AOQ Review 4-10: "Hush"
Arbitrar Of Quality
threads.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
(or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon
Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
they're just dull. The moment Walsh had Buffy lie down on the table,
we were wondering when she'd wake up and the episode would get to the
point. I feel like the dream could have been stripped down to just the
poem-related essentials. I did get a kick out of Willow playing with
Buffy's head after she wakes up ("and the last twenty minutes was a
revelation just laid out everything we need to know for the Final").
She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
she's bored with having to hear about him all the time. Oh, have I
mentioned that Riley is boring? Well, he is. I kinda like Forrest,
but he has a rather one-track mind, doesn't he?
The first act has a few worthwhile scenes to go along with the
blandness, at least. I adored the whole sequence in the Menstrual
Lifeforce Power Thingy group (or is "Blah Blah Gaia Blah Blah Moon
group" funnier?), in which Willow finally learns the difference
between a Wiccan and a magic user. The former involves more bullshit,
even in the Buffyverse, and it's a lot of fun to see the show
parodying it. (Yeah, the reviewer's prejudices come into play. I
have even less use for new-age stuff than I do for "real"
religion.) Also, the interactions between Spike and Giles are fun as
always ("since the picture you just painted means that I will never
touch food of any kind again..."), and I like the vibe between Xander
and Spike too. We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
"Many Happy Returns," an episode of _The Prisoner_, made something
of a splash for going about fifteen minutes without any dialogue at
all, and even longer without any real conversations of substance.
Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
silent.)
Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
Voice?"
In a show like this, the music will of course have to be a little more
dramatic and play a bigger role in carrying the show. One part I
especially like is the song that plays when the Gentlemen first float
into town. It's kind of an old-style "supernatural" piece.
The Gentlemen themselves make their presence felt just as everyone was
starting to get used to the Hush. They become much creepier once
things are quieter. This episode didn't stir many strong emotional
reactions, but it's got a "feel" to it. Certain moments do
manage to be quite chilling. Just the premise of being unable to yell
for help usually makes for good viewing. I particularly liked the
surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
I'd say another thing that makes the episode more unsettling is that
it takes us awhile to figure out what the Gentlemen are doing, and then
we spend the whole episode, up to the very end, not knowing how they
can be stopped (well, I guess it depends on how closely one was paying
attention earlier). There's a right way to withhold/not explicit-ize
information, and it's on display here. Thankfully, we've got a
Slayer to prophetically dream up the right things.
I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
use.
You'd think that losing the dialogue would mean losing all the fun
character moments, and you'd be completely wrong. Many of us, myself
included, have been getting a kick out of the whole Xander/Anya story
despite (or because of) all the fundamental silliness. I can't
imagine how anyone of that persuasion wouldn't really enjoy their
exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
facial expressions... definitely one of the highlights for me. The
moment when Willow and Tara get their magic on is pretty fist-pumping
too.
This Is Really Stupid But I Laughed Anyway moment(s):
- "Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?" "Yes, that's exactly the most
appalling thing you could have said."
- Willow thinking she's deaf
- The attempted phone conversation
- The idea of a laryngitis outbreak
- Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
nice too, BTW)
- "Well, no, I wasn't actually one of the original members of Pink
Floyd..."
Once we return to normalcy, we don't even need to go through our
whole cast again, we just hit a few quick points about relationships of
one kind or another. Willow's new witch friend - possibly an
intriguing direction. Giles bringing a bystander "into the know"
and maybe having what might be a bona fide relationship - possibly an
intriguing direction. Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
something with it.
In assigning a rating, I spent a little too much time pondering whether
"Hush" should get extra credit, so to speak, simply for the fact
that it successfully gets an entertaining episode out of its novelty
factor. Should the mere achievement of stripping the show of one of
its biggest defining characteristics and still bringing the
action/horror/comedy mean it deserves a higher rating? Then I of
course remembered that how much I enjoyed an episode overall is the
only criterion for the ratings. Novelty in and of itself is worthless
to me, unless it's also worth watching. With those thoughts in mind,
about the kindest thing I can say about "Hush" is that it doesn't
feel like a gimmick show at all. It's transcended the "very
special episode" factor, and feels like an integral, if unique, part
of the BTVS story.
On a final note, the last scene is of course exactly what it should be,
but wasn't this episode just screaming (so to speak) for a special
Mutant Enemy monster? They wouldn't even have needed to record or
draw anything new.
So...
One-sentence summary:
AOQ rating: Good
[Season Four so far:
1) "The Freshman" - Good
2) "Living Conditions" - Decent
3) "The Harsh Light Of Day" - Good
4) "Fear Itself" - Decent
5) "Beer Bad" - Weak
6) "Wild At Heart" - Excellent
7) "The Initiative" - Decent
8) "Pangs" - Good
9) "Something Blue" - Good
10) "Hush" - Good]
EGK
wrote:
>A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
>threads.
>
>
>BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>(or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
>Writer: Joss Whedon
>Director: Joss Whedon
>So...
>
>One-sentence summary:
>
>AOQ rating: Good
You have every right to your opinion, of course, but if Hush can't rate an
excellent, I have to totally question your taste. Wow! I thought it was
the best episode of season 4 by far and one of the best of the whole series.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There would be a lot more civility in this world if people
didn't take that as an invitation to walk all over you"
(Calvin and Hobbes)
BTR1701
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
> AOQ rating: Good
I rate it as one of the top five of the entire series-- an especially
high achievement since it was Faith-less. However, having read most of
your reviews, I pretty much predicted your score.
One Bit Shy
news:1146418214....@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> One-sentence summary:
A little extra credit for the soundless summary. But not enough.
> AOQ rating: Good
FYI, this episode is one of a small handful of near universal high regard.
It is one of the principal candidates for best episode ever in the series.
More later.
OBS
EGK
I guess Arbiter is one of those who add the "near" to the "universal". :)
KenM47
>On 30 Apr 2006 10:30:14 -0700, "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
>>threads.
>>
>>
>>BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>>Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>>(or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
>>Writer: Joss Whedon
>>Director: Joss Whedon
>
>>So...
>>
>>One-sentence summary:
>>
>>AOQ rating: Good
>
>You have every right to your opinion, of course, but if Hush can't rate an
>excellent, I have to totally question your taste. Wow! I thought it was
>the best episode of season 4 by far and one of the best of the whole series.
It was a great episode. "Excellent" is the least it can be called.
It was also pretty much universally accepted, IIRC, as the downright
actual scariest creepiest of all the BtVS episodes (for me,
certainly).
And on top of everything else, amazing humor (Anya at the slide show
for example) and it moved the whole Riley/Initiative thing along
nicely as well.
And I'm just going on memory now, I hadn't rewatched it yet for these
purposes. Thought I had another day or so.
Ken (Brooklyn)
KenM47
And P.S.: The incredibly wonderful Village of the Damned moment with
Tara. So beautifully sold by the both of them, the direction,
everything just great. And so clearly an important harbinger.
Ken (Brooklyn)
Horace LaBadie
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
SNIP
> We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
> into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
> hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
Not only is this scary, it begins what is probably the only truly
scary-in-the-traditional-horror-movie-sense passage in the whole series.
> Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
> underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
> "Many Happy Returns," an episode of _The Prisoner_, made something
> of a splash for going about fifteen minutes without any dialogue at
> all, and even longer without any real conversations of substance.
> Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
> speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
> itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
> waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
> take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
> gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
> mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
> silent.)
"The Invaders" (1961) episode of "Twilight Zone," starring Agnes
Moorehead, was without dialogue for its entire length, until the very
last radio message from the spacecraft.
> Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
> Voice?"
>
> In a show like this, the music will of course have to be a little more
> dramatic and play a bigger role in carrying the show. One part I
> especially like is the song that plays when the Gentlemen first float
> into town. It's kind of an old-style "supernatural" piece.
The scoring in this episode bears a great deal of the burden of the
dramatic and comedic effect.
SNIP
> You'd think that losing the dialogue would mean losing all the fun
> character moments, and you'd be completely wrong. Many of us, myself
> included, have been getting a kick out of the whole Xander/Anya story
> despite (or because of) all the fundamental silliness. I can't
> imagine how anyone of that persuasion wouldn't really enjoy their
> exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
> Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
> facial expressions... definitely one of the highlights for me. The
> moment when Willow and Tara get their magic on is pretty fist-pumping
> too.
You omitted to flag the entire Giles lecture, which is a minor
masterpiece within a great episode. The slideshow drawings, the music
selection, Buffy's killing gesture and the group reaction to it, Anya's
popcorn, Buffy's reaction to the width of her hips in the drawing...all
priceless.
> This Is Really Stupid But I Laughed Anyway moment(s):
> - "Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?" "Yes, that's exactly the most
> appalling thing you could have said."
> - Willow thinking she's deaf
> - The attempted phone conversation
> - The idea of a laryngitis outbreak
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
> - "Well, no, I wasn't actually one of the original members of Pink
> Floyd..."
...the comic image of Buffy and Willow with the whiteboards hanging
around their necks after looking disdainfully at the vendor, Willow's
energetic effort to write something very important, only for it to say
"Hi, Giles."
SNIP
>
> One-sentence summary:
>
> AOQ rating: Good
A strong candidate for the best episode of the series to date in almost
every estimate.
HWL
burt...@hotmail.com
> Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
> underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
Because the beginning is very important to one of the major themes of
the episode; we have people trying to communicate (Buffy and Riley,
Xander and Anya), but their words get in the way. It's only when they
can't talk anymore that they really start communicating. I think Joss
talks about this in his commentary, but it's been so long since I
listened to it that I can't say for sure.
I think most here will disagree with your rating. For me, I consider
"Hush" to be one of the best episodes of the series. It's also (in my
opinion) the only episode of BtVS that was actually scary. For half an
hour or so, I was able to forget about contractual obligations for
actors and whatnot and believe that these characters were in real
danger.
Mel
They're nice, but did you notice it only had about 5 zaps in it till it
fizzled out?
I think it's just the opposite. Watch Giles' expression when Olivia says
"maybe" it's too dangerous. At that moment he knows it's not going anywhere.
Another expression I missed until re-watching this time is when Riley
sees Buffy swing on the rope and kick one of the goons clear across the
room. His eyes go a bit wide and you can tell he's thinking, "holy crap,
even I couldn't have kicked him that far!"
Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
> stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
> something with it.
The first time I watched this season, I kept thinking when are Buffy and
Riley gonna find out about each other, whenwhenwhen??? The in-between
eps seemed to take forever to finally get to that point.
>
> In assigning a rating, I spent a little too much time pondering whether
> "Hush" should get extra credit, so to speak, simply for the fact
> that it successfully gets an entertaining episode out of its novelty
> factor. Should the mere achievement of stripping the show of one of
> its biggest defining characteristics and still bringing the
> action/horror/comedy mean it deserves a higher rating? Then I of
> course remembered that how much I enjoyed an episode overall is the
> only criterion for the ratings. Novelty in and of itself is worthless
> to me, unless it's also worth watching. With those thoughts in mind,
> about the kindest thing I can say about "Hush" is that it doesn't
> feel like a gimmick show at all. It's transcended the "very
> special episode" factor, and feels like an integral, if unique, part
> of the BTVS story.
>
> On a final note, the last scene is of course exactly what it should be,
> but wasn't this episode just screaming (so to speak) for a special
> Mutant Enemy monster? They wouldn't even have needed to record or
> draw anything new.
Heh, I was thinking that too. I wanted the little monster to hold up a
"Grrr...Argh" sign a la Wile E. Coyote instead of speaking.
Mel
Patrick MM
>
>> AOQ rating: Good
>
> FYI, this episode is one of a small handful of near universal high regard.
> It is one of the principal candidates for best episode ever in the series.
>
I'd agree that it's pretty overrated. It's a really good episode, 42 on my
total list, 5th in season four, but the problem is it doesn't have the
emotional pull of the other "very special" episodes that Joss did. The
initiative stuff is one of the weakest storylines in the show's whole run,
so almost any episode in this era of the show is hampered by that, and
unlike a lot of Joss episodes, this doesn't come at a critical point in the
story. It's a pretty big beat for season four, but it's no Becoming or Once
More With Feeling.
