OT: My Season 6 review

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

It's less than a week to the new ep, so I might as well get this over
with. All seasons are really 3 mini-seasons (eps 1-10, 11-16, and
17-22) and the just completed Season "6A" may well be the worst "Buffy"
has ever been. Since lots of people have been going on about how
wonderful it is, I figured it's time for a new, counter-thread.

Now, since I'm known to be anti-B/S, let me first state that the
relationship is NOT the reason I dislike the eps. Indeed, "Smashed" is
actually my second-favorite ep of the season.
  
(Although I think many pro-B/S fans are overrating the season because
they're only looking at their fave couple kissing, and not the dreadful
eps said kissage takes place in.)  

When the season started, rumors of B/S and an evil Willow had me sick to
my stomach, but I still expected the individual eps to be good. Case in
point, "Hush", which starts a rift between my girls by hooking up B/R
and starting W/T, but is still a damn good ep.

However, things have gone exactly the opposite way. The season-long arc
looks nice: Willow isn't evil, just 
battling an addiction. B/S isn't a romance, it's being 
portrayed as just as destructive as Willow's addiction, and Spike has
proven that he still wants to be an evil killer (as well he should, he
was much more interesting and witty then). The parallel arcs, which
must cross, seem to indicate that a strengthened B/W bond is in the
works.
  
Indeed, I could go OT and talk about the fact that I'm 
seeing a lot of things that point to the possibility of the 
B/W romance I so deeply desire. Certainly, if that's the end point, it
would make this season a joyful memory--but it wouldn't make the eps
we've already seen anything but the drek they are.

In other words, I thought I'd hate the themes and love the eps, but
instead it's the reverse.

Let's review the episodes, and I guess the easiest way to indicate the
lack of quality is to note that I haven't even rewatched any of them,
except for "OMWF" and "Smashed". And I'm a guy who rewatches favorite
eps many, many times.

"Bargaining, Part 1"--we start with nice character work by Marti Noxon,
well directed by David Grossman. Fine, but purely a set-up episode and
nowhere near as memorable as previous character-driven Marti eps like
"Dead Man's Party", "Consequences", "The Prom", or "Wild at Heart".
Possibly better writing than "Into the Woods", but "Giles gets on a
plane, going away for all of two eps" is not a major plot development
along the lines of the end of B/R.

Rating: 7 out of 10. Pleasant, but lacks resonance.

"Bargaining, Part 2" A better blend than Part 1, as David Fury mixes
some bits of characterization into the action, but it's mostly action,
so that drags it down. A lot of running around for no good purpose
(much like the overrated "School Hard") and Buffy's resurrection lacks
punch, since it was a foregone conclusion. The tower scene was, as one 
reviewer put it, undermined by pedestrian dialogue and a mediocre
performance by Michelle Trachtenberg. I also agree with the person who
wrote that cutting away to "Razor's not dead yet!" in the middle of the
scene hurt its impact.

And David Grossman, while I love him, is not the world's greatest action
director. An ep that should have been "Buffy's back! Yeah!" ends up
"Buffy's back; now what?" with nothing that feels like a climax.

Rating: 7 out of 10 A lot of sound and Fury (pun!) 
signifying nothing. But nice performances from Aly, Nick, Amber and
Emma. (Emma must have known this was the last decent dramatic material
she'd get all year.)

"After Life": Now the garbage begins. 50 minutes wasted on a
poorly-executed, uninvolving, unimportant Monster of the Week plot, just
to kill time until the big arc scene at the end. Jane Espenson breaks
up boring us with the "hitch-hiker" plot (which is basically a way to
avoid paying a guest star to be the villain) by giving us poorly-written
scenes designed to beat us over the head with how wonderful Spike is
because he remembered how many days Buffy was dead, and because he
dreamed about saving her every night.

