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shadowkatI 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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no subject
Date: 2013-07-22 10:16 pm (UTC)Oh, I liked the character well enough. And in the latter seasons (5,6 and 7) identified. But I was more of a Spike and Willow shipper than a Buffy shipper. Wrote about them more in meta, they were more interesting to me, had more layers, more complexity. More to analyze. Which may be why a lot of fanfic writers struggled to write Buffy. The hero is often hard to write - because writers veer away from giving them too many blemishes.
That said - her arc in S5-S6 Grave, I found interesting, mainly because I was going through something similar at the time. (ie. physical and emotional depression). And felt the writers captured it well. That feeling of wanting to just fall into an abyss or go to sleep and never wake up. But other than that? The character didn't interest me.
My three favorite characters were probably Spike, Willow and Giles.
Those were the ones I found the most interesting.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-22 10:53 pm (UTC)Now that's a use of the term (shipper) that I'd not heard before. (As I'm a newbie to fandom that's hardly surprising.) I've only seen it used previously as a shortened version of "relationship", not "fan of an individual character." I assume that's what you mean here (and not that you "ship" Willow/Spike? Or perhaps you do?)
Which may be why a lot of fanfic writers struggled to write Buffy.
IDK about ten years ago but today, I get the impression that a lot of people simply don't like Buffy and aren't interested in her except as how she serves their favorite character's story. I do think that oftentimes there is a gendered aspect to it - culturally we are trained to identify the protagonist as "male", to excuse male characters (anti-heros) for their darkness, their flaws and fuck-ups; women aren't supposed to have any and are judged more harshly both in fiction and IRL.
For myself I've always been oriented to female characters. If there aren't any, or if they are there only as accessories to the "important" story (ie the lives of the men) then I lose interest.
Btw, I am not someone who is into bashing/woobifying one characters at the expense of others; ie the SG/ Spike / Giles / Buffy are evilest evil that ever eviled". Or "so and so never did ANYTHING wrong, ever." What I love about the show is the complexity of (almost all) the characters. Otherwise I'd watch Charmed or read a Hallmark card. I don't understand being a fan of the show if someone isn't interested in that very human complexity.
That feeling of wanting to just fall into an abyss or go to sleep and never wake up.
that's pretty much where I live, so to speak; so that probably conditions some of my feelings re: Buffy. The scene between herself and Giles in WTTH and her "Go ahead, prepare me" speech is what convinced me that I wanted to keep watching the show, but I probably identified more with Willow (and Marcie from OOSOOM) until later on.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-22 11:20 pm (UTC)No, I'd have put Willow/Spike if I meant that, as opposed to Willow and Spike.
Apparently everyone has their own lexicon. In my corner of fandom, people used "ship" to refer to shipping characters. It was their relationship with the character. A lot of the character specific boards had - which characters do you ship? Or Character Shipping Meme, as opposed to Character/Character shipping meme.
Some people use fangurl or fanboy instead. So get confused. It's sort of like ETA - means Estimated Time of Arrival in one context and Edited to Add in another. Always pay attention to context.
I do think that oftentimes there is a gendered aspect to it - culturally we are trained to identify the protagonist as "male", to excuse male characters (anti-heros) for their darkness, their flaws and fuck-ups; women aren't supposed to have any and are judged more harshly both in fiction and IRL.
Except that people equally disliked Angel in his series for the same reasons. So the theory doesn't hold water. For some maybe, but most fans just don't like the hero (anti or otherwise), they identify more with the supporting characters or the one's you see less of. The reason, again, for this - is often the supporting characters are better developed, and you get less of them. Heroes tend to be less layered, less complex, and often fall too neatly into archetypal tropes. Buffy = the popular cheerleader, who has to save the world...and is self-involved, yet selfless - she's in every episode and all the time. Viewers are like, damn, I can't identify with that character...that's not me, but I can identify with the nerdy witch who wants to be the hero or the nerdy sidekick who loves her. Same deal with male shows. A lot of Smallville fans preferred Lex and Chloe to Clark. It really has nothing to do with gender. I used to think so, but I've done enough polls and read enough posts on enough forums to state...eh, no...it has to do with hero trope.
There are exceptions. I actually like Emma on OUAT - she's my favorite character and she's the hero. But she's written older, and more reluctant and snarkier than Buffy was. So that may be it. And I adore the lead in The Good Wife. Veronica was my favorite in Veronica Mars.
Gellar just didn't do it for me. Neither did Angel for that matter.
My favorite characters in Angel were Fred, Wes, and Darla.