The Buffy (Re)Watch Support Group

Rewatch: S7 Intermission/Palate Cleanser

2009-06-25T05:11:28Z

Catch up to me ANYTIME!! She called him a CHAMPION Y'ALL!! I am a hot sniffly mess! I blame you ALL.

Also Andrew/Anya need to star in a remake of The Object of My Affection!

Big Ball of Blah

2009-04-27T02:48:23Z

Okay I realize S4 has it's fans? I guess. I am shall we say it's anti-fan. I may not really enjoy S3, but I think its solid and it's boring doesn't liquefy my brain, like S4 does. Yes I am Spike fan who HATES S4. Observations so far:

* I enjoyed Living Conditions slightly more than I usually do, but it's still mostly zzzz..

* Aly is ALL affectation and tics, it is PAINFUL to watch her, but here's the weird thing, she has so little chemistry with everyone she is actually paired with on screen, BUT in S4 she has hella good chemistry with all Buffy's boys (Parker, Riley, hell even Spike), plus of course Percy. She is without a doubt the LEAST believable lesbian EVER.

* I'm trying to appreciate Riley's role as the second in a row of Mr. Wrongs ("I haven't thought about what I think about her." Okay GOMER), but he is so dull, and doofy, and they subject him to us for a season and half. CHRIST.

* Yeah I can TOTALLY see why Joss kept Xander around, instead of letting him go be with his One True Babe Cordelia in LA.

* Aside from her clothes, SMG/Buffy are adorable in early S4, but SB she's a too skinny and hitting the crimper again.

* The Veruca storyline MIGHT, might be more contrived than even the clothes fluke, but slightly less painful since I don't really give a crap about Oz. I like him, but *care* deeply? Neine.

*Spike and Giles are still the only redeeming things about the entire season. I love when he shows up at the Bronze to hang out. ASH looks crazy hot in that scene.

* I am totally gonna need to break this up with episodes like Smashed, Dead Things, and Never Leave Me.

The Drugs Don't Work

2009-04-05T04:47:50Z

Hot on the heels of queenofdenile's cry for help with S3, I must beg for support. The Clothes Fluke arc is *killing* me. It's not just that Willow/Xander make me gag, or that Xander is never the same after having betrayed Cordelia (Cordelia holds toughg until AtS S3), but it's also the period in which B/A is hitting my gag reflex too. It's too much to bear.

Weirdly I am finding the gang up in Revelations, BRUTAL to my Buffy Love and sympathy. No one hates her blindspot, when it comes to Angel, more than me, but it feels less willfully blind, and more like a naked attempt to preserve something that is hers. I want Buffy to have something that is hers and hers alone, even if it is nothing but PAIN and foolishness. I mean I hate HATE what he does to her, the way he destroys her, the way he takes and does not *give*, but in Buffy's head it is what she has carved out as *hers*, and so GOD I can't blame her for wanting it, I can be sad that she doesn't see it for what it is, but I can't want her to be castigated for it, at least not by her friends, those who are supposed to understand and support her.

I love that Cordelia's ish with it is consistently self-centered/pragmatic and less about Buffy judgment, I think, god bless her, she truly understands that Buffy loves him, she just doesn't care, hee!

Jesus I'm torn between wanting to put off the rest of S3 and blitz through it and get it over with.

buffy_support @ 2009-03-14T18:30:00

2009-03-14T23:22:41Z

Inspired by this community, I've been rewatching S2 this weekend, and hey, did everyone else notice what a dick Angel is? I guess I've noticed this before? But it struck me all fresh and new while I was watching this time:

* In "Some Assembly Required" he infers that Buffy's a "kid" by calling Xander a kid, which just re-enforces the feeling that he's a skeevy old perv. Then when she comes into the library after gravedigging with the Scoobies and finds him there with Cordelia, they have this exchange:

Angel: I thought you were taking the night off.
Buffy: I was, but something came up.
Angel: Cordelia told me the truth.

Oh, because Buffy was lying to him?? Because she doesn't have a job where sometimes things "come up" and her plans change? Whatever, Angel.

* In "School Hard" he's no help at all, leaving before he can actually impart any information about Spike.

* In "Reptile Boy", he turns weirdly condescending when Buffy starts to suggest they might go on a date, saying "I knew this was going to happen" like she's suggesting something wildly inappropriate when he's the one who follows her around the graveyard every night.

* "Lie to Me" is obviously probably the most egregious example of dickishness, what with Angel manipulating Buffy into saying "I love you" before he tells her what he did to Drusilla.

* "What's My Line" has him again not telling Buffy something important that she needs to know when he recognizes the Order of Taraka ring and tells her to go into hiding instead of just letting her know that assassins are after her.

