Tom Charman

A few weeks ago, in his Buffy review, Andy reminded us that everything man touches is a mixture of good and evil. Of course, he was talking about Buffy, so really the mixture was of ‘not bad’ and ‘lame’. This week’s episode of Angel, however, truly is such a mixture. A lot of the episode is as good as any episode of Angel ever gets — incessant foreboding, pus jokes, tensions between the gang — but some of it is so incredibly bad… I’ll come to that bit.

Gunn and Fred’s uncertain relationship was handled nicely, with good acting on both sides that almost made me more tolerant of how damn happy and painfully cute they’ve been recently. It’s always nice to see Gunn angry. Wesley’s smug entrance and the resulting conflict with Gunn was good stuff too. It was also excellent to see Angel torture Gavin. I hope it hurt. And nice to see Angel using logic and not force to get Lilah to help him. She’s very giving, as he reminded Wes. Speaking of which, Lilah’s spot of dressing up was one of the funniest moments this season. "Keep them on!"

Angel Investigations’ deduction of where the risen beast was slaughtering was fairly convincing too. Vaguely believable and a nice image at the end. Although the whole ‘putting all the points on the map’ thing always reminds me of an Inspector Gadget episode. Even Connor was vaguely watchable this episode — his concern about his link to the danger was well handled. Perhaps he’s going to get interesting soon. And the final fight scene! Go Wes! Go Angel! Yeah, too bad Gunn and Lorne. The stake through the neck looked painful.

But now the bad. Cordelia. While her anxiety about the beast was nicely done, other bits … weren’t. You know what I’m talking about. Ick. How did the writers ever think that was a good idea? I don’t care what they’re setting up, it’s just wrong. Still, I’m trying not to let it colour my opinion of the whole episode. In general, it was great. Just with one awful bit.

Some unanswered questions… Why did the Beast simply grin at Cordelia? And why did he ask Angel if he thought she was safe with Connor? There’s something peculiar going on here…

Daredevil is a film about a blind man who has superhuman abilities that allow him to see. This cute little fact has led to many, many cheap jokes at the character’s expense. I shan’t make any, however, not because I have any resistance for making bad jokes, but because it is in the portrayal of the abilities of Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) that the film truly succeeds.

The special effect sequences that show Murdock detecting, by use of a ‘radar sense’, an incredibly detailed picture of the landscape around him — not just what a normal man could see — are very nicely done. In particular, the sequence where he forms the lovely Elektra’s (Jennifer Garner) face from the noise of raindrops is moving and beautiful — as well as setting up the rain concept for later.

Ben Affleck turns in an excellent performance as Murdock, showing a vulnerable, and ever so slightly psychotic, hero. Though the decision to have the Daredevil give a gruff whisper for some of his lines was a poor one — it lends a rather cartoony atmosphere to the scene where we see Murdock’s initial bad-guy arse-whupping. Which ends up being the film’s biggest problem.

There’s a way to balance cartoony-ness and brutality. I’m fairly sure Tim Burton’s Batman did it, thought it’s been a while since I saw it. Daredevil doesn’t. For every bloody, convincingly disturbing fight, we have things like a slow pan up on the Kingpin, standing at his window like he was waiting for the camera to get to his face. For every pill Murdock pops to stay in the game, we have an amusing distraction from Bullseye (Colin Farrell). Ultimately the film has little consistency of tone, and it suffers for it.

Some of the plot points are a little confusing too. Murdock gets stabbed in the shoulder one night, and is so incapacitated that he can’t manage to save someone very dear to him. Even when she has her throat cut and her own weapon stuck through her belly, she crawls over to him, rather than vice versa. This just seems rude and lazy of the Daredevil, when you consider that that night, he goes on to defeat both her assassin and the brutal crime boss who ordered the kill. Other than this, the action is generally handled quite well. All the major players are shown on a fairly even playing field, which gives a nice tension to the fight scenes that many films lack. Although Matt’s fatal weakness — loud noise — seems just a little to much of a weakness for him to consider seriously pursuing his crime fighting career. The moment SonicMan or BoomGirl turn up, he’s toast.

Another major drawback the film has is Matt’s genesis story. From Superman to Spider-Man, the story of how the hero(es) got their powers seems mandatory. And thus is at least 30 minutes of screen time taken up. Also, so as to make that time seem less of a waste, a lame plot thread is added linking the villain of the piece to some formative moment in the child hero’s life. I would have vastly preferred, in Daredevil‘s case, to skip that whole bit, and have a more complex plot than “Hey, I’m gonna kill that guy and his kid… ooh, who’s that guy in red leather?”. It’s not like Murdock’s abilities make any more sense when you’re told that a vat of radioactive material exploded in his face. That’d explain death, but not supersonar enhancements.