Meanwhile, anybody who isn't in Marsters-drool mode is screaming at the
set "What, WILLOW didn't know how many days it was? GILES didn't dream
about saving her? DAWN didn't suffer horribly?" But Espenson's
hamhanded attempts to make Spikey her true love contradict each
other--we're supposed to believe that resurrecting Buffy was wrong, yet
give Spike points because he would have kept ZombieBuffy alive. She
either should or shouldn't have come back, you can't give Captain
Peroxide both of them in his column.

And, since we later find out the chip works just fine, what was up with
Spike slamming Xander against the tree and barely wincing? Faking out
the viewers does not qualify as a reason to blow the show's consistency.

David Solomon, as usual, gets some nice creepy effects from the horror
movie sequences--and as usual, he just plants the camera during the
character scenes and lets the performances fall flat. He also gets no
points for making the hug at the end a Buffy/Willow hug first and
foremost, even though it 
isn't in the script, because Sarah and Aly have played up unscripted
physical bonding moments before, with different directors, so it's their
hug. But making the last scene quiet does increase the impact, so it
ends well, at least.

Rating: 5 out of 10. Pointless (except for the last scene) and
painfully overwritten, but the last scene was good, Solomon did get nice
creep moments, and Sarah and Aly did well by making clear the
resurrection was about Willow's bond with Buffy, thus making the
"betrayal" all the more painful. Still, when I'm praising the actors
for doing what the writer and director didn't?

"Flooded"--Very easy to classify. It's The Worst Episode Ever. Makes
"Beer Bad" look like "Innocence" by comparison. Makes you wonder how
Jane Espenson ever wrote a decent line, and Doug Petrie looks like he
can't direct traffic.

We get mediocre comedy about Buffy's finances (Sarah is good prepping
with the loan officer and complaining about her skirt) in a plot that
has twelve easy solutions any five-year-old could spot and basically
just exists to set up "Life Serial" and its Buffy-goes-to-work plot.
Not to mention little things like the fact that no plumber would put in
new pipes without pumping out the basement. Or that 
Joyce's health insurance would have covered the medical bills, since no
one knew she was going to die, and the doctors wouldn't have been
waiting on her life insurance. And what about the gallery, which Joyce
co-owned and which was the source of her income? Why is what kept Joyce
and Buffy and Dawn in the money not able to keep Buffy and Dawn 
fed? The Summerses didn't depend on Joyce drawing a salary, so her
death shouldn't have led to any financial situation at all. Tons of
idiocy for a poorly-thought-out plot that lasted all of two weeks and
was promptly forgotten.

And yet that's masterful compared to the howlingly unfunny Geek Trio
plot. Painful to watch in every aspect, including Jonathan suddenly
being evil (huh?) and the sickening feeling of watching a show that's
always championed social outcasts now going into nerd-bashing mode.
What's next, Willow turning bad because lesbianism is a sin?

Still, you've got to admire guys who somehow pull off a bank robbery and
don't worry about security cameras because the M'Fashnik demon will
distract the tellers. What, were the cameras on him, too?

Willow trying to pull Buffy out of her funk was okay, but Dawn
researching was just an excuse for a bad penis joke and the unfunny and
too-long debate over how to pronounce the demon's name.  

And all of this is gold next to the grotesque sight of Giles going
completely out of character and screaming at Willow (he KNOWS that's not
the way to handle her) and Willow promptly going into supervillain mode,
which is completely unsupported by future developments, and childishly
overwritten even if it were. Then we get the thuddingly unsubtle cut to
B/S on the back porch (okay, Doug, "Willow 
bad, Spike good", I get it, now stop hitting me over the head with that
hammer!) and a ludicrous scene where it turns out they overheard the
whole scene inside, yet don't even comment on Willow threatening Giles
(because, you know, that happens every day). And then Buffy tells him
she hates having to pretend to be happy so her friends won't worry and
it makes her friends worry all the more.

Now since I still have two functioning brain cells, I'm 
wondering, if Buffy doesn't want to pretend and if it isn't working, why
does she keep doing it? After all, there are only two motives for a
course of action: your own enjoyment and a larger purpose. Since she
doesn't enjoy it, and it isn't serving its purpose, why not stop?
Apparently B/S don't have two brain cells between them, because neither
of them even considers this.

