Archive for February, 2007
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Earshot (Jane Espenson)
A cracking episode with much to love except, nitpicking here, the misdirection with Jonathan using a hunting rifle to attempt suicide.
“Infect? Infect?”
“It was intense.” “Yeah, for a minute there I thought you’re gonna make an expression” “Well, I felt one coming on. I won’t lie.”
Strange for me to say this but the scene between Buffy and Angel was excellent. She really does need to ask rather than obsess because it isn’t healthy.
The scene when Buffy reads the thoughts of all the Scoobies is fantastic: Willow’s dismay at Buffy knowing more about her taciturn boyfriend than she does, Xander’s one track mind and Cordelia’s literal one is all very funny:
“I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist.” “Hmm…” “What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex! Help! 4 times 5 is thirty. 5 times 6 is 32. Naked girls. Naked Women! Naked Buffy! Oh stop me!” “God Xander! Is that all you think about?” “Actually…bye.” “Look at Cordelia. No! Don’t look at Cordelia! She’s a student! Oh I am a bad man. I’m a bad, bad man!” Excuse me.” “What’s it like Buffy?” “I don’t know. It’s a little weird. But…look, please, don’t for a second think that I don’t need you, because I do. I want to share this with you. It’s like all these doors are opening to all these little worlds, and I can just walk right inside.” “No one else exists either. Buffy is all of us. We think. Therefore, she is.” “She knows so much. She knows what Oz is thinking. I never know that. Before long, she’ll know him better than I do.” “No, don’t think that.” “I can’t help it Buffy. I’m sorry, I just can’t.”
“On the hood of a police car?!?”
“You had sex with Giles?! You had sex with Giles?!” “It was the candy! We were teenagers!” “On the hood of a police car?!?” “I’ll be downstairs. You feel better.” “Twice!!!!”
Willow interrogates Jonathan again and the other investigations are also fun: I do like is sort of cutting from location to location while keeping the narrative thread (see also Checkpoint, Bushwhacked and De-clawed).
Hard to believe but when you’re not a beautiful one but true:
“You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone.” “If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It’s not. It’s deafening.”
This is the perfect coda, Buffy had learned and grown as a person but even she’s not that gorgeous a person:
“Well, it’s nice to be able to help someone in a non-slaying capacity. Except, he’s starting to get that look, you know, like he’s gonna ask me to Prom.” “Well, it would probably be good for his self-esteem, if you…” “Oh come on! What am I, Saint Buffy? He’s like three feet tall!”
No, this is the perfect coda.
Obligatory pic of Willow in a hat
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Very expensive for visitors though.
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Having just finished the graphic novel it was perhaps a mistake to view the film so soon after. It is hard to separate novel from adaptation without just sounding like a whinger but, whatever, the film is a failure.
Some changes are inevitable in any adaptation but when so many are made you think what’s the point in even bothering? V for Vendetta is crying out to be made as a tv series.
Natalie Portman was fine as long as you accept the change in her character from match factory girl so desperate that’s she willing to prostitute herself to middle-class already radicalized white collar worker. I’m not convinced she would risk so much at the beginning for an evening meal with Deitrich though. Additionally, I don’t believe she would sell out V to a paedophile priest (no matter how suspicious she was of V); there was a clue, Evey, in the child’s clothes you were wearing that the priest wasn’t quite trustworthy.
I wonder how much of this film is spoilt because I am British but all those cosy middle class families watching tv while the working classes were darn the pub was annoying: isn’t The Royle Family on BBC America?
The film fell apart in the last half an hour: V was no superhero and “knife time” was just stupid. I know V had been preparing his attack for several years but I’d like to know how he mass produced all those masks. Finch’s “I went to Larkhill” was totally shoe-horned in and made no sense. As well as mass producing masks, V also managed to lay some underground train tracks and make invisible fireworks and demolition material for the Houses of Parliament.
