Dazzler, and no I’m not kidding.) Then there’s Ghost Rider: “We should have an occult-type superhero who rides a badass motorcycle! His alter ego could do big jumps like Evel Knievel!”

So a Ghost Rider movie with Nicolas Cage in the title role was not exactly calculated to please me, but I went ahead and bought a ticket anyway, because I’m interested in superhero movies. Also, while I don’t care for Cage, I like several of the other principals — Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott — and I’ve got nothing against Eva Mendes. Besides, sometimes the low expectation theory works out really well. However, that was not the case with Ghost Rider. People, this movie was so dumb. It was so, so, so, so dumb.

It could be fun to underline all the reasons why I felt this way, but who has that kind of time? Instead, let me just give you a few of my favorites:

The Caretaker (Elliott), who lives in a graveyard and is the Basil Exposition of the movie, tells Johnny Blaze (Cage) all about how Johnny has become the Devil’s bounty hunter, he has to hunt the Devil’s son Blackheart (Bentley), etc., and says to Johnny, “You’d better stick around here. They can’t come on hallowed ground.” Five minutes later, we see Blackheart hanging out in a BIG ASS CHURCH.
When Blaze first becomes Ghost Rider, he leaves a massive trail of destruction, and when he comes back to himself, he sees that the scene is crawling with tons of cops, rescue workers, repair crews, and reporters. One of these reporters is his love interest, Roxanne Simpson (Mendes). They proceed from the scene of destruction up to his apartment, where he explains to her that he suffered this transformation. She says that he’s making up ridiculous stories. He FAILS TO MENTION that his story is the explanation for the otherwise inexplicable damage scene outside, and that the woman Simpson just interviewed gave the exact description of his transformed self.
The CGI Ghost Rider is given to making the corniest action-hero remarks this side of a Simpsons episode. Example: grabbing an earth elemental demon and saying “Hey, dirtbag!”
Blaze reads an occult book that says something like, “The possessing demon may be controlled by harnessing the fire element within man.” So then he sets down the book, looks at his hand, and says, “I am speaking to the fire element within me. Give me control of the possessing spirit!” At which point his hand catches on fire and he lights some candles on his wall. Self-control in one easy lesson! This guy could write the shortest diet book ever.
Before the climactic scene, the Caretaker transforms into Old West Ghost Rider guy and goes on a long dramatic ride with Motorcycle Ghost Rider, only to stop short of the destination and… give him a shotgun. First of all, couldn’t you have just given him the shotgun in the graveyard? Was there any point to the long ride, besides the cool visual? Secondly, a SHOTGUN? This is a really effective weapon against Supernatural Uber-Demon Blackheart? Actually, yes, it turns out to be. Amazing how the cops riddle Ghost Rider with like 8,000 rounds that have absolutely no effect, but damned if some shotgun rounds don’t cause Blackheart a serious problem.
One more. When telling GR’s origin story, the movie can’t quite bear to have Blaze actually decide to make the Faustian bargain to save his dad. Instead, he accidentally cuts his finger on the contract frame, and when a drop of blood falls on the contract, the devil says, “Oh, that’ll do just fine.” So basically, Blaze spends the whole movie from that point forward angsting and atoning for GETTING A PAPER CUT. This is weak, gutless storytelling, and it makes Blaze ludicrous rather than tragic.

What was good? Well, one thing Ghost Rider has going for him is a cool character design, and the movie does a creditable job of bringing this design to the screen. Peter Fonda is brilliantly cast as the devil, bringing both cycle-movie cred and genuine acting ability to his scenery-chewing role. Wes Bentley also does a fine job in his role — I always thought he had the perfect look for a really creepy villain. Finally, there are a number of funny moments, some of them even intentional.

Overall, though, man what a stinker. All the pieces clicked into place when I saw that the film was both written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the guy who inflicted the Daredevil movie on us. Please, somebody stop this guy before he directs another Marvel film!

Seger taxonomy

By paulobrian

On February 22, 2007

In Uncategorized

I went to see Bob Seger in concert last week. This came as something of a surprise to a few of my friends, who don’t share my appreciation for Bob. Apparently, Seger has become uncool. I’ve been listening to his music and enjoying it for over 20 years, and it never occurred to me to question why, but after that conversation, I started thinking about it. Of course, there are lots of reasons why somebody likes a particular flavor of music, and many of them are hard to define, but for me, a big factor is always the songwriting. So I want to go to bat for Bob Seger as a songwriter.