Overall, Daredevil manages far more moral complexity than it’s recent predecessor, Spider-Man, but doesn’t seem to have remembered to bring the rest of the film in line with this depth. The result is a film that will be enjoyed by comic buffs, but dismissed as stupid by many. Which is less than it deserves… but not by much.

[Our regular reviewer, a Mr Andrew Cocker, is currently suspected to be in Tasmania. Hopefully by the next episode we will have found him — until then, I’ll take over — Tom]

‘Help’ has it’s good points. A firm grounding in the real world. More of the wonderfully insane Spike. But it has it’s bad points too. Buffy‘s trademarked ‘villains with no clear or sensible rationale who we just chucked in coz we couldn’t be bothered’ for a start. And a painfully over-sentimental ending.

The girl playing Cassandra Newton does a fairly good job. The cute foretellings are fun, especially Cassie’s comment to Spike.

Tsk. Who am I kidding. I haven’t seen this episode in ages. Andy’s supposed to be doing this. Bloody Tasmania. What makes him so special that he can just go flitting about the continent whenever he wants to? Huh?

Ahem. Anyhoo.

Er… Buffy’s character — y’know, if anyone really cares about her character at this point — undergoes a bit of a maturing here, as she comes to terms with the fact that she can’t save everyone, but that shouldn’t stop her trying. Didn’t Angel work that out two years back? Couldn’t he have emailed her or something? Ah well.

In the end, the episode is ok, but displays a bit of the subtle preachiness that occasionally posesses this otherwise intelligent show — such as in ‘Beer Bad’, for a really on-the-nose example. Still, the sensitive issue of teen suicide is dealt with, um, sensitively, which is good. Though this episode doesn’t really explore the issues to the extent that season two’s ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’ did.

I give it 2 rushed reviews out of 4.

When reading various Sherlock Holmes stories last year, the most negative aspect that struck me was the relationship between Holmes and Watson. Holmes does all the thinking, Watson follows him around and doesn’t pick up on anything at all until the end, when Holmes describes in detail what’s been going on, whereupon Watson gushes about how damned clever his friend is and sits down to have tea. So the last thing I expected when watching The Hound of the Baskervilles was to enjoy Watson, with or without Holmes.

It was somewhat surprising then, to find that Watson, and his relationship with his mentor, was one of the most compelling aspects of this adaptation. While at first the redoubtable doctor (played by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone‘s Ian Hart) seems a touch dry and boring next to Richard Roxburgh’s (Moulin Rouge) Holmes, he becomes more interesting for his journey to Dartmoor, and by the time the detective pair are reunited they are sparking off each other brilliantly. Certainly once Watson brings his anger to bear on Stapleton, the audience can’t help but love him. Of most interest is Watson’s criticism of Holmes’ methods, and the question of trust between the two men. It comes as a not unwelcome surprise for Watson to save the day at the very end, and for Holmes to depend on him.

Hound itself is not a straightforward Sherlock Holmes mystery by any means. Not even originally intended to feature the Great Detective, it is far closer to a gothic novel, into which Holmes wanders with his rationality and reason. Like the book, we skip vast chunks of detective work — when Holmes reappears, he brings with him a bunch of exposition and a knowledge of the wrongdoer that suddenly scuppers any tension in that regard. But this is made up for not only by what I’ve mentioned above, but also by the brilliant villain, Stapleton (Richard E. Grant).

A person writing into the Melbourne Age complained that Roxburgh and Grant had been cast in the wrong roles. I can’t fathom this for a second. Roxburgh’s Holmes is edgy, determined, yet vulnerable, with a slightly alien manner that both unsettles and charms. Meanwhile, Grant’s Stapleton is all open charm and eagerness, slightly childish, with a devilish yet real mean streak. Grant’s performance is nowhere more impressive than when he threatens his ‘sister’ outside Baskerville Hall. He is certainly a far more fearsome creature than the computer generated hound.

There are a few negative points — the aforementioned hound has the stupidest looking paw ever, for example. The portrait of Hugo Baskerville is so much like Richard E. Grant that it makes everyone — especially the late Sir Charles Baskerville — look incredibly moronic not to have spotted the resemblance. And the seance scene seems rather pointless. While it’s concievable that Stapleton simply wanted to scare Holmes, it seems a risk to frighten Henry Baskerville — the man Stapleton needs to be fearless enough to walk across the moor later.