So, without the emotional hook, it becomes largely a style exercise. The
comedy is great, as are the score and visuals, but that alone doesn't make
it a classic. Restless, The Body, OMWF and even Conversations with Dead
People all go even further with the experimentation, but add in a much
heavier emotional impact. And in terms of pure style, Restless dominates
this episode. That said, I'll always have an attachment to it for
introducing Tara.
patrick
Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita http://www.x-privat.org/join.php
Mel
burt...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>
>>Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
>>underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
>
>
> Because the beginning is very important to one of the major themes of
> the episode; we have people trying to communicate (Buffy and Riley,
> Xander and Anya), but their words get in the way. It's only when they
> can't talk anymore that they really start communicating. I think Joss
> talks about this in his commentary, but it's been so long since I
> listened to it that I can't say for sure.
Yep, he does. And he makes the point that, once they get their voices
back, Buffy and Riley are still not able to say anything to each other.
Mel
Paul Hyett
>>
>>BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>>Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>>(or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
>>Writer: Joss Whedon
>>Director: Joss Whedon
>
>>So...
>>
>>One-sentence summary:
>>
>>AOQ rating: Good
>
>You have every right to your opinion, of course, but if Hush can't rate an
>excellent, I have to totally question your taste. Wow! I thought it was
>the best episode of season 4 by far and one of the best of the whole series.
I have to differ on this - personally I found 'Hush' rather boring,
perhaps due to the 'fairy tale' aspect of it, similar to 'Killed By
Death'.
--
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett
Arbitrar Of Quality
One Bit Shy wrote:
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1146418214....@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> > One-sentence summary:
>
> A little extra credit for the soundless summary.
I was considering posting a whole black "review" a few hours before the
real one. Restraint won out.
Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
Good, it means that *I liked it*?
-AOQ
mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
> open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
its been established that prophetic dreams are part of a slayer
that was in the movie and the first episode and will continue
its also a useful exposition device
> The first act has a few worthwhile scenes to go along with the
> blandness, at least. I adored the whole sequence in the Menstrual
> Lifeforce Power Thingy group (or is "Blah Blah Gaia Blah Blah Moon
> group" funnier?), in which Willow finally learns the difference
the wanna blessed bes
> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
they went in through abdominal muscles and then north under the ribs
its the easiest way in if all you want is damage and not healing
it also sometimes slices the aorta or vena cava on the way
the way to a mans heart is through his stomach
> exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
> Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
that gesture gets a collective eeyyoooow from fans writers whedon
and everyone else
so anya
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
their misinterpretation of buffys staking motion
> and maybe having what might be a bona fide relationship - possibly an
> intriguing direction. Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
> stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
> something with it.
an important idea behind the episode is that
when we start talking we stop communicating
its the silence that forces olivia to realize what giles lives with
and forces her to consider if she wants to be a part of that life
anya and xander start out fighting and its in their silence
they realize just how deeply devoted they are to each other
in the silence buffy and riley get their first kiss
and reveal themselves to each other
but once they can talk again
all they can do is stare silently at each other
its the silence that brings tara and willow to work together
arf meow arf - nsa fodder
al qaeda terrorism nuclear bomb iran taliban big brother
if you meet buddha on the usenet killfile him
George W Harris
:It's also (in my
:opinion) the only episode of BtVS that was actually scary.
Crefbanyyl, V sbhaq "Pbairefngvbaf Jvgu Qrnq
Crbcyr" gb or zhpu zber sevtugravat.
--
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV!
George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'
EGK
wrote:
>Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
>Good, it means that *I liked it*?
>
>-AOQ
heh. You're right but people have particular favorites and don't like to
see them downgraded at all I guess. :) As has been mentioned, Hush
usually rates as one of the best episodes of the whole series. Not
everyone agrees, of course.
MBangel10 (Melissa)
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
Fun bit of Trivia: Hush was the ONLY episode of Buffy to have been
nominated for an Emmy Award. The category, of course, Best
Writing/Drama. Unfortunately, it lost to an epi of West Wing. I don't
think they could've handled letting a show titled "Buffy the Vampire
Slayer" win, even if it was the most deserving.
>
> Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
> open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
> they're just dull. The moment Walsh had Buffy lie down on the table,
> we were wondering when she'd wake up and the episode would get to the
> point. I feel like the dream could have been stripped down to just the
> poem-related essentials. I did get a kick out of Willow playing with
> Buffy's head after she wakes up ("and the last twenty minutes was a
> revelation just laid out everything we need to know for the Final").
> She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
> she's bored with having to hear about him all the time. Oh, have I
> mentioned that Riley is boring? Well, he is. I kinda like Forrest,
> but he has a rather one-track mind, doesn't he?
The dream sequence in the beginning, to me, was a combination Buffy
Daydream/Slayer dream... Riley being included was Buffy's subconscious
wondering when the heck her and Riley were going to take the next step
and the other, with the girl singing with the box in her hand was the
prophetic Slayer dream. I thought it worked perfectly.
>
> The first act has a few worthwhile scenes to go along with the
> blandness, at least. I adored the whole sequence in the Menstrual
> Lifeforce Power Thingy group (or is "Blah Blah Gaia Blah Blah Moon
> group" funnier?), in which Willow finally learns the difference
> between a Wiccan and a magic user. The former involves more bullshit,
> even in the Buffyverse, and it's a lot of fun to see the show
> parodying it. (Yeah, the reviewer's prejudices come into play. I
> have even less use for new-age stuff than I do for "real"
> religion.)
Well, at least the bake sales seem nice.
Also, the interactions between Spike and Giles are fun as
> always ("since the picture you just painted means that I will never
> touch food of any kind again..."), and I like the vibe between Xander
> and Spike too. We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
> into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
> hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
I got a kick out of the fact that Spike's no longer chained up and
roaming free in his apartment. They've become reluctant roommates at
this point, and it's amusing.
Of course, when Xander gets stuck having to let Spike crash at his place
he ties him up. 1. It's amusing that Spike lets him. 2. Xander's "moist
and delicious" comment gave me a chuckle, along with Spike's annoyed
response. I do believe this scene started the whole Xander/Spike fic craze.
>
> Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
> underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
> "Many Happy Returns," an episode of _The Prisoner_, made something
> of a splash for going about fifteen minutes without any dialogue at
> all, and even longer without any real conversations of substance.
> Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
> speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
> itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
> waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
> take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
> gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
> mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
> silent.)
>
> Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
> Voice?"
The Initiative storyline is not one of my favorites and Walsh gets on my
last nerve. So, the computer voice only added to my distaste of that
scene in the episode. It's the one part that ruined my 'perfect' for the
episode.
>
> In a show like this, the music will of course have to be a little more
> dramatic and play a bigger role in carrying the show. One part I
> especially like is the song that plays when the Gentlemen first float
> into town. It's kind of an old-style "supernatural" piece.
The music is phenomenal, I agree.
>
> The Gentlemen themselves make their presence felt just as everyone was
> starting to get used to the Hush. They become much creepier once
> things are quieter. This episode didn't stir many strong emotional
> reactions, but it's got a "feel" to it. Certain moments do
> manage to be quite chilling.
My personal favorite is when Olivia looks out the door and one of the
Gentlemen glide by looking in at her. It really creeped me out the first
time.
Just the premise of being unable to yell
> for help usually makes for good viewing. I particularly liked the
> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
> I'd say another thing that makes the episode more unsettling is that
> it takes us awhile to figure out what the Gentlemen are doing, and then
> we spend the whole episode, up to the very end, not knowing how they
> can be stopped (well, I guess it depends on how closely one was paying
> attention earlier). There's a right way to withhold/not explicit-ize
> information, and it's on display here. Thankfully, we've got a
> Slayer to prophetically dream up the right things.
The Scooby meeting is my favorite scene. The facial expressions,
Xander's mouthing "boobies" when Willow points to her heart, Buffy's air
staking that is misinterpreted, Anya's munching on popcorn, Giles
drawings. All of it had me laughing. It's a great scene.
>
> I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
> use.
>
> You'd think that losing the dialogue would mean losing all the fun
> character moments, and you'd be completely wrong. Many of us, myself
> included, have been getting a kick out of the whole Xander/Anya story
> despite (or because of) all the fundamental silliness. I can't
> imagine how anyone of that persuasion wouldn't really enjoy their
> exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
> Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
> facial expressions... definitely one of the highlights for me. The
> moment when Willow and Tara get their magic on is pretty fist-pumping
> too.
Willow at least found one real witch in that horrible Wicca group.
>
> This Is Really Stupid But I Laughed Anyway moment(s):
> - "Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?" "Yes, that's exactly the most
> appalling thing you could have said."
> - Willow thinking she's deaf
> - The attempted phone conversation
> - The idea of a laryngitis outbreak
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
> - "Well, no, I wasn't actually one of the original members of Pink
> Floyd..."
>
<snip>
>
> On a final note, the last scene is of course exactly what it should be,
> but wasn't this episode just screaming (so to speak) for a special
> Mutant Enemy monster? They wouldn't even have needed to record or
> draw anything new.
I was a bit disappointed that it didn't get one too.
>
>
> So...
>
> One-sentence summary:
>
> AOQ rating: Good
Another Excellent in my book. This episode is my #2 favorite of S4.
DysgraphicProgrammer
Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
<snip>
> Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
> speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
> itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
> waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
> take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
> gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
> mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
> silent.)
On a side note, I once flipped into the middle of this episode right at
the beginning of that 19 minuets. I did not realise until it was over
that I was on the local Spanish channel.
Carlos Moreno
*sigh*
Man, I really don't understand how you guys are not severely
*bored now* at this point...
Around the time of Doppelgangland's review I decided I was no
longer interested in discussing my points of view with someone
with such lack of sense of humor and taste...
But this review truly makes me wonder -- how can someone have
the arrogange to call himself Arbitrar of Quality, and the
audacity to write systematic reviews on a series for which
he is so clearly unqualified to judge, given the decidedly
poor taste and lack of sense of humor...
Yes, I know, as Ken said, that everyone is entitled to an
opinion, however different it may be to someone else's
opinion or even to most people's opinion... But I truly
believe that this is way way way too much.
Carlos
--
PS: And yes, ackonwledged the extra points for the one-
sentence summary on this one -- it almost makes me
believe that you do have a sense of humor.
Stephen Tempest
>Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
>open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
>they're just dull.
In this case, I'd call it 'disorientating and creepy', personally.
Especially as it starts out in such a mundane fashion... and bonus
points for the little girl singing. Mysterious little girls singing
off-camera are always good for a few chills.
>She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
>she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
Another sign that Willow's getting over Oz; romance isn't a sore
subject for her anymore. And 'vicarious smoochies' is a classic
phrase...
>Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
>underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
As you've doubtles already been told several times by others, because
it's establishing the theme that everyone is talking, but no-one is
communicating.
1) Buffy falls asleep in the lecture theatre, instead of listening to
Professor Walsh. Who, if you noticed, actually set forth the
episode's theme in her first words: "Talking about communication,
talking about language. Not the same thing."
2) Buffy and Riley's embarrassing attempt at chatting each other up,
complete with refrences to petroleum.
3) Willow's Wicca group pours scorn on her interest in actual spells.
4) Tara's shyness and stammer make it impossible to get her ideas
across. And I thought the Wicca group leader's treatment of her was a
*classic* example of passive-aggressive controlling behaviour in the
disguise of being helpful; telling the entire group to be quiet and
focus on Tara, when she's clearly so self-conscious and unassertive,
is almost guaranteed to force her back into her shell instead of
actually letting her communicate.
5) Xander and Anya having an argument caused by misunderstanding each
others' words.
6) Buffy and Riley lamenting to their respective friends that they
have to lie to each other about their secret identities.
Not bad for 15 minutes, wouldn't you say?
> The Hush
>itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
>waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on).
The only time this show offers actual proof that even Slayers need to
go to the bathroom in the morning... :) And Alyson's acting in the
next part was excellent; most of the time lip-reading is completely
beyond me, but here I could tell exactly what Willow was trying to
say...