Angel Season 2

By paulobrian

On February 9, 2007

In Uncategorized

This season of Angel is all over the road, veering from the very very dark into the very very kooky, sometimes quite abruptly. It’s also pretty inconsistent in terms of structure, starting with a long arc and ending with a short one, and stringing a few individual pearls between the two. Still, I found a lot to enjoy at both ends of the spectrum.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 5

By paulobrian

On January 19, 2007

In Uncategorized

Another season of slayage is through, and the subplots have finally come to eclipse the main plot. This year’s Big Bad was bigger and, well, worse. On the other hand, several of the smaller stories that wove through this season were riveting, and resulted in some of the best scenes and episodes ever.

1) There are, of course, lots of different themes running through any given season of Buffy, but if I had to pick one for this season, it would be family. Buffy lives in a family context this season more than she ever has, even going back to the high school years. College scenes are conspicuous by their absence, and several of them have to do with things like Buffy moving out or Buffy dropping her classes. She’s closer than ever to Joyce throughout, which of course serves to make Joyce’s death even more of a loss for her. Alongside that, the addition of Dawn, and of Buffy’s shifting feelings about her, allows the show to explore some really fruitful territory, opening up the question of what exactly constitutes family, and how we can choose to create family even without genetic connections. The episode that’s most overt about this is, unsurprisingly, Family. I’m always interested in stories about families of choice colliding with genetic families, so this episode really resonated with me. I loved seeing that the gang completely embraces, accepts, and loves Tara, even when they don’t fully understand her. That’s what family ought to do. Meanwhile, Spike finds himself on the other side of the coin — the gang rejects him without fully understanding him. They understand enough, of course, that their rejection is completely justified. It’s not until Buffy’s kiss in The Intervention that Spike is officially inducted into the Scooby gang, whose bonds to each other continue to deepen — Anya and Xander, Willow and Tara, Buffy and Giles. Her affirmation of Giles in Buffy vs. Dracula and his injury in Spiral highlighted their connection particularly well. All this closeness underscores Riley’s outsider status, especially during Joyce’s illness. When he exits the show, it’s to return to his real family: the military.

2) Dawn. Injecting Dawn seemed like a real Poochie moment, and I was really worried that the show had just jumped the shark (if I may speak in nothing but Internet TV lingo for a moment). Most irritating was the fact that she seemed to be the Buffy equivalent of Cable.

A word of explanation here for non-comic-book-geeks. My favorite comic growing up was called The New Mutants. This team, as you might guess from the name, was a sort of junior X-Men squad, adolescent mutants who were attending Xavier’s school to learn how to handle their powers. They weren’t meant to fight crime, but managed to get into plenty of scraps through wrongheadedness and bad luck. The first 54 issues were written by Chris Claremont, who basically created the modern X-Men that Marvel has been milking for the last 20-some years. It was a great comic during his run, especially for the period when Bill Sienkiewicz was doing the art. Anyway, after Claremont left, the book took a serious nosedive, and reached its nadir with the introduction of Cable. Cable was the creation of Rob Liefeld, the artist who joined the book at issue #86. The most annoying thing about Cable (and this is a highly competitive category) was the way he was introduced. Everybody suddenly seemed to know this guy. He was a brand new character, but people like Wolverine were giving him a familiar nod and casually referencing history with him going back years and years. My reaction to this was (and is): WHAT??? I call foul when a story suddenly pretends that somebody who’s brand new to the readers has been around forever. It makes me feel like the story hasn’t been playing fair with me from the beginning, and that it’s pointless to pay attention, since major events are being concealed for no good reason.

The parallel with Dawn is clear, I hope. Once it was revealed that in fact the whole thing was a big mindfuck, I felt a little better, but I’m still not sure the show came out better for having added this character. I guess as the Scoobies get stronger, Buffy needs somebody else to protect and somebody else to make her vulnerable. Even more so once Joyce is gone. Still, Dawn seems like kind of a one-note character at this point, which is especially bad when the note is “clumsy, annoying, stupid, and vulnerable”. Then again, I thought Cordelia was a one-noter for a good long while too. I’ll give it time, I guess. Also, I feel that not enough time is spent on the fact that this is an absolutely horrific thing to do to a person’s life and mind — the lives and minds of many people, really. I would expect somebody to feel really violated and to have some emotions about that. They certainly made a point of this in Superstar, so why not in a situation where the whole season is like one big non-comedic version of Superstar? Well, I guess Dawn herself does have a major meltdown when she finds out (quite understandable), but what about everybody else whose lives and memories have been altered?