But these are trifles. If there is a major fault to the adaptation, it is simply that it leaves us wanting more of Holmes and Watson. Sadly, there seems little chance of this for a while. We will however see Roxburgh at least as two more iconic literary figures on the big screen soon — Count Dracula and Dr James Moriarty…

24‘s first season presented us with some fantastic, edge-of-your-seat drama, with the extra gimmick of occasionally being able to see something happen from different angles. And then, at around 12 noon in it’s day-long series, it just sort of died. Jack had rescued his wife and daughter, so the personal element was gone — his link to the assassins had gone too, and so it was just some guy running after some bad men. Ultimately, the concept didn’t stretch to a whole season, and things just started happening for no particular reason.

The second season, however, has shown great improvement right from the start. Simply put, 24 knows it’s just a stupid suspense film stretched out to 24 hours, and is behaving accordingly. No more irritating amnesia (touch wood), no more tender, heartfelt ruminations on whether daddy’s going to save us, or whether I should tell my husband about my pregnancy, or about who had an affair with whom. Just straight out action with life or death choices being made left, right and center.

By the end of the first four hours, almost every character has done something they will come to regret. The now President David Palmer has incarcerated a journalist illegally. Lynne Kresge has not managed to warn CTU of a potential bomb strike in time to save lives. George Mason, head of CTU, tried to skip the town and ended up being contaminated in a radioactive accident. Tony Almeida has agreed to risk his new computer programmer’s life to recusitate her and gain access to secrets only she knew. Gary Matheson has been beating his wife and daughter, and now his nanny has stolen the kid. Well, ok, he probably deserves that though.

And Jack Bauer … four hours ago he was retired, and shambling after his estranged daughter like a big loser. Now he’s killed four men (that’s one per hour — let’s see if he can keep this up) and stood by while an innocent technician was killed. The fact that one of the killings happened in a government building, with someone who thought he had protection from the law, seems to bother some critics. I can understand concerns that the new 24 is too violent, but I fail to see how any of Jack’s ‘murders’ are more justified than the others.

In any case, to be concerned about anything Jack’s done between 8:00am and 12:00am would suggest that we’re taking the show seriously.

I know I’m not.

Last month I watched the final episode of ‘The X Files’. I haven’t watched the show since the aggressively boring finale to season 7. And yet I still had fond memories of it, despite being convinced that Chris Carter had absolutely no idea what was really going on. And the last episode of the X-Files? Television history, surely?

Well, as a piece of television, ‘The Truth’ stands up remarkably poorly. It starts with what would have been the longest “Previously, on…” section I’d ever seen if I’d never watched ‘Buffy’. And then, after a bit of infiltration by Mulder, who is captured, we move straight into … a TRIAL! Heh. Now there’s something fresh. You don’t see many trials on TV these days, do you? What’s more, in this one, all the characters keep on whinging about how the court makes no sense and that the defence’s case is irrelevant and impossible to prove. Which undercuts any tension somewhat. I found the trial occurring on The Practice more involving, and I only saw that in the ad-breaks.

I was never sure whether I was supposed to be taking the Trial seriously. Mulder sure wasn’t. His Hannibal gag was cute. At one point, Gibson the Psychic Wonder comes in to give evidence. Say. Here’s someone who can give proof of the paranormal. Read someone’s mind, Gibson! But he doesn’t. No, in fact, he just tells the judges that one of them is an alien. Way to go. One imagines that if the judges knew, then Mulder never had a chance anyway, and if they didn’t, then he just doesn’t have a chance NOW. Scully also finds some nifty evidence, but is told she can’t tell them. Bother.

Well, after the trial, I was fooled into thinking something was going to happen. After all, the Mulder’s defence had really been just an even longer “Previously, on…” section. Perhaps they were reminding you of some salient facts so that the second half would be really thrilling? But no, the second half involves Mulder’s escape and subsequent visit to … the Cigarette Smoking Man! “We thought you were dead!” “Nope.” He turns out to be the man that sent Mulder into trouble at the start of the episode, and helped him find out the BIG SECRET that I’ll discuss later.

Meanwhile, any chance for excitement or drama is being killed mercilessly. Gibson’s been exposed, his life may be in danger! Well, no one tries anything. They know where Mulder and Scully have gone! They’re going to kill them! Oops, no. They just want the Cigarette Smoking Man. And since we only knew he was alive again five minutes ago, I don’t think anyone actually cares. Reyes and Doggett are being chased by a Super Soldier! Well, The CSM already told us that the rocks round here are lethal to them.