(Well, maybe Spike sees she's making herself miserable, but lets her go
on doing it so he can have a better shot at screwing her. But it's not
supported by the dialogue, and JM doesn't play it that way, so I've got
to think Spike's just as dumb as she is.)

So instead we have Spike joking about killing Buffy's 
friends and Buffy smiling, because it's not like Spike has spent a
century brutally murdering people or has actually tried to kill all of
them before, right? I don't doubt he could joke in bad taste, but for
her to find that amusing?well, hey, we're selling a romance, why worry
about character consistency?

Rating: 2 out of 10, just to keep a spot open in case they can actually
do a worse ep, somehow. Giles reaching out to Buffy and her pulling
away does not an episode make.

"Life Serial"--better quality, but still not up to par.  
Espenson's geeks are still not funny, but at least they're less
annoying. David Fury's main plot is rather formulaic (3 acts, 3
tests), and admittedly derivative, but decently executed. Nick Marck
shows what a director can do, nicely capturing confusion (the college),
action (the job site), and physical comedy (the mummy hand). The ep is
killed, however, by the last act, where we annoy the anti-Spike crowd
with Buffy's "the only person I can talk to" line, and confuse the
Spuffy lovers by making Spike look like a wimp 
whose idea of introducing Buffy to the darkness is having her watch him
cheat at cards. Huh? THAT's dark seduction? Dru would be ashamed.
Not to mention that Buffy knows how to get information, she was looking
for violent release, which you'd think he'd understand. And if I'd
never heard the term kitten poker, I'd be a much happier man.

Rating: 6 out of 10. Entertaining enough, in places.  
Benefits from following utter crap, obviously. And the bit about "the
social construction of reality" may prove 
interesting if "Restless" echoes pan out, but right now it's just a
tease.

(of course, even though I was thrilled to see no trace of Evil Willow,
it makes no sense in light of what happened last week?) 

"All the Way"--back to awful. Like "After Life", exists only to waste
time until the final scene, which isn't as good as it was there. Like
"After Life", David Solomon doesn't direct humans well, and the only
creep factor he gets is in Act 1. Main plot is notably lame, and Steve
DeKnight's scripts have clearly gone downhill since "Blood Ties". And
what is up with Spike being angry at the vamps for breaking the "no
badness on Halloween" rule? (Which still hasn't been explained, btw)
Since when does Spike care about 
rules? Why would Buffy even like him if he's suddenly turned into
Xander? (No knock on Xander, but an un-Spike-like Spike seems very dull
indeed.) And did Spike forget his own actions in "Halloween"? Well,
probably just Steve DeKnight did.

Not to mention it's a little odd Buffy resents saving Dawn, since that's
why she died to begin with?

Rating: 3 out of 10. Waste of time, lacks drama, 
consistency with the series as a whole, or anything like a good
performance. At least Giles gets to throw a punch.

Of course, I understand, they're just churning out filler 
eps while waiting for Joss. Still, I've seen much better filler.

"Once More With Feeling"?Worth the wait, if not the 
diminuition of quality that went on while waiting for it.  
Original, nothing that feels like padding except Dawn's ballet and Marti
Noxon's song. Willow needs a song, though (Aly could have muddled
through). Some bad choices by Lisa Lassek in the editing (why is the
camera on ANYA when Buffy reveals she was in heaven, for example?), but
not enough to stop me from loving it.

Rating: 10 out of 10. A gimmick episode that serves a larger purpose.

"Tabula Rasa"--God, I wanted to love this one. I enjoy Rebecca Rand
Kirshner, David Grossman makes her work better (loved "Tough Love"), the
setup scenes are nice (although Xander's wanting to reach out to Buffy
and Willow's guilt over the "heaven" revelation are never followed up)
and Michelle Branch makes for a nice closing montage. Note 
Grossman's direction as he cuts closer and closer to Willow sobbing in
the bathroom--it's his idea (not in the script) and it's also a nice
homage to Michael Gershman's similar shots in "Consequences".