The best part of the film was the torture of Evey and the story of Valerie which coincidently enough was the part of the film most faithful to the novel…
Still, it wasn’t all bad: my favourite moment is that Evey’s first complaint after realising who tortured her was to say “you cut my hair” and, oh yeah, “you tortured me”.
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Monday, February 26th, 2007
A step in the right direction - the British love of bananas has revitalised the economy of St Lucia and by Fair Trade too.
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Monday, February 26th, 2007
From the Guardian via Shuggy’s blog via Fisking Central:
“We are witnessing a social phenomenon that is about fundamentalism,” says Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark. “Atheists like the Richard Dawkins of this world are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube, the hardline settlers on the West Bank and the anti-gay bigots of the Church of England. Most of them would regard each other as destined to fry in hell.”
Hmm, is Mr Slee suggesting that any atheist would see anybody in hell? But, more to the point, the day an atheist behaves like any of the others mentioned, hell will have frozen over.
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
We just watched the first episode of Angel and the pilot of Dead Like Me. One left me with a feeling that it must improve as a series because it was full of holes and questions that need answering. While the other left me feeling even if it doesn’t get better then it’s still a cracking seventy minutes of funny and inventive drama which makes me think that Joss Whedon isn’t the only one in tv who can pull off the mix of the fantastic, comedic and dramatic.
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Enemies (Doug Petrie)
How I felt watching this
A drama is in trouble when it uses the misinterpretation of an innocent incident when two characters are supposed to trust each other as a basis for the rest of the episode. Even when it jokes at this later on: “But it’s so clear the way he feels about you. Buffy, I too know the love of a taciturn man and you have to look at their actions.” “I was. “ “Well, what did he say?” “Say? You mean when I straightforwardly asked him what was going on?” “So you bailed?”
The first time I saw this when I didn’t know what was going on it was intriguing but second time it’s a bit dull plus the demon owing Giles a favour was a corny and cheaty device. I’m not intrigued by the Buffy and Angel angst and even Faith bored me.
“That could be hours. The girl makes Godot look punctual. I’ll just go myself.” - make up your mind folks, is Buffy pay-attention gal or not?
“You know how some people hate to say I told you so? Not me. I told you so. Angel’s back in the really bad sense, and uh, I told you so.” - I’ll let Xander off this time
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
While visiting Andy’s dad we made sure to watch a couple of films on Sky Movies that we aren’t likely to buy on dvd.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Wow, this was a surprisingly poor film making ill use of marvellous source material. The cgi was the worst I have seen in a major film for years: some scenes looked like Hitchcockian back projection (ok, I slightly exaggerate) and in another Lucy and Susan’s hair is not being blown back like you would expect while riding on a galloping lion. The voice acting was flat with Liam Neeson decidedly non-awe inspiring as Aslan. The animals were just not convincing as intelligent talking beasts with Maugrim being the worst. The children were dull with poor Peter not coming over heroic or even athletic enough while Edmund just wasn’t at all obnoxious (and you certainly didn’t feel his lust for Turkish Delight). 
Tilda Swinton was a disappointment as Jadis (who should have looked like this illustration from The Magician’s Nephew) because of terrible costume design and a lack of engagement with the character. The battle scenes were poorly choreographed and I bow at the feet of Peter Jackson who must be the only director who has made cgi battles between cgi characters matter. There was no real sense of peril or of distance. All in all, a disaster, but a disaster with very good reviews by both professional and amateur critics alike which just makes me go “huh”?
Flightplan
There is only one reason to seek this film out and that is Jodie Foster. In a role not dissimilar from Panic Room she is riveting and convincing, unquestionably more so than the film itself which is rather daft. 
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Saturday, February 17th, 2007
Doppelgangland (Joss Whedon)
The fiftieth episode of BtVS and it’s my number one so far. Andy said that he thought my summary of this would consist of a repeat of the script and that’s almost what this is.