The episode finishes with Mulder and Scully in a motel room. They seem to have spent a lot of time in such rooms, which gives this some nice resonance, I suppose. There are some tender moments, and we find that now, Mulder wants to believe… in a God. Woah. In a better episode, this might have been cheesy. In a pile of vomit like this, it’s actually the best moment in the show, just because we didn’t see it coming ages ago.

Once upon a time this series was famous for scaring, thrilling and shocking people. This episode does none of these things, nor even tries. What a wonderful end to the series.

Loyalty

Tom: An unsettling episode that contains some amusement, but in general seems to be setting things up for the next episode… What will Wesley do? Alexis Denisof is given some more things to work with and once more rises to the challenge. The Gunn and Fred plotline… some bits were fine, but you’d think Gunn would have more sense than to take the girl he loves into a nest of vampires. Especially after what Wes said to him the other day. But then he seems to have taken Wes’ talk a bit oddly.

Of course this episode was also home to one of the greatest moments in Angel ever — the talking hamburger! The blending of the mundane and the fantastic is perhaps one of my favourite things about this show.

Mattt: When the bad guy starts wearing cardigans he stops being threatning. He stops looking like a Vamp hunter and starts looking like a pedophile. shudder.

All the heroes are safe save little Connor.

Sleep Tight

“You work for a man who you think is noble and good, I respect that. Trouble is, he’s not.”
“You work with a vampire!”
“Who in fact is noble and good. Quirky, but there it is.”

Tom: Wow. Angel is developing quite a run suddenly. Admittedly Gunn and Fred are still vaguely irritating, but they’re not in this one as much so it doesn’t matter. I loved Wes trying to sing the baby to sleep — and was shocked by what ensued. They’d better watch that they don’t use the ‘host-hears-man-with-poor-intentions-singing’ thing too much, but for me it’s still working. The look on Wesley’s face! Wes is, to be sure, going through a dark place. That said I’ve really enjoyed his dealings with Holtz in this episode and the last — he’s really stood up to him. It’d be worth having another look at the Buffy episode ‘Bad Girls’ to understand the full extent of his development!

I was pleased that the crew at Angel Investigations finally managed to work out something odd was going on. However I think the general denseness of everyone worked well. Gunn and Fred were too wrapped up in themselves, and thought that Wes was still jealous; the Host is probably sulking because he hasn’t had much to do in recent episodes; and Angel has been too worried about his own ‘Connor-food’ issues to really take an interest in what Wes is up to. What I think is interesting is how none of this would have gotten so bad if Cordelia had been here to spot things like Wes’ depression and Angel acting oddly.

311 | Birthday

“So, let me get this straight: Angel gets the visions of people who are gonna die, and he tells you and you go out and slay and… this is how you make your living? This has got to be the suckiest job in the world.”

Andy: Everyone wants their own spinoff. I’m hanging out for “Connor: The early years.” Anyway it was a very interesting episode this week.

It was good to take the focus off Angel and Cordy is one of the more engaging characters. A couple of bad points though: the ‘on previous episodes’ bit gives clue to what will happen this week and gets annoying every week; Channel 7 put the voice over that is normally during the credits on over Cordy’s last speech with her guide (this is probably not Joss Whedon’s fault.); one fake dramatic bit is funny (Cordy’s speech) two in two minutes is lame (Wesley running in looking worried). Aside from these we see that Cordy is very much part of the group and has some new powers. I presume that vampire hunter from last week is biding his time until the end of the season.

Mattt: I liked the bit between Cordelia and Fred at the start. Skip kind of alternates between being funny and being irritating. I think Cordy is lucky she got to float instead of scales, and the alternate reality was nice and depressing.

Tom: I always enjoy ‘what if’ episodes, and this one was no exception. Cordy got a bit of a raw deal in her last one (being sucked dry by Xander and Willow in Buffy‘s ‘The Wish’), so it’s only fair that this time she gets to be famous and cool. Obviously the Powers that Be aren’t so good at rewriting history, ‘cos they missed that bit on the wall. Lucky. Skip was pretty cool, and I loved his explaining the Mall with reference to The Matrix. Other good things about this episode include: the flashbacks, the kiss, alt-Wes and Cordy talking about their kiss, and generally the (believable) revelation of how bad things would be for everyone if Cordelia hadn’t met up with Angel in “City of…”.

