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The Perfect Buffy Marathon List? & Happy Books...the light breezy reads that require little thought
I just flipped on The Buffy Marathon on Syfy...and the speech I landed on was..."and then there's people, millions of people, like happy meals on legs.." hence the above title reference. The series looks sort of low-budget in 2013, with the square screen and the lack of digital filming. But the writing is whip-smart. Just the right edge of wit married to pathos. Just in case, you may decide to take it too seriously, the writers always throw in a joke or two to ensure you don't.
Although the marathon choices are rather interesting - almost as if someone voted on which were the best episodes of the entire series, or the most plot-worthy, and only chose those for the marathon.
If you are curious here they are:
1)Welcome To The Hellmouth
2)The Harvest
3)Angel
4)Becoming - Part 1
5)Becoming - Part 2
6)Faith, Hope And Trick
7)Lovers Walk
8)The Wish
9)Bad Girls
10)Doppelgangland
11)Graduation Day - Part 1
12) Graduation Day - Part 2
13)Hush
14)Buffy Vs. Dracula
15)Fool For Love
16)Crush
17)The Body
18)Once More, With Feeling
19)Normal Again
20) Chosen
Clearly whomever did this list was not a fan of S7, S6, S4, or S2 for that matter. Yet quite adored S3 (actually S3 was obviously their favorite) and S5, with S1 coming in 3rd. No love for S7 though. Then again it is admittedly plot/mythology specific.
This is not the list I'd have chosen for a 20 episode marathon. Then again I'm struggling to figure out what list I would do. A Non-Plot oriented one for people who know the series and don't care, or plot-oriented? This is actually a lot harder than I thought. Buffy has arguably about 15-20 excellent episodes, but it's such a serial that you sort of have to put the not so great one's in there to figure out what is going on.
1. Welcome to the Hellmouth
2. Harvest
3. Angel
4. Lie to Me
5. Surpise
6. Innocence
7. Passion
8.Becoming Part I
9. Becoming Part II
10. Lover's Walk
11. The Wish
12. Dopplegangeland
13. Graduation Day I
14. Graduation Day II
15. HUSH
16. RESTLESS
17. Fool For Love
18. The Body
19. Once More With Feeling
20. Chosen
See? Hard.
Or Take II
1. Angel
2. School Hard
3. Lie to Me
4. Becoming I
5. Becoming Part II
6. Lover's Walk
7. The Wish
8. Dopplegangland
9. Graduation Day I
10. Graduation Day II
11. HUSH
12. This Year's Girl
13. Who Are You
14. Restless
15. Fool for Love
16. The Body
17. Once More with Feeling
18. Beneath You
19. Conversations with Dead People
20. Chosen
or Take III - the 15-20 arguably excellent/memorable episodes:
1. Lie to Me
2. Innocence
3. Passion
4. Becoming I
5. Becoming II
6. Lover's Walk
7. Dopplegangland
8. Hush
9. This Year's Girl
10. Who Are You
11. Restless
12. Fool for Love
13. Crush
14. The Body
15. Once More with Feeling
16. Dead Things
17. Normal Again
18. Beneath Me
19. Conversations with Dead People
20. Lies My Parents Told Me
I don't know. Glad I don't have to do that for a living.
Anyhow...back when I was watching Buffy in the late 1990s, during my gig at the evil library reference company...I had the following conversation with a work colleague/friend on the way home from work. We often rode the subway home together, having long chats about a variety of topics. Not Buffy - she considered it beneath her. Cultural dissonance exists in all climes.
Me: I can't seem to read anything. I get a few pages in and my attention wanders. What is wrong with me?
CW: Your working hard, brain is filled with info, can't fit more in. Plus stress. What you need is...a HAPPY BOOK.
Me: Didn't realize book's had emotions.
CW: No, I mean something light, stress reducing, fluffy, you don't have to remember, keep track of characters, can just enjoy. A light breezy read. (PAUSE) Have you ever read PD Wodehouse?
Now coming up with a list of light breezy books that aren't violent and are well-written isn't easy. Also by different authors. So far...I've come up with the following, but I've read them all:
* PD Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster
* William Goldman's Princess Bride (although not sure it qualifies)
* Harry Potter (again not sure it qualifies and a children's book)
Not sure of anything else. Jane Austen is almost too deep as is Louisa May Alcott. Terry Prachett is too punny and requires attention to foot-notes. Mark Twain requires too much concentration - he's a precise writer.
And I'm not talking about "airplane books" - ie the thriller or mystery of the week series or Gerogette Heyer. I mean fluffy books, that are witty. Are there any? I know there are for kids and young adults, which may explain the sudden influx of adult readers of young adult novels. But I burned out that genre a while ago.