The great thing about S2 is that looking back on all that, it's possible to think that the writers were just giving us glimpses of Angel's true personality, the one that comes to the surface after "Surprise". None of this behavior is out-of-character for him. What's frustrating is how the first half of S2 gets romanticized by so many viewers into this B/A 4-eva! wonderland, as if they're the perfect star-crossed lovers, some kind of ideal that's only destroyed by the pesky curse. When I watch them, I see this really disturbing relationship, one that Buffy will inevitably grow out of as she becomes older and wiser.

The other thing I've noticed while watching this weekend is that I just adore Cordelia. She's as tactless and funny as I remembered, but also a little sweeter than I remembered. I get sad sometimes when she has a line like "I'm gonna need therapy 'til I'm 30!", because it reminds me that she won't live to see 30. Poor Cordy.

The Pack Weirdness and Love

2009-03-04T17:45:41Z

Yes, the one who bragged she has been able to rewatch episodes all the time is still stuck in S1 and is not looking forward to moving on to I Robot, You Jane.

As a Xander fan I obviously ADORE The Pack and outside PG I think it's the strongest episode of season one. I think Joss' way with a metaphor is (suprise) overrated, but in this case it's so DEAD on the money, I can't blame people for always saying he's so good at it. As much as I love Nick, (I don't think I ever found anyone besides SMG/JM/ASH to be exceptionally good actors), but his performance here is all assy arrogant confidence, the kind of behavior in a guy you hate to admit is attractive/hot, as well as hurtful and scary.

So first the weirdness, I love this episode and I even like Angel, but I find the opening conversation in the Bronze with Willow exceptionally odd, placed as it is after NKABOTFD. Willow asking Buffy if she's gone tingly for a guy recently, and her saying no is jarring when we literally just saw her going schmoopy/tingly for Owen. Yet Willow suggests it's Angel that has her going, it feels like telling rather than showing, to quickly ramp up the emotional stakes of Angel.

Secondly, I have to say this episode is full of examples for why I hate Willow and why I love her and feel for her just as often the first three seasons. Her getting Buffy to open up about Angel, and then not really listening at all because Xander shows up, always makes me want to slap her. It also reminds me why I never get that het up about Xander and his Buffy sandwich, because Willow is constantly portrayed as being entitled to a Xander sandwich. I have the same whatever bitch response to both their manipulative crush comments. The scene in the gym though is where Allie got me, I loved that she played that as pure anger/betrayl, I only wish Joss had allowed her to walk over to him and smack him for it. It is one of my infrequent GO WILLOW moments.

Lastly my love for this episode, and really the extended narrative theme of early S1 is all about the consistent parallels drawn between B/A and *predatory relationships/lovers*. There's Teacher's Pet, The Pack, IR,YJ, all of which are sandwiched around the episode Angel. How much less ambiguous could it be that B/A just ain't right? Like, in a deeply *wrong* way. I have such affection for B/A within that context, because hell yeah that's attractive, especially when your 16, but it is NOT Forever.

Surprise/Innocence

2009-03-04T01:20:33Z

I was dreading these two episodes because if there are any two episodes that have most of the key triggers to my Buffy Angst it's these: Buffy putting her life -her birthday party!-on hold to save the world (again)? Check. Buffy getting her ass kicked? Check. Buffy being emotionally manipulated? Check. Buffy in denial about Angel's true bastardry? Check. My god, the hallway scene in Innocence alone is enough to have me curled up in a ball like Buffy was. And I can't count how many times someone would say "That's not Angel" after Angel lost his soul that I would yell at my tv "YES IT IS!" because it's embarrassing.

But I did it, I watched them both and I managed to only shed a couple tears. So I'm going to focus on the positive. Two of my favorite character moments ever are in Innocence. The first is right after Buffy runs out of the library after learning that their night together stripped Angel of his soul and Giles is wondering what in the world could have possibly caused it to happen, and Willow just goes "Shut up Giles" in this quiet yet forceful way. It was such a great moment because at that point you felt that Willow not only really *knew* Buffy but also that even if Willow wouldn't stand up for herself any other time, she would stand up for her friend. Ah, yes, back in the days when I really liked Willow and the mouth-breathing was a cute character trait instead of an acting tic.

My second favorite moment was after Buffy dreamed that Miss Calendar knew about the curse, and Buffy, looking all sleep-deprived and pissed off, storms into her classroom, grabs her by the throat and yells "whadday you know". I LOVE that scene! I never had a problem with Smidge being so tiny and the fight scenes were choreographed well enough that I believed her as a fighter. And she could pull off badass pretty well too as proven in Prophecy Girl. But that scene was the first time I ever was *scared* of her. She wasn't quippy or cutesy or supergirl. In that scene I believed, really and truly, that Buffy would cut a bitch. And the fact that it was Miss Calendar who was the object of her wrath made it 150 times more satisfying because boy did she bug.

So, in short, I made it through my first real hurdle of the rewatch in getting through these eps. I'm going to take a break now I think and pick up with Passion this weekend.