> I particularly liked the
>surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
>tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
>without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
For me, the single most scary moment the show has given us so far.
>- Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
>nice too, BTW)
I particularly liked Anya's bored reaction to Giles having the slide
upside down... and when the others are horrified by Giles's escessive
use of red pen to show the blood, Anya is casually munching popcorn.
>Once we return to normalcy, we don't even need to go through our
>whole cast again, we just hit a few quick points about relationships of
>one kind or another. Willow's new witch friend - possibly an
>intriguing direction. Giles bringing a bystander "into the know"
>and maybe having what might be a bona fide relationship - possibly an
>intriguing direction. Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
>stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
>something with it.
"We've got to talk" as the closing line, followed by them sitting in
silence both trying to think of what to say, was kind of predictable
but still a perfect ending to the show.
>Novelty in and of itself is worthless
>to me, unless it's also worth watching. With those thoughts in mind,
>about the kindest thing I can say about "Hush" is that it doesn't
>feel like a gimmick show at all. It's transcended the "very
>special episode" factor, and feels like an integral, if unique, part
>of the BTVS story.
To which I say "Yay! I guessed right how you'd react!"
Personally, I thought the fight scene at the end dragged too much,
which is why I'd only rate this episode as excellent instead of
superlative. It's not just novelty for the sake of it - although it's
impressive enough - it's also illustrating a major theme of the
season: how surface matters and personal concerns can stop people
communicating, until they strip all that away and focus on what's
real. (Giles and Co not listening to Buffy in 'Living Conditions', Oz
not talking to Willow in 'Wild at Heart', the whoile Riley-Initiative
situation: the list goes on.)
Cyhf gurer'f Jvyybj'f arj jvgpu sevraq - sebz gur jnl fur'f qrfpevorq
va guvf erivrj V qba'g *guvax* gur craal'f qebccrq lrg sbe NbD: jbaqre
ng jung fgntr vg jvyy?
Stephen
vague disclaimer
Stephen Tempest <steph...@stempest.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Cyhf gurer'f Jvyybj'f arj jvgpu sevraq - sebz gur jnl fur'f qrfpevorq
> va guvf erivrj V qba'g *guvax* gur craal'f qebccrq lrg sbe NbD: jbaqre
> ng jung fgntr vg jvyy?
N cbffvoyr pnfr sbe ubj sne orsber:
"Gur vajneq rlr, gur fvtugyrff frn. Nlnyn sybjf guebhtu gur evire va zr."
gur craal qebcf?
--
A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend
Michael Ikeda
news:FIadnXJWbL6tvsjZ...@comcast.com:
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these
>> review threads.
>>
>>
>> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
>> Writer: Joss Whedon
>> Director: Joss Whedon
>
> Fun bit of Trivia: Hush was the ONLY episode of Buffy to have
> been nominated for an Emmy Award. The category, of course, Best
> Writing/Drama. Unfortunately, it lost to an epi of West Wing. I
> don't think they could've handled letting a show titled "Buffy
> the Vampire Slayer" win, even if it was the most deserving.
More precisely, it's the only time "Buffy" was nominated for an
award that is presented at the regular award show. William George
Ferguson posted a list of all WB and UPN Emmy nominations on
another newsgroup back on July 15, 2004. Basically, "Buffy" got
twelve nominations (and two wins) over the years, all of them
except the one writing nomination for "technical" awards that are
presented before the regular awards show.
The problem likely isn't anything to do with "Buffy", it's that the
Emmys have mostly ignored shows on UPN or the WB. They'll get
nominations sometimes (and sometimes even win) for one of the
"technical" awards but not anything more.
According to WGF's list, as of July 2004, there had been only two
times that a show on the WB (and zero times for UPN) was nominated
for an award presented on the main Emmy program (neither won). One
was the writing nomination for "Hush", the other was the 2004
nomination for James Earl Jones for guest actor on "Everwood".
--
Michael Ikeda mmi...@erols.com
"Telling a statistician not to use sampling is like telling an
astronomer they can't say there is a moon and stars"
Lynne Billard, past president American Statistical Association
Daniel Damouth
@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> Because the beginning is very important to one of the major themes of
> the episode; we have people trying to communicate (Buffy and Riley,
> Xander and Anya), but their words get in the way. It's only when they
> can't talk anymore that they really start communicating.
The reviewer makes no mention of the theme, which is kind of sad,
because I (along with Joss) think it's somewhat important. However,
the reviewer did notice the dialogue-free part, for which we must give
him credit.
-Dan Damouth
BTR1701
"MBangel10 (Melissa)" <mban...@comcast.net> wrote:
> The Scooby meeting is my favorite scene. The facial expressions,
> Xander's mouthing "boobies" when Willow points to her heart, Buffy's air
> staking that is misinterpreted, Anya's munching on popcorn, Giles
> drawings. All of it had me laughing. It's a great scene.
And all of it over "Danse Macabre" by Saint-Saens. Perfect music choice.
Michael Ikeda
news:ngda52l4q5q3argo6...@4ax.com:
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> writes:
>
>>She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps
>>because she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
>
> Another sign that Willow's getting over Oz; romance isn't a sore
> subject for her anymore. And 'vicarious smoochies' is a classic
> phrase...
Although Willow's already trying to push Buffy toward Riley in
"Something Blue". And she started matchmaking for them even before
that.
>
>>Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is
>>truly underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get
>>to this point?
>
> As you've doubtles already been told several times by others,
> because it's establishing the theme that everyone is talking,
> but no-one is communicating.
>
> 1) Buffy falls asleep in the lecture theatre, instead of
> listening to Professor Walsh. Who, if you noticed, actually set
> forth the episode's theme in her first words: "Talking about
> communication, talking about language. Not the same thing."
>
> 2) Buffy and Riley's embarrassing attempt at chatting each other
> up, complete with refrences to petroleum.
You do have to get up oily in the morning to keep up with those
two... :)
> 4) Tara's shyness and stammer make it impossible to get her
> ideas across. And I thought the Wicca group leader's treatment
> of her was a *classic* example of passive-aggressive controlling
> behaviour in the disguise of being helpful; telling the entire
> group to be quiet and focus on Tara, when she's clearly so
> self-conscious and unassertive, is almost guaranteed to force
> her back into her shell instead of actually letting her
> communicate.
>
I actually thought the leader was genuinely trying to be
encouraging to Tara and simply didn't realize her encouragement
would have the reverse effect. Which kind of makes it another case
of botched communication on both sides.
(snipped)
BTR1701
Carlos Moreno <moreno_at_mo...@mailinator.com> wrote:
> *sigh*
>
> Man, I really don't understand how you guys are not severely
> *bored now* at this point...
>
> Around the time of Doppelgangland's review I decided I was no
> longer interested in discussing my points of view with someone
> with such lack of sense of humor and taste...
>
> But this review truly makes me wonder -- how can someone have
> the arrogange to call himself Arbitrar of Quality, and the
> audacity to write systematic reviews on a series for which
> he is so clearly unqualified to judge, given the decidedly
> poor taste and lack of sense of humor...
You really need to get over the idea that your personal aesthetic tastes
are an objective benchmark by which all else is judged.
One Bit Shy
news:1146418214....@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
As I've mentioned a couple times my introduction to BtVS was mainly S4 via
the syndicated reruns. (I couldn't pick up the WB at home.) At first I was
quite unsure about the series and was just casually watching it because I
knew it had a "cult" following and for something to do before I went to bed.
(It aired daily at 11 P.M.)
Hush completely blew me away.
I could not think of anything I'd ever seen on TV - maybe not even film -
that so perfectly captured this classic fairy tale type of horror. It made
me think of Grimm Fairy Tales. (So I was quite pleased when Joss referenced
that in his commentary.)
I remember regaling people at work the next day about this amazing show I'd
seen. Which is pretty funny, considering it was a two year old rerun at the
time. But my enthusiasm could not be restrained.
Hush is what hooked me on the series. After that I immersed myself in BtVS
as best as I could. Which with daily reruns (sometimes double on weekends)
and the then current S6, was quite a bit.
So, I'll always have a special fondness for this episode. It's no longer #1
for me, but it's always somewhere in the top five. In some ways better than
ever, for I can now appreciate all of the important continuity elements,
which are actually pretty big deals in their own right.
> Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
> open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
> they're just dull. The moment Walsh had Buffy lie down on the table,
> we were wondering when she'd wake up and the episode would get to the
> point. I feel like the dream could have been stripped down to just the
> poem-related essentials.
How can you be impatient that early in an episode?
Joss likes dreams.
"Fortune favors the brave." A Virgil quote, but Joss says he got it off a
Rick Griffin poster. I haven't been able to find which one yet.
I rather like the line about the kiss making the sun go down.
I also wondered about Walsh telling Riley to, "Be a good boy."
> I did get a kick out of Willow playing with
> Buffy's head after she wakes up ("and the last twenty minutes was a
> revelation just laid out everything we need to know for the Final").
Sly Willow.
> She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
> she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
Suddenly? Have you forgotten she was Riley's accomplice in the Initiative?
That Riley saved Willow from being run down in Wild at Heart?
Anyway, this is an opportunity for Buffy to talk about the "babblefest" with
Riley and how she has to lie about the Slayer - which leads into a similar
discussion between Riley and Forrest. All about establishing a theme of
words getting in the way of communication. (Remember Walsh's opening
remarks?)
> Oh, have I
> mentioned that Riley is boring? Well, he is. I kinda like Forrest,
> but he has a rather one-track mind, doesn't he?
Forrest is pretty likable.
> The first act has a few worthwhile scenes to go along with the
> blandness, at least. I adored the whole sequence in the Menstrual
> Lifeforce Power Thingy group (or is "Blah Blah Gaia Blah Blah Moon
> group" funnier?), in which Willow finally learns the difference
> between a Wiccan and a magic user. The former involves more bullshit,
> even in the Buffyverse, and it's a lot of fun to see the show
> parodying it. (Yeah, the reviewer's prejudices come into play. I
> have even less use for new-age stuff than I do for "real"
> religion.)
What do you suppose an empowering lemon bundt is?
> Also, the interactions between Spike and Giles are fun as
> always ("since the picture you just painted means that I will never
> touch food of any kind again..."),
More info about vampire eating too.
> and I like the vibe between Xander
> and Spike too.
The funniest moment for me in this first act was...
Anya: Oh you mean an orgasm friend?
Giles: Yes that's exactly the most appalling thing you could have said
Anyway, all of this, again, is to set up the silence with confused
conversation full of misunderstanding and contradiction, peaking with...
Giles: um I need you to take Spike for a few days.
Xander: What?
Spike: What?
Anya: What?
I think it's pretty clever writing myself.
> We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
> into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
> hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
Only to all the other people.
There was also that part with some sort of essence from all the sleeping
people drawn from them into that box - with all the whispering going on that
ends abruptly with the closing of the lid by the boney hand. Then the
toothsome smile of an obviously malign creature that had just completed some
sort of devilry.
It's scary mainly as portent of unknown but palpable malice. The Boo!
quality isn't that great - we get that when one floats past Giles window and
peers into Olivia's face.
> Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
> underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
To establish the babble before the silence.
> "Many Happy Returns," an episode of _The Prisoner_, made something
> of a splash for going about fifteen minutes without any dialogue at
> all, and even longer without any real conversations of substance.
> Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
> speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
> itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
> waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
> take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
> gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
> mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
> silent.)
>
> Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
> Voice?"
I don't recall any mention since IR..YJ. But it makes more sense here.
Walsh is exactly the sort to drum up a voice program at such a time. The
white boards prove to be more mobile though.
> In a show like this, the music will of course have to be a little more
> dramatic and play a bigger role in carrying the show. One part I
> especially like is the song that plays when the Gentlemen first float
> into town. It's kind of an old-style "supernatural" piece.
The Gentlemen get one of the nicest themes I've heard on the series.