Although the marathon choices are rather interesting - almost as if someone voted on which were the best episodes of the entire series, or the most plot-worthy, and only chose those for the marathon.
If you are curious here they are:
1)Welcome To The Hellmouth
2)The Harvest
3)Angel
4)Becoming - Part 1
5)Becoming - Part 2
6)Faith, Hope And Trick
7)Lovers Walk
8)The Wish
9)Bad Girls
10)Doppelgangland
11)Graduation Day - Part 1
12) Graduation Day - Part 2
13)Hush
14)Buffy Vs. Dracula
15)Fool For Love
16)Crush
17)The Body
18)Once More, With Feeling
19)Normal Again
20) Chosen
Clearly whomever did this list was not a fan of S7, S6, S4, or S2 for that matter. Yet quite adored S3 (actually S3 was obviously their favorite) and S5, with S1 coming in 3rd. No love for S7 though. Then again it is admittedly plot/mythology specific.
This is not the list I'd have chosen for a 20 episode marathon. Then again I'm struggling to figure out what list I would do. A Non-Plot oriented one for people who know the series and don't care, or plot-oriented? This is actually a lot harder than I thought. Buffy has arguably about 15-20 excellent episodes, but it's such a serial that you sort of have to put the not so great one's in there to figure out what is going on.
1. Welcome to the Hellmouth
2. Harvest
3. Angel
4. Lie to Me
5. Surpise
6. Innocence
7. Passion
8.Becoming Part I
9. Becoming Part II
10. Lover's Walk
11. The Wish
12. Dopplegangeland
13. Graduation Day I
14. Graduation Day II
15. HUSH
16. RESTLESS
17. Fool For Love
18. The Body
19. Once More With Feeling
20. Chosen
See? Hard.
Or Take II
1. Angel
2. School Hard
3. Lie to Me
4. Becoming I
5. Becoming Part II
6. Lover's Walk
7. The Wish
8. Dopplegangland
9. Graduation Day I
10. Graduation Day II
11. HUSH
12. This Year's Girl
13. Who Are You
14. Restless
15. Fool for Love
16. The Body
17. Once More with Feeling
18. Beneath You
19. Conversations with Dead People
20. Chosen
or Take III - the 15-20 arguably excellent/memorable episodes:
1. Lie to Me
2. Innocence
3. Passion
4. Becoming I
5. Becoming II
6. Lover's Walk
7. Dopplegangland
8. Hush
9. This Year's Girl
10. Who Are You
11. Restless
12. Fool for Love
13. Crush
14. The Body
15. Once More with Feeling
16. Dead Things
17. Normal Again
18. Beneath Me
19. Conversations with Dead People
20. Lies My Parents Told Me
I don't know. Glad I don't have to do that for a living.
Anyhow...back when I was watching Buffy in the late 1990s, during my gig at the evil library reference company...I had the following conversation with a work colleague/friend on the way home from work. We often rode the subway home together, having long chats about a variety of topics. Not Buffy - she considered it beneath her. Cultural dissonance exists in all climes.
Me: I can't seem to read anything. I get a few pages in and my attention wanders. What is wrong with me?
CW: Your working hard, brain is filled with info, can't fit more in. Plus stress. What you need is...a HAPPY BOOK.
Me: Didn't realize book's had emotions.
CW: No, I mean something light, stress reducing, fluffy, you don't have to remember, keep track of characters, can just enjoy. A light breezy read. (PAUSE) Have you ever read PD Wodehouse?
Now coming up with a list of light breezy books that aren't violent and are well-written isn't easy. Also by different authors. So far...I've come up with the following, but I've read them all:
* PD Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster
* William Goldman's Princess Bride (although not sure it qualifies)
* Harry Potter (again not sure it qualifies and a children's book)
Not sure of anything else. Jane Austen is almost too deep as is Louisa May Alcott. Terry Prachett is too punny and requires attention to foot-notes. Mark Twain requires too much concentration - he's a precise writer.
And I'm not talking about "airplane books" - ie the thriller or mystery of the week series or Gerogette Heyer. I mean fluffy books, that are witty. Are there any? I know there are for kids and young adults, which may explain the sudden influx of adult readers of young adult novels. But I burned out that genre a while ago.
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Faith was such a fascinating character and I would have liked to have seen more of her, and more Buffy & Faith interaction. As it is, Faith is missing from quite a few episodes, then Bad Girls happens rather late in the season (for some reason my memory placed it earlier than it is) so then there's this "rush" or intensification near the end of things.