3) The Harmony subplot is very funny, and the payoff in Angel is great.

4) Riley. Parts of Shadow are very telling in the way Buffy handles Riley. She doesn’t call him for support. She gestures for him to stay seated as she gets the news from the doctor. She waves away his sensible concern about doing a spell to save Joyce. It’s as if she groups him with Dawn in her mind in the “things I have to protect and who are occasional obstacles for me” category, which is reinforced by the fact that she keeps putting them together. Now, this attitude on her part is certainly understandable, but does not a balanced relationship make. How can a partnership survive when one partner believes she has 100% of the competence and 100% of the responsibility? I was highly annoyed at Riley’s flirtation with the dark side the first time I watched this episode, but on seeing it again, I’m more sympathetic. It’s still intensely stupid, but I’m more sympathetic, especially when it comes on the heels of the conversation in Family where he can clearly see that she’s withholding information from him. This storyline brings up an interesting question: what does it mean for the Slayer to have a relationship with a “normal”? Or, in more general terms, is it even possible for a superhero to have a healthy, functional relationship with a non-superhero?

Spike makes the point in Fool For Love that Buffy has only lasted as long as she has because of her ties to the world: “your mum, your brat kid sister, the Scoobies.” Riley is noticeably missing from that list (or at the very least, he’s lumped into the Scoobies, which is telling in itself.) Of course, the source is completely biased, but I think Spike is correct that Riley isn’t really one of Buffy’s ties to the world, at least not in a capacity separate from the rest of her friends. He’s not family, and he’s not really a friend. He’s supposed to be her partner, but how could he be such a thing? How could any non-supernatural entity really be Buffy’s equal?

Riley asks himself this very question in Out Of My Mind, and Buffy strenuously objects. In a way, they’re both wrong. Riley is certainly being irrational in wanting to hold onto his superhuman power even as it’s about to kill him. Even if he wasn’t in danger from it, getting into a competition with Buffy is a terrible idea — whether he wins or loses, he loses. However, Buffy is wrong too. “Do you think that I spent the last year with you because you had super powers?” she asks, and the answer is: that’s not the point. As Riley becomes more normal, Buffy distances herself from him. No, she doesn’t leave the relationship, but she leaves the partnership, becoming more protector than partner.

So is it possible for Super and Normal to live happily ever after? I think it might be, but two conditions need to be met. First, Normal must be very secure indeed, and leave ego out of the relationship. Competition is poison, jealousy is poison, and neediness is poison. An entirely separate line of work is probably a good idea. This, clearly, is not Riley. He’s young, insecure, and accustomed to being in charge. Also, demon-fighting is all he knows and apparently all he wants to do. It’s not like we see him pursuing his graduate degree in psychiatry or anything. How could he possibly tolerate being Buffy’s “save the world sidekick”? The second condition is that both partners, but especially Super, must clearly understand and acknowledge the different but equally important roles that both people play within and outside the relationship. Even though there will always be a huge discrepancy in physical power, the two can meet as equals if Normal has value in the world and isn’t treated as a liability or a nuisance by Super. Super has to allow Normal the space to be important, to be competent, and to be supportive. This, clearly, is not Buffy. As Xander quite rightly points out, she treats Riley as a convenience, and when she needs support, he is an afterthought.

Ah, I see we’re about out of time. Five cents, please.

5) I really appreciate that Tara is kind of odd-looking. Sometimes this show seems a little too full of beautiful people.