> The Gentlemen themselves make their presence felt just as everyone was
> starting to get used to the Hush. They become much creepier once
> things are quieter. This episode didn't stir many strong emotional
> reactions, but it's got a "feel" to it. Certain moments do
> manage to be quite chilling. Just the premise of being unable to yell
> for help usually makes for good viewing. I particularly liked the
> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
> I'd say another thing that makes the episode more unsettling is that
> it takes us awhile to figure out what the Gentlemen are doing, and then
> we spend the whole episode, up to the very end, not knowing how they
> can be stopped (well, I guess it depends on how closely one was paying
> attention earlier). There's a right way to withhold/not explicit-ize
> information, and it's on display here. Thankfully, we've got a
> Slayer to prophetically dream up the right things.
There's a lot I find creepy about them. Their general look - especially the
boney hands and metal teeth. The way they float. Their ever so polite
manner while taking people's hearts. Their use of straight jacketed madmen
as minions.
But I think the creepiest to me is the way they go looking for their prey -
wagging their fingers at one door, dismissing another, then selecting the
right one. How do they choose? Will they choose me? Will they choose you?
It's the arbitrary selection of death and disease - plays to our fears of
death knocking (literally here). Taking you in bed - playing to the
association of so much death occurring in bed. And the voiceless terror we
imagine/fear those last moments to be.
I think it's a brilliant depiction myself. And quite scary.
> I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
> use.
Yeah, they are kind of cool. But I can't help think of them as the
compromise concession to the reality of guns without having bullets. The
rationale for them makes sense - control and capture. But ultimately
they're weak-assed weapons.
> You'd think that losing the dialogue would mean losing all the fun
> character moments, and you'd be completely wrong. Many of us, myself
> included, have been getting a kick out of the whole Xander/Anya story
> despite (or because of) all the fundamental silliness. I can't
> imagine how anyone of that persuasion wouldn't really enjoy their
> exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
> Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
> facial expressions...
And Xander communicating to Anya what she means to him besides orgasm.
There are several communication moments during the silence. Buffy and Riley
kissing. Then Buffy and Riley seeing the truth of each other for the first
time. The stupendous lecture hall scene. (I love how Giles puts on
background music for his "lecture". Though I think my favorite moment is
Buffy complaining that the drawing of her makes her look fat.)
> definitely one of the highlights for me. The
> moment when Willow and Tara get their magic on is pretty fist-pumping
> too.
One of my very few nits with the episode is that it took me several
watchings before I saw that Willow twisted her ankle when Tara ran her down.
Until then I couldn't understand why Willow fell back from the soda machine.
Aside from that, this is an extraordinary scene. The Gentlemen coming up
behind Tara had been scary enough to begin with, but it kept building.
(Loved Tara's brief attempt to scream in the hall.) The tension is mighty
high trapped in the laundry room. And then connecting that intensely, to
such huge effect, in silence - whoa! I guess someone else came to the Wicca
meeting looking for magic.
> This Is Really Stupid But I Laughed Anyway moment(s):
> - "Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?" "Yes, that's exactly the most
> appalling thing you could have said."
> - Willow thinking she's deaf
> - The attempted phone conversation
> - The idea of a laryngitis outbreak
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
> - "Well, no, I wasn't actually one of the original members of Pink
> Floyd..."
>
> Once we return to normalcy, we don't even need to go through our
> whole cast again, we just hit a few quick points about relationships of
> one kind or another. Willow's new witch friend - possibly an
> intriguing direction. Giles bringing a bystander "into the know"
> and maybe having what might be a bona fide relationship - possibly an
> intriguing direction.
Alas no. She was scared.
> Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
> stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
> something with it.
I'll be the exception and say that I like trying it with Riley here. *Any*
relationship with Buffy is going to be chancy. But this is not a bad
compromise for dealing with the clash between her slayer and normal worlds.
And I like having Riley around. There's plenty enough neuroitc folks
already.
> In assigning a rating, I spent a little too much time pondering whether
> "Hush" should get extra credit, so to speak, simply for the fact
> that it successfully gets an entertaining episode out of its novelty
> factor. Should the mere achievement of stripping the show of one of
> its biggest defining characteristics and still bringing the
> action/horror/comedy mean it deserves a higher rating? Then I of
> course remembered that how much I enjoyed an episode overall is the
> only criterion for the ratings. Novelty in and of itself is worthless
> to me, unless it's also worth watching. With those thoughts in mind,
> about the kindest thing I can say about "Hush" is that it doesn't
> feel like a gimmick show at all. It's transcended the "very
> special episode" factor, and feels like an integral, if unique, part
> of the BTVS story.
I'm trying to understand these sentences - they contradict in apparant tone.
(To me anyway.) "About the kindest thing" - does that translate to
something genuinely good? It sounds like a backhanded compliment.
> On a final note, the last scene is of course exactly what it should be,
And just to say it for completeness - when they finally can talk, they can't
communicate.
> but wasn't this episode just screaming (so to speak) for a special
> Mutant Enemy monster? They wouldn't even have needed to record or
> draw anything new.
>
>
> So...
>
> One-sentence summary:
>
> AOQ rating: Good
Excellent.
I've never rated the series from top to bottom, so I'm not entirely certain
where it places overall. But since it's so close to the top I'm more
certain than most. At the moment I'd say it ranks 3rd - the two above it
are still in the future.
OBS
One Bit Shy
>
> One Bit Shy wrote:
>> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1146418214....@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> > One-sentence summary:
>>
>> A little extra credit for the soundless summary.
>
> I was considering posting a whole black "review" a few hours before the
> real one. Restraint won out.
I think I would have enjoyed that. And you could have said "Psyche!"
> Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
> Good, it means that *I liked it*?
Yes, I understand. But this is one of the episodes that for many people
falls into the superlative category you haven't used yet. Expectations
are - erm - higher.
But, as always, in my case, whatever expressions of disappointment I may
offer to your reviews really represent my own enthusiasm for the episodes.
OBS
drifter
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
/some snippage occurs/
>> We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
>> into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
>> hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
>
> Only to all the other people.
>
> There was also that part with some sort of essence from all the
> sleeping people drawn from them into that box - with all the
> whispering going on that ends abruptly with the closing of the lid by
> the boney hand. Then the toothsome smile of an obviously malign
> creature that had just completed some sort of devilry.
When I first saw this ep, I was working nights, so I couldn't help
but wonder what happened with all the people who WEREN'T asleep.
In just about any town there's *someone* awake at all hours of the
day or night. All the people shown losing their ability to speak were
asleep. Perhaps too much nitpickery abounds.
>> AOQ rating: Good
My own rating would be Excellent. It's a top-5 outing for me.
--
Kel
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own."
Mike Zeares
EGK wrote:
> On 30 Apr 2006 13:19:49 -0700, "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> >Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
> >Good, it means that *I liked it*?
> >
> >-AOQ
>
> heh. You're right but people have particular favorites and don't like to
> see them downgraded at all I guess. :) As has been mentioned, Hush
> usually rates as one of the best episodes of the whole series. Not
> everyone agrees, of course.
Example: me. I came to the conclusion years ago that "Hush," like
"Becoming part 2," is overrated. I understand Joss's theme about
communication, and I think the episode is constructed well. And the
Gentlemen are probably the scariest villains the show ever had -- this
was one of the few true horror episodes. And yet, I don't think it
quite belongs in the top tier of BtVS episodes. At the end of the day,
I think it's just a good, solid Buffy ep. Joss did it to stretch
himself as a director, but he kept it within the standard Buffy episode
format.
-- Mike Zeares
drifter
Irony, thy name is BTR.
Lord Usher
> FYI, this episode is one of a small handful of near universal high
> regard. It is one of the principal candidates for best episode ever in
> the series.
M'eh. It's a damn good episode, and it's probably in my top ten, but it's
far from the best of all time. Moody and audacious as it was, it didn't
really say all that much (forgive the pun) -- either emotionally or
thematically. Give me "Lie to Me" or "Innocence" any day.
--
Lord Usher
"I'm here to kill you, not to judge you."
MBangel10 (Melissa)
attention to the 'techincal' awards.
Apteryx
news:1146418214....@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
>
> open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
> they're just dull. The moment Walsh had Buffy lie down on the table,
> we were wondering when she'd wake up and the episode would get to the
> point. I feel like the dream could have been stripped down to just the
> poem-related essentials.
And leave out the set up for the "Fortune favours the brave" gag? As well as
the opportunity for "Not saying a word"?
> I did get a kick out of Willow playing with
> Buffy's head after she wakes up ("and the last twenty minutes was a
> revelation just laid out everything we need to know for the Final").
Yep. There is some great dialogue in Hush
> Once we get back from that break, of course, the episode is truly
> underway; why did it have to take fifteen minutes to get to this point?
> "Many Happy Returns," an episode of _The Prisoner_, made something
> of a splash for going about fifteen minutes without any dialogue at
> all, and even longer without any real conversations of substance.
> Well, by my calculations, ignoring commercials, "Hush" is totally
> speech-free for just over nineteen minutes consecutively. The Hush
> itself lasts about twenty-five and a half, if one starts with Buffy
> waking up (the newscaster and some computer voices come early on). So
> take that, McGoohan, our show is quieter than yours. (Although MHR
> gets bonus points for not using a supernatural gimmick, not using any
> mouthed words, and the fact that it's the *beginning* that's
> silent.)
And The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple has 27 hours without audible
dialogue. It's not the length of your silence that counts, its how you use
it. Many Happy Returns is a great epsiode. In fact, it's the 3rd best
episode of The Prisoner, a series which is itself the 14th best fictional
series ever made (10 places ahead of BtVS). But there are 6 episodes if BtVS
that are better than it, including Hush. The reason for the lack of dialogue
in its opening minutes is the lack of other characters to logue with, so it
is not really comparable to Hush in that respect (except if we are comparing
courage of network executives to allow that much silence on their networks).
And how many bonus points would you give it for not having a supernatural
explanation for the absence of the other characters when it doesn't actually
give any explanation for that absence (and the implied explanation is simply
to allow him to escape to show they can bring him back)?
> The Gentlemen themselves make their presence felt just as everyone was
> starting to get used to the Hush. They become much creepier once
> things are quieter. This episode didn't stir many strong emotional
> reactions, but it's got a "feel" to it. Certain moments do
> manage to be quite chilling.
Just a little bit.
> I particularly liked the
> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
Point taken. But it does fit their character and is scarier in a
faux-clinical kind of way.
>
> I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
> use.
Just so long as no one is shooting back. The row of flashing lights on the
side of those things might make shooting from concealment a bit of a
problem.
> You'd think that losing the dialogue would mean losing all the fun
> character moments, and you'd be completely wrong.
Who? Us?
> Many of us, myself
> included, have been getting a kick out of the whole Xander/Anya story
> despite (or because of) all the fundamental silliness. I can't
> imagine how anyone of that persuasion wouldn't really enjoy their
> exaggerated silent-movie part at the end of this show. I mean, between
> Xander "saving" her, her suggestion of what to do next, Spike's
> facial expressions... definitely one of the highlights for me. The
> moment when Willow and Tara get their magic on is pretty fist-pumping
> too.
Well, that's actually my only quibble. As I commented on your review of
Choices, I don't like telekinesis (or any good-guy-made magic affecting
physical realities) if its not just a conjuring trick or otherwise harmless
fun. That way lies the road to Charmed. But I can overlook it in this
episode.
> This Is Really Stupid But I Laughed Anyway moment(s):
> - "Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?" "Yes, that's exactly the most
> appalling thing you could have said."
> - Willow thinking she's deaf
> - The attempted phone conversation
> - The idea of a laryngitis outbreak
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
> - "Well, no, I wasn't actually one of the original members of Pink
> Floyd..."
>
> Once we return to normalcy, we don't even need to go through our
> whole cast again, we just hit a few quick points about relationships of
> one kind or another. Willow's new witch friend - possibly an
> intriguing direction. Giles bringing a bystander "into the know"
> and maybe having what might be a bona fide relationship - possibly an
> intriguing direction. Pulling the trigger on some of the Buffy/Riley
> stuff - well, not interesting yet, but it was about time to do
> something with it.
And much more importanly, Buffy and Riley at the end, able to speak, but not
able to talk.