And the comedy in the amnesia bit came off fine. Except I don't see the
point of having Joan and Randy mock "Angel". Why run down the sister
show? And Buffy certainly didn't find him "lame"--did Spike slip the
Buffybot back in there somehow?

But the comedy wasn't very revealing. No "true selves coming out under
the spell". Willow likes Tara and Spike likes Buffy; we knew that. If
there were follow-up to the Anya/Giles attraction or Tara's being more
assertive, I'd rate this higher.

Rating: 7 out of 10. Liked it, but not memorable (pardon the pun).
And more lameness on the villain front, with the return of kitten poker.

"Smashed"--Two new guys produce a surprisingly good episode. Drew
Greenberg's script is actually funny and they nicely set up the parallel
arcs by having the script respond to Spike's "you've got no one else"
taunt by cutting to Willow, aka "someone else". Subtle clue that the
girls will help each other out of their problems (as seen at the end of
"Wrecked").  

Plus, hey, it's an actual B/W scene! Hey, something happens (Amy
returns) that isn't just soap opera! Comedy that comes from the
characters and past continuity, rather than tacked on jokes! The geeks
were almost funny, but got killed by the ETERNAL minute-and-a-half with
the Boba Fett doll that 
sucked the life out of the screen. Come on, guys, that's a
one-and-done: Spike threatens doll, Warren caves, audience
smiles--next!

The show was hurt by a lack of focus, what with B/S, 
Willow/Amy, Tara/Dawn and the geeks all fighting for time. As I said
before, "Smashed/Wrecked" would have been much better if one was the B/S
ep (and moved the story further, giving us a hint of a clue as to what
was wrong with Buffy) and one was the Willow ep. Here, there was too
much cutting, and Turi Meyer isn't a good enough director to cover for
that with camera movement to make the scenes distictive and give them
impact. Think what James Contner or Michael Gershman could have done
with Spike bursting into the basement, for example, zooming in as he
kicks in the doors and speed-panning with him as he slams Warren against
the post. Meyer is too static and it's all "scene, cut, scene, cut".
And he ends both Acts 1 and 2 on Spike, without giving Marsters the
sinister close-up he would have 
rocked with. And where was the close-up in the attempted bite scene?
Just mid-range shots of him pacing.

Rating: 8 out of 10. Any time I actually enjoy an ep that features B/S
boinkage, you know they've done something right. Give Greenberg a real
director and see what he can do.

"Wrecked" Much discussed already. Preachy, over the top, too much B/S
in what should have been the Willow-centric ep. Again, I like that
Marti's spelling out the parallels, but she doesn't have to chop every
ep into half-Buffy, half-Willow. David Solomon (him again?)
unsurprisingly comes up with nice images during the trip-out scenes and
doesn't do anything else of note. Make this guy the cinematographer or
FX guru he wants to be, not a director.

Nice that they actually hired a villain, even if we only get a droplet
of Jeff Kober. Also bad that we only get Xander in ONE LOUSY SCENE.
Would it kill anyone to show him talking with old buddy Amy at Buffy's
house? Or consoling an upset Dawn? Or trying to have that chat he says
he's gonna have with Willow? They could still postpone it by having her
be avoid-y, but why not show the guy trying? As it is, if there's
really "Big Xander Stuff" coming future eps, the audience is gonna have
trouble remembering why it 
cares.

Rating: 6 out of 10. The final B/W scenes were good, but they can't
save the ep. Not one of Marti's better efforts. And I didn't even
mention the three huge continuity errors.

Overall, the season has been confused by a sudden shift from "Wonderful
Spike/Evil Willow" to the "twin addictions" theme. Even though I much
prefer this, I have to admit it makes "Flooded" look even stupider now.

