Getting done with "Get it Done"

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Well, you might have noticed the no-review thing. That's because after
"First Date", I decided to quit with the "notes as I watch it" approach
and just watch this one all the way through, to see if it made me feel
any better. However, it didn't, and when it was over, I had no notes
AND an episode I really didn't like.

Of note:

? The most hated thing for me in the ep was that, once again, we got
the "Willow is about the magic and doesn't have any other purpose on the
show". God forbid her spat with Kennedy should be about their
personalities clashing or Kennedy being pushy and immature or Willow's
still unresolved issues with Tara or her deep-seated love for Buffy or
anything about the character--no, W/K have a crisis because Kennedy
doesn't understand what magic is, what it is to Willow, that Willow is
always going to be the witch because that what Willow does, Willow does
spells, she's a witch, what more do you need to know about her?

I realize that I am a minority of exactly ONE on this subject, but I
really, really, REALLY wish Willow had just given up the magic. It's
lost its metaphoric subtext (is it about sex or drugs or what?), it's
not handled consistently within the show, Willow has been credited with
such a level of power that she makes Buffy look useless, so they make
her an incompetent screwup nine-tenths of the time.

And much as I love Willow, I didn't sign up for "Slayers and Vampires
and Witches, oh my!", I signed up for "One Girl in All the World, a
Chosen One..." Willow was on this show for 28 episodes before she cast
her first spell (in "Passion") and I don't look back at those eps and
say, "well, she's not doing magic, so she's useless". Now, I understand
that ME took away all of Willow's emotional functions on the show (the
innocent, Buffy's touchstone to humanity, the thing that Buffy fights to
save and will protect against all else) and gave them to Dawn instead.  

But if Willow is going to be empty of all emotional resonance and
defined solely by external characteristics, why do they have to be hokey
magic stuff that diminishes Buffy and which my memories of are tainted
by Dark Willow and Season Sux? Why can't Willow just be the smart girl,
the hacker, the quiet but determined brain?

Oh, right, that's Dawn's job, **also**. Dawnie reads Sumerian, but
Willow "sucks" at Latin (Huh?). Willow's computer skills are now
nothing more than using a Google?-search. (WTF?) Willow doesn't know
the plural of "chrysalis". (Please ignore "Ted" and "Killed By Death"
and "Go Fish" and "Beauty and the Beasts" and...)

Such a waste.
 
?Speaking of wastes, ME is determined to play out this Spike-vs-Wood
thing as slooooowly as possible, aren't they? "Robin Wood Has A Secret"
is an ep, not an arc, but BtVS has no idea how to tell complete stories
any more.

Here, I'll help.

Teaser: Buffy is investigating Wood, gets caught, ends up with a date.

ACT 1: Buffy wonders What's Up With Wood (hee!) and we also see the
start of the other plot of the ep (either Xander and demon-girl, or
Andrew and First!Jonathan, take your pick. Buffy discovers that Wood
can slay vampires, and we don't end the act there--we wait for him to
say "I knew a Slayer once...my mother".

ACT 2: Wood gives Buffy the details, including how seeks revenge for
his mother's death. Spike turns up, needing Buffy's help with
demonChick, or the First or whatever else is happening in the ep. Wood
discovers that Spike is a vampire and realizes that he's the one who
killed his mother. BTW, the menace is NOT defeated yet, it just flees
for a moment.

ACT 3: Wood does all the probing of Spike that we wasted "Get it Done"
on, finding out about his past and where he was in 1977, and so on.
Then the bad thing attacks again, and Wood has to decide whether to help
Spike, or take his chance to kill him.

ACT 4: Wood makes his decision (one way or the other), the bad guys are
defeated and we have a wrap-up.

See, it's called a "story". It has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Not "we learn a little about Wood" or "Wood asks Spike some question" or
any drablet of plot we've gotten this year. A fully developed story.
Try it, you'll like it.

?Buffy was a total bitch, and I have no idea why they think that
anyone would want to watch a show about this girl.

?Anybody who told me after "Same Time, Same Place" or "Bring on the
Suck" that Buffy wasn't shutting Willow out, that her "disappointed"
face wasn't saying "if you don't do magic, you're useless to me", you
owe me an apology. I'm just sayin...

?The idea that Spike's superpowers are in the coat is beyond lame.

?The ep couldn't keep its plots straight. The transition from "The
group is cracking under the pressure" to "Buffy seeks the source of
Slayer power" was very poorly handled, even if the "Buffy challenges
Willow and Spike to do more" parts were consistent.  

? So the slayer power is yet another demon and the Slayers are all
rape victims. Yawn. And I thought Buffy decided it didn't matter where
her power comes from, she doesn't need to be a senseless killing machine
like the First Slayer back in "Restless"? (I walk. I talk. I sneeze.
I shop. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's
trees in the desert where you used to live and I don't sleep on a bag of
bones. Now GIVE ME BACK MY FRIENDS!). I hate this, in both concept and
execution.

? Xander's afraid the First will show up and "tear them to shreds".
Please, Xand, say it with me..."in-corp-or-e-al". The First Boredom
can't touch you. (Moron).

?Buffy all upset and unhappy because she saw all those cute little
Unter-Vamps, waiting under the seal to come up one by one. Oh, scary!
Only not.

?Not only is Giles gone, nobody even said why, Would the guy who
actually **speaks** Sumerian not be kind of useful here?

On the plus side:  

Willow seemed to remember that Buffy is someone she loves. Check out
her reaction to Buffy wanting to go jump into an unknow portal (again).
Good for Willow.

Buffy actually talked to (okay at, wishful thinking) Willow. She even
almost apologized.  

The shadow puppets were cool.  

And...I got nothing.

Gonna catch some shuteye and, I guess, watch "Storyteller" in the
morning. Apologies if this was incoherent.

Dan 

who likes the "Giles was in LA, looking for better writers" theory the
best <g>