“Now which is the biggest piece?”
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Archive for May, 2007
Should be interesting
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007A Buffy character database in the making: I wonder if suspicions will be nixed or ticked?
Incredibly true
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007Except for the fact it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer that made me spend all that money: this list is the same as mine (except add Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me for Farscape). So Farscape, hmm…
And the early issues of Runaways have made me love Brian K. Vaughan which in turn has led to more spending.
Quiet! You’ll miss the humorous conclusion
Sunday, May 27th, 2007Restless (Joss Whedon)
Whatever you think of Restless, and I can imagine it rarely provokes a neutral reaction, it must be one of the most extraordinary programmes ever shown on mainstream television. How did Joss Whedon get away with it? It is complex, pretentious, metaphorical, gorgeously photographed and scored, weird, clever, beautifully acted, funny and silly. It’s never dull or boring.
But, it’s not an episode I love despite Willow painting on Tara’s back, a giant Miss Kitty Fantastico, Willow being “very seldom naughty”, Giles and Spike on the swings, Anya’s emphatic steering, Snyder as Colonel Kurtz, Anya doing stand-up, Spike posing in black and white, Amber Benson’s bare midriff, Sarah Michelle Gellar looking beautiful in the bright, sun-drenched scenes, the fight in the desert sands and Buffy’s final eye-roll as the First Slayer attacks her yet again.
I appreciate the fantastic thing it is but I can’t love it. I think the cheese man is a mistake because he literally and figuratively gets in the way. The episode never awes me. I want to use the word it lacks emotion (it’s an umbrella word like nice but it’ll do) and goes for the intellect instead. Oh, I dunno really, it is funny and endlessly rewatchable so what am I complaining about?
Two reviews worth reading: Mikejer (“and the Cheese Man appears for the first time. This guy rocks!“) and Kip Manley (“I’m not even going to dignify the Cheese Guy. Nor does Buffy”).
Well, piffle, let’s move on
Sunday, May 27th, 2007Primeval (David Fury)
I’m on record that season four is my favourite but I think I was mistaking a whole buncha good episodes for a good series of episodes. It didn’t help that Professor Walsh departed rather abruptly which lead to Adam taking centre stage which made season 4’s big bad a big bore.
Feel free to skip the following witterings: I’m fairly confident that seasons 5, 6 and 7 won’t be my favourite seasons so it’s now between 2 and 3. My first thought is 3 because of Faith and the Mayor but then I remember Dead Man’s Party and Beauty and the Beasts. Then I remember Bad Eggs and Killed by Death. Then I remember Amends, Helpless and The Zeppo and then I remember Inca Mummy Girl, Reptile Boy, and Go Fish. So do Faith and the Mayor beat Kendra and Angelus? Does preaching beat MOTW episodes? I think I may in danger of getting great episodes like Innocence/Surprise, Phases, Passion and Becoming I and II mixed up with a great season and as much as I hate DMP and BATB with a passion there are few routine episodes and the others I mentioned have much to recommend them (except, I’m sorry to say, The Zeppo). Season 3 is my favourite.
I think this is the poorest finale of all BtVS seasons with its X-Files lite coda summing up the crappiness of the idea of the Initiative. I was surprised to see the military turning up in Season 8; did Joss not learn anything? (Restless isn’t really the finale in the truest sense.)
Zombie Walsh and zombie Forrest are just horrible while Riley ripping out his chip (which just remember is directly attached to his nervous system) is plain daft.
However, the true power of the Scoobies is harnessed and it is genuinely moving to see them working together.
Buffy and Willow’s chat in the lift shaft is sweet but really: “Let’s promise to never not talk again.”
“So what if they are? You’re a good person, and a good boyfriend, and…and I’m in love with you. Whatever they think of you, it shouldn’t matter.” Anya is so lovable (and sensible) when she’s allowed to be, well, human.
She’s crafty. Her and her little friends.
Thursday, May 24th, 2007The Yoko Factor (Doug Petrie)
Riley says that Buffy told him this about Angel: “Everything. More than I wanted to know sometimes. She loved him. He turned evil. He, uh, killed people. She cured him. He left. Interesting little curse.” and then when Xander mentions “One moment’s happiness.” he gets upset. Therefore that means that Riley is more upset about the sex than the love…which is bonkers.
Spike’s work on the Scoobies is very clever but the position they have got themselves into over the season has helped a great deal. Buffy not wanting to talk about Angel is annoying but reasonable behaviour for her in season four.
What is Doug Petrie on? First the Riley misplaced jealously and now Willow wanting to study drama? Hello, Nightmares?
I don’t like Forrest but this is pretty accurate: “Such a big head on that skinny little body.”
“I am a whiz.” “She is a whiz.” “If ever a whiz there was.”
Of course Willow (“I knew Buffy was freaked.”) ignores the wise advice from Tara “You should talk to her, cause I’m sure she…” in favour of presuming the worst. (Aside: Buffy et al, actually take Willow’s outing very well, much better than you would expect from people who had little clue that she may be gay and much better than many fans of the show.)
The scene in Buffy’s dorm room between Riley, Angel and Buffy is funny and very well played by the trio.
Adam in funny moment: “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Beatles?” “I have. I like Helter Skelter.”
“Like the tile.” A lovely moment between the two outsiders.
“Bloody hell!” Giles (or should I say ASH) makes a great drunk.
“So…I guess I’m starting to understand why there’s no ancient prophecy about a Chosen One…and her friends.” The yelling and fighting is almost funny except that it’s too sad and close to the bone.
This episode ends on a cliffhanger and has a definite air of being incomplete in all other ways too (issues that are a bit too easily glossed over in the next of the series). And I still need to know just how cold are the evenings in SoCal?
The Philadelphia Story
Sunday, May 20th, 2007It’s been several years since I sat down and watched the classic film The Philadelphia Story which is routinely considered one of the best American films ever made and one of the best romantic comedies ever made. It was broadcast as a tribute to Katharine Hepburn who would have been one hundred on the 12th May so I thought I would sit down and see if this film was really as anti-women as I remembered.
And it is.
First of all, I am a big fan of films from the thirties and forties and among my favourite actors are Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck and Ingrid Bergman and secondly, I know “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” but if this film was as racist as it is sexist then what would the consensus be? Appreciations for Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind are always prefaced with apologies for their racist content so where are they for this?
The key moments in the film’s sexism include:
- the opening scene when Dexter thinks better of punching Tracy but simply shoves her roughly to the ground
- the quite stomach clenching scene when Tracy’s father explains why a man philanders which is a combination of a fear of growing older and of not having a loving daughter to give the illusion of youth. “A devoted young girl gives a man the illusion that youth is still his…because, without her, he might be inclined to go in search of his youth. That’s just as important to him as it is to any woman. But with a girl of his own, full of warmth for him, full of foolish, unquestioning, uncritical affection” Naturally, if this view was challenged or refuted then it wouldn’t be so hideous but it isn’t and by the end Tracy reconciles without further reference to his words.
- “Because you’ll never be a first-class human being or a first-class woman until you’ve learned to have regard for human frailty.” Did you know that being a human and a woman are mutually exclusive?
- Dexter blaming Tracy for his drink problem or at least for making it worse because she was frigid (and that apparently is her problem: her frigidity both emotionally and sexually) “When I discovered that my relationship to her was supposed to be not that of a loving husband and a good companion but…that of a kind of high priest to a virgin goddess. Then my drinks grew deeper and more frequent.” Once again, Tracy is the one with problems, problems spelled out in humiliating ways while the men’s problems do exist but aren’t addressed at all. And, the undercurrent here is that having sex is the equivalent of love and companionship.
- finally, Tracy decides to re-marry Dexter who she has shown no sign of being attracted to: what a lovely happy ending, re-marry the man whose final words to you at the end of your marriage were spoken in the form of violence.
There is a rather better written review from Eclectica magazine by Thomas J. Hubschman which echoes my thoughts.
In addition, the views on class are rather interesting too with the working class character portrayed as a narrow-minded oaf.
I must mention the truly wonderful performance by Virginia Weidler whose dancing and singing are timelessly funny. She is on a sad list of child actors who died young: Peggy Ann Garner, Natalie Wood, Judy Garland, Brandon de Wilde, Bobby Driscoll, etc.
“Women have very little idea of how much men hate them.”*
Sunday, May 20th, 2007I read several days ago about the murder of Du’a Khalil Aswad and the video that a man had taken of the event but I couldn’t bring myself to watch it. However, the mistake I then made was to push the matter away and do nothing. It took a post from Joss Whedon on Whedonesque to remind myself of it and do a small something about a world in which some men hate some women because they are women.
*Germaine Greer in The Female Eunuch in the chapter Loathing and Disgust (I suspect Du’a knew in the last hideous thirty minutes of her life).
ETA: this is great because it’s true. You could play feminist bingo with this.
I’ll have the less confusing waffles right now
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007New Moon Rising (Marti Noxon)
I have seen some scenes many, many times but overall too much of this episode is poorly thought out and developed.
Oz can’t control the wolf when he’s affected by strong emotions like jealousy or pain and so even if Willow had decided that she wanted to be with him that couldn’t have happened.
However, even if you didn’t know Seth Green had decided to leave the series the evidence is there in the episode that Willow would choose Tara. There is no woo or hoo because despite it being Oz (you know) she is not thrilled about his return which is why she chooses waffles and whatever happens during the cardigan swapping scene makes Oz’s nose tingle.
The acting in this episode is tremendous: we expect the best from Alyson Hannigan and Seth Green but Amber Benson is wonderfully touching (stutter notwithstanding). The scene between Oz and Tara is tense and exciting and you can feel their individual pain acutely and I love that even in his anguish he warns her to run.
My version of the Tara and Willow story is that Tara is totally smitten with Willow as soon as she sees her: it is love at first sight. In fact, Tara actively pursues Willow and is rather forward when she tells her she is special in Hush. Consequently, what she does in New Moon Rising is self-sacrificial and brave (she even says she wants to be Willow’s friend no matter what) and noble.
I understand there are some people who think the opening scene is a bit cute and sick-making but I think it’s so sweet. And they hold hands!
“I’m overhelping, aren’t I?” I do regret not calling this blog overhelping but I can’t change it now because a search on Google with the keywords let’s fold scarves brings up his site first.
More snark between Anya and Giles and then Oz turns up: “Oz” breathes Tara as the happiness swooshes out of her body.
Willow is a witch and interested in Wicca and there is no way she wouldn’t have realised it was a full moon. Alyson Hannigan is very, very good: listen and watch as she says “No. No new… guy.” And oo, a green choker alert.
The scene between Willow and Buffy when Will comes out is superb: just perfectly written and acted:
“Okay, I’m all with the woo-hoo here, and you’re not.” “No, there’s “woo” and, and “hoo.” But there’s “uh-oh,” and…”why now?” And…it’s complicated.” “Why complicated?” “It’s complicated…because of Tara.” “You mean Tara has a crush on Oz? No…Oh! Oh. Um…well…that’s great. You know, I mean, I think Tara’s a, a really great girl, Will.” “She is. And…there’s something between us. It-it wasn’t something I was looking for. It’s just powerful. And it’s totally different from what Oz and I have.”
Apparently, other stuff does actually happen in this episode like Riley quits the Initiative and Buffy steels herself to actually tell him about her relationship with Angel (“an unconventional relationship”, indeed).
And Oz leaves:
And this is now it ends and it is adorable:
“No candles? Well, I brought one. It’s extra flamey…Tara, I have to tell you…” “No, I-I understand. You have to be with the person you l-love.” “I am.” “You mean…?” “I mean. Okay?” “Oh, yes.” “I feel horrible about everything I put you through. A-and I’m gonna make it up to you. Starting right now.” “Right now?”
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