And the Half-Time Score…

Andy: Angel, unlike Buffy has been great from the get go. The episodes have consistently been stronger and more interesting with some great character insights. The larger range of characters in Angel than Buffy means more character interactions. The show does have a tendency to focus solely on Angel but that is understandable. I like the people on Angel more too. Angel feels like it has plenty of possible plots for the rest of the season.

Tom: There’s been a very high standard of television on Angel so far this year. Starting with a series of character based episodes and then showing a string of more arc-based stories where Angel gained a son, things have always seemed well-balanced. All the characters have recieved at least one episode focussing on their characters, and I hope this evenness lasts through the rest of the season. A bit more Wesley would be nice though… The introduction of Fred has worked well — once again the team on Angel show their deftness at creating new characters with both her and Daniel Holtz.

There have been a few problems though. Gavin Parke has proven himself to be a rather pathetic excuse for a character, as has Linwood — leaving Lilah the superior player on the dark side. If you’d suggested this to me last year I would have laughed. Lilah isn’t bad, but she lacks the, er, balls of Lindsey and Holland. Still, she’s gotten a bit to play with this year. I just hope she gets to win something soon, and prove her abilities. The death of Darla was a shock, although on retrospect it should not have been. It seems in all seasons of Angel, if you get to the ninth episode and your name has five letters and begins with ‘D’, you should run and hide.

312 | Provider

Andy: He he. How many people have died because of a wrong phone number? I hope Angel is feeling guilty. I’m impressed with their paper quality. The ink doesn’t run and the paper doesn’t tear. Angel is rather gullible. If he wasn’t so greedy he might have spotted the warning signs. He did try to save face at the end though. He’s become mentally unstable since gaining a son.
Better watch out.

Tom: Ah, the moment we’ve all been waiting for — the first truly crap episode of Angel season three. Finally we have some decent stuff to bag the crap through — the lame plot, the greedy Angel who just doesn’t fit with the character we’ve seen before, the pathetic computer graphics on the demons’ iBook… I can’t be bothered mentioning all the pathetic aspects of this episode, so I’ll briefly mention the good bits — Angel and Cordy on the bed at the end, and Gunn and Wes getting all tense over Fred. And before I go, another word on the ‘Previously, on’ bits. Why go to the trouble of putting clips from “Birthday” at the start if you’ve got Cordelia basically explaining what happened inside the story anyway? Let’s please give the audience the benefit of the doubt, and only provide these recaps when they’re really needed.

313 | Waiting in the Wings

“I saw their production of Giselle in 1890 — cried like a baby. And I was evil!”

Tom: Not the kind of ‘event’ or gimmicky episode one might expect from Joss Whedon these days — just a solid one-off story. However, one of the things I like about Angel is that their one-off episodes tend to be very good, and this is no exception. Well realised tragedy/comedy monsters, a tragic plot, interesting fantasy ideas, ghosts, unrequited love… and getting to see everyone dress up for the ballet. Of course, neither of the couples that got together were the ones I wanted to in the end, but I suspect the jealousy will make for interesting watching in the weeks to come.

314 | Couplet

“Nobody in this office is ever going to get any.”

Andy: It was a good episode of Angel last night.

Angel is so much more interesting than Buffy. Angel has a very expressive face and he’s funny to watch to him being jealous. Gunn and Fred were a bit sappy but it was made up for by the conversation at the end with Wes. I loved Angel and Wes’ talk about Connor at the start. Cordy really doesn’t seem interested in Angel, especially with lines like “what woman could tempt you Angel” so he should give up hope. If Angel can keep this up it’s going to be a great season.

Tom: On paper, this weeks episode might look pretty average: a tree monster who meets food on the internet, the Angel/Groosallug rivalry, the paranormal prophylactic subplot… And yet it has some really good bits that raise it above mediocrity. Focussing on Angel’s jealousy both beneath and above the surface was a good idea — I was half expecting forty minutes of David Boreanaz being snitchy to the Groo, but they made his issues with him a little deeper, especially in the scene where Angel is forced to stand by helpless as the Groosallug fights off the demon that he couldn’t follow. Good on Wesley for noticing Angel’s pain, and telling him what he needed to hear. I would say that lines such as “what woman could tempt you Angel” seem to indicate that Cordy simply feels out of her depth romantically with him — especially considering the revelation that Angel and Darla had slept together, which we all remember affected her surprisingly strongly… Er, so there, Mr Andy.

