In the light of The Guardian’s top 50 television dramas of all time, I thought of the dramas that I remembered fondly and also remembered being, well, top. So, here’s a list which is not in any order except for the first mentioned.
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer life-changing and worthy of a blog post or two
I, Claudius the best British drama, completely studio bound yet full of vigour and gripping stories; the acting is astonishing and it was clever, sexy, violent and funny
Edge of Darkness yes, it is dated in many ways but the story is what matters (as well as Bob Peck’s mesmerising performance) [oh my, while looking for clips of this I have found it has been remade (by the same director) with Mel Gibson as Craven]
Mad Men best show on TV, it may be more style than substance to some but not for me and for the moment I am in love with it
Fortunes of War oh, Ken and Em, how did I love you? a lot and this very expensive drama was worth every penny
The Jewel in the Crown it’s the characters that make this particularly Daphne Manners, Sarah Layton and Ronald Merrick although the backdrop of the Raj is always fascinating
Dead Like MeI have only seen this once but it was an instant classic to me; I adore the characters
Survivors I rewatched this recently and it was slow and frankly boring in parts but Carolyn Seymour as Abby simply owned the series and for that, thank you!
Tenko this was compulsive viewing when I was a teen, character driven and all those characters were women; I loved Louise Jamieson, Veronica Roberts and Stephanie Beacham
Firefly one series of highs and lows: “Out of Gas” is among the best episodes of anything of all time
Battlestar Galactica I do wish the Cylons really had had a plan but putting nitpicking the entire series aside, parts of this were flipping brilliant
Blake’s Seven I last saw this when I was a teen but it has stayed with me and I do think I should revisit it just to see how it stands up dramatically and to see if I can work out the reason why Avon was attractive (I don’t want to think about the special effects)
(wow, that looks, um, well…the theme music’s good)
Tutti Frutti Emma Thompson again and I remember loving this very British drama
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil this was outrageous and although I enjoyed the majority of it, I always hated the ending which probably means I missed the point
Taking Over the Asylum Ken Stott is magnificent in this and the setting is certainly unique
When the Boat Comes In we really used to make brilliant lengthy historical series like this, Poldark, The Onedin Line and The House of Eliot and make them seem effortless
Carnivàle okay, I have only seen eight episodes but I think this has potential to be very high on my list (if it was in any order)
A Very Peculiar Practice I thought this was fabulous when i was young, I was less enamoured with it when it was repeated relatively recently but Barbara Flynn was the business as Dr Rose Marie
Testament of Youth seen once but I remember it made me cry a lot
Therese Raquin this was filthy, I remembered that very well but on rewatching I appreciated even more the performances of Brian Cox, Kate Nelligan and a very youthful looking Kenneth Cranham
A Very British Coup this felt like a documentary and the ending is so tragic
[I think I had a rather odd crush on Alan MacNaughtan who was also in To Serve Them All My Days]
The Crow Road great stuff, thoroughly Scottish with a standout perfomance by Bill Paterson
Fanny and Alexander, Berlin Alexanderplatz I am shamefully putting these together but both are examples of great foreign TV series directed by people better known as film directors, both were gripping and both were more mature than anything on British TV at the time
A Kind of Loving my forgotten gem in this list
A list of other things I watched when I was younger: To Serve Them All My Days, Upstairs, Downstairs, Angels, Juliet Bravo, The Gentle Touch, All Passion Spent, Driving Ambition, The Beiderbecke Affair, Jonathan Creek, Chandler & Co,Bergerac, Shoestring, Between the Lines – bloody hell, telly was good in the old days!* What I think is interesting is that I didn’t watch many American imports (notably The Rockford Files and Cagney & Lacey) when I was young because they were all rather rubbishy. How things have changed.
*Of course, it wasn’t. This is a list from approximately forty years of TV and I don’t think I have even listed one series a year. And I’m sure Spooks or Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes are to other people as good as, say, The Gentle Touch…
This blog hasn’t died. It may be hibernating a little bit.
I may start “reviewing” Buffy in January when we start rewatching it with Adam. He has only seen a handful of episodes from before S4 and maybe by the time we get to S6 he’ll be able to stand Spuffy. Though…I don’t see why he should when I can’t, but at least he may be physically able to watch it rather than giving up in dismay when Spike and Buffy started snogging regularly (and anyway, there were episodes in S6 that a 12 year old shouldn’t watch).