> On a final note, the last scene is of course exactly what it should be,
> but wasn't this episode just screaming (so to speak) for a special
> Mutant Enemy monster? They wouldn't even have needed to record or
> draw anything new.
>
That would have been good.
> AOQ rating: Good
So, not quite up the standard of Ted and Dead Man's Party then? For me, its
way up in the Superb category, the 2nd best BtVS episode, and best in Season
4 (and best we've seen so far).
--
Apteryx
vague disclaimer
"One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
>
>
> > I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
> > use.
>
> Yeah, they are kind of cool. But I can't help think of them as the
> compromise concession to the reality of guns without having bullets. The
> rationale for them makes sense - control and capture. But ultimately
> they're weak-assed weapons.
Except that we know that regular guns don't work on vampires (thanks to
Darla). It seems reasonable to postulate that they have limited use
against other demon types. So maybe the Initiative is simply using that
which works best (or least badly) - it not having occurred to the high
tech guys that a crossbow might be better.
Rowan Hawthorn
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>
Heathen. Philistine. Philistinian heathen.
One of my Top Three of the series (exact order tends to change
depending on which one I'm watching at the time...)
--
Rowan Hawthorn
"Occasionally, I'm callous and strange." - Willow Rosenberg,
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
One Bit Shy
news:SKc5g.6803$0Y5....@news.xtra.co.nz...
> Many Happy Returns is a great epsiode. In fact, it's the 3rd best episode
> of The Prisoner, a series which is itself the 14th best fictional series
> ever made (10 places ahead of BtVS). But there are 6 episodes if BtVS that
> are better than it, including Hush.
I started writing a post earlier about how hard it was for me to rank
episodes - and found that just writing about that was too hard! And now I
see this. LOL! You've tickled my funny bone for the day.
(Today I'm going to rank the James Garner show, Nichols, as the best
fictional series. Do you remember it?)
OBS
mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
Rowan Hawthorn <rowan_h...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> > A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> > threads.
> >
> >
> > BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> > Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> > 10) "Hush" - Good]
> >
>
> Heathen. Philistine. Philistinian heathen.
saracen dog
Carlos Moreno
> :It's also (in my
> :opinion) the only episode of BtVS that was actually scary.
>
> Crefbanyyl, V sbhaq "Pbairefngvbaf Jvgu Qrnq
> Crbcyr" gb or zhpu zber sevtugravat.
I actually disagree with both -- I do find Hush to be by far
the scariest episode of the series; but not *the only* scary
episode. The other one you mention (rot13'd) is, IMO, very
scary... But still, I don't think it comes remotely close to
Hush in that respect.
Carlos
--
Arbitrar Of Quality
> > Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
> > open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
>
> that was in the movie and the first episode and will continue
> its also a useful exposition device
No problem with the core of the Slayerdream, I jsut didn't think the
part wiht the demonstration in Walsh's class was really necessary.
> > surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> > tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> > without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
>
> they went in through abdominal muscles and then north under the ribs
> its the easiest way in if all you want is damage and not healing
> it also sometimes slices the aorta or vena cava on the way
>
> the way to a mans heart is through his stomach
Hmm. You're actually right on that one; I guess I'm used ot thinking
in terms of wanting to preserve the major vessels, but yeah, the
Gentlemen wouldn't be concerned about such things. Still seemed like
an awfully small scalpel, though.
-AOQ
Arbitrar Of Quality
> On a side note, I once flipped into the middle of this episode right at
> the beginning of that 19 minuets. I did not realise until it was over
> that I was on the local Spanish channel.
Heh. There's one episode that won't be so marred by terrible
translations...
-AOQ
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> Writer: Joss Whedon
> Director: Joss Whedon
Hey! What's the deal with posting the Hush review early on a Sunday
afternoon? I wasn't ready!
As you've seen by now, Hush is (almost) universally regarded as among the
very best episodes of Buffy. Technically you could say that it's
overrated, because it's rated SO highly that it would have to be
essentially perfect to truly earn its rating. I personally would rank it
among my top five, maybe even my top three favorite episodes, and
definitely among the top three on technical merits.
> Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
> open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
> they're just dull.
Ah, but I'm afraid prophetic dreams are a standard Slayer power, plus Joss
likes them, so they are an inescapable part of the show. In this case I
like how Buffy's personal dream about Riley and the monster-prophesying
dream bleed into each other. In dreams as in real life, Buffy can neither
give up her personal life nor keep it separate from Slayage. (And the
personal part was more interesting to watch than the dream about opening
an office-supply warehouse in Vegas would have been. Though that one did
have plenty of farcical potential.)
> She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
> she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
She was already pushing them together in earlier episodes; it just shows
up better now that she's less depressed.
> The first act has a few worthwhile scenes to go along with the
> blandness, at least. I adored the whole sequence in the Menstrual
> Lifeforce Power Thingy group (or is "Blah Blah Gaia Blah Blah Moon
> group" funnier?), in which Willow finally learns the difference
> between a Wiccan and a magic user. The former involves more bullshit,
> even in the Buffyverse, and it's a lot of fun to see the show
> parodying it. (Yeah, the reviewer's prejudices come into play. I
> have even less use for new-age stuff than I do for "real"
> religion.)
On re-watching today, I noticed that they keep their eyes shut for the
opening prayer, but Willow opens hers when they get to the part about the
wolf. Then she rolls her eyes like "Not only is this silly, but you guys
don't know the first thing about wolves...."
Re: Wicca in real life, I don't care for the most New Agey parts of it,
nor the bogus claims of direct descent from ancient paganism, nor the
people who think they really cast spells; but there's a certain thread of
nature worship in there that I can respect. I mean, if you *have* to have
a religion at all, nature worship is fairly logical. You can argue about
the existence of the soul or the true basis of morality, but we know
nature exists and we know our lives depend on it.
Getting back to the show, it's interesting that Willow seeks among the
other students for fellow magic-users. If she really wanted to do magic,
surely Giles knows some experts she could contact. Her horizons have
expanded with the move from high school to college, but she isn't *quite*
ready for the real (magical) world yet. But this new Tara chick seems to
have potential, so maybe the Wicca group was a good idea after all.
> and Spike too. We re-meet Olivia, and everyone goes to sleep, leading
> into an end-of-act break with one of our monsters grinning goofily. I
> hope they didn't think that'd be scary.
They go to sleep, then some mysterious creature casts a spell that we see
affect the entire town, and *then* we see the goofy monster grin. The
grin alone is just creepy, but it's also chilling to know that this thing
is doing *something* to all our heroes as they lay innocently asleep.
The next morning, Buffy seems to go directly from using the toilet to
brushing her teeth without washing her hands first. Yuck.
Aside from the main characters' reactions, I liked the liquor store's big
"Yes, We're Open!" banner, and the guy who dropped his bottle in Tara's
lobby and made everyone jump. But that street preacher should have known
it's "Revelation," without the S. Oh, and the bit in the Initiative
elevator, with Forrest writing "Come on! Come on!" since he can't say it,
is hilarious.
> Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
> Voice?"
I like it -- it reminds me of the old Talking Moose for the Mac.
> for help usually makes for good viewing. I particularly liked the
> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
Ah, but the little knife has a certain delicate precision that makes it
all the creepier. And a saw would be too noisy for Hush, anyway. It just
wouldn't fit.
> I'd say another thing that makes the episode more unsettling is that
> it takes us awhile to figure out what the Gentlemen are doing,
Did they ever explain exactly what happens when the Gentlemen get seven
hearts? Does that lead to some new evil, or do they then just pack up and
move on to the next town?
> - Anya's reactions during Giles' lecture (Willow's CD idea is
> nice too, BTW)
Willow just looks so CUTE miming a horrible death! And as others have
already said, the whole lecture scene is a little gem. The very fact that
Giles thought to provide himself with a soundtrack is terrific. He's got
hidden depths, that man.
The big fight was okay, but the bit where Riley and Buffy first see each
other is great. Contrived, sure, but I loved it. I also liked the final
little miscommunication, when Riley smashed that bottle instead of the
box. But most of all, I loved the way the Gentlemen's heads exploded, and
the nasty splatting noises as their brains hit the floor.
This is one of those episodes that I try not to watch too often, so I
don't wear it out. Excellent.
--Chris
______________________________________________________________________
chrisg [at] gwu.edu On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog.
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
>> threads.
>>
>>
>> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
>> Writer: Joss Whedon
>> Director: Joss Whedon
>
> nominated for an Emmy Award. The category, of course, Best
> Writing/Drama. Unfortunately, it lost to an epi of West Wing.
Joss Whedon should get an Emmy and beat Aaron Sorkin over the head with
it!
Arbitrar Of Quality
> Many Happy Returns is a great epsiode. In fact, it's the 3rd best
> episode of The Prisoner, a series which is itself the 14th best fictional
> series ever made (10 places ahead of BtVS). But there are 6 episodes if BtVS
> that are better than it, including Hush.
The scary thing is that I don't actually know whether you're joking or
not. Either way, one of the funniest things I've read today.
> > AOQ rating: Good
>
> So, not quite up the standard of Ted and Dead Man's Party then?
They hit me harder.
-AOQ
George W Harris
wrote:
:> 4) Tara's shyness and stammer make it impossible to get her
:> ideas across. And I thought the Wicca group leader's treatment
:> of her was a *classic* example of passive-aggressive controlling
:> behaviour in the disguise of being helpful; telling the entire
:> group to be quiet and focus on Tara, when she's clearly so
:> self-conscious and unassertive, is almost guaranteed to force
:> her back into her shell instead of actually letting her
:> communicate.
:>
:
:I actually thought the leader was genuinely trying to be
:encouraging to Tara and simply didn't realize her encouragement
:would have the reverse effect. Which kind of makes it another case
:of botched communication on both sides.
No, I think the 'leader' was perfectly presented
as one of those people who professes desire for
consensus, but who seems to think consensus means
everyone agrees with her and does exactly what she
says.
:Michael Ikeda mmi...@erols.com
--
Never give a loaded gun to a woman in labor.
George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'.
George W Harris
wrote:
:> Oh, have I
:> mentioned that Riley is boring? Well, he is. I kinda like Forrest,
:> but he has a rather one-track mind, doesn't he?
:
:Forrest is pretty likable.
The funniest ongoing joke in S4 is the UST between
Riley and Forrest.
--
"Intelligence is too complex to capture in a single number." -Alfred Binet
Rowan Hawthorn
> Rowan Hawthorn <rowan_h...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>>> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
>>> threads.
>>>
>>>
>>> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>>> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>>> 10) "Hush" - Good]
>>>
>> Heathen. Philistine. Philistinian heathen.
>
> saracen dog
ROFL! Yeah, I knew I'd left one off...
Apteryx
news:125aqff...@news.supernews.com...
> "Apteryx" <apt...@xtra.co.nz> wrote in message
> news:SKc5g.6803$0Y5....@news.xtra.co.nz...
>
>
>> Many Happy Returns is a great epsiode. In fact, it's the 3rd best episode
>> of The Prisoner, a series which is itself the 14th best fictional series
>> ever made (10 places ahead of BtVS). But there are 6 episodes if BtVS
>> that are better than it, including Hush.
>
> I started writing a post earlier about how hard it was for me to rank
> episodes - and found that just writing about that was too hard! And now I
> see this. LOL! You've tickled my funny bone for the day.
It's not done on the fly, but the final product of 15 years of gradually
refining a computerised rating system. :)
Starting with a 5-point rating system for films in my video/DVD collection,
expanding that to 9 points, expanding it further by allowing half-points.
That is still as finely as I grade my films, but TV episodes allow finer
gradation, especially when you collect the whole series. I started watching
series, and rating episodes on the same scale as films. After watching 144
BtVS epsidodes, I had a lot on 3.5, on 4, or on 4.5. On rewatching, some of
the ones rated 4 seem a little better - they can be 3.75. Some a little
weaker - they can be 4.25. After numerous rewatchings, there are now very
few ties between BtVS epsiodes. And there is a huge range in quality over
the series, so I have one BtVS episode rated as high as 1, and another rated
as low as 6.75 (low scores good). So BtVs has become my gold standard for
rating other series. I can ask myself, which episode of BtVS most closely
matches this episode of this other series, and rate it accordingly.