6) The Body. My god, what a masterpiece. Everything about it was unbelievably good, including its placement in the season. I had a bad premonition when Buffy told Joyce the truth about Dawn in Listening To Fear, but was lulled when she seemed to pull through okay, which made The Body all the more devastating. Not to mention that the character had been in place from the beginning — the beauty of continuity at work again. Watching the episode, I felt like I had lost someone I knew, and that people I loved were grieving. The entire episode was just brilliant. I suppose I’d have to go back and watch When She Was Bad and Hush again to be sure, but I think this is the best episode of Buffy I’ve ever seen. (It seems that all my favorite episodes are written and directed by Whedon. Fancy that.) I agree with kansasjenny that Anya’s confusion is piercing, but I think the part that got to me most was Willow’s panic about what to wear. It just perfectly captured that helpless feeling when a friend is going through a major trauma. No wait, it’s the horribly cruel but utterly perfect fantasy sequence with the paramedics. Or maybe Buffy’s exchange with the 911 dispatcher: “The body is cold?” “No, my mom!” But what about Tara saying, “It’s always sudden.”? Or the fact that Joyce is killed by nothing supernatural, and nothing Buffy can fight? I can’t choose what moved me the most.

7) Glory. I dunno, I was just pretty underwhelmed by her. The “wicked nasty in an unassuming guise” bit was done earlier and better with the Mayor, and in fact much of the Big Bad arc this season seemed a lot like a retread of season three, with the volume turned up. Season three had a wonderful sense of building menace as the Ascension neared, and I think the same thing was supposed to be happening here, but there was a Keystone Kops quality to the way Glory seemed so totally unable to identify the Key, only stumbling upon it through pure blind luck rather than deductive prowess in the end. In addition, the whole process seems rather fragile — dependent on a particular time, a particular ritual, etc. Maybe that’s not so different from season three, but I spent that season feeling certain that the Mayor would succeed, and this season I spent incredulous that Glory could even come close to succeeding. For all her godly power, she seems to spend the vast majority of the season screwing up and relying on comically bumbling minions. Where the Mayor was efficient, cunning, and crazy, Glory seems to be just crazy. Consequently, her plot thread repeatedly felt like a mere distraction from the other stories unfolding.

On the plus side, I did enjoy the running gag of all the various appellations Glory’s minions gave her. I also appreciated seeing Buffy so totally outmatched physically, forced into a situation where she couldn’t just beat up the enemy. (Though in a way I suppose that’s what she ended up doing after all.) I thought The Gift had a very interactive fiction-ish quality — inventory items and NPCs were cunningly leveraged to solve a variety of endgame puzzles, and Buffy’s final action would work perfectly as the climactic move of an adventure game.

Okay, let’s talk about that ending for a minute. Once again, I find I lack the expected emotion due to the fact that I’m watching these on DVD. Similar to when Angel kicked it in season two, I just can’t get too invested in the idea of Buffy’s death, knowing that there are two more seasons of the show left to go. Also, I just didn’t think the story made a compelling case for her to do this. Dawn offers to sacrifice herself, but why does Buffy’s offer outrank Dawn’s? They’re both innocents, and Buffy is crucially important to the world, as we saw way back in The Wish from season three. I was totally unmoved by Buffy’s final speech, and felt annoyed that she’d been killed off for such flimsy reasoning. Not too annoyed, though, since I know she comes back.

All that being said, I’m sure if I had actually seen this show air as the season finale, I would have been FREAKING OUT.

8) I thought that Giles getting skewered by the spear in Spiral was eerily reminiscent of Wash’s death in Serenity. I suppose I’m in the minority in having seen Serenity before I watched season five of Buffy. Was anybody else reminded of this moment while watching the movie?

9) The Weight Of The World — I’m a sucker for stories that literalize the mental landscape (going back to New Mutants 26-28, and probably before), especially when there’s a telepathic healer involved, so I loved that entire section of this episode. In general, I really dug the way Willow took charge of everything once Buffy and Giles were incapacitated. I also thought the set for Buffy’s mindscape was really well done — familiar and strange at once.

Favorite moments:

Family: Tara’s father — “We are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?” Buffy: “We’re family.” God, what a great moment.
Family: Willow and Tara dancing, floating six inches off the floor. A beautiful image.
Fool For Love: I quite enjoyed the “Billy Idol vs. Foxy Brown” Spike-Slayer subway car fight. Also, pre-vamp Spike. Hee hee.
Fool For Love: Spike/Dru’s awkward moment with the antler demon. “Okay, you guys obviously have a thing going on here…”
Listening To Fear: Willow — “Oh, I feel just like Santa Claus, except thinner and younger and female and, well, Jewish.”
Listening to Fear: Buffy finally allowing herself to cry, doing dishes with fiesta music on the radio. The fact that this scene also fits into the plot, preventing her from hearing the Queller fight, is an excellent bonus.
Listening to Fear: Buffy revealing the truth about Dawn to Joyce
Into The Woods: Best. Xander scene. Ever. In general, I really loved the dialogue in this episode, even more than usual.
Checkpoint: Buffy’s no-look sword throw, and “I’m fairly certain I said no interruptions.” Also the Scoobies’ enthusiasm after that moment. The Scoobies, especially Xander, are our stand-ins in the Buffyverse, and I love the way this moment made that explicit. Plus, as Xander says, it was excellent.
Blood Ties: Dawn’s “Is this blood?” scene was stunning.
Crush: Harmony’s Buffy imitation
Crush: Buffy — “Spike, the only chance you had with me was when I was unconscious.”
I Was Made To Love You: Tara tryin’ a little spicy talk
I Was Made To Love You: The zoom on Warren before he announces that April is a robot
I Was Made To Love You: The swingset scene was poignant, and the way April’s lifeless body foreshadows that of Joyce is chilling.
Forever: Overall I wasn’t too crazy about this episode (though really, The Body is a tough act to follow), but I loved loved loved Angel showing up after Joyce’s funeral, being there for Buffy. I especially loved the tight shot on Buffy’s hand, suddenly grasping his. I think the scene between them, sitting at the graveside, is the most loving interaction I’ve ever seen them have.
Intervention: The look exchanged between Buffy and Spike as he realizes she’s not a robot. It’s both a great fakeout and a real moment of growth between the characters.
The Gift: Not really a moment, but I enjoyed the way this episode brought in strands from a bunch of other parts of the season — the Dagon Sphere, the Buffybot, the troll’s hammer, etc.
The Gift: Giles suffocating Ben, his speech beforehand, and the way the moment calls back to his earlier “I’ve sworn to protect this sorry world” speech.

Least favorite moments:

Fool For Love: “I’d rather have a railroad SPIKE through my head…” Way to HAMMER home the point. Get it? Hammer?
Intervention: Buffy says, “You guys couldn’t tell me apart from a robot?” and I quite agree. I know everybody’s shaken up, but they’re so slow on the uptake it becomes implausible, especially in light of the joke in I Was Made To Love You, where everyone immediately understands that April is a robot.
The Gift: Suddenly saying that the troll from Triangle was a god and therefore his hammer has godly powers is kind of a lame retcon.
The Gift: Xander is not only pretty good with the wrecking ball, he apparently has x-ray vision or something. I can’t quite believe that he and Buffy worked out the timing of everything down to such a precise level that he could swing a wrecking ball through a wall at the exact right moment, so it has to be x-ray vision.

Favorite episodes:

Family
The Body

Least favorite episode:

Buffy vs. Dracula. This was just extremely silly. It felt more like a fanfic than a legit episode. I liked the callback to “Restless”, but otherwise, feh. Also, the reveal on Dawn made me groan very loudly. (Well, not really, because there was a baby asleep upstairs. But, you know — on the inside.)

Angel comments will follow just as soon as I can get them written up.

Angel Season 1

By paulobrian

On October 29, 2006

In Uncategorized

Buffy started out as a horror riff with elements of superhero drama thrown in, but it seems to me that Angel announces itself as a superhero drama with a horror theme. Since I’m a big fan of superheroics, this sits quite well with me. Also, Angel himself is much more tolerable when he’s not a supporting player in Buffy’s life. For one thing, he actually breaks a smile every so often. He’s still often annoyingly mopey (“Broody McForehead”, I’m told they call him over at Television Without Pity, and that’s about right), but Cordelia does a nice job of lightening the tone. The metaphorical underpinnings of the show don’t really hold up to those in Buffy, since “city life” is a much broader target than “high school/college”, but I still enjoyed it.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 4

By paulobrian

On October 28, 2006

In Uncategorized

It’s another season in Sunnydale, and while season 4 doesn’t quite manage to match or exceed the heights reached by season 3, it’s still a solid bunch of shows with some amazing standouts thrown in. Unfortunately, there are also a few really terrible and/or irritating moments, too, which is a first. Oh well, at least they didn’t show up for three whole seasons, and are still pretty rare in this one.