We finished Angel and thank you, Andy, for struggling along with me as we negotiated the final season. I may have fallen out of love with Joss Whedon and coupled with the unravelling of Dollhouse, I have become increasing more estranged from the fandom which adores all that he does (and I thought I was one of them too…). I see terrible dialogue, awkward exposition, two dull leads, fine actors struggling with their lines, illogical plotting, a villain motivated by jealousy (which, admittedly, was good enough for Shakespeare but bores me in the ‘House), fake out deaths, etc, and I don’t like it very much. I do love Enver Gjokaj (and his hilarious turn as Topher did reveal it is Topher I can’t stand not Fran Kranz so apologies to him) and Olivia Williams (but even she falters over the poor dialogue at times and her costuming is unflattering and makes her look like she frequents Bhs) and I am grateful that I get to see them on my screen.
We have started watching Carnivàle and, despite the nagging doubts I have over what is unresolved at the end of S2, I do like it a lot. Nick Stahl is a little lightweight as Ben but the rest of the cast are wonderful. I particularly like Patrick Bauchau as Lodz, Michael J. Anderson as Samson and Clancy Brown as Justin, and I have liked Clea DuVall since “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” and it is refreshing to have a leading lady who looks like somebody you might meet in real life. The last episode we watched “Pick a Number” had a devastatingly horrible ending with Dora Mae being left in Babylon to be raped for eternity. The photography is stunning, the music superb and the theme is most unusual. I like the fact it is a period piece and the atmosphere of the carnival is well presented.
There you go.
ETA: Mad Men! What a show. Love it. Read and absorbed too much to write about the final episodes with any degree of originality but best show on TV by far. It wasn’t always satisfactory (Miss Farrell for a start) and a few characters were neglected but always gripping.
This was quite obviously my final episode review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I started this “project” in (no, really?) on 20th April 2006 (when I was 41) and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself along the way. I am greatly chuffed by the number of people who have taken the time to make comments which were without exception more thoughtful and analytical than I ever managed. (I defend myself by pointing out that I never thought I was being smart.)
I would like to thank Joan the English Chick and the other folks who transcribed all the episodes, the folks over at Screencap Paradise whose screencaps saved me a lot of time, and all the bloggers and LiveJournal keepers who have given me so much to think about. I am in awe of their talent and insight.
I have now watched every episode twice and some I have seen many, many times (and there are more that I have seen parts of many, many times). However, if I want to spend another three and a bit years of my life doing another rewatch, I will only watch S1-4 again and selected episodes from 5, 6 and 7.
S5 is where it gets “complicated” and where, too often, it fails to match its ambition and is disappointingly unengaging and unconvincing.
My favourite characters are Willow and Tara and, while I adore S4 Tara and Willow, too often thereafter they are a rather boring couple.
There are undoubtedly great episodes after S4 but overall the seasons are troublesome and I have to put it down to one thing: Spike gets a crush on Buffy. I loved evil Spike and chipped Spike but, after he fell for Buffy, I became irritated as the show focused on Spike and his relationship with Buffy. I am not that interested in any of my heroines’ relationships with their significant others. The great thing about Buffy and Angel was that when they did get together it unleashed Angelus which put the kibosh on romance (for the most part).
I think one of the reasons I loved Tara and Willow’s burgeoning relationship was precisely because it was obscured by metaphors. The explicit course of the relationship between Kennedy and Willow was a literal turn-off for me. Even Oz and Willow’s relationship was sweet and somewhat naïve which made it endearing (and they became boring too). And, of course, it wasn’t Willow’s show and we weren’t treated to episode after episode exploring her relationships.
If I had to sum up Buffy the Vampire Slayer in one word, I would call it layered. It is fluffy, profound, funny, heartbreaking, silly, serious, exciting, sad, entertaining, thought-provoking, groundbreaking, and add your own. It also boasted sensational outfits because ultimately that is what mattered*.
Willow's top is so awful that it makes Tara's look nice
*Or maybe what really mattered was friendship and family because when you lose your friends and family you get S7.
“Chosen” is not the best season finale (seasons 2, 3 and 5 have better ones) but it is an adequate way to end the entire series. I have major issues with the empowerment spell and with the huge role that Spike plays in the conclusion and that taints it for me.
Joss Whedon has this to say about Buffy’s cookie dough speech: “She comes to this conclusion a little bit out of the blue, and that’s my fault, but we knew that emotionally, that’s where we wanted her to get.”
And this about the Scythe: “Some people have complained that the magic that this Scythe – originally from the Fray comic that I was writing at the same time – is a little too convenient. And my answer to those critics is, “Well, don’t tell everybody!” It is convenient, and that doesn’t really bother me, because ultimately, to me, the magic, the phlebotnum is always secondary to what needs to be said. And what needed to be said had to do with empowerment.”
And this about the Ubervamps: “Some people complained, again, that the vampires were too easy to kill. That they were supposed to be stronger than other vampires. And the fact of the matter is… it’s true. Like the convenience of the magic, it’s true. Because, again, I was more interested in showing the empowerment than I was in the continuity.”