And we suffer greatly from the fact that Marti Noxon would rather be
writing soaps, as the external plot, which should drive the inner
character conflicts (see seasons 2 and 3--they tried but failed with
this in 4; 5 lacked character arcs) is completely lacking. The geeks
are boring and we should know more about their plot by now (at this
point, for example, we knew what the Initiative was doing, and that
Glory wanted the Key and it was Dawn). Rack has barely been glimpsed.

As for the individual eps, there haven't been any convincing opponents
to hold our interest. Some bikers, a random spirit, the M'Fashnik
demon, a non-confrontation with the geeks, the teen vamps, Sweet (who
they didn't fight), more random vamps, no villain in "Smashed" and a
random demon 
makes for a sucky roster of foes. Compare this to, say, Sunday,
Invincible Spike, Veruca, Hus and The Gentlemen, all of whom we got in
the first 10 eps of Season 4.

And outside of "Bargaining", we haven't seen any group action to get us
excited. Buffy fights alone (with spell backup) in "After Life", with
minimal assistance from Spike in "Flooded", not at all against the bad
guys in "Life Serial", with some help (Giles, Spike, Dawn) in "All the
Way", there's no real fight in "OMWF", two separate ones in "Tabula
Rasa", no fight in "Smashed" and just help from off-camera Willow in
"Wrecked". (Is it weird that Willow's 
power is a key plot point and yet she goes EIGHT eps between being in
fights, or what?)

And the year has been marred by a zillion dropped plot threads. I
mentioned the sudden end of the financial plot, but what happened to
Willow's telepathy? Or Dawn's kleptomania? Where are the reprecussions
of the fawn sacrifice? Why haven't we seen Willow begging Buffy's
forgiveness, now that she blames herself for tearing Buffy out of
heaven? Or Xander trying to be better friends with Buffy, like he said
they should in "TR"? Why no follow-up to the Anya/Giles kiss? Did she
tell Xander? How did he 
react? Did kissing another man, even under the spell, make her wonder
whether she loved Xander or simply having a boyfriend? What became of
Xander's quest for male friends? Why isn't he talking to Willow on the
magic thing? He's her best friend and they haven't had a scene together
since "Bargaining"? Or Anya could do it, as a follow-up to the old
Willow/Anya squabbles. And what happened to the burgeoning Willow/Anya
friendship, as seen in "The Body" and while they cared for Tara? How
about a scene of Xander telling Tara he'll support her, despite his ties
to Willow? Or Dawn trying to help "Mom" Willow get back with "Dad"
Tara? Why no followup on Xander summoning Sweet, and the deaths he
caused?

What the heck is Buffy doing these days? Going to college, working
somewhere, or just squandering Giles's cash so we can have "Flooded,
Part 2" later in the year? Why hasn't Xander seen Amy? How about a
scene with Anya being there for her friend Tara, after the W/T breakup?

And where's the Spike/Dawn bond that was my favorite part of Season 5
Spike?  

And if we're only going to get Xander and Anya talking about the
wedding, and not being part of the plot in any other way, could we at
least get some wedding scenes, rather than just the odd bridal mag as a
prop? What if they tried to hire a wedding planner? Or had to get Anya
legal status for the license? How about picking a date, a site, a type
of 
ceremony, a minister, etc.? Who's the best man, Willow? Who's the maid
of honor, Tara? And won't that be awkward with W/T trying to work
together to help with the wedding? How about Xander tells his parents,
and Anya (and we) finally meet them? Or Anya meets the guys from the
work crew? Or they visit the Magic Box? Or Xander meets D'Hoffryn?

I mean, anything other than "Wrecked" and one scene of whining about
Willow behind her back. If you're gonna pay Nick and Emma, you might as
well use them.

So, in summation, the themes are working nicely, but too much soap
opera, forgotten details, lack of credible opponents, lack of group
interaction, lack of anything resembling an external catalyst, and
generally poor work by the writers and directors (exceptions: Joss,
Drew Greenberg, Nick Marck, and David Grossman on "Tabula Rasa" have
given us a distinctly subpar run of eps and made "Season 6A" the worst
ever, all pro-or-anti-Spuffy 
considerations aside.

Just my opinion,

Dan