Okay, on to the numbered comments:

1) At the beginning of the season, it feels like repetition has begun to set in. Just like in Seasons 2 and 3, we have yet another premiere episode in which Buffy starts out unsure of herself for some reason, then gets beaten down, finds her power again, and emerges triumphant. Granted, this is an exhilirating way to start off a season (and was completely kickass in When She Was Bad, still one of my favorite episodes of all time), but it’s starting to feel a little shopworn. Time to come up with a new premise for the season 5 premiere, I hope. Also, the whole thing with Veruca felt too much like a rehash of Faith. “Hey, we had a lot of success with a sexbomb Slayer who lures Buffy to the dark side! How about a sexbomb werewolf who lures Oz to the dark side?” Even the Parker subplot just felt like a literalization of the Angel storyline, where Buffy sleeps with somebody and they turn into a bastard afterwards. Yes, this is a reality lots of women deal with, but it worked better when portrayed on a more symbolic level.

2) Why didn’t Buffy and Willow just room together in the first place? I wish there’d been a little explanation for this. Or did I miss it?

3) I’m so bummed that Seth Green left! As I’ve said, I totally love Oz. He was one of the best parts of seasons 2 and 3, and when his name disappeared from the opening credits I felt a real sense of loss. Granted, I didn’t start pining away and casting spells with unintentionally hilarious results, but still. I was sad. Also, the story that accomplished his departure was so generally lame that it felt hastily thrown-together, so not only was he leaving, he wasn’t even leaving for any real convincing reason.

4) Speaking of boyfriends, let’s talk about Riley. Now, I try pretty assiduously to avoid reviews and such before I watch the shows, so that I won’t be burdened by preconceived opinions, but sometimes it’s tough to avoid them. For instance, The Onion called him “a pill” recently, and kansasjenny characterizes him as “a big dumb guy.” He’s certainly a big guy, and the most male-model looking of Buffy’s boyfriends, but I have to say I feel like he’s kind of underrated. Unlike Angel, he’s usually a step or two behind Buffy, and his character arc in this season was roughly parallel to Buffy’s “graduation” from the Council last season, but that doesn’t make him dumb. I felt like the Buffy/Riley relationship was a refreshing break from the unrelenting angstiness of the last two seasons with Angel. Also, it’s not like he’s just Lois Lane-style bystander — he’s quite competent in his own arena, and has the flexibility to adapt to new information, which most of his military counterparts seem to lack. Yes, he doesn’t realize it when Faith is inhabiting Buffy’s body, but he clearly knows something is awry and suppresses his instincts due to the fact that Buffy has always behaved unpredictably around him, and hasn’t always been exactly forthcoming with the truth either. Anyway, “body switching” isn’t exactly in most people’s default set of expectations, even in Sunnydale. Buffy may have recognized Giles by “his eyes” when in demon form, but I think that was one of the weaker, less believable moments of the season. I think Riley gets a bad rap, is all I’m sayin’.

5) That same Onion article claimed that “The Initiative can be a yawn”, and once again I find myself having enjoyed it a fair amount more than that. For one thing, I really appreciate it when I see signs in the Buffyverse that the world at large is able to recognize and react to all the weirdness that seems to be afoot in Sunnydale (and elsewhere), and it seems perfectly logical to me that the military would want to try weaponizing all that raw supernatural power. I liked how the scientific approach of The Inititive challenges and contrasts with the standard “arcane tomes” route to knowledge that we take for granted after three seasons of the show. I will admit that Adam’s design hasn’t aged well, particularly the 3.5″ floppy drive in his chest, but he was still an effective villain, and the overall enormity of The Initiative resonated for me. The Big Bad arc this season was overall inferior to the one from season 3, but it was still enjoyable. In addition, this season had some of the best Little Bads yet:

Hush: What a great episode. Marvel comics ran a gimmick month a few years ago called “‘Nuff Said!”, where most of the comics published that month had no speech balloons, thought balloons, or captions. Hush reminded me of that, except that instead of being mostly confusing and/or lame, it used the gimmick for maximum effect, wringing both excellent drama and hilarious jokes from the forced silence. I also loved how its themes of silence and its opposites were so tightly woven throughout the episode, and that ending is killer. This one is on a level with When She Was Bad, and is in contention for my favorite Buffy episode ever.
Superstar: The opening scene and credits are just a beautiful mindfuck, and the kind that could only be done by a story with a fair bit of continuity under its belt. Having watched all along, we are privy to a sense of wrongness that is completely absent from everyone else in the beginning of the story. This is a flavor of dramatic irony that doesn’t come along all that often, certainly not to this degree of strength. Superstar makes the most of it, and does a phenomenal job of set dressing. All the little Jonathan homages everywhere were just delightful, and Danny Strong makes the most of his moment in the sun. Also, Xander’s man-crush on Jonathan is very funny. The whole thing is hysterical throughout, but I particularly loved Anya’s shrimp fixation and Buffy’s impatience with it.
Fear, Itself: I was surely influenced by the fact that I got to watch this one with kansasjenny, but it has some very fun moments, particularly Chainsaw Giles.

