This season continues to narrowly avoid the crap rating. At times it comes close, with several lame episodes strung together. But then they show a great episode and one thinks that this could be a good season after all. Unfortunately it’s had to tell if these episodes are actually very good or only average, as even fools gold looks real when all you’ve got to compare it to is sludge.

That being said, I believe that this one comes up with the goods, thanks mainly to Andrew. While Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyre, has been playing things fairly straight recently, Andrew’s been the main comedic source for most of this season. He’s been very amusing but has had a small role in previous episodes. The main plot of this episode focuses on Andrew and helps explain some of his recent questionable decisions. His outsider view (and imagination) leads some pretty funny scenes with the others.

Despite the majority of jokes being early in the episode and ending with some very serious moments, there never feels any problem with the transistion between the two. Problems with transistions have been irritating in previous episodes where characters switch from being concerned about personal issues (when the plot is about them) to the same old character with no hint that they remember the trouble they had last week. I feel a few little hints of how their character is coping each week would bring more life to the series. It would also help spread Willow’s plot out. Anya’s been fairly lucky in this regard getting material to work with most weeks. Seeing her struggle from week to week makes her more likeable. But generally the characters hang around in the background during the group scenes doing nothing until it’s their turn to say a line, which are doled out fairly evenly amongst the group. I guess this can’t be helped though when there is 50 people in the house. It’s fairly unlikely to find a room with less than a dozen people in it, but sometimes the lines are distributed in an arbitrary manner which seems unnatural.

Then there’s the usual muck: Buffy’s fighting skills have improved. There’s the unusually clever decision to kill a