Buffy 6x20 SPOILERS - writing before I read
Stephen Walker
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OK. Did that entire episode just whizz by and forget to pick me up along the
way?
I saw things happen, but the feeling wasn't there. I watched the plot, heard
the characters speak, but for a lot of it I couldn't feel their emotions.
This episode should have been full of big moments, shocks, heartstoppers,
and heartbreakers. However, it pulled a lot of punches, and didn't get
behind the ones it threw. Willow telling Buffy & Xander about Tara, Dawn
discovering the body, Buffy finding Dawn with the body, were all flat,
underplayed. Buffy's shooting being magickly cured gets her back in the
episode, but Buffy's feelings about being shot are brushed off, and the
magical cure has to be viewed with half a mind on the caution Buffy was
given about trying to cure Joyce in Shadow.
The final scene, should have been really something, but it was just... eh?
The idea was there, it should have been shocking, I just didn't get anything
from the performance.
Is anyone actually *sad* that Tara is dead?
Buffy has time to style her hair while waiting for the coroner?
She takes Dawn to Spike's? Hello? Did the writer find time to read the
script for last week? Or maybe just the outline? I got this feeling a few
times towards the end of S5, but this is ridiculous. The trust him/hate him
pendulum got silly last year, but last week snapped the string.
Could the obligatory Spike scene have been any more lame?
I'm going to have to watch this again. I must have missed something, I
really hope I have, or maybe I'm in the wrong mood, or expect too much.
No, expecting big things of ep 20 of 22 is not too much. Someone, help me
like this episode, please?
Stephen
--
"Spike will never be a good boy. He doesn't have it in him." - Joss Whedon.
Mattia Valente
I dunno, did it?
> I saw things happen, but the feeling wasn't there. I watched the plot, heard
> the characters speak, but for a lot of it I couldn't feel their emotions.
A lot of the emotion was numbness, or subdued shock or pent up rage,
so...this said, my heart was a-thumpin', so it did something right.
> This episode should have been full of big moments, shocks, heartstoppers,
> and heartbreakers. However, it pulled a lot of punches, and didn't get
> behind the ones it threw.
It scored a few, there was a tad too much sledgehammer action with the
thematicy stuff, and the hardest hitters were, perhaps, the subtlest
scenes.
> Willow telling Buffy & Xander about Tara, Dawn
> discovering the body, Buffy finding Dawn with the body, were all flat,
> underplayed.
Huh. I like the Dawn/Buffy/Tara's Dead Body scene, personally. And the
reactions were all a bit odd, a bit off, but for me that was part of the
whole picture, part of the unsettlingness of it all. Almost felt like
we'd been taken for a ride in a whole different 'dale, in a sense.
> Buffy's shooting being magickly cured gets her back in the
> episode, but Buffy's feelings about being shot are brushed off, and the
> magical cure has to be viewed with half a mind on the caution Buffy was
> given about trying to cure Joyce in Shadow.
Well, yes. That's still bugging me. Although she wasn't actually brain
dead at the time, and Willow 'merely' fixed the damage and let nature do
it's thing. That's my take on it, anyway. But, well, ve shall see if
that's even ever touched upon again.
> The final scene, should have been really something, but it was just... eh?
> The idea was there, it should have been shocking, I just didn't get anything
> from the performance.
Really? It bloody well shocked me.
> Is anyone actually *sad* that Tara is dead?
You mean the characters.
> Buffy has time to style her hair while waiting for the coroner?
Shh. They should've been more subtle with the letting down the hair and
had it less styled, though, I agree. I noticed, and I don't notice hair,
mostly.
> She takes Dawn to Spike's? Hello? Did the writer find time to read the
> script for last week? Or maybe just the outline? I got this feeling a few
> times towards the end of S5, but this is ridiculous. The trust him/hate him
> pendulum got silly last year, but last week snapped the string.
Covered in reply to Niall. And ironically, this is the writer who came
up with the rape scene from last week's ep, so..
> Could the obligatory Spike scene have been any more lame?
Umm, I kinda liked it. The Obligatory Clem scene and 'Spike's Gone'
exposition could hardly have been more lame.
> I'm going to have to watch this again. I must have missed something, I
> really hope I have, or maybe I'm in the wrong mood, or expect too much.
> No, expecting big things of ep 20 of 22 is not too much. Someone, help me
> like this episode, please?
Not quite sure what to do, here...it's not great, but I'm hoping it'll
work better in retrospect. It doesn't suck, either, because it did
manage to take me for a ride, push some of my buttons, and get a
reaction out of me. Perhaps not the most dramatic or fulfilling of
reactions, but a reaction nonetheless.
Mattia
--
"My beagle went swimming today and now he's typing on my keyboard with
his ample nose. Oh, and he's the bestest handsomeest beagle EVER."
--Tim Minear, Salon.com, May 2001
Jonathan Black
Stephen, I am intrigued to read this, because after finally
having seen this episode, I can say felt exactly the same way.
So it's not just you.
I mean it started off okay I guess, and the whole Willow's gone
blacker than black was kinda powerful in a way, but like you
said, a lot of the performances seemed flat and I felt the
episode should have been doing so much more to me than it did. I
hope it will seem better on a rewatch, that's entirely possible,
wouldn't be the first time. And I'm glad to hear it worked
better for e.g. Mattia, heart in throught half the time etc.
That's the way I like it to be too, honest, but this time it
just didn't happen. Oh well.
Bye,
--
jonathaN
Sierk
"Jonathan Black" <jona...@nksf.nl> wrote ...
SNIP
> Stephen, I am intrigued to read this, because after finally
> having seen this episode, I can say felt exactly the same way.
> So it's not just you.
>
> I mean it started off okay I guess, and the whole Willow's gone
> blacker than black was kinda powerful in a way, but like you
> said, a lot of the performances seemed flat and I felt the
> episode should have been doing so much more to me than it did. I
> hope it will seem better on a rewatch, that's entirely possible,
> wouldn't be the first time. And I'm glad to hear it worked
> better for e.g. Mattia, heart in throught half the time etc.
> That's the way I like it to be too, honest, but this time it
> just didn't happen. Oh well.
And here I was thinking it was just me. I got a feeling of distance between
me and the show even before the titlesequence. There was some good stuff in
there (Willow mostly), but it just didn't connect, IMHO. A rewatch is in
order for me too.
Sierk