“For a thousand years I wielded the powers of The Wish. I brought ruin to the heads of unfaithful men. I brought forth destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lower beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe. And now I’m stuck at Sunnydale High. Mortal. Child. And I’m flunking math.”
Emma Caulfield (as the other non-Scoobies were) was generally wasted on the show with crass one-liners but when she was given something to get her teeth into she was smart and funny. I assume it’s calculus and trig she’s talking here and not arithmetic.
“Aren’t you sort of naturally buff, Buff?”
“I know Faith’s not gonna be on the cover of Sanity Fair, but…she had it rough. Different circumstances, that could be me.”
“Match? You want us to breed?”
First bit of over-analysis: Faith has just gone from being apprehended by the Council after being a majorly bad girl involving such incidents as killing a human and almost murdering Xander to training and bantering with the others. And it’s like there is a scene missing where it was explained how Faith was going to be rehabilitated and everybody said how they were going to behave as if nothing happened.
Even Wesley is amusing in this episode: “Oh, no, no, no. I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute. And some defibrillators, if it’s not too much trouble.”
Second bit of over-analysis: Oz has a gig in Monterey and doesn’t tell Willow? If Willow wasn’t so keen on tarring herself with the boring brush then she should have been asking why her boyfriend wasn’t sharing.
“See, I told you. Old Reliable.” “Oh, thanks.” “What?” “Old Reliable? Yeah, great. There’s a sexy nickname.” “Well, I didn’t mean it as…” “No, it’s fine. I’m Old Reliable” 
“She just means, you know, the geyser. You’re like a geyser of fun that goes off at regular intervals.” “That’s Old Faithful.” “Isn’t that the dog that, that the guy had to shoot…” “That’s Old Yeller.” “Xander, I beg you not to help me. Will, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I think it’s good to be reliable. “Well, maybe I don’t wanna be reliable all the time. Maybe I’m not just some doormat person. Homework gal.” … “Maybe I’ll change my look! Or cut class. You don’t know.” “And I’m eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!”
Just everything is so right about this scene with Xander making things worse, Buffy getting in a tangle, Willow’s indignation and the banana finish.
“You heard right, mister! I-I-I’m always ready to work some dark mojo. So, tell me, is it dangerous?” “Oh, no.” “Well, could we pretend it is?”
“I believe these chicken feet are mine. Look, m-magic is dangerous, Anya, i-it’s, it’s not to be toyed with. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone else’s homework to do.”
These two exchanges with Anya summarize Willow so well. The idea that she’s missing out really annoys her but at the same time she wants to please and make people happy so she does things she shouldn’t and she ends up in all kinds of messes. And, of course, this is strong foreshadowing.
“Aren’t you gonna introduce me to your…Holy God, you’re Willow.” “You.” “You know what? I, I like the look. It’s, um… it’s, it’s extreme, but it, it, it looks good, you know, it’s a leather thing, and, uh…I said extreme already, right?”
Lots of people even after all these years want to see a Faith or Spike or even Willow spin-off but I just don’t think they would work (I mean have you seen Tru Calling? Eliza Dushku can’t carry a show) because BtVS works because of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s tremendous performance. She isn’t 100% all the time (who could be in over 140 episodes?) but in scenes like this, she is just hilarious and has perfect timing. And in other scenes she’s emoting like the Emmy winner she is and she is plain under-rated.
Third bit of over-analysis: the very least Buffy and Xander should do after realising Willow has been turned is to apprehend her rather than letting her go because their inaction directly leads to Sandy being vamped. However, I suppose they are in a state of shock…
“She was truly the finest of all of us.” “Way better than me.” “Much, much better.”
“Say, you all didn’t happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?”
Ok, I resisted just repeating the script here but I could have! Everything is great: the sadness of the Scoobies, Xander shaking his cross, the hugs (especially Giles’s), Willow’s confusion, Giles’s lack of anything constructive to say, etc.
“What a day. Gimme a beer.” “ID” “I’m eleven hundred and twenty years old! Just gimme a friggin’ beer!” “ID” “Gimme a Coke.”