S2 continues

2009-03-02T20:04:14Z

I am kicking ass on my rewatch, but I have to say that the 4 ep block of Reptile Boy, Halloween, Lie to Me, and The Dark Age is brutally boring. I actually find Halloween amusing ("I want to stay with the man with the musket! Do you have a musket?"), and there's tons of good Xander/Cordelia, but not enough to make up for Angel and Buffy's lame attempts at dating.

This next block of four eps though - What's My Line? Pts. 1 & 2, Ted, and Bad Eggs? So much awesomeness. I'll take the Gorches over Jenny Calendar any day.

I also admit to laughing at the fact that the characters on the discs for S2 are Buffy, Willow, Xander and... Spike.

Welcome to the Harvest, Teacher's Pet, you Witch!

2009-03-01T20:49:29Z

Some random musings about my rewatch so far (and I am finishing S1 today - go me!):

OMG! I just realized that the first guy killed in WttH is Danny from CSI:NY!!

Man, were the FX cheeeeap. In The Harvest, I swear the shot of the sun going down was somebody hanging a sheet beside some shag carpeting and lowering a flashlight behind it.

I don't care how goofy Xander is, there is no way in the hellmouth that a guy who looked like him (especially in that black long-sleeved tee with the red striping in The Witch) wouldn't have girls other than Willow throwing themselves at him.

st_salieri covered this in her post as well but, SHUT UP ANGEL! GOD! I'm finding on this rewatch I have a lot less patience with his cryptic bullshit, regardless of how he looks in a wifebeater.

Not only were Buffy's skirts/dresses short, her pants were tight as hell. Smidge had the cutest shape. And I don't know if I'm just noticing this because I'm watching on HD this time, but Buffy's 2nd trip down to find Luke in The Harvest, Buffy had on blue sateen pants with that cute black blazer. Blue. Sateen. Pants.

I never really had a problem with Joyce until later seasons, but she's pissing me off this time around. She's the worst combination of clueless and authoritative, and I don't think she ever truly grew past it.

As cheesy as this season was, it was also pretty damn clever in carrying through the high school is hell metaphor and developing characterizations that lasted throughout the series. And I've laughed out loud more times than I can count.

If we have a snow day tomorrow -- fingers crossed!! -- I'm going to dive into S2.

S1: "Angel"

2009-02-28T08:13:35Z

I started my marathon today, and I'm already up to episode 7 of the first season. (In my defense, I'm getting work done at the same time. I have a metric buttload of stuff to do over the next few weeks, so I have a feeling I'll be making my way through the episodes very quickly.)

So, Season One! The season of bad special effects and cheesy synthesizer music and skirts short enough that I feel like I could be SMG's gynecologist. And, of course, there's Angel.

I want to be invested in Buffy/Angel because I love Buffy to little bitty pieces. When she hurts, I hurt. But there's no getting around the fact that in S1 Boreanaz couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. SMG is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting in their scenes together, acting-wise, and it's entirely up to her that I care about Buffy/Angel. The thought of her mooning over this constipated-looking goof...ugh. I keep having to remind myself that she's sixteen. And, of course, she'll spend all of the next season ripping my heart out.

One thing I find really nifty in the episode Angel is watching the scene between Angel and Darla, especially knowing their long and tumultuous history together from AtS. And I have to tell you, there is more smoldering tension between Angel and Darla in that one brief scene than there is in the entire first season between Angel and Buffy. I'm really glad Joss and co. brought her back to AtS, because there's some really good chemistry there.

I love Angel so much on his own show, but the thought of three seasons of him here is absolutely wearying. S2 is the highlight, of course (and I think DB did do a good job with Angelus), but then there are the doldrums of S3 where their relationship was on life support and consisted of way too much, "Should we? No, we shouldn't! I love you! But I can't be with you!" I'm already dreading it. Just as his acting chops improve, his story drags.

Oh, also? I love the confrontation between Buffy and Angel at the end of the episode. You can really feel the fire there. I especially dig Angel's "I wanted to kill you tonight." It's a neat counterpart to Spike in S7 with his "I dreamed of killing you." Poor Buffy and her vampire guys.

It's like I never left

2009-01-25T07:19:35Z

I jumped in tonight. It didn't hurt at all, the water's fine!

(I'm assuming since this is a rewatch community, we don't need to worry about lj-cutting episode-related content unless it's for length? I'll be overcautious and cut this time.)

1. Xander's eyes are very brown and pretty!
2. My memory apparently did not retain the true shortness of Buffy's skirts.
3. I think my ten-year-old niece is growing up to be Cordelia. 0.o (As long as she doesn't continue all the way to season-four-of-Angel Cordelia, I guess that's okay.)
4. The moment Buffy steps out of her mom's car in front of the school, I realized - I like that Sunnydale is so sunny! It could have been such an aesthetically dark show, but just like the content and themes, I think they did a good job balancing the dark and the bright. I guess it's good it's set in Southern California. :)
5. Oh, Boreanaz. Hee.