The world is spinning
Monday 22 October 2007 – 0:05Weight of the World (Douglas Petrie)
Spike warns the Scoobies that “You waste time with kid gloves. I’m willing to wager, when all is said and done, Buffy likes it rough.” Are these lines written with intent? Or do obsessives just seize on the innocent?
Willow gets cranky but not very convincingly. Alyson Hannigan’s charm is wearing off. I feel so bad writing that. I would have loved Willow taking charge at any other point in BtVS but not in season 5.
“Ben is Glory. Glory’s Ben.” This is vaguely funny but once again it makes the Scoobies look like idiots.
Glory goes all Dawn when she shouts “Get out! Get out! Get out!”. I do owe Clare Kramer an apology when I dismissed her performance earlier in the season but I have grown to appreciate her moods, vanity and humour. She is particularly good in this episode as the barrier between herself and Ben breaks down. And this speech is quite something:
“Who’s not crazy? Look around: everyone’s drinking, smoking, shooting up, shooting each other or just plain screwing their brains out because they don’t want them anymore. I’m crazy? Honey, I am the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts.”
By far and away the best thing about this rather plodding episode are the inside Buffy’s mind sequences. They are nicely photographed and it is good to see Joyce and Hank again. The little girl who plays Buffy looks more like a young Britney Spears: she isn’t nearly as convincing as Mimi Paley in “Killed By Death”. More importantly the sequences reveal Buffy’s feelings about her burden very clearly and she can’t wait to lay it down.
She explains why she going to become increasingly more miserable (”I would grieve and people would feel sorry for me. But it would all be over. And I imagined what a relief that would be”) and it’s no wonder she’s peeved in season 6.
3 Responses to “The world is spinning”
About the Ben/Glory deal. I find this funny. I normally agree that it’s stupid to make the scoobies look stupid, because they’re not, but in this instance, I can accept that it’s a spell and not their fault. Plus “glory ben syndrome” has become a regular staple of conversational repertoire for my buffy-loving friends/family and me when we want to refer to someone who’s not grasping an obvious connection. Good fun.
I’m right with you on Glory’s most fabulous crazy speech and the excellence of the inside of Buffy’s mind.
I’m on the fence about the Willow taking charge deal. And I’m wishing you might elaborate on why you weren’t keen on it at this point? And also, what about the ends of other seasons when everyone other than Buffy end up saving the day? Thoughts on that?
Holy long comment, batman, sorry
By ap on Monday 22 October 2007 – 6:43
I must admit to being unnecessarily grumpy about the Ben and Glory thing. It has come at the end of a season which I have reluctantly come to realise I didn’t like very much mainly because of the mean things done to the Scoobies and their collective drop in IQ.
I’m not keen on Willow taking charge because a) (whisper it) I don’t like her at the moment, and b) Willow taking charge is what she is going to do at the beginning of season 6 and she is going to fix all sorts of things in the wrong way.
Long comments are good.
By Hazel on Monday 22 October 2007 – 8:50
Well, thanks for replying. I never, I mean never, get tired of talking about Buffy. I must admit that I find the whole splitting up of the scoobies by Spike at the end of season 4 more tiresome than the IQ dropping in 5, but I do see your point. As for Willow, we have a love/hate relationship (although she rarely acknowledges that fact…). Sometimes I think she’s the coolest and other times I wonder if she could possibly get any more pedantic.
Think happy thoughts.
ap
By ap on Wednesday 24 October 2007 – 7:23