Andy: I was just sitting down to watch
another episode of this hilarious series full of optimism, when I had
this tip off from an reliable informant: “dont watch Buffy tonight.
it sucked.”
So I didn’t.
[Right, that’s it. I warned you. Didn’t I warn you?
— Ed]
Jackson: Vampires. The relationship between the human being and the demon within
is one of the key concepts that form the foundation of the Buffy universe.
Sadly however, it appears the writers don’t agree with me, and it is too
often neglected or abused. Such is the case in ‘Conversations with Dead
People’.
From the first episode we were presented with a very
simple, rigid definition — a vampire was a demon in a human body. Beyond
memory, nothing of the original human remained. Now it is natural that
as time went on the writers would want to blur the line between these
two entities — and they have, although perhaps inconsistently.
Such redefinition if it is subtle and used to increase
the shows moral complexity is great. However flagrantly disregarding established
rules merely for comic effect is not. The implications ripple out across
the entire Buffy universe — which is annoying for those of us who like
to take there shows vaguely seriously. It’s a shame because I actually
found this episode quite entertaining.
The vampire that Buffy spends the entire episode talking
to seems nothing more than himself coupled with an overpowering desire
to kill — similar I suppose to vampires in the Anne Rice universe, minus
the moral anguish and gradual acceptance of what they have become. It’s
convenient for Buffy that they did remove the internal conflict factor,
because then she might of had to think about it before she staked him.
Besides, if the writers went with that road, however interesting, Angel
would have a LOT of explaining to do.
But surely if even a fragment of the human remains, then
it raises some disturbing ethical questions. And that’s why Buffy often
seems at times to almost contradict itself. While everything around the
protagonist becomes more grey and muddy — that moral landscape the characters
themselves is still very much black and white. Angel handles this sort
of thing much better. But such inconsistencies are what Buffy is about
these days it seems — with superpowers, characters whatever. It’s almost
like the writers don’t care sometimes, and just want to make us laugh.
It’s a pity. There is a lot of potential there. That being said — the
sequence was very funny.
Anyway enough of that. This I believe is the first episode
that features the First in full swing — and it’s fairly impressive. Although
it must have drained it for the next half a season because it doesn’t
like appearing as that many people again. I find the concept of the First
more difficult to swallow than most, because obviously it doesn’t have
a consciousness the way we do — I mean, it can hold conversations with
several people at once and act as completely separate entities. I think
it’s bigger than a person can comprehend.
Dawn manages to pull in a less-annoying-than-usual performance.
Maybe I just enjoyed it because she was shit-scared the entire time. Who
knows? The exact nature of the Joyce apparition that appeared to Dawn
is subject to rampant speculation on the net, and on hindsight is one
of the more intriguing parts of this episode. Was it the first, and the
entity trashing Dawn’s house trying to protect her? Or was it something
else? I get the feeling we’ll never find out.
And of course, in typical Buffy style, Dawn won’t mention
the apparitions ‘revelations’ to anyone else. Because we all know in this
show that if everyone talked to everyone else, a lot of their problems
would be fixed.
Another
point of intrigue, which probably isn’t because they couldn’t get the actor
— is the absence of Tara. Surely if the First wanted Willow to kill herself,
it would have been more effective impersonating Tara. Is there a reason the
First didn’t choose Tara? Probably. But perhaps more interestingly, maybe
it couldn’t impersonate Tara for some reason. Although the idea that
Tara’s ghost could hold that power seems unlikely. They probably just couldn’t
get the actor. I honestly don’t know.
Jonathan’s death was quite shocking — he didn’t quite
get a friendly send off. He got one line where he sort-of-almost redeemed
himself. This was definitely a highlight. Oh and Buffy/Vampire sequence
which I spent most of the ‘review’ complaining about… All
in all, I remember enjoying this episode. It’s been a while since I’ve
seen it, hence my rather long rant to hide the gaps in my memory.