These three quotes from Joss Whedon’s commentary to ‘Chosen” (transcript by stormwreath) make it clear that he doesn’t care if a story is a little strained if the story being told has heart. However, what happens if the heart is in the wrong place?
This is what he says about Anya: “That was because I needed a toll, I needed this battle really to feel like a battle – and I couldn’t kill any of my Core Four and still call it a happy ending. I couldn’t kill Dawn and still call it a happy ending either. So Anya got the nod. And to make it as unheroic as possible just felt very real and very creepy – and that shot was in fact her last shot.” (I like that Anya was steeled by the thought of bunnies but, otherwise, just another woman to add to the pile.)
And here’s what he says about Spike: “Another beautiful image. Our boy, going down for the last time. Even though everybody already knew he was going to be on Angel…”
Well, I didn’t! I thought he was bloody dead. And answer this question: who gets to die in a literal blaze of glory and whose body is left buried under Sunnydale? Many people die in Buffy and, in a series with a disproportionate amount of female characters (compared with any other TV series that is), many of them are women. What I resent is the number of women who die compared with the number of men who leave rather than get killed off. And this Spike thing is even more galling. He dies (completely incinerated) and yet there he is in bloody Angel. Joss is famous for his character deaths which are tremendously resonant and powerfully effective which some people justify by pointing out that death happens and is even more likely to be early and violent in the Buffyverse (this is undeniable) but when the deceased return from the dead then where is the power in that?
I have problems with the empowerment of thousands of young potentials; not with the ones that Buffy explicitly asks if they want to do this thing (“So here’s the part where you make a choice…”) but with the ones who have it thrust upon them. It is done without their consent. How is Buffy different from the Shadow Men who did the same to the first Slayer? When she met them in “Get It Done” she is miffed with what they did to the First Slayer “You violated that girl, made her kill for you because you’re weak, you’re pathetic, and you obviously have nothing to show me.”
A few other remarks:
If you are going to use lines like “he had to split”, it really helps when the character then laughs at its cheesiness.
Dawn kicking Buffy in the shin is acceptable violence.
Spike’s drawing of Angel on the punchbag is amusing.
I liked Robin and Faith together. Faith’s horror at, perhaps, not being that great at sex was most amusing (“Dude, I got mad skills.”). However, I don’t like Robin’s “death”. Back to Joss: “Dying – having a character die then suddenly bringing them back is something you can only earn after you’ve actually killed a couple of people. So this was a nice opportunity to say, “This isn’t over yet.” Have the call-back and – but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I hadn’t legitimately offed a few beloved characters.” I really detest that fake-out storytelling: it feels like cheating to me and is also a tad repetitive since it had already been done to Cordelia and Kaylee.
Giles and the others playing Dungeons and Dragons was also amusing particularly since he summed up his S7 persona: “I used to be a highly respected watcher, and now I’m a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.”
After reading Joss’s words, I should know better than to complain but Buffy’s plan could really have done with better timing like waiting for Willow’s spell to, um, work.
I love the lull before the final fight as other characters disappear to get on with their tasks leaving the original four in the high school corridor and a shot of Buffy on her own: Giles’s remark the “earth is definitely doomed” is a perfect reminder of “The Harvest”.
What happens to Kennedy? I’m pretty sure we never see her after the escape from the Hellmouth. It seems a bit odd not to have a proper shot of her on the bus.
The Welcome to Sunnydale sigh falling into the crater is an important touch.
Buffy’s last words are “I love you” and “Spike” which surely somebody has analysed the significance of.
In the final, final scene, I like that Buffy doesn’t say anything while everyone yammers but just smiles, sadly.
The writers do a terrible job regarding the Scythe because it is the most awful plot contrivance. Why does Caleb tell Buffy (via Shannon in “Dirty Girls”) that he has something of hers. Her interest wasn’t even interest until this lumpen villain was shoehorned into the show. Hey! can you tell I’m not a fan? The Scythe really should have introduced a long time ago along with the Guardians.
Now there may be tons of things unresolved in Buffy notably the fiasco of “Empty Places” but at least we know what happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico. I find it hard to get over the fact that the Scoobies behave as if nothing happened between them. I can understand that the writers are running out of time (series wise) but that makes the decision to do something awful like chuck Buffy out of her home even less wise: they really didn’t need to do that traitorous thing.
Poor Eliza, she’s always unconscious in Buffy.
If “End of Days” has a place in my heart, it is because it has one of my favourite moments of Buffy:
I’m not sure what to make of Angel’s appearance except to say that if I had to choose a Buffy boyfriend, I’d go for him. But what was the point of Spike also being there except to annoy everybody; people who ship and people who don’t.
This episode is incredibly dull in parts which is a real shame – Buffy limped to a conclusion.