That means that every episode of every series in my collection has its own
individual rating. So to see how many BtVS episodes I rated above Many Happy
Returns, I had only to check the rating I had given it (2.9) and then see
how many BtVS epsidodes were rated higher.
Rating series is done just by having the computer calculate the average
ratings of the episodes.
> (Today I'm going to rank the James Garner show, Nichols, as the best
> fictional series. Do you remember it?)
I don't remember that one. My number 1 is the Dennis Potter BBC mini-series
The Singing Detective (and in fact his Pennies From Heaven comes 2nd, and
there are three more Denis Potter mini-series in my Top Ten - Lipstick,
Christabel, and Karaoke)
--
Apteryx
Arbitrar Of Quality
> Hush is what hooked me on the series. After that I immersed myself in BtVS
> as best as I could. Which with daily reruns (sometimes double on weekends)
> and the then current S6, was quite a bit.
>
> So, I'll always have a special fondness for this episode. It's no longer #1
> for me, but it's always somewhere in the top five. In some ways better than
> ever, for I can now appreciate all of the important continuity elements,
> which are actually pretty big deals in their own right.
There's always something special about the moment of true addiction. I
was enjoying the series quite a bit anyway, but I think I'll always
have special feelings for "The Pack."
> > She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
> > she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
>
> Suddenly? Have you forgotten she was Riley's accomplice in the Initiative?
You're right about that. Her intense interest in Buffy's love life
seems like a change (or recovery) from "Something Blue."
> All about establishing a theme of
> words getting in the way of communication. (Remember Walsh's opening
> remarks?)
I find it weird that I pretty much missed out on this theme o.f.v. I
like to think that I mostly miss the more muddled metaphors and themes,
but not here. Granted it's a pretty trite bit of psudeo-philosophy,
but its importance to the episode is only slightly less than blindingly
obvious in retrospect (especially with Stephen's post above).
> Anyway, all of this, again, is to set up the silence with confused
> conversation full of misunderstanding and contradiction, peaking with...
>
> Giles: um I need you to take Spike for a few days.
> Xander: What?
> Spike: What?
> Anya: What?
>
> I think it's pretty clever writing myself.
That's a good bit.
> There was also that part with some sort of essence from all the sleeping
> people drawn from them into that box - with all the whispering going on that
> ends abruptly with the closing of the lid by the boney hand. Then the
> toothsome smile of an obviously malign creature that had just completed some
> sort of devilry.
>
> It's scary mainly as portent of unknown but palpable malice.
Considering all the werid monsters we see on the show, the Gentlemen
just looked silly to me pre-Hush. Seeing them in action for a few
minutes quickly fixed that.
> "About the kindest thing" - does that translate to something genuinely good?
Yep. What I'm trying to say is that "Hush" isn't just some novelty
experiment, it's a true _Buffy_ episode, full of the kind of stuff I
watch this show for.
-AOQ
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu
>
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
>> threads.
>>
>>
>> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
>> Writer: Joss Whedon
>> Director: Joss Whedon
> On a side note, I once flipped into the middle of this episode right at
> the beginning of that 19 minuets. I did not realise until it was over
> that I was on the local Spanish channel.
That reminds me of another amusing Dutch moment. Back before the DVDs
came out, I downloaded a bunch of episodes off the Internet, including
copies of The Freshman and Hush with Dutch subtitles. (For Hush, the
parts where characters silently mouth their words had subtitles in
italics.) In The Freshman, I was inordinately amused by the subtitle
"flaptekst" for "blurb." Hush had another moment like that. When Willow
silently cries out "I've gone deaf!," it's rendered as "Ik ben doof!" I
just found that hilarious for some reason. Obviously I'm easily amused.
Arbitrar Of Quality
> But most of all, I loved the way the Gentlemen's heads exploded, and
> the nasty splatting noises as their brains hit the floor.
Oooh, totally forgot to mention that. Yes, such a gorgeously and
satisfyingly violent way for them to die.
-AOQ
Apteryx
> Apteryx wrote:
>
>> Many Happy Returns is a great epsiode. In fact, it's the 3rd best
>> episode of The Prisoner, a series which is itself the 14th best fictional
>> series ever made (10 places ahead of BtVS). But there are 6 episodes if
>> BtVS
>> that are better than it, including Hush.
>
> The scary thing is that I don't actually know whether you're joking or
> not. Either way, one of the funniest things I've read today.
Naturally I have systems to retrieve and compare ratings I have previously
given. If you're going to be serious about Quality, why wouldn't you? You'd
better look into it :)
--
Apteryx
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu
>
>> surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
>> tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
>> without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
>
> its the easiest way in if all you want is damage and not healing
> it also sometimes slices the aorta or vena cava on the way
>
> the way to a mans heart is through his stomach
Grrroooooaaaannnnn.... That's just cheesy enough that I can imagine Buffy
saying it as she stakes some vamp from below.
Ian Galbraith
> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote in message
>>> AOQ rating: Good
>> FYI, this episode is one of a small handful of near universal high regard.
>> It is one of the principal candidates for best episode ever in the series.
> I'd agree that it's pretty overrated.
He's not saying its overrated.
> It's a really good episode, 42 on my
> total list, 5th in season four,
Its in my top 10, perhaps even top 5.
[snip]
> The
> initiative stuff is one of the weakest storylines in the show's whole run,
> so almost any episode in this era of the show is hampered by that,
The Initiative stuff is a sideline this episode.
> and
> unlike a lot of Joss episodes, this doesn't come at a critical point in the
> story. It's a pretty big beat for season four, but it's no Becoming or Once
> More With Feeling.
Vgf orggre guna BZJS VZUB
> So, without the emotional hook, it becomes largely a style exercise. The
> comedy is great, as are the score and visuals, but that alone doesn't make
> it a classic.
The lack of a bug emotional hook is one of its strengths, its achieves a
lot without it. There's a reasonable amount of depth to it with its
themes of communication. And you may call it largely an exercise in
style, but the artistic qualities of a work come from its form, Hush is
close to perfect in this regard.
[snip - be careful with spoilers]
--
You can't stop the signal
Arbitrar Of Quality
> That means that every episode of every series in my collection has its own
> individual rating. So to see how many BtVS episodes I rated above Many Happy
> Returns, I had only to check the rating I had given it (2.9) and then see
> how many BtVS epsidodes were rated higher.
>
> Rating series is done just by having the computer calculate the average
> ratings of the episodes.
That raises the question of whether the whole of a series is ever
greater (or less) than the sum (or average, as the case may be) of its
episodes.
Way off topic, but now I'm curious what your order is for _The
Prisoner_. There're at least three or four I like better than MHR.
-AOQ
burt...@hotmail.com
George W Harris wrote:
> On 30 Apr 2006 12:50:46 -0700, burt...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> :It's also (in my
> :opinion) the only episode of BtVS that was actually scary.
>
> Crefbanyyl, V sbhaq "Pbairefngvbaf Jvgu Qrnq
> Crbcyr" gb or zhpu zber sevtugravat.
Huh. Well, I disagree, but to each their own, I suppose.
Kevin
After trying to describe the Gentlemen in his script, Joss writes,
"Well, they pretty much look like Mr. Burns." (Or something close.) I
love that.
I really liked the way their story was tied to a children's singsong
rhyme... That little girl singing about the scary monsters was a
classic creepy touch.
Some have mentioned that they love Hush, but don't rank it in the
topmost echelon because its story doesn't have the deep resonance of
Lie to Me, Innocence, Becoming... I feel like Joss's excellent
episodes in Season 4 are a codicil to the S1-2-3 show; an experimental
phase of great style and meaning, but partially detached from the
storylines (which are less solid in S4 anyway). His later work is even
more so.
--Kevin
Kevin
One Bit Shy wrote:
> I started writing a post earlier about how hard it was for me to rank
> episodes - and found that just writing about that was too hard! And now I
> see this. LOL! You've tickled my funny bone for the day.
Joe Queenan, in one of his books, relates the story of a German (or
Austrian?) man he once met who was obsessed with ranking "the top 10
composers" and other impossible things. He dubbed him Herr Rankem.
Apteryx' schemata is a bit more plausible, I guess. :)
--Kevin
Kevin
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu wrote:
> In The Freshman, I was inordinately amused by the subtitle
> "flaptekst" for "blurb." Hush had another moment like that. When Willow
> silently cries out "I've gone deaf!," it's rendered as "Ik ben doof!" I
> just found that hilarious for some reason.
No offense to Dutchfolk, but I think Dutch is inherently hilarious.
It's like German pronounced poorly by the Swedish Chef.
The Godfather DVD Collection includes in its Extras a brief medley of
clips in foreign dubbings. Hearing a deep-voiced Frenchman do a
voiceover of James Caan's "Bada beep, bada bap, bada boop, bada
beep..." had me falling out of my chair.
--Kevin
Opus the Penguin
> Heh, I was thinking that too. I wanted the little monster to hold
> up a "Grrr...Argh" sign a la Wile E. Coyote instead of speaking.
That would have been great!
--
Opus the Penguin
The best darn penguin in all of Usenet
Opus the Penguin
> an important idea behind the episode is that
> when we start talking we stop communicating
What's that supposed to mean?
Don Sample
"One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
> (Today I'm going to rank the James Garner show, Nichols, as the best
> fictional series. Do you remember it?)
I remember it. It was so good that it got cancelled, right out of the
gate. (Almost all the shows that I like get cancelled, right out of the
gate. Buffy is one of the very rare exceptions.)
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
Opus the Penguin
> Personally, I thought the fight scene at the end dragged too much,
> which is why I'd only rate this episode as excellent instead of
> superlative. It's not just novelty for the sake of it - although
> it's impressive enough - it's also illustrating a major theme of
> the season: how surface matters and personal concerns can stop
> people communicating, until they strip all that away and focus on
> what's real. (Giles and Co not listening to Buffy in 'Living
> Conditions', Oz not talking to Willow in 'Wild at Heart', the
> whoile Riley-Initiative situation: the list goes on.)
>
> Cyhf gurer'f Jvyybj'f arj jvgpu sevraq - sebz gur jnl fur'f
> qrfpevorq va guvf erivrj V qba'g *guvax* gur craal'f qebccrq lrg
> sbe NbD: jbaqre ng jung fgntr vg jvyy?
You know, no matter how many times I see it, ROT-13 still gives me a
first impression that the poster has become overwhelmed with emotion
and is shouting in Klingon.
Opus the Penguin
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
>
>> In assigning a rating, I spent a little too much time pondering
>> whether "Hush" should get extra credit, so to speak, simply for
>> the fact that it successfully gets an entertaining episode out of
>> its novelty factor. Should the mere achievement of stripping the
>> show of one of its biggest defining characteristics and still
>> bringing the action/horror/comedy mean it deserves a higher
>> rating? Then I of course remembered that how much I enjoyed an
>> episode overall is the only criterion for the ratings. Novelty
>> in and of itself is worthless to me, unless it's also worth
>> watching. With those thoughts in mind, about the kindest thing I
>> can say about "Hush" is that it doesn't feel like a gimmick show
>> at all. It's transcended the "very special episode" factor, and
>> feels like an integral, if unique, part of the BTVS story.
>
> I'm trying to understand these sentences - they contradict in
> apparant tone. (To me anyway.) "About the kindest thing" - does
> that translate to something genuinely good? It sounds like a
> backhanded compliment.
For a fat slayer, she doesn't sweat much.
Opus the Penguin
> Starting with a 5-point rating system for films in my video/DVD
> collection, expanding that to 9 points, expanding it further by
> allowing half-points. That is still as finely as I grade my films,
> but TV episodes allow finer gradation, especially when you collect
> the whole series. I started watching series, and rating episodes
> on the same scale as films. After watching 144 BtVS epsidodes, I
> had a lot on 3.5, on 4, or on 4.5. On rewatching, some of the ones
> rated 4 seem a little better - they can be 3.75. Some a little
> weaker - they can be 4.25. After numerous rewatchings, there are
> now very few ties between BtVS epsiodes. And there is a huge range
> in quality over the series, so I have one BtVS episode rated as
> high as 1, and another rated as low as 6.75 (low scores good). So
> BtVs has become my gold standard for rating other series. I can
> ask myself, which episode of BtVS most closely matches this
> episode of this other series, and rate it accordingly.
