Re: Lessons, a few final thoughts

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Well, since we've started the West Coast airing of "Beneath You", we
don't need the Spoiler Space any more. And since I'm currently
triple-tasking (watching the Angels-Yankees playoff on the
picture-in-picture, typing this on my main screen, and recording
"Beneath You" to the DVR for later viewing), I thought I'd write a few
last thoughts.

(yeah, yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to watch this one, but I'm
committed to 7.3 and 7.4, and I have to get this one on the tape in its
proper place if I'm going to save those, too. And since the extra
length of "Once More With Feellng" threw the four-eps-per-tape rotation
off, I may throw 7.5 on there to complete it, but barring a miracle that
I think Joss is physically incapable of, that would be it. And I
really, really mean it this time. In the meantime, enjoy the hatred.)

Okay, in no particular order...

? Weren't those just the most courteous zombies ever? Not only did
they wait until Buffy had cuddled up to her rapist before attacking her
at the start of act 4, but earlier in Act 3, we get this sequence:

1) The Extremely Courteous Zombies [ECZ] converge on Dawn and the
(s)Crappy Gang

2) Dawn remembers her cell phone and pulls it out

3) Buffy's phone rings

4) She and Dawn have a nice chat, **completely uninterrupted** by the
ECZ. Dawn even has time to comment on the great reception.

5) Kit notices that the ECZ have gone.

6) Dawn wonders where the ECZ have gone, just as ZombieJanitor attacks!

Okaaaay...so not only do the ECZ not attack while Dawnie is on the
phone, but Dawn and Kit completely take their eyes off of the things
that are just 10 feet away and threatening to, you know, KILL them!
(Gee, I guess Kit is really crushed on Dawn if she takes her eyes off
her wannabe-murderers to moon over Dawnie on the phone.)

Oh, and later Buffy rings Dawn on the phone, gets ZombieJanitor instead,
walks around a corner and finds him there. But later, after the fight,
Dawn calls Buffy from an entirely different room. What, did
ZombieJanitor run back and give Dawn her phone back? Like I said,
extremely courteous.  

And could someone explain why ZombieJanitor throttles Dawn, but then
apparently wanders off to find Buffy without, you know, KILLING Dawn? I
mean, you'd think that was the point of the throttling, no?

This whole sequence just shows what a hack Joss has turned into. I
mean, he just wanted the zombies to periodically attack and scare the
audience, but not harm anyone and not get in the way of the other
scenes, so he has them attack, move, disappear, reappear, and attack
again, for absolutely no reason other than the script demands it. Every
single ficcer on this list could write a more believable scenario.

On second thought, I can't blame Buffy for turning her back on the ECZ
to purr beneath her beloved Spikey's gentle touch. Given what she'd
seen in the rest of the ep, she logically felt that the ECZ would be
nice enough to wait for her and Spike to have a chat before they
attacked. And she was pretty much right, too.

? Now that I think about it, I'm even more offended by Buffy's
non-response to Spike here than I was in "Villains". Even if you
explain "Villains" by giving the UltraSpuffy spin to the rape scene (she
loves him, she never felt she was in danger, and all her pleading was
merely an appeal for him not to damage the relationship--yes, people
have actually this), even then, she shouldn't be letting him caress her,
since she'd be worrying he was falling back into old patterns of
behavior. Even Spuffy4Eva Buffy should want to stop this, if only for
her Blondie Bear's sake.

? Really, this is a combination of the bad parts of "Villains" (Buffy
loves and trusts her rapist), "Beauty and the Beasts" (Buffy hides her
boyfriend's return from the exact same people [then Willow, now Dawn]
she'd had a breakthrough by being open with **the ep immediately
before** ["Faith, Hope & Trick" then, "Grave" now]) and "After Life" and
"All the Way" (uninvolving plot that only exists to waste time until we
can have a single season-arc scene at the very end).

? A lot of people seem to be cheering the ep because of what might
happen, instead of WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. I see a lot of "oooh, what's
up with the Istanbul sequence?" and "oooh, what about the Mighty Morphin
Power Stranger?" and "oooh, I wonder what the principal's deal is?" and
"oooh, what's Willow talking about?" and meanwhile they seem to be
ignoring the fact that all that happened in this ep was that Buffy
fought some easily defeated, anonymous, [Extremely Courteous] zombies
that she didn't give a damn about, and there wasn't a single twist in
the plot, other than Spike's sudden appearance, which didn't have
anything to do with the ECZ plot.

Boring. Also, crappy.

Don't enjoy an episode because of what you think might happen (I fell
for that one with "Smashed", myself, and also, to a lesser extent,
"Doublemeat Palace"), because what happens probably won't be (perhaps
even *can't* be) as good as you imagine it. Try to enjoy an ep for what
**actually happens** in it. "Lessons" gets an "F" on that score.

? New composer Douglas Romayne is getting props for being better than
the vanished Thomas Wanker, but I thought the high horns in the fight
scene were very intrusive, nor did I like the strings when Xander was
hunting the talisman. However the underscore in the final scene was
well done.

BTW, does anybody know how much of "Some Assembly Required" Chris Beck
scored? (He's credited simply as "additional music by".) I think he
only did the piece we hear as Darryl looks longingly at the football
game, which is repeated (in a variation) at the end.  

If so, then the absolutely fucking kick-ass fight scene music is the
work of Adam Fields. Get him back--that ep has great music! (Note
also the score as Angel stalks Cordelia.)

? Didn't Clare Kramer look great in that little long-sleeved number?
A nice change, IMO.

? George Hertzberg remains a commanding and capable actor, hampered by
the crappy pseudo-science lines Adam gets, and all that stupid makeup.
But, IMO, only he and Mark Metcalf have the proper dramatic heft for
big-time villains (Harry Groener makes use of the folksiness to play
against type, just like Juliet Landau uses the spaciness, but that's
basically an acknowledgement that they can't quite pull off flat-out
threatening, I think.)

Angel had this too, of course, and the craziness, AND the personal
element. Gotta love Season 2.

? I noticed that the only two times we didn't see a morph involved the
Mayor. I guess Harry wasn't available long enough to shoot the
complicated matching shots a morph involves. (You'll notice that Adam
Busch sort of stiffens to match Clare Kramer for the Warren/Glory morph,
for instance). But on the good news front, Harry is currently
co-starring in Nora Ephron's play "Imaginary Friends" in San Diego, so
it shouldn't be too tough to bring the Mayor back if the Mighty Morphin
Power Stranger wants to wear his face again.

? Did you notice that Harry reached out to caress Spike's face before
the change into Dru. Hee! Mayor/Spike HoYay! Wonder if somebody's
already written a fic...

? Loved seeing Dru, but would have loved Angelus much, much more.

? Kind of wish the Mighty Morphin Power Stranger really WAS the
Master, with new powers and a grander agenda. I think he was kind of
shortchanged by the brevity of Season 1, and I'd love to see Mark
Metcalf handle an arc that required him to do more than just squat in
the church. Plus if it was the Master, that would mean an actual evil
vampire again. Well, can't have that, I guess... 

? re the promo for "Beneath You": so Spike's nuts but he manages to
re-dye his hair?? Good to know he masters the important skills.

Also, Kit screams. Yay.

Off to watch 7.2 now.

Dan