Just giving the heads up: Chosen update tonight.

I really do think that long-term couples can be interesting. Granted, they broke up for half a season, but Marshall and Lily are totally cute on How I Met Your Mother. And on Medium Allison and Joe's marriage is an integral part of the show. It's not perfect and they fight, but they love each other and the audience knows that they are going to stay together. And that relationship is one of the main reasons I like the show.

I completely understand each and every criticism of the Anya wedding dress scene but I still love it. They are my three favourite actors and characters and they are so endearing in these scenes and they just totally sell it to me. Of course, the notion of Xander and Anya being best friends is insane unless your best friend does spend all his time belittling and patronising you in front of your mutual friends.

And a happy long-term couple in the Buffyverse (and the wider Whedonverse) is as rare as laugh in “Wrecked”. Even the happiest couple, Zoë and Wash, were denied a future. Criticism of this fact is often countered with the response that happy couples aren’t compelling dramatically, to which I respond that the writers need to look around at their own relationships and to work harder at making a long-term couple interesting.

Joss also needs to stop killing characters for the benefit of other characters’ growth and development.

I love Buffy here. I cannot say the same of Xander, though.

I hate the Xander plot, with the demon "Xander from the future". Please! Xander should have fought off his fears, and therefore defeated the demon. But noooo. Xander is not allowed to have developed enough confidence in himself, despite all the progress he has made in his career, to overcome his doubts.

Oh, please. I think the writers overdid the misery thing. Having one couple actually succeed wouldn't have lessened my interest in the show. It would have been a nice contrast to Buffy and Willow, and a bit of relief, comic and otherwise.

Sadly, no one asked me. Instead, Buffy characters must suffer, suffer, suffer, all Season 6 long.

My favorite scene in "Hell's Bells" is the one between Willow and Xander. Nick and Alyson are fantastic.

And yay for angst-free Buffy! I always love her when she lies badly.