Um, no offense, but are you normal? Socially, I mean. You have
friends, maybe a spouse or a significant other? Just curious.
Actually, if you take offense that might be a *good* sign.
mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
Opus the Penguin <opusthepen...@gmail.com> wrote:
> mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
-> (mair_...@yahoo.com) wrote:
>
> > an important idea behind the episode is that
> > when we start talking we stop communicating
>
> What's that supposed to mean?
arf meow arf - nsa fodder
al qaeda terrorism nuclear bomb iran taliban big brother
if you meet buddha on the usenet killfile him
Opus the Penguin
> Way off topic, but now I'm curious what your order is for _The
> Prisoner_. There're at least three or four I like better than MHR.
And those would be:
The Schizoid Man
A, B, & C
and which other two?
BTR1701
wrote:
> BTR1701 wrote:
> > In article <nda5g.3473$hR6....@weber.videotron.net>,
> > Carlos Moreno <moreno_at_mo...@mailinator.com> wrote:
> >
> >> *sigh*
> >>
> >> Man, I really don't understand how you guys are not severely
> >> *bored now* at this point...
> >>
> >> Around the time of Doppelgangland's review I decided I was no
> >> longer interested in discussing my points of view with someone
> >> with such lack of sense of humor and taste...
> >>
> >> But this review truly makes me wonder -- how can someone have
> >> the arrogange to call himself Arbitrar of Quality, and the
> >> audacity to write systematic reviews on a series for which
> >> he is so clearly unqualified to judge, given the decidedly
> >> poor taste and lack of sense of humor...
> >
> > You really need to get over the idea that your personal aesthetic
> > tastes are an objective benchmark by which all else is judged.
>
> Irony, thy name is BTR.
Apparently your definition of irony is not the same as the rest of the
English-speaking world.
Jeff Jacoby
[snip]
> Hmm. You're actually right on that one; I guess I'm used ot thinking
> in terms of wanting to preserve the major vessels, but yeah, the
> Gentlemen wouldn't be concerned about such things. Still seemed like
> an awfully small scalpel, though.
Going from memory, I believe one of the Gentleman was
carrying a doctor's bag. Perhaps there were other,
sturdier instruments in it used after the first incision
was made.
Jeff
Apteryx
news:1146454639.5...@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Apteryx wrote:
>
>> That means that every episode of every series in my collection has its
>> own
>> individual rating. So to see how many BtVS episodes I rated above Many
>> Happy
>> Returns, I had only to check the rating I had given it (2.9) and then see
>> how many BtVS epsidodes were rated higher.
>>
>> Rating series is done just by having the computer calculate the average
>> ratings of the episodes.
>
> That raises the question of whether the whole of a series is ever
> greater (or less) than the sum (or average, as the case may be) of its
> episodes.
It is sometimes useful to describe the whole of series as greater than the
sum of its episodes, but in fact when I think that about a series, it is
because something in one or more of its episodes has made me think it. I can
give the credit to that episode or episodes in its rating, or go back and
change the rating of earlier episodes which I now realise forshadowed
greater things than I saw at the time.
> Way off topic, but now I'm curious what your order is for _The
> Prisoner_. There're at least three or four I like better than MHR.
Going by our respective ratings of BtVS and AtS so far, my order is likely
to be very different from yours. But my ranking order for The Prisoner is:
1. Once Upon A Time
2. Arrival
3. Many Happy Returns
4. Schizoid Man
4= The Chimes of Big Ben
6. The Girl Who Was Death
7. Checkmate
8. Do Not Forsake Me O My Darling
9. Free For All
9= Hammer Into Anvil
11 Its Your Funeral
12 A Change of Mind
13 Living In Harmony
13= Dance of the Dead
13= Fall Out
16 A, B, & C
17 The General
There are more equal rated episodes in The Prisoner than there are in BtVS
(proportionally) because I haven't watched it frequently enough to break
those ties. I think The Prisoner is better watched fresh, which leads to
longer gaps between rewatchings, which makes it harder to break ties between
episodes.
--
Apteryx
BTR1701
"One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
> "Fortune favors the brave." A Virgil quote
Virgil's quote is actually "fortune favors the bold".
BTR1701
vague disclaimer <l64o...@dea.spamcon.org> wrote:
> In article <125aikg...@news.supernews.com>,
> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > > I want one of those electro-guns that Riley and the Initiative guys
> > > use.
> >
> > Yeah, they are kind of cool. But I can't help think of them as the
> > compromise concession to the reality of guns without having bullets. The
> > rationale for them makes sense - control and capture. But ultimately
> > they're weak-assed weapons.
>
> Except that we know that regular guns don't work on vampires (thanks to
> Darla).
Depends on what you mean by "work".
Do guns kill vampires? No.
Do guns knock them on their ass and incapacitate them with blinding
pain? Yes.
Is that a tactical advantage one might like to have when going up
against a vampire? Yes.
mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
BTR1701 <btr...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
rather doubt virgil was around long enough
to hear anglosaxon evolve to include -brave- or -bold-
Apteryx
news:Xns97B5F3D06F3ECop...@127.0.0.1...
Well obviously I'm not "normal". I watch a show called Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, own all its episodes on DVD, and after watching it go online to
discuss it with other fans. And that, believe me, as far as literally all
those closest to me are concerned, is 3 strikes against my normalcy far more
significant than the fact that after watching an episode, I take 10 seconds
to record the fact on my PC, and give it a rating.
--
Apteryx
Eric Hunter
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> (or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
I was expecting:
(Hey, girl, I got something I think you ought to know.
Hey, babe, I wanna tell you that I love you so.
I wanna hold you in my arms, yeah!
I'm never gonna let you go,
'Cause I like your charms.
Communication Breakdown,
It's always the same)
Or perhaps:
(What we have here, is a failure to communicate)
> Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
> Good, it means that *I liked it*?
I wonder if your laudable efforts to be an objective
reviewer, lessened your appreciation for this
episode? The Gentlemen are viscerally frightening
in a way that very little of the rest of BtVS was.
You also seem to have missed the subtext as text
message about communication in the first act.
Eric.
--
George W Harris
<opusthepen...@gmail.com> wrote:
:Apteryx (apt...@xtra.co.nz) wrote:
:
:> Starting with a 5-point rating system for films in my video/DVD
:> collection, expanding that to 9 points, expanding it further by
:> allowing half-points. That is still as finely as I grade my films,
:> but TV episodes allow finer gradation, especially when you collect
:> the whole series. I started watching series, and rating episodes
:> on the same scale as films. After watching 144 BtVS epsidodes, I
:> had a lot on 3.5, on 4, or on 4.5. On rewatching, some of the ones
:> rated 4 seem a little better - they can be 3.75. Some a little
:> weaker - they can be 4.25. After numerous rewatchings, there are
:> now very few ties between BtVS epsiodes. And there is a huge range
:> in quality over the series, so I have one BtVS episode rated as
:> high as 1, and another rated as low as 6.75 (low scores good). So
:> BtVs has become my gold standard for rating other series. I can
:> ask myself, which episode of BtVS most closely matches this
:> episode of this other series, and rate it accordingly.
:
:Um, no offense, but are you normal?
No, clearly he's chi-square.
--
They say there's air in your lungs that's been there for years.
George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'.
One Bit Shy
news:Xns97B5F2AB11C62op...@127.0.0.1...
Did anyone ever tell you that you were silly?
Though now it occurs to me that the Slayer could make some fine
antiperspirant ads. "Never let a demon see you sweat."
OBS
One Bit Shy
news:btr1702-ADBBA1...@news.giganews.com...
Translations vary.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil (near the bottom of the page)
I've also seen it as fortune befriends the bold.
But no matter. Joss chose this particular version - via the poster - not
me. However rendered, the ultimate source is still Virgil.
OBS
One Bit Shy
news:dsample-37ED55...@news.giganews.com...
> In article <125aqff...@news.supernews.com>,
> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
>
>> (Today I'm going to rank the James Garner show, Nichols, as the best
>> fictional series. Do you remember it?)
>
> I remember it. It was so good that it got cancelled, right out of the
> gate. (Almost all the shows that I like get cancelled, right out of the
> gate. Buffy is one of the very rare exceptions.)
Don, my estimation of you just jumped a couple of notches. ;-) I was
kidding a little about it being the best ever, but damn, it was way too good
to have been buried like it was. To the best of my knowledge it has not
shown up on DVD and I suspect it won't.
OBS
Paul Hyett
>In alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer on Sun, 30 Apr 2006, EGK wrote :
>>
>>You have every right to your opinion, of course, but if Hush can't rate an
>>excellent, I have to totally question your taste. Wow! I thought it was
>>the best episode of season 4 by far and one of the best of the whole series.
>
>I have to differ on this - personally I found 'Hush' rather boring,
>perhaps due to the 'fairy tale' aspect of it, similar to 'Killed By
>Death'.
Of course, I thought OMWF sucked too, but very few people agree with me
on that, either...
--
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett
Shuggie
>
> EGK wrote:
>> On 30 Apr 2006 13:19:49 -0700, "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> >Am I going to have to remind everyone again that if I rate an episode
>> >Good, it means that *I liked it*?
>> >
>>
>> heh. You're right but people have particular favorites and don't like to
>> see them downgraded at all I guess. :) As has been mentioned, Hush
>> usually rates as one of the best episodes of the whole series. Not
>> everyone agrees, of course.
>
> Example: me. I came to the conclusion years ago that "Hush," like
> "Becoming part 2," is overrated. I understand Joss's theme about
> communication, and I think the episode is constructed well. And the
> Gentlemen are probably the scariest villains the show ever had -- this
> was one of the few true horror episodes. And yet, I don't think it
> quite belongs in the top tier of BtVS episodes. At the end of the day,
> I think it's just a good, solid Buffy ep. Joss did it to stretch
> himself as a director, but he kept it within the standard Buffy episode
> format.
>
>
But surely you're not suggesting that to be a great ep it has to break
out of the format? I suppose it makes a change from all those critics of
Gur Obql or BZJS who say 'it's good but it's not a _Buffy_ episode'
--
Shuggie
my blog - http://shuggie.livejournal.com/
kenm47
Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges wrote:
> > > Okay, I'd like to call for a moratorium on goofy dream sequences to
> > > open episodes. They're not novel and disconcerting anymore,
> >
> > its been established that prophetic dreams are part of a slayer
> > that was in the movie and the first episode and will continue
> > its also a useful exposition device
>
> No problem with the core of the Slayerdream, I jsut didn't think the
> part wiht the demonstration in Walsh's class was really necessary.
>
> > > surgery scene, before we know exactly what they want (even though a
> > > tiny scalpel isn't really the tool of choice for removing a heart,
> > > without a bone-saw or something to cut through the ribs. Just saying).
> >
> > they went in through abdominal muscles and then north under the ribs
> > its the easiest way in if all you want is damage and not healing
> > it also sometimes slices the aorta or vena cava on the way
> >
> > the way to a mans heart is through his stomach
>
> Hmm. You're actually right on that one; I guess I'm used ot thinking
> in terms of wanting to preserve the major vessels, but yeah, the
> Gentlemen wouldn't be concerned about such things. Still seemed like
> an awfully small scalpel, though.
>
Which increased the scare factor of the episode when empathizing with
the victims going through the process. All the pain and, on top of
that, no scream.
Ken (Brooklyn)
kenm47
like how Buffy's personal dream about Riley and the monster-prophesying
dream bleed into each other. In dreams as in real life, Buffy can
neither give up her personal life nor keep it separate from Slayage."
Except, it isn't. Riley is not JUST personal life. Riley becomes her
comrade in arms in the big battle.
But what does "When I kiss you the sun will go down" and "You're a good
boy" really mean?