611 | Gone

Andy: Willow looks to be on the mend but Buffy’s done for. Dawn’s acting a little bit bitchy but at least she’s normal. Buffy went a bit wacky while invisible. It affected her more than I would have expected. I was hoping she’d become pudding. Xander is particularly thick this episode. On two occasions he walked in on the Buffster and Spike but he didn’t suspect anything.

Exactly why did the nerds need Willow as a hostage? Couldn’t they have just told Buffy that she was going to turn into pudding unless she let them zap her back into visibleness? Couldn’t they assume that she would have wanted to be visible, not to mention not pudding, and therefore they would not have needed to kidnap Willow? I guess the kidnapping was an opportunistic idea after Willow stumbled into their den. Now that Willow knows where they live, aren’t they a little afraid? This whole thing is making less sense the more I think about it. Almost a good episode but lacking things.

Why do they call a witches hat a pylon?

Tom: …Probably because given the circumstances, “witch’s hat” would be rather inappropriate.

An alright episode. The nemesis/nemeses joke has been done before though, and better. And when your humour was done better in ‘Mystery Men’, you’ve got to start worrying. The invisibility was fun. Amy is being played as extremely irritating — earning her the moniker ‘Ratgirl’ in the local TV Guide. I still feel sorry for her after spending over two years as a mouse though. At least Buffy spent her small intervening time in heaven. She should be grateful.

And the Half-Time Score…

Andy: Buffy started out slowly with some ordinary episodes. Once Buffy became adjusted to living again and Willow’s magic dependancy became apparent we’ve had some exciting episodes. It was about the episode before the musical that things began to pick up. I can’t really relate to being dead or engaged so I found those first episodes boring. After that we had all the characters emotionally involved for some good episodes. Unfortunately we now have lost a couple of characters and are only following Buffy and Willow. I would like to see a greater range of characters involved before much longer. Also with the show in it’s sixth season, the writers need to take extra care to avoid stereotypical behaviour from the characters.

Tom: Half way already? I’m surprised, because unlike Angel, almost nothing seems to have been happening on Buffy. The universe once again seems to be revolving almost continuously around Buffy herself — with the exception of the Willow plotline. While I applaud any attempt to actually examine the (very talented) supporting cast, I do wish some aspects could have been handed in a more careful and less heavy-handed manner. Willow’s magic-dependence was being built up quite nicely — and then suddenly one episode she becomes a junkie. I’m almost certain that the show wasn’t always this unsubtle. The nerds have been interesting, with Warren perhaps showing the most promise as a character… but ultimately they like everything else in the show contribute to a sense of constructedness that isn’t exactly awful, but is annoying. I find it hard to imagine the Jonathan of ‘Earshot’ and ‘Superstar’ suddenly being interested in evil-doing. I find it hard to believe that Willow and Tara would have just continued to live in Buffy’s house without considering paying for rent. Basically I find it hard to believe that any of these people have a life except when I tune in on Monday nights.

Dancing demons, however, I have no problem with. So something’s wrong here! In some ways, most of these are minor quibbles — but they’ve been there for the last two and a half years … what Buffy needs is a bit of momentum. And some focus on its supporting characters — when was the last time Xander or Anya got their own plotline, let alone episode? Perhaps some building up of semi-regular characters would be worthwhile too. Still, in some ways this season looks more promising than the last two — things hopefully will get interesting.

612 | Doublemeat Palace

Andy: Fancy that. The creepy fast food company turned out to be vegetarian. Who would have guessed that it was really the little old lady? I thought it might be the butler. I would like to see more story lines/arcs going on. I think they got the idea from the 1973 flick “Soylent Green”. Not a particularly imaginative episode but nothing really wrong with it. I hope Willow doesn’t permantly give up magic. It’s not all bad.

Tom: I’m not sure I should even give this episode the credit of a review. Tell you what, I’ll give it fifteen words:

Slow, obvious, poorly written filler. Willow — job? Xander funny but useless again. Oh, another bonk.

613 | Dead Things

Tom: Kind of disturbing this week. The nerds will never be quite as funny again. Despite the unsettling nature of the show for them, it did demonstrate Warren’s darker side very nicely. Not that we didn’t know that he was the bastard of the group — but I feel he now has more gravitas as a villain than Glory did! In any case, the episode was a pick up from the last month or so of highly average Buffy. Our second favourite slayer has a nerve talking about the stuff she lets Spike do to her though. Just look at what she does to him! I think I’d rather have her side of the deal than Spike’s. Ah, in the general case where we’re not being gender specific that is.