I do enjoy the Mayor, though; and his relationship with Faith is almost as fascinating to me as that of Buffy and Giles.
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The B/A relationship had sort of run its course by the end of S3. There was nothing else they could do. The angst was so over-the-top that it is actually funny in places and eye-rolling in others. I tried to re-watch Lover's Walk and Graduation Day today, and couldn't stop giggling at the angst. I loved it at the time, but now...years later, after watching so many other similar things...including the Twilight movie, it seems rather silly.
So yes, it does drag the season down a bit. Spike was actually more interesting in S7 - because for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how the writers could get the couple past Seeing Red and Spike's guilt.
Angel after S2...got back with Buffy much faster...and the conflict was basically, we can't be together because of the curse, which got old after a bit. With Spike, it was far more complicated. Also, unlike B/A, we weren't even sure that there was a B/S or if Buffy loved him or could love him. Much more friction and conflict.
I honestly think the writers screwed up how they brought both Spike and Angel back in S3 and S7. They should have drawn it out a bit more,
and made it more ambiguous for the audience. We knew for both characters by literally the second or fifth episode that they were good guys. There was no suspense. The writers made a huge mistake telling the audience what happened to Spike in S6. Or for that matter that Angel was good in Amends. They should have made it less clear...like in Enemies. If the whole season had him acting like he did in Enemies, except with Buffy not in the loop, it might have been more interesting.
Whedon didn't know what to do with Angel and Spike...which showed. He reluctantly added them. And lacked the imagination to really play with them.
Sorry that was a bit of a ramble...worrying about work tomorrow, so distracting myself. ;-)
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I'm sure S2 would have felt the same if Angel hadn't lost his soul. That entire storyline made that season, and it's not even the entire season but that's what we remember. So without that - S3 Bangel just bored me to know end. (Why should the audience care if even the actors are bored of it?)
for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how the writers could get the couple past Seeing Red and Spike's guilt.
I remember watching the first time last year (I saw the entire series in three weeks) and when Lessons started I was already looking at Robin as a potential partner for Buffy. (But my default was always that I just wanted her to be happy. Clearly, I did NOT know Joss yet.) I knew Spike would come back but it didn't occur to me for some time that Spike would be her "man" again that season. As you say, how were they going to come back from SR?
They should have made it less clear...like in Enemies.
I think you're right - that could have made both seasons more interesting. *ponders* I did like Enemies quite a bit last year, but it bothered me to no end that Buffy was bothered by the "Angelus" act, not because it brought back bad memories of the year before - but because watching him with Faith made her jealous? SRLSLY? That struck me as horribly dumb.
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Well, I knew it was a soap opera and you can come back from that in soap operas. (ie. General Hospital, One Life to Live, Days, the list is endless. Also various comic books).
See, in soap operas you don't want happy characters. The conflict comes from unhappy characters struggling to be happy. Once they are "happy" - the writers have to figure out how to make them miserable or the series is over.
Buffy attracted a lot of non-soap fans, who are used to shows like Castle or Bones or NCIS ...where the characters are generally speaking happy. They solve the case of the week. Or they have a big adventure. But their personal lives are fine and dandy. Straight dramas like ER,
Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, and Brothers and Sisters, also tend to have "happy characters". But gothic horror soap operas? NO! Not possible. It's a serial, the conflict is often from the interrelationships of the characters. Also it's a romantic serial - you need romantic conflict.
Robin Wood would have been Riley take 2, and Riley was boring because there wasn't enough conflict. Did you like First Date? Imagine a whole season of that? That's Robin/Buffy romance in a nutshell.
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Once they are "happy" - the writers have to figure out how to make them miserable or the series is over.
It still perplexes me why Joss/ME thought that having Xander dump Anya at the altar and them not get married was more conducive to drama and angst then having the two of them married. I mean, had any of the writers actually been married? Come from dysfunctional homes? Or did they all have lovely happy peaceful perfect relationships? *rolls eyes*
the only one of the serialized dramas you mentioned that I'm familiar with is Bones, which I watch on Netflix with my sweetie because she enjoys it - and I guess I enjoy bitching about how bad it is and how stupid...or something. But I see what you're talking about re: the differences, it's one of the things I love about btvs.
Did you like First Date?
Yes. It's one of my favorite S7 episodes (aside from the Xander/Shakira nonsense which is very bad), mostly for the scene between Buffy and Giles. The weight of their shared history, the "ghosts" of Jenny and Angel, the way Spike reminds Giles of his Ripper self, Buffy and Giles trying to negotiate a new relationship since he left with the rationalization that she needed to "grow up" and she did just that (the Slayer/Watcher - Father/Daughter dynamic that he's never negotiated comfortably). All catnip to me.