" 'Have I mentioned recently how much I hate the damn BTVS "Computer
Voice?'
I like it -- it reminds me of the old Talking Moose for the Mac."
I figured it was an effort to use an audible (a Stephen Hawking
sounding "voice") to show us how advanced and technological The
Initiative is.
Ken (Brooklyn)
jil...@hotmail.com
hybrids who live in this one?! (no, no, no spoilers even in the
question. It just springs from the recent reminder of Hero)
kenm47
Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu wrote:
>
> > But most of all, I loved the way the Gentlemen's heads exploded, and
> > the nasty splatting noises as their brains hit the floor.
>
> Oooh, totally forgot to mention that. Yes, such a gorgeously and
> satisfyingly violent way for them to die.
>
> -AOQ
Unless my ears deceived me, there's also that cutting into something
wet but solid noise with the male college victim just before we "cut"
to the commercial.
Ken (Brooklyn)
jil...@hotmail.com
Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> No problem with the core of the Slayerdream, I jsut didn't think the
> part wiht the demonstration in Walsh's class was really necessary.
Well, you see it was a dream... and then it became a Slayer warning.
jil...@hotmail.com
MBangel10 (Melissa) wrote:
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> > Willow finally learns the difference
> > between a Wiccan and a magic user. The former involves more bullshit,
> > even in the Buffyverse, and it's a lot of fun to see the show
> > parodying it. (Yeah, the reviewer's prejudices come into play. I
> > have even less use for new-age stuff than I do for "real"
> > religion.)
>
> Well, at least the bake sales seem nice.
I have to counter this, AOQ.
Yes, it is your prejudices, but there's something else to it. Willow
is not learning the difference between a Wiccan and a magic user.
Willow is learning the difference between herself who will try
anything, be it black magic or white, to see if she can..... and people
who are just playing with magic and barely know that it works.
eli...@gmail.com
>"Well, they pretty much look like Mr. Burns." (Or something close.) I
>love that.
Here it is:
He's old, bone white, bald -- Nosferatu meets Hellraiser by way of the
Joker. Actually, he looks kind of like Mr. Burns, except he can't stop
his rictus-grin, and his teeth are gleaming metal. As he grins with
satisfaction...
BLACK OUT
kenm47
It's all Slayer warning/prophecy dream, the kiss notwithstanding.
Ken (Brooklyn)
jil...@hotmail.com
chr...@removethistoreply.gwu.edu wrote:
> The next morning, Buffy seems to go directly from using the toilet to
> brushing her teeth without washing her hands first. Yuck.
Chris... dear... *takes you gently by the shoulders, looks you deep in
the eyes* (side-note: I just might be the only person to think this)
A great many women use this strange and novel invention known as toilet
paper, and are able most of the time to wipe themselves without
dirtying their hands. Now, I said "most of the time" not "all of the
time."
Rowan Hawthorn
> mariposas rand mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges
>
>> an important idea behind the episode is that
>> when we start talking we stop communicating
>
> What's that supposed to mean?
>
It's a signal-to-noise ratio thing. Quite a few people talk
and talk and *talk*, but they don't really *communicate*. And
some people use talking to *avoid* actually saying what they
mean. (Cross-reference politicians...)
--
Rowan Hawthorn
"Occasionally, I'm callous and strange." - Willow Rosenberg,
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
Espen Schjønberg
>
> I have to differ on this - personally I found 'Hush' rather boring,
> perhaps due to the 'fairy tale' aspect of it, similar to 'Killed By Death'.
Of course, Killed By Death is in my opinion the most universally
underrated episode.
So there you go.
A Good rating for Hush is his right. Allthough I, like so many others,
put it among the best myself. It was such a blast the first time I saw it.
Also, the computer voice _is_ annoying. And isn't that into the part
they count as all non-speech? But Walsh is speaking with it. So the
record are false then.
The ending is lovely. "We have to speak.". Followed by silence.
--
Espen
Espen Schjønberg
FYI.
There is a request for no spoilers in this AOQ-threads.
Discussing what is good in futute episodes count as spoilers.
--
Espen
Noe er Feil[tm]
peachy ashie passion
> Stephen Tempest (steph...@stempest.demon.co.uk) wrote:
>
>
>>Personally, I thought the fight scene at the end dragged too much,
>>which is why I'd only rate this episode as excellent instead of
>>superlative. It's not just novelty for the sake of it - although
>>it's impressive enough - it's also illustrating a major theme of
>>the season: how surface matters and personal concerns can stop
>>people communicating, until they strip all that away and focus on
>>what's real. (Giles and Co not listening to Buffy in 'Living
>>Conditions', Oz not talking to Willow in 'Wild at Heart', the
>>whoile Riley-Initiative situation: the list goes on.)
>>
>>Cyhf gurer'f Jvyybj'f arj jvgpu sevraq - sebz gur jnl fur'f
>>qrfpevorq va guvf erivrj V qba'g *guvax* gur craal'f qebccrq lrg
>>sbe NbD: jbaqre ng jung fgntr vg jvyy?
>
>
> You know, no matter how many times I see it, ROT-13 still gives me a
> first impression that the poster has become overwhelmed with emotion
> and is shouting in Klingon.
>
YES!!!!!
Thank you so very much for letting me know I am not the only one.
peachy ashie passion
Which is FAR more fun!
rrh...@acme.com
KenM47 wrote:
> EGK <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> >On 30 Apr 2006 10:30:14 -0700, "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> >>threads.
> >>
> >>
> >>BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> >>Season Four, Episode 10: "Hush"
> >>(or "There's a kind of hush/All over the world")
> >>Director: Joss Whedon
> >
> >>So...
> >>
> >>One-sentence summary:
> >>
> >>AOQ rating: Good
> >
> >You have every right to your opinion, of course, but if Hush can't rate an
> >excellent, I have to totally question your taste. Wow! I thought it was
> >the best episode of season 4 by far and one of the best of the whole series.
>
>
> It was also pretty much universally accepted, IIRC, as the downright
> actual scariest creepiest of all the BtVS episodes (for me,
> certainly).
My wife would agree. She won't watch it or be anywhere near the
television when I watch it, as the Gentlemen creep her out. This is
the only episode she reacts this way to.
Richard R. Hershberger
Horace LaBadie
BTR1701 <btr...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> In article <125aikg...@news.supernews.com>,
> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote:
>
> > "Fortune favors the brave." A Virgil quote
>
> Virgil's quote is actually "fortune favors the bold".
A much snarkier person than myself would be tempted...oh, who I am
kidding?
<arthur dent> Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word
actually that I wasn't previously aware of. </arthur dent>
Audentis Fortuna iuvat. Aeneid, Book X, l.284 in most versions.
HWL
Paul Hyett
>On 30.04.2006 22:00, Patrick MM wrote:
>
>FYI.
>
>There is a request for no spoilers in this AOQ-threads.
>
>Discussing what is good in futute episodes count as spoilers.
But 'Killed By Death' was an S2 episode...
If you were talking about OMWF, then presumably the original reviewer
won't have seen it yet, and therefore would not know what the
abbreviation stands for (not that knowing it would tell you anything
about the episode).
One Bit Shy
> One Bit Shy wrote:
>
> > Hush is what hooked me on the series. After that I immersed myself in BtVS
> > as best as I could. Which with daily reruns (sometimes double on weekends)
> > and the then current S6, was quite a bit.
> >
> > So, I'll always have a special fondness for this episode. It's no longer #1
> > for me, but it's always somewhere in the top five. In some ways better than
> > ever, for I can now appreciate all of the important continuity elements,
> > which are actually pretty big deals in their own right.
>
> There's always something special about the moment of true addiction. I
> was enjoying the series quite a bit anyway, but I think I'll always
> have special feelings for "The Pack."
Good. That's one of my favorite early shows. A very aggressive and
stylish episode. Also, as I recall, when they demonstrated the
willingness to take lead characters to bad places.
> > > She suddenly seems anxious to push Buffy towards Riley, perhaps because
> > > she's bored with having to hear about him all the time.
> >
> > Suddenly? Have you forgotten she was Riley's accomplice in the Initiative?
>
> You're right about that. Her intense interest in Buffy's love life
> seems like a change (or recovery) from "Something Blue."
Maybe because everybody else was bored with hearing about Willow's
woes. She needed to spruce up her image. Heh.
I think Willow was just particularly distracted by the Oz thing in
Something Blue - and channeling her mom in Pangs. I think the
established history for Willow is to be positively nosey about Buffy's
love life.
> > All about establishing a theme of
> > words getting in the way of communication. (Remember Walsh's opening
> > remarks?)
>
> I find it weird that I pretty much missed out on this theme o.f.v. I
> like to think that I mostly miss the more muddled metaphors and themes,
> but not here. Granted it's a pretty trite bit of psudeo-philosophy,
> but its importance to the episode is only slightly less than blindingly
> obvious in retrospect (especially with Stephen's post above).
I wrote this before I saw how much that theme would be hammered on in
the responses. I don't find it surprising at all that you - or anyone
- would miss it first time. It falls into place easily once you
recognize the linkages, but until then it's just random stuff happening
without the usual clues. The linkage is by function, not content,
which requires a bit of an intuitive leap to recognize.
In any case, I think this aspect can be emphasized too much. Yes, it
matters. Yes, it enhances the quality of the episode. Yes, it's the
kind of thing that would excite a writer like Joss. But to me it's
still just a contributing factor - something providing a bit of depth -
but not the heart of the episode - not the heart of what makes it so
good.
In crudest terms, this is a MOTW. Only this time, it's not a crude
monster. It's the real deal scary, with the creepiest music, and most
stylish ways. Spooky. IMO, getting the communication theme is less
important to the appreciation of the episode than is the core fear of
death and its arbitrary way. Tonight - will it come for you? Or will
it come for me?
> > Anyway, all of this, again, is to set up the silence with confused
> > conversation full of misunderstanding and contradiction, peaking with...
> >
> > Giles: um I need you to take Spike for a few days.
> > Xander: What?
> > Spike: What?
> > Anya: What?
> >
> > I think it's pretty clever writing myself.
>
> That's a good bit.
>
> > There was also that part with some sort of essence from all the sleeping
> > people drawn from them into that box - with all the whispering going on that
> > ends abruptly with the closing of the lid by the boney hand. Then the
> > toothsome smile of an obviously malign creature that had just completed some
> > sort of devilry.
> >
> > It's scary mainly as portent of unknown but palpable malice.
>
> Considering all the werid monsters we see on the show, the Gentlemen
> just looked silly to me pre-Hush. Seeing them in action for a few
> minutes quickly fixed that.
>
> > "About the kindest thing" - does that translate to something genuinely good?
>
> Yep. What I'm trying to say is that "Hush" isn't just some novelty
> experiment, it's a true _Buffy_ episode, full of the kind of stuff I
> watch this show for.
The usual resistance to considering this one of the best episodes is
that it's less a Buffy episode than it is a stand alone conceit - no
matter how well made. I don't really buy that as stated because when
seen as a MOTW it fits the common form pretty well - just a lot better
than usual.
But episodes like Innocence and Prophecy Girl do have an advantage of
sorts in that they are so totally infused with the BtVS mythos that
they can sort of serve as stand ins for the essence of the whole
series. (Not entirely - no single episode can truly achieve that.)
Hush doesn't do that. Hush is one of those episodes that can work very
effectively even if one has never seen a minute of BtVS, but it won't
tell that person a whole lot about the essence of the series.
Is that something in favor or against its status as nominee for best
ever? Depends on how you look at it. Similar, though not identical,
issues come up with several other episodes considered among the best.
(We haven't gotten to them yet.) In some significant fasion(s) they
exist apart from the rest of the series.
However, I think their apartness is in considerable degree a function
of their excellence. You say above that "Hush isn't just some novelty
experiment, it's a true Buffy episode." I agree with that. But I
think there's another reason. Hush (and the other episodes I allude
to) aren't mere novelty experiments, because they have transcended
novel and experiment by being fully realized and worthy artistic
expressions. Inspired.
After all, most all of the monsters and creep stories start as
gimmicks. What's done with them decides whether they stay gimmicks.
OBS