I was going to write “favourite slayer” up there to avoid saying ‘Buffy’ twice in a row, but then I realised Faith is probably my favourite. Buffy was better than Kendra though. And the two that Spike killed.

614 | Older and Far Away

Tom: Another fairly good episode of Buffy — I’m feeling spoiled! Amber Benson gets to demonstrate how much fun we could have been having with Tara all this time if they’d actually given her something to do. Introducing her rather sly sense of humour, while overdue, is much appreciated now at least. We also see some interesting sides to Anya — her hysterical reaction to being trapped in the house and insistence that Willow should do something are both fascinating to watch. And finally the ‘Dawn-stealing-stuff’ plotline moves on. With all these developments it’s hard to dislike the episode. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and do something with Xander and Willow soon?

Mattt: Yawn. But an award goes to Tara for being in the show for two years before having her first decent line. That has to be a TV record, to go for so long with only lame lines and wimpy looks.

But Buffy‘s over as a show. there’s nothng left, all the characters are dull or unbelivable. Even Willow is a nobody now, what a crap “going evil”.
so many characters with nothing to do. I say finish the show before it becomes a joke.

606 | All the Way

Andy: Buffy finally feels like it is moving along this season towards some better themes. I like the focus on Willow and her attitude about the use of magic. Could make for some interesting episode later on, especially if more characters were involved. What Willow needs is for the TAC to some in with some videos about the dangers of magic and what happens when it goes wrong. Giles seems to be concerned about something else though. I hope it’s not too bad. Buffy is very reassured by his presence and is not willing to take on any responsiblility yet (which is understandable) but Dawn is looking to her for parental approval and rebellion. The fight scene which ended with the vampire dying from the car door was terrible. It looked so staged to use the car door as the finishing move. I thought Buffy would run to protect her sister (who can take care of herself) rather than fight some anonymous bad guy. A better episode than previous one’s and it is hopefully building towards something.

Mattt: Not a bad episode. A bit too much Tara, but then she did fall for the Jedi mind trick so HAHAHA. I did feel sorry for Dawn though. It’s her own fault really. If she had a little cross necklace like Buffy she’d have known sooo much sooner. And I’m dissapointed about the old guy. I want to know what evil stuff he was going to get up to.

Tom: Buffy‘s been going on for five and a bit years now, so it’s only natural that they’ve amassed a few stereotypes. It smacks of carelessness, however, to have almost all of them in one episode.

• Buffy’s friends have all paired up and she feels left out.
• Someone has to stake a vampire which they have feelings for.
• The aforementioned staking is a surprise to the vampire, as the person had the stake stuck between their bodies.
• There is a very threatening, obvious evil-doer set up at the start of the episode, which astounds us all when it turns out to be in fact innocent, and the victim of the REAL villain of the piece.
• One of the characters does something a bit naughty, and gets punished by a supernatural element of Sunnydale.

Let’s also not forget how crap the fight scene was, with no one running to help the person they came to save, and Buffy and Spike having difficulty dispatching some fairly run of the mill vamps, even when Dawn’s life depends on it. Add some fairly awful acting from the guest stars and you have one of the crappiest episodes for a while. Its single redeeming feature was the Willow subplot. Good on Tara for having a go at yelling at her, even if she won’t remember…

607 | Once More, With Feeling

Andy: I loved it. It was very funny and emotional. The singing allowed greater expression of feelings than in a normal episode so it kept the overall plot moving well despite a rather simple plot for this episode. A sad ending though. Willow had better watch herself, Tara’s onto her. I liked the duets. They showed an interesting resonance between Giles and Tara. Should be good to watch in future episodes. I don’t like this Buffy/Spike business.

Tom: Now this is more like it. Imaginative, funny, moving stuff. All the developments we see in this episode flow beautifully from past episodes. Great singing from Tara and Giles, fairly good singing from Spike, Anya and Buffy. Xander obviously not so good, but I feel that’s in character anyway! I’ve had the first song in my head all week — some very clever lyrics there. Joss Whedon may well be a genius. Watch out in the showdown with that demon guy for Tara running into a pole by accident and hiding behind it! Also listen to the parking ticket song as long as possible after the others walk away…

608 | Tabula Rosa

Andy: I don’t think Joan is going to find inner peace anytime soon especially since Giles left. Same goes for Willow, who I think is a bit drippy. A nice dig at Angel by Spike and Joan who have no trouble dispatching a group of vampires, unlike a couple of weeks ago. I still don’t like this Joan Spike business.