Ok, you meant Robin and Buffy. Honestly, I thought he was incredibly handsome, I was interested in what he might mean to Buffy in terms of connecting to her Slayer predecessors (which ended up being squandered unfortunately); and the simple fact that he took Buffy out on a date - at a nice restaurant - that someone actually treated her, and they made it all the way to dessert? I know that sounds like a stupid fluff fic (and I HATE fluff) but yeah, that gave me a little happy.
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First Date is on my Worst Episode list. LOL! (I admittedly found Robin Wood's personality (not his looks) to be repulsive. I took an instant dislike to him. It was the actor. I've seen him in other things - he has a mannerism and expression that is too similar to an very abusive and repulsive boss that I had around that time. They looked nothing alike, except for their smile and expression. Both had that same smug, patronizing, know-it-all, I'm all that expression. Actually two actors have that mannerism - the other one was the boss in the UK Version of The Office, which was why I could never watch that series.)
It's obviously a personal thing. And related to the actor - since I haven't liked him in anything else (from 24 to Parenthood...he always comes across as a smug...SOB. I always want to punch him in the mouth - just to wipe that smug expression off his face. Even in the commentary - god, he drove me nuts in the commentary, barely lets anyone get a word in edgewise and is self-congratulatory and flattering.) I think if another actor had played him, such as J August Young, or the guy who played Forrest in S4, I'd have loved him. I just can't stand DB Woodside. Pretty to look at but a repulsive personality. It happens. Sometimes an actor just turns you off so badly...you can't watch a tv show. I had the same reaction to Emily Deschanel who plays Bones in the series Bones.
Unfortunately my dislike of RW and Andrew colored my view of S7. I can't help but wonder if either character wasn't in that season or if anyone else had portrayed them...it might have worked better for me? (shrugs)
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Unfortunately my dislike of RW and Andrew colored my view of S7
I'm not the only fan who dislikes Andrew? *lol* He was wonderfully creepy and pathetic in S6. totally lacking a moral compass; but letting him loose in S7 for comic relief and an additional "redemption arc" smacks of the writers fanboying (shipping?) the character. I just can't stand him in S7 except when Anya is smacking him around. (not that I'd advocate violence in RL of course *shifty eyes*)
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I tried not to go there too often. Too many of my friends loved him.
I have no idea why. It never has made sense to me. But eh...mileage it varies?
I realized it was DB Woodside that bugged me, not the character, when I saw the actor in other things and had the same reaction.
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I assume because Andrew takes up space and screentime that could have gone to Xander; given the writers' lack of interest in Xander by that point I'm not sure it would have helped. (I do enjoy him in BY and Selfless but Andrew's not on the scene yet.)
People who hated Spike used to enjoy telling me that the two characters were similar. No.
It never occured to me until
I have no idea why. It never has made sense to me. But eh...mileage it varies?
I don't know why either but the heart wants what it wants - or doesn't want in any case. *shrugs*
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Yep in a nutshell. Andrew more or less took over his role in some respects.
Part of the reason Xander had less screen time and story was the actor's substance abuse issues (this came out later). It's also why he got paunchy.
He was an alcoholic and it broke up his marriage and almost derailed his career.
It never occured to me until infinitewhale mentioned to me the other day that both Andrew and Spike tend to over-romanticize things. Once he mentioned that I could see the parallels between Fool For Love and Storyteller; they both build "personas" for themselves, telling the audience (Buffy) what they want people to believe of themselves. That's not to say that you're wrong, it's just an interesting interpretation.
Yes, that was the theory. They aren't wrong. But they failed to note how differently they did it. Also, the same thing could be said of Xander, Willow, Anya, Angel, and various others.
Spike, Angel, Willow and Andrew are all artists - they tell stories. All are commentaries on writing and film-making and storytelling. How a writer wants to control his story, and how he/she manipulates it.
Andrew was a "meta" character - a character that commented on the story and other characters. An insertion of the writer of himself into the text.
The anti-Marty Stu or the Marty Stu as pathetic. (Writers either write themselves in as wonderful or pathetic...Whedon often picked pathetic.)
He was also a meta commentary on fandom or being a fan...the fanboy who worships Spike - big meta on that.
I despised him in part because I find "meta" narratives a bit grating when they aren't subtle. Whedon was subtle abut meta until around Buffy S7, then...he went overboard. But he can be credited or blamed (depending on your pov) for creating the meta-narrative in film and tv. A popular narrative device in the 21st Century - which may be finally running its course.