I love Anya.
“It was exactly you, Will, every detail. Except for your not being a dominatrix. As far as we know.” “Oh, right. Me and Oz play Mistress of Pain every night.” “Did anyone else just go to a scary visual place?” “Oh, yeah.”
Oh yeah, indeed.
Fourth bit of over-analysis: why does Willow turn her back to Vamp Willow and what makes her say, “Would that mean we have to snuggle”? Unless she just knows what she wants.
“Bitch”
“It’s horrible! That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil and… skanky. And I think I’m kinda gay.” “Willow, just remember, a vampire’s personality has nothing to do with the person it was.” “Well, actually…that’s a good point.”
She’s never skanky…
“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything that could be interpreted as brave.”
Except going into the Bronze!
The cutest moment of a very cute character is when Willow waves at Oz after entering the Bronze.
“She bothered me. She’s so weak and accommodating. She’s always letting people walk all over her, and then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just couldn’t let her live.”
“Buffy! No!” “Nice reflexes.” “Well, I work out.” This world’s no fun.” “You noticed that, too?”
Faith kills Allan Finch because she couldn’t stop herself but Buffy is capable of stopping and that is the difference between them.
Fifth bit of over-analysis: “We send her back to her world, and she stands a chance. It’s the way it should be anyway.” I’d say not: she’s an evil vampire who is likely to be doing all kinds of unspeakable things in her own world and to send her back is morally wrong. Luckily, this only dawned on me after watching the episode several times so it never bothered me before. And, of course, the viewers know that she is going back to be poofed. Tara Incognita? by HonorH is an excellent work of fan fiction that deals with this misstep by the Scoobies.
“Hands! Hands!”
“Aw, f…
My final observation, that perhaps doesn’t need to be said, is that Alyson Hannigan is awesome in this episode as all three Willows.
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Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
Consequences (Marti Noxon)
This is a very dark episode in both theme and look. It has some emotional scenes in it with excellent acting particularly from Alyson Hannigan.
Faith pretends she doesn’t care or does she believe this?
“Anyway, how many people do you think we’ve saved by now? Thousands? And didn’t you stop the world from ending? Because in my book, that puts you and me in the plus column.” “We help people! It doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.” “Why not? The guy I offed was no Gandhi. I mean, we just saw he was mixed up in dirty dealings.” “Maybe, but what if he was coming to us for help?” “What if he was? You’re still not seeing the big picture, B. Something made us different. We’re warriors. We’re built to kill.” “To kill demons! But it does not mean that we get to pass judgment on people like we’re better than everybody else!” “We are better!”
The first time I saw the scene when Buffy thinks Giles believes Faith’s take on Allan’s death I was shocked and even now, I’m all agog by a stunning piece of cleverness by Faith and by Giles.
Oh Wesley, Wesley. I’m not sure I can like Angel; I mean Wesley is in it.
The scene in the cafeteria as the Scoobies decide what to do is just a marvellous opportunity for AH to shine. As Xander slowly reveals that he had sex with Faith and the others equally slowly cotton on, Willow sits there twisting her hands in her lap looking devastated but just in control. Xander did the thing and didn’t tell her. Life sucks for Willow in this episode and it doesn’t help that Oz is absent throughout.
Faith is in the process of murdering Xander when he is rescued by Angel. Maybe I missed it but this “incident” is not mentioned an awful lot in subsequent episodes. Willow dislikes Faith more than Xander ever seems to. For example, in this very episode: “I kind of have an issue with Faith sharing my people. But she murdered someone and accused Buffy. Then she hurt Xander. I hate to say it, but maybe she belongs behind bars.” Faith didn’t murder, she killed; but she was going to strangle Xander. However, the language used here seems to diminish Xander’s near death experience and Xander himself doesn’t have any more dialogue after Faith’s attack and, certainly, in the next three episodes the strangling isn’t mentioned.
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