6) I was terribly sad for Willow when she lost Oz, and although I cheer the show for portraying a positive gay relationship for a major character, I must admit some trepidation about her new girlfriend. Like Buffy, Willow finds herself in a mentor role to a partner who is struggling through something she herself has already overcome. In this case, it’s Tara’s shyness and general social awkwardness. However, it isn’t this that makes me wary of Tara, but rather her highly suspect behavior in Goodbye, Iowa. The fact that she sabotaged a demon-revealing spell means I have to ask: is she secretly a demon? If not, what’s her deal?

7) The crossovers with Angel were inevitable, given that the spin-off launched during this season, but they mostly felt a little forced. The exception, however, was the Faith story that begins in This Year’s Girl and Who Are You?. What I appreciated most about this was the way it handled Buffy and Angel as exes. For the first time, we see a serious rift betwen them, and it’s clear that they really have parted ways emotionally. However, I like it very much that Angel returns to try to preserve their friendship, albeit at arm’s length. Anyway, more about Angel later.

8) Finally, let me just say: I love rockstar Giles! The reveal on him singing “Behind Blue Eyes” was absolutely priceless, as was the Scoobies’ range of reactions. Also, the bit in Restless where he jumps on stage and does his usual expository number in driving rock style was not only a great riff on Giles’ perpetual role, it was just a great riff, period.

Favorite moments:

The Freshman: Vamp flunky — “Are we gonna fight, or is there just gonna be a monster sarcasm rally?”
The Freshman: Kathy’s Celine poster. In general, the Kathy shtick (and Dagney Kerr in general) is very funny.
Living Conditions: Kathy — “I’m 3000 years old! When are you going to stop treating me like I’m 900?”
The Initiative: Slo-mo girl fight between Xander and Harmony.
Fear Itself: Chainsaw Giles and the reveal on tiny demon Gachnar
Beer Bad: Willow — “This isn’t sharing! This isn’t connecting! It’s the pleasure principle. That’s right, I got your number, id boy.”
Wild At Heart: Spike — “The big bad is back, and this time it’s– ack! argh!” THUMP.
Something Blue: Giles — “Stop that right now! I can hear the smacking.”
Something Blue: Demon — “I’m sorry to hear that. Oh well, here is my talisman, if you change your mind, give us a chant.”
Hush: The reactions to Buffy’s “How do I kill them” hand gesture
This Year’s Girl: Willow’s characterization of Faith as a “cleavagy slut-bomb”
This Year’s Girl: Xander — “We’re dumb”
This Year’s Girl: Buffy, after crashing through the window: “Hi, mom.” “Hi, honey.”
Superstar: Opening credits
Where The Wild Things Are: Xander — “What’s the deal? Is every frat on this campus haunted? And if so, why do people keep coming to these parties? Cos it’s not the snacks.”
Where The Wild Things Are: Giles’ tongue-lashing of the repressive orphanage director.
New Moon Rising: The parallel between Riley’s response to Seth’s lycanthropy and Buffy’s response to Willow’s lesbianism.
Primeval: The special effects on super-Buffy

Least favorite moments:

Oz’s lame excuse for leaving in Wild At Heart, and his generally asinine behavior throughout that episode.
Impotence parody in The Initiative — it’s wildly, maddeningly out of character, and it’s in the service of a joke that isn’t even that funny.
Giles’ willingness to get drunk with Ethan in A New Man. I just didn’t believe this. I recognize it was necessary for the plot, but it needed to be set up more convincingly or done another way.
Riley’s self-surgery in Primeval. I don’t know a whole lot about anatomy, but I can’t quite believe that you could cut into yourself and sever something that was grafted to your thoracic nerve. Even if you could, I’m pretty sure you’d be in no shape to fight afterwards.

Favorite episodes: