Right, then. We fought. I won. The end. Pay up.
Thursday 28 June 2007 – 16:57Fool For Love (Doug Petrie)
There is a thread on TWOP called I love Kennedy!: Unpopular Opinions about Buffy in which, well, people voice unpopular opinions of a controversial nature such as Dawn wasn’t that annoying, Beer Bad and Where the Wild Things Are are really not that terrible (and they really weren’t) and Hush isn’t that great because it has a whole section without dialogue (!?). It’s currently at 119 pages and I presume somewhere in there is a person or two who thinks Fool For Love is not that great.
It’s 13th at GEOS, it is 9.3 on TV.com, 9.0 at IMDb: you get the picture but I don’t.
Buffy is off her game and Riley saves her. He is not content until he has wiped out the nest. These two things were interesting. Buffy’s need to know more about former slayers is believable (but Watchers don’t keep records?) and much of Spike’s past is amusing (if humiliation is funny) but otherwise, shrug.
Willow, Xander and, to a lesser degree, Anya’s behaviour is appalling. Not just in itself, which is disrespectful and rude, but in the terrible things done to the characters: four seasons of Scooby responsibility thrown away for cheap laughs.
It’s clear that many people love back story and care about Darla, Angel, Drusilla and Spike’s past but I don’t. I really don’t. I’m certainly affected by the laughable nature of the historical scenes with their poor wigs, inauthentic dialogue (“bloody” in polite society?, railroad spike and purse) and poor attention to detail but even if that was great I’d still be bored (I feel I’m a bad BtVS fan for saying that b word).
And have a strong apathy to slow motion (in most cases it is an annoying gimmick e.g. the shootout in Road to Perdition and that bloody pram down the steps in The Untouchables) particularly if all it does is highlight the bad wigs.
Good things: the fight with the New York Slayer and the look of absolute confusion on Buffy’s face as Spike comforts her.
“I do see you. That’s the problem. You’re nothing to me, William. You’re beneath me.”
“You ever hear them saying the blood of a Slayer is a powerful aphrodisiac?”
“Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you. The only reason you’ve lasted as long as you have is you’ve got ties to the world. Your mum, your brat kid sister, the Scoobies. They all tie you here but you’re just putting off the inevitable. Sooner or later, you’re gonna want it. And the second…the second…that happens. You know I’ll be there. I’ll slip in. Have myself a real good day.” - a touch of foreshadowing
2 Responses to “Right, then. We fought. I won. The end. Pay up.”
The slow motion is awful - the historical stuff is mostly a yawn (although any excuse to get Dru back on screen has to be a plus) I even thought Spike’s fight with the NYC slayer intercut with Buffy and Spike “bonding” was just not particularly well paced - the fight might have been good - and I know how you love a punch up - but it didn’t really work for me.
Which I guess means that I like even less than you about this episode! Blah rather than bad - and not enough sparkly dialogue to raise it above the ordinary - not a single quote in your post to make me smile…was there nothing?
“The King of Cups expects a picnic! But this is not his birthday.”
Good point.
By Andy on Thursday 28 June 2007 – 17:18
I also do not have a high opinion of this episode. But I do not have a high opinion of Spike post-”Something Blue” or so. I don’t think that any of the Spike flashbacks are particularly illuminating. The scene in which Drusilla sires Spike is way too similar to Angel’s siring by Darla in “Becoming, Part 1,” and not nearly as sexy and creepy.
The strange thing about this episode for me is that I really like the first three scenes. The opening scene feels like a continuation of the teaser of “Helpless,” which I like. I even like the scene with Buffy, Riley, and Dawn, and two of those characters really irk me. (”Who’s the man?” “You are. A very short, annoying man.” Hee!) With Buffy really concentrating on becoming a super slayer during this season, I think that her interest in previous slayers’ deaths and more pressing awareness of her mortality is interesting. And I actually don’t mind Spike’s insight that all slayers want to die; in fact, I even like it. I always enjoy Spike’s ability to cut through the crap, which is probably why I dislike all the crap he spews about his past during this episode. If the episode had involved Buffy exploring her mortality in a different way with Spike coming in at the end of that exploration to cut through the crap and say what he said, I probably would have liked it more.
Riley and the Scoobies… Where do I start? Let me backtrack momentarily — I like the first three scenes of the episode, but I don’t like that Riley is the one who saves Buffy. I wish Willow and Xander had showed up or Buffy had limped away in shame, but only because I know that Riley totally got off on Buffy needing his help like that and I’m all about denying Riley that satisfaction. I do see the point that the writers were trying to make with Riley patrolling with the Scoobies. Throughout the season Riley isolates himself from the Scoobies and never quite gels with the group, which I think contributes to his decision to leave in “Into the Woods.” The patrolling scenes demonstrate Riley’s separation from the group and their difference in demon-fighting styles, but I think that distinction could have been made without characterizing the Scoobies as idiots. Xander and Willow patrolled without Buffy for several months between seasons two and three, and have clocked plenty of other field time as well. They have no excuse for acting that clueless.
Oh, and I blame the slow motion on the crossover with ‘Angel.’ If I remember correctly, the slo-mo shot felt less arbitrary in the context of the ‘Angel’ episode, probably because slo-mo was used regularly. Another stylistic technique that felt out of place was ’70s Spike talking to present-day Buffy. It was a little postmodern for the show.
By nullasalus on Tuesday 3 July 2007 – 6:47