Re: Re: Entropy Thoughts

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

This is me replying to blinviz and Cas's comments, but only on the
episode itself:

(It would have been up in the early evening, but I had problems logging
on. Such is life.)

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On the lack of supernatural action:  

At first I didn't notice it, because Spike and Anya are superpowered and
capable of doing something dangerous and violent, but in the end, all we
had was the vamp fight in the teaser, and Xander punching Spike a couple
of times.

I think this may be an all-time low for action of any kind. Even "The
Body" tops this, with a more-important vampslaying, Xander punching the
wall, and if you're inclined to count it, Buffy's CPR on Joyce. (Well,
it's urgent, it's physical, and she cracks Joyce's rib. That's not
closing the Hellmouth, but it's not "Anya tries to trick people" in
terms of action, either.)

Let's pull out something I've been meaning to use before: Dan's Random
Episode Generator (or DREG for short--however, it doesn't call me "Your
creamy coolness", alas).

Dan's Random Episode Generator is useful when you want to make a point
using an old ep, but you can't decide which ep to use. You pull two
cards from a deck (the Aces count as 1, the tens as 0 and ignore the
face cards), put them next to each other and you've got a two-digit
number, from 00 to 99, which corresponds to the number of an ep from
Seasons 1-5 (using "The Gift", ep 100, for "00"). Then you discuss the
random ep.

Okay, let's try it. Five of hearts. three of diamonds, so that's ep 53,
which is "Choices". Hey, landed on a 'shipfest! Cool!

Okay, action in "Choices" consisted of:

Angel and Buffy fighting vamps in the teaser.
Faith killing the courier at the airport. (And cutting off his hand)
Buffy smacking around the henchvamp. (Dusted off-screen)
Angel and Buffy busting into the conference room to steal the box, then
fighting the henchvamps and running off.
Faith having captured Willow and dragging her around.
Oz smashing the brazier.
Willow dusting the vamp with the floating pencil.
Faith punching Willow.
Faith dragging Willow in as a hostage, Klingon knife to her throat.
Big fight with the hell-spiders.

So that's 10 "action" moments (I'm casting wide for emphasis, but still)
to last night's 2. Jarring when you think that "Choices" isn't really
considered a big action ep. Heck, just compare the act-ending moments:

Act 1: "Choices", Faith kills a guy and cuts off his hand. "Entropy",
Anya reveals (to the audience only) that she is a demon again, and makes
a Wish that, we find out later, doesn't work.

Act 2: "Choices", the Mayor is upset after a big fight that Buffy and
Angel stole his box, but Faith reveals she's taken Willow hostage.
"Entropy", Anya is told she needs someone who hates Xander to Wish, and
Spike walks in.

Act 3: "Choices", hell-spiders get loose, kill people, rip off faces,
etc. "Entropy", people see Spike and Anya having sex, Xander grabs an
axe.

Boy, this makes "Entropy" seem pretty yawn-worthy, no?

On the (non-)climax:

I reiterate, having A Secret Revealed should NEVER be the climax of the
ep, it should be the motor for the plot. Because, usually, the audience
already knows the secret, and WE'RE the ones who have to be surprised.
Doing an ep that's "blah, blah, blah, Buffy boinked Spike, blackout" is
a cheat (and so is "sing, sing, sing, Buffy was in heaven, blackout",
although the singing was nice).

Much better is "Buffy finds out Angel's back" (Act 1, "Beauty and the
Beasts"), "The gang finds out Buffy's been hiding Angel" (Act 1,
"Revelations"), "The Gang finds out Spike's been lying to them" (Act 2,
"Primeval"), "The Gang finds out Buffy's boinking Spike, er wait, it was
a robot" (Acts 2-3, "Intervention"), or "Lorne finds out Wesley is going
to steal Connor" (Act 2, "Sleep Tight"). This way, what we know (the
secret) serves as a building block for what we don't know (what happens
next). Sometimes the ep disappoints, but the set-up is good.

The only time "I've got a secret" was an effective climax was in "Lovers
Walk", because for once, the immediate reaction (Cordelia falls through
rotted stairs, gets impaled, and nearly dies) was strong enough to
justify the revelation being so late in the ep. And that was just a
subplot, and it still happened in Act 3, not Act 4, so there was time
for development (Cordy's upset, Cordy fell, Cordy's hurt, Cordy's dead,
Cordy's not really dead, Cordy dumps Xander) in the remainder of the ep.
In contrast, "Xander drops his stake and walks away" is by no means
sufficient followup to justify keeping WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW as the
climax of the ep.

BTW, "Angel" is an excellent ep, because the audience DIDN'T know Angel
was a vampire, and yet they use that revelation to end Act 1, and build
from there.

On the pacing of the "Anya's on a Mission" sequence:

Really, you can cut this down to three beats and not even intercut.
Allow me:

EXT. CAFE

Anya walks up.

WILLOW: Anya! (she hugs her)
TARA: (shakes hands) How have you been?
ANYA: Oh, pretty upset at Xander. But heck, you're lesbians, you
probably know all about hating men. Like Xander.  

CUT TO:

INT. MAGIC BOX

ANYA: Just hypothetically, if someone, like say Xander, hurt you, what
would you WISH would happen to them?
DAWN: Oh, I don't use that word any more. "W-I-S-H". No way.

CUT TO:

EXT BUFFY'S HOUSE

ANYA: It must be horrible. Men have been running roughshod over you
all this time. Squish-smush-squish. Right over that perky little heart
of yours.

BUFFY (affected, trying not to show it): It's not really "men", plural.
There've only ever been four guys. I mean, three.

Xander walks up.

See? Bam, bam, bam, three beats, move on. And you hit all the
character stuff anyway (Anya thinks lesbians hate men, Dawn has removed
"wish" from her vocabulary, Buffy's sad about her lousy luck with guys
and is trying to hide the Spike-thing.) (Ew! Not THAT "Spike-thing"!
She's not "hiding" it, not any more! Dirty minds.).

Greenberg tends to write too long. There was that godawful
minute-and-a-half "Boba Fett held hostage" joke that brought "Smashed"
to a screeching halt (Drew, the joke is in the threat. And if Warren
caves INSTANTLY, it's much funnier.). And there was the pointless "Anya
treats Dawn like she's five years old" scene tha just lay there in "Oh,
Go Away". (Also, the first "Spike hits on Buffy" scene wasn't needed;
it could have been combined easily with the one Tara interrupted.) I
guess really that's an argument that the show needs someone to tighten
the scripts the way that Joss used to.

On Nick Brendon and his weight:

It's not that he's fat, or even plump. He's just reached "husky", which
is still a shocking contrast from the lean and mean Xander of Seasons 2
and 3. (Last year, there was some double-chinnage going on.) But far
heavier actors have shown more energy and stronger vocal work, going
back to Oliver Hardy, so I don't know what's up. He also seems to be
sweating a lot, which would almost have me worrying about drugs, except
that he seemed to look fine at that convention in Australia, according
to Leanne. Color me confused.

(Thought: Kelly [his twin, for those who don't know] had asthma as a
child. Perhaps Nick's developed a late-in-life respiratory problem?)

Well, I think wild medical speculation makes as good a stopping point as
any, don't you?

Dan