Jackson: Arguably one of the best episodes ever. Very well done, very funny, very sad, and the most refreshing episode we’ve had in a long time (from a character and plot standpoint). I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun watching them all. Priceless moments between the new “family” — Giles telling his “son” Spike good luck was just beautiful, and the farewell scenes were brilliantly handled. Poignant but not sentimental — heart-wrenching but not mushy (probably because Giles and Tara didn’t actually get to say goodbye at all). I loved it. The musical was a bit of fun, but this episode has restored my faith in the show.

Tom: Nice to see a musical montage again on Buffy — it made for a good, restrained ending. Willow’s descent into magic addiction is well handled, but depressing to watch. I loved the acting between her and Tara when the memories came back. Both did a fine job. Sadly, Amber Benson has done some of her best work in the last two episodes, and now leaves. Couldn’t they have given her this kind of material, oh, say, two years ago? I loved the dig at Angel! Randy Giles was also impressive in this episode, though I would have expected him to kill that shark guy at the end, not be nice to him. I think he’s gone soft-er. Two good episodes in a row — I’ve almost forgotten how bad All the Way was.

609 | Smashed

Andy: I don’t really like Spike. He does have some funny lines but he’s become a bit pathetic. I’m no longer going to comment on Joan/Spike. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Willow is in self-denial (it’s always the responsible types you have to look out for) I don’t imagine she’ll recover anytime soon especially with ratgirl hanging around. This season looks like it is going to be focusing on depressing themes so I’m going to only pay attention to the nice characters Xander, Anya, Dawn and Tara. I’m not too keen on a season of sad episodes. It’s a shame that Giles left. I liked the Xander + D&D book bit.

Tom: I never thought I’d watch an episode where some of my favourite bits involved Tara! It’s become apparent over the last few weeks that when they actually give her stuff to do she’s quite good. And she’s being a far better role model to Dawn than either Buffy or Willow! All teenagers should know not to turn evil and not to bonk evil. But more on that later. Xander and Anya are a bit more useful as the characters who know everyone’s going dumb. Willow may be treading in dangerous territory, but I still want to operate my Mac like she can. Can she set what colour the glowing stuff is? Is she running OS 9 or X up there? But enough procrastinating, let’s get to the big controversial aspect of the episode.

Simply put, there is NO WAY Andrew could have seen every episode of Doctor Who. Most of the sixties episodes were junked before he was born. And the argument about DVD makes no sense — only 3 stories of Who are available in America on DVD. Lazy writing. I’m shocked.

While I’m here, let’s talk about Buffy and Spike. I was surprised when A Beautiful Mind revealed you can simply ask beautiful women to have sex with you and they will. Now I find that verbally and physically abusing them works too. I’ve been barking up the wrong tree it seems. It was a bit galling to watch, and shocking, but I believe that was the idea. Spike was very lucky in a rundown building not to get staked, considering the high mortality rate of most vampires in such situations.

610 | Wrecked

“Last night… was the most perverse… degrading experience of my life.”
“Yeah. Me too.”

Andy: Poor Dawny. I hope she now knows better than to hang out with druggies like Strawberry and Rack. I hadn’t realised that Strawberry was a telepath working for the Shadows. I must have missed an episode. I’m not sure if Buffy is able to beat up the Shadows by herself. Buffy’s fighting style looks like it is getting worse this season. She appears to stop paying attention halfway through. I’d have thought that after so many years as a slayer she’d be able to quickly dispatch most monsters. Perhaps they should get in contact with someone from Jet Li’s The One (about fight choreographing not plot devices). Xander and what’s-her-face are slowly being edged out. Unless something bad happens to them I doubt they’ll get much screen time.

Tom: Buffy is definitely improving. A good episode, with a great performance by Alyson Hannigan, but things seemed a bit rushed. Amy seems to have made the transition from rat to junkie in two days, which is a surprise. Perhaps she saw Traffic too. Willow too seems to have advanced rather quickly — she’s become Rack’s favourite so soon? It just feels like the Willow/Amy plot should have been threaded across two episodes instead of being boxed into this one. That aside however, it’s handled fairly well, and Dawn’s reaction to Willow’s extreme crapness was damn cool. I’m enjoying how crummy everyone’s life is, but Xander and Anya do seem a bit left out. One side issue: the “Previously, on Buffy”s are getting stupid. Or rather, they seem to think we are. What was the point of showing us the nerd trio just to explain one line about freezing and diamonds to us? Soon they’ll take up most of the episode.