Another Friday morning, another Buffy review

[lathany]

And, yes, I will be doing this every Friday. But I promise to always stick them in a cut.

Buffy - Same Time, Same Place

Being a big Willow fan, I really liked this episode. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Giles, but otherwise it was pretty good. I thought the use of the "demon spotting" spell was interesting, with overtones of whether Anya-Willow might be a possibility (or perhaps just to make the fans speculate). I liked the combination of the "non-existence" spell and the skin-eater, although the demon was a bit too "Dark Crystal" (as bateleur mentioned). Also the bit where Dawn falls off the sofa was a good touch. Pity there was no more season plot (as far as I could see).

Angel - Ground State

Quite a good episode, although the girl (Gwen) was too stereotypey (possibly she was auditioning for Terminator 3). The interactions between Angel, Gunn and Fred were very believable. The simultaneous "breaking into the vault" was great. Unfortunately, Wesley now appears to be omniscient. I bet that he'll go back to a more normal knowledge level should he ever rejoin Angel Investigations.

The snow (or rather, the ice) has made today extremely miserable. Why ? Because my parents were going to babysit whilst I went into London and shopped (bateleur has ordered me to go spend some money on myself). Now, however, they can't get here due to the over-night car park situation (9 and 10 hour delays on M11 and A1(M)). Even if they could, the railway lines are currently on dire form.

Never mind, at least it is a Friday.

Comments

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I actually kind of like Wesley's apparent omniscience now... I guess it makes the character seem a little more interesting. Without that element, I suspect he'd come across as being rather, well, pathetic.

But that's just a random thought...

Perhaps

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Although anyone who can successfully beat up on a demon (even with additional human help) is still pretty impressive.

That's true.

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

Perhaps 'pathetic' is the wrong word... I'm not totally sure what the right one would be, though! :)

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

Good:

I really liked the demon (then again, I'm a Dark Crystal fan) and found him genuinely creepy. It's always good to see Willow, and I liked her horror at Anya's flirting. I am somewhat worried about her damage deposit. If I lived in the Buffyverse I'd just write off the damage deposit of any apartment I moved into.

Have you folks had "Help" yet? It's possibly my favorite episode of this season.

I loved the harpy flappy thing in Angel, which is saying something because it's been quite some time since I didn't hate anything in Angel. Good monster.

Not so much:

Gwen was sort of cool, but only because I miss Faith and she's basically Faith dressed in red. And what the heck is it with Angel (creepy totally unattractive IMO Angel) mackin' on every XX that crosses his path? The whole Cordelia thing just turns my stomach, and the Gwen thing isn't much better. About the only one who isn't bugging the hell out of me is Wesley. Gunn has gotten totally uninteresting, I still want to slap Fred every time she's on screen, and Cordelia has completely lost the edge that used to make her a fun character. Now she's just goopy vision-girl.

Okay, I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Nope - no "Help" yet.

*checks listing*

It's on next week.

Surely he would be less "creepy" if he *wasn't* "makin' on every XX that crosses his path" ?!

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

um... now I'm confused.

anyway, it's probably a holdover from Buffy. It always creeped me out that DB looked about 40 whilst SMG looked 20. I know, the story-world age difference was even bigger, but... yecch.

I'll look forward to your reaction to Help.

Perhaps I should have said...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

...for me part of what makes him creepy is that he snogs everyone (OK - with Lilah he was, strictly speaking, someone else).

There is an actual age difference of about six years between the actors, if I remember rightly. Although these days it looks a lot better as SMG seems to have aged disproportionately over the series. I found her far more believable as 15/16 in season 1 than I do as 21/22 in season 7.

Re: Perhaps I should have said...

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

ah! I understand. yes, agreed.

I don't care if he was 28 in Buffy, he stinkin' looked 40, and now he looks about a million years old.

Agreed that SMG has aged, which I totally attribute to her precipitous weight loss. When will they learn that being super skinny makes you look older? As Sophia Loren once said, at a certain point you've got to choose between your face and your ass. SMG chose her ass, and her face shows it. A few more pounds would make her look much younger.

[elethiomel.livejournal.com]

Same Time, Same Place - I can't think of a more worrying person to look after someone with 'poseable paralysis' than Anya. Eeek, can you imagine? Have to say that the Buffy special effects budget also seems to have been slashed by about 98% - the spangly Willow reappearing effect was in the same vein as last week's worm.

Ground State... *Shrug*... Gwen was cool but only in an 'I-miss-Faith' kinda way. Otherwise pretty average I thought.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I loved Ground State but was bored by Same Time, Same Place... increasing evidence that I've turned into a diehard Angel fan, but am becoming increasingly inured to the Buffy formula.

Re:

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Well, that goes without saying.

And, er, I disagree entirely. ;)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Or a die-hard contradicter. Possibly. ;-)

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I did really like the Anya episode of Buffy which is coming up for you in a week or two... if you find fault with it, I'll know that YOU'RE the contradictor!

(Getting my retaliation in first...)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Now you're just showing off about having seen it already.

*sulk*