The Body, Loving It, Hating It
SDM
I've been giving this a little thought, like all last night, and now reading
the reactions, it's pretty clear that the lines are going to be drawn between
those with whom the ep resonated emotionally and those with whom it didn't.
Because if you felt all the things I felt while watching it, you probably
didn't notice the lack of soundtrack, the odd camera angles, etc; you just
experienced them. And if you didn't feel that way, all that technique
probably irritated the heck out of you. (When the music is uninteresting, I
always find myself analyzing the room acoustics). And you'll notice the weird
medical procedures. And you'll wonder why there wasn't any plot. And you'll
be right. I just won't agree with you.
As for who it'll get and who it won't, I don't know. I don't think you can
just break it down by "you have no heart", "you've never experienced the death
of a loved one", etc. It's going to grab some people, and not others, and
neither group is going to convince the other.
I predict a very U-shaped distribution on this week's poll.
Steve
Mortal and Stupid
Sarah Trombley
SDM <wor...@on.it.invalid> wrote:
>No content spoilers.
>
>I've been giving this a little thought, like all last night, and now reading
>the reactions, it's pretty clear that the lines are going to be drawn between
>those with whom the ep resonated emotionally and those with whom it didn't.
Not so. I was sad. However, my standards for "Buffy" are a little higher than
"makes me feel sad."
I'm not as cynical as David Hines, but I do think there was a certain expectation
on JW's part that half the viewers would react with, "My own [x] died last [x],
so I felt the emotions of this episode particularly keenly..." and not examine
the episode as anything other than a Big Exercise in Feeling Sad. Honestly, making
people feel sad about the death of a long-established character is not that hard.
Showing your characters experiencing one shade of sadness and doing little else
is harder--without the emotional realism of the characters' initial reactions, this
episode would have been a catastrophe. But the emotional realism of the characters'
initial reactions has to be the _foundation_ of the episode, not the episode itself.
--Sarah T.
Nick Rheinwald
SDM <wor...@on.it.invalid> wrote in message
news:working-25DC07...@news.apple.com...
>
> As for who it'll get and who it won't, I don't know. I don't think you can
> just break it down by "you have no heart", "you've never experienced the death
> of a loved one", etc.
Well, I've never experienced the death of a close loved one (thank god), but the
episode still resonated strongly with me. I think that, the death itself aside,
there was an emotional universality to the way the characters acted and
reacted--and whether or not we have experienced a death like that, we have all
certainly experienced emotions like those. I mean, none of us has ever stabbed
our immortal demon lover with a magic sword to send them to hell, but we still
felt for Buffy when she had to do that.
--Nick
Chelsea Christenson
> In article <working-25DC07...@news.apple.com>,
> SDM <wor...@on.it.invalid> wrote:
> >No content spoilers.
> >
> >I've been giving this a little thought, like all last night, and now reading
> >the reactions, it's pretty clear that the lines are going to be drawn between
> >those with whom the ep resonated emotionally and those with whom it didn't.
>
> Not so. I was sad. However, my standards for "Buffy" are a little higher than
> "makes me feel sad."
>
> I'm not as cynical as David Hines, but I do think there was a certain expectation
> on JW's part that half the viewers would react with, "My own [x] died last [x],
> so I felt the emotions of this episode particularly keenly..." and not examine
> the episode as anything other than a Big Exercise in Feeling Sad.
Well, if the season's arc is about Buffy becoming an independent adult, then this would
definitely constitute an advance. We saw her suck it up and be a grown-up for Dawn,
even though her own grief was new and raw. That's probably why we saw so much of Dawn's
school environment, to contrast how far Buffy has come since we first met her in a very
similar setting.
Ian J. Ball
<toast...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> ...I mean, none of us has ever stabbed
> our immortal demon lover with a magic sword to send them to hell, but we
> still felt for Buffy when she had to do that.
You mean, I didn't tell you about the time...? Oh, never mind! :)
--
Ian J. Ball | "I tried evil/I wish it had more of an impact!"
TV lover, and | - "After Me, the Flood" from the album
usenet slacker | "Revelation" (2000), _Armored Saint_
ib...@socal.rr.com | http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/TV.html
SDM
trom...@is06.fas.harvard.edu (Sarah Trombley) wrote:
> In article <working-25DC07...@news.apple.com>,
> SDM <wor...@on.it.invalid> wrote:
> >No content spoilers.
> >
> >I've been giving this a little thought, like all last night, and now reading
> >the reactions, it's pretty clear that the lines are going to be drawn
> >between
> >those with whom the ep resonated emotionally and those with whom it didn't.
>
> Not so. I was sad. However, my standards for "Buffy" are a little higher
> than
> "makes me feel sad."
>
> I'm not as cynical as David Hines, but I do think there was a certain
> expectation
> on JW's part that half the viewers would react with, "My own [x] died last
> [x],
> so I felt the emotions of this episode particularly keenly..." and not
> examine
> the episode as anything other than a Big Exercise in Feeling Sad.
I'm not necessarily willing to buy into the cynicism re Joss's motives, but
the main thrust of my post was that I suspect exactly the result you describe.
>Honestly, making
> people feel sad about the death of a long-established character is not that
> hard.
Which doesn't mean that you can't do something that's easy extremely well. To
be honest, I haven't made up my mind on this one yet, in part because of some
of the things you've pointed out. There were a lot of stylistic elements to
this episode that just don't work at all if they don't work really well. And
I'm not sure that's a good thing in general. The fact is, they worked on me,
which I didn't entirely expect.
> Showing your characters experiencing one shade of sadness and doing little
> else
> is harder--without the emotional realism of the characters' initial
> reactions, this
> episode would have been a catastrophe. But the emotional realism of the
> characters'
> initial reactions has to be the _foundation_ of the episode, not the episode
> itself.
>
And I would have liked to have seen some development along these lines as
well, but the choice to go near-realtime kind of precluded it. And giving
full depth to the initial reaction didn't leave a lot of time for development.
Both of which were choices, and maybe not the best.
>
> --Sarah T.
>
>
Steve
Hsiao 3 16
Sarah Trombley <trom...@is06.fas.harvard.edu> wrote:
> Showing your characters experiencing one shade of sadness and doing
> little else is harder--without the emotional realism of the
> characters' initial reactions, this episode would have been a
> catastrophe. But the emotional realism of the characters' initial
> reactions has to be the _foundation_ of the episode, not the episode
> itself.
About the time _Titanic_ came out, I had a discussion on rec.arts.movies
where a fellow (of course I can't remember now that Dejanews is gone)
suggested that films/books/episodes which focus on certain kinds of
subject matter are inherently emotionally stirring. The sinking of the
Titanic, the Holocaust, the death of a child, the death of a mother.
This is where "The Body" started--yes, I felt the surges of emotion at
the key times, but my biggest problem with the episode is that it simply
wallowed in its own inherent sadness and went no further than being a
story about the death of a mother.
--
James T. Hsiao http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~hsiao/
"You know sometimes when I'm really hungry, I think I'd pay a million
dollars just for a really good burrito, if'n I had a million dollars to
pay for a really good burrito." -- El Goob (Gary W. Smith) in RSFC
Paulxfoley
>...it's pretty clear that the lines are going to be drawn between
Not necessarily. My reaction to the show was mostly analytical, not emotional,
and I thought it was great. It is technically and creatively beautiful.
Innovative. Outrageous (the eyes...)
I watched it dry-eyed all the way through, and I think it one of the best
Buffys ever.
--Paul
------------------------------------------
"Sooner is better than later."