"I don't wanna be the one." - just hold in there, Buffy.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed a Potential called Caridad if she hadn’t been played by Dania Ramirez who had the thankless role of Maya in Heroes. Sorry to jump ahead but it seems odd to have her so prominent in “Dirty Girls”, this, and “End of Days” only for her to not be in “Chosen”. [Sign of the times that I am wittering on about the actor who played Maya, for heaven's sake.]
By the time this episode got to “Sweetie, you’re pushing too hard”, I was feeling a little steamed, what with the hand-held camera and the over-lapping dialogue. What is Buffy coming to when Kennedy has more lines than Willow?
“Yeah, I think so. I just need to get together a few ingredients.” Oh, boring. Sorry. How Willow fell from being my favourite character to this irritating shell makes me really sad. She was actually fun in LA so what were they doing with her in Buffy?
Why does Spike punch Faith? And why does he accuse her of getting what she wanted? She once wanted to have what Buffy had in terms of love and family but I sure don’t think she ever wanted responsibility. Faith often seems misrepresented which means somebody is wrong so when I re-watch Buffy I shall pay more attention to her story (which is taken up very well in Angel).
Why does Giles just slash the Bringer’s throat and pronounce that they had enough information? I reckon Giles is much more to blame for the disaster that follows than Faith is.
I think the writers do quite a subtle job on Spike because essentially he’s pretty dense. He thinks he has Faith sussed but Buffy knows the truth.
It’s always nice to see Harry Groener as the well-mannered Mayor.
Everyone is leaving Sunnydale. Buffy has a cold. Willow uses the force. Willow cries. Caleb is boring. Faith goes dancing. Buffy reiterates how freaking marvellous Spike is. The First has a cold. Amanda gets drunk. Spike and Andrew have chemistry as they talk about onion blossoms with Andrew’s arms wrapped around Spike’s waist.
The empty places in this episode are in the writers’ heads. I don’t actually mind the notion of a revolt against Buffy’s cold leadership but this is so forced and stupid; Buffy’s closest friends betray her and her own sister kicks her out of her own house (and without a toothbrush and a change of clothes).
But you didn’t earn it. You didn’t work for it. You’ve never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn’t make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.
What a load of tripe. That’s right, seven years of not earning and not working, that’s our Buffy.
Aargh, if I hadn’t already reached the rough part of my Buffy relationship then I would probably loathe this as much as “Dead Man’s Party” and “Into the Woods” but…
I hate Caleb and not because I’m supposed to. I am also immune to the charms of Nathan Fillion so there is nothing in the human embodiment of an anvil that I can appreciate.
I was aghast after the opening sequences spluttering and saying with a little indignation that I wasn’t happy. Andy told me that I had been like that the first time we watched it but I had expunged that from my memory. And Xander’s dream had also disappeared – yuck.
Still, it was an absolute joy to have Faith back in Sunnydale and Eliza Dushku is not playing Faith in Dollhouse. She isn’t a great actor (but few folk are) so she can’t disappear into a role but her great strength is that she is very funny. Her delivery of “Are you protecting vampires? Are you the bad slayer now? Am I the good slayer now?” was hilarious.
Another racist joke involving Chao-Ahn that wouldn’t be out of place in the lowliest sit-com is desperately unworthy of this show. And this was made after Firefly and the fuss made of its lack of Chinese characters; the consciousness raising was unsuccessful.
I enjoyed the Faith montage which was a reminder of happier times and SMG with a fuller face.
Buffy has always gone into battle half-cocked but she usually doesn’t fail this unsuccessfully. I feel bad that the English slayer is dead and as for poor Xander and his eye! Wow, that was nasty. Still, he was always going to be okay because he’s got balls.
Lie My Parents Told Me (David Fury and Drew Goddard)
I don’t care enough about Spike to get over involved in this episode. Anya nails it when she says “Spike’s got some sort of “Get Out of Jail Free” card that doesn’t apply to the rest of us.” However, I also find that sort of meta-commentary a little too conceited for my liking.
By the way, Buffy, Spike can be triggered at any time and you have unequivocal proof but just let him go because people with souls are never ever bad. It will be okay.
I am disappointed that they decided to have Robin beating up Spike rather than getting on with it because that’s just irritating.
Spike tells Robin that Nikki didn’t love him but his own mother did. The nasty things she said were because he had set loose a demon and it wasn’t his mother speaking. However, Angel hinted more than a little strongly in “Doppelgangland” that the vampire personality wasn’t entirely divorced from the human self (“That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil and…skanky. And I think I’m kinda gay.” – oh happy days).
Giles also pontificates to Buffy that being a general requires her to make difficult decisions but, when she does make those difficult decisions in “Dirty Girls”, he’s protesting. Make up your mind, Mr Betrayer, generals don’t often have subordinates questioning them.
“Spike is the strongest warrior we have.” – no, Buffy, you are.
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