Re: Re: OT: My Season 6 review

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

DEM,

Objectively, I think you could do a "Willow-the-control-freak makes bad
choices with the Mojo" arc, and not damage the show, but you'd have to
do it in such a way that she was the protagonist, not the antagonist,
keeping the audience firmly on her side. Could even have tied in with
the grow-up theme--Willow, now the most powerful and leader of the
group (even AFTER Buffy's return--if Angel can defer to Wesley, why
couldn't a traumatized Buffy ask her best bud to take the lead?), tries
to be proactive with their problems and relies too much on the magic
(since high school Willow never got this much responsibility, the others
must only respect her for her skill with the black arts, she thinks),
and makes mistakes that, much like "Buffy, Riley's love doll" in S4, the
audience only gradually comes to realize ARE mistakes.

But they were never going there. The Willow-bashing that popped up
after "After Life"/"Flooded" was a horrifiying sight, spurred on by
"Sweet Spike, the only one who understands me" and the obvious tone that
Willow's problems were going to be Something Bad That Happens To Buffy,
and thus an excuse for a B/S love match. So no matter how forced the
shift to "Two Girls and their Addictions" was, it's still better than
the train wreck the season was going to be.

BTW, although Willow was emotionally at a rational pitch during that
scene in "Flooded" (up until the supervillain "piss me off" line, which
broke the tone so much many people thought she was developing
schizophrenia, not megalomania), I was already sick of that scene by
then, not only because of Giles's ranting, but because the writers saw
fit to drop in no less than eight "Willow is an egomaniac" cues, which
is a shocking jump from the previous ep, where Tara had to drag a
perfectly-reasonable admission that she thought Buffy might have thanked
her out of Willow. So, it was too damned forced and supervillainy for
me even before the dead-eyed threat.

And you're so right about the slow pace of the season. Like I said
before, they've stretched an episode structure over the season length,
so Buffy will snap out of it after 20 eps, not 40 (or 80) minutes. And
everything is too draggy. Janine wrote a Buffy/Cordy fic (wish she'd
come home to B/W, but at least it's closer than "Popular" fics--and
excellent, of course) where she described Season 6 Sunnydale as "off
kilter--dull and gray" and "a place where people smiled, but it never
reached the eyes." Yes, Buffy's disoriented and SMG is playing the
no-emotions acting, but the whole show seems to lack energy and
passion--in prior years, the characters, even when sobbing their eyes
out, were vital.

Really, the premiere should have ended with the "heaven" revelation,
since the return of Buffy was a given. But since it's much easier to
make one episode out of "After Life" and "Flooded" than out of "Flooded"
and "Life Serial", I'll let them start slow. But you could make a much
better "Flooded":

Teaser: Buffy's out of it, Xander/Tara/Dawn worry while Willow is
over-positive and Anya a big downer; everyone is surprised when Giles
walks in.

Act 1: Giles can't connect with Buffy, who slips out for quiet bonding
with Spike; Buffy's finances are discussed (but not shoved in her
face); Xander/Anya argue about non-announcement ("perfect moment",
etc.); Spike probes about "hell" and gets the truth.

Act 2: Buffy vows to be perky, gives empty "thank you" and hug; Dawn
steals something; Giles takes Buffy to see a loan officer (again, he
does most of work), M'Fashnik demon attacks, is battled, Giles
recognizes it (saving us 15 minutes of boredom), demon confronts Trio.

Act 3: much quicker demon/Trio scene; Giles tries to talk to Willow
(bites down on his anger because he knows it would be
counterproductive), Buffy talks to Spike about emptiness of faking it,
demon attacks Casa Summers.

Act 4: Demon wreaks havoc, but Willow fries it, to her delight, Buffy's
approval and Giles and Tara' s wig. Trio celebrates; Buffy goes to see
Angel.

Likewise, drop the "All the Way" plot, and just work the engagement and
W/T bits into "Life Serial" and you've saved another ep. Then the
musical, then "Tabula Rasa/Smashed" (the amnesia spell works properly,
but Tara still figures out something's up and undoes it, just as Buffy,
who's been confidently rebuffing Spike, is hit with "you came back
wrong"--leading to B/S sex intercut with W/T breakup musical montage)
and a more detailed, Willow-focused "Wrecked" (meaning, you only have to
pay Elizabeth Anne Allen one guest-star fee), and you've saved three eps
and made the others better.

I was just watching "Witch" on the DVDs, and while it's far from a
favorite ep, I have to admire the tight writing on the "Buffy figures
out Catherine is Amy" and "Catherine/Amy explains" scenes. Dana Reston
just gives us enough to let us fill in the blanks ourselves and moves
on. Given that I don't really like the rest of the script, I could
almost be persuaded that Joss or David G. did a rewrite here. I just
wish someone would do a rewrite on the deadly pauses of this year.
(Thomas, you're right that I shouldn't have called "After Life"
overwritten when so much of it was on "pause"; I was trying to refer to
Jane E. forcing NiceGuySpike down our throats and used the wrong word.)

Once again, DEM, thanks for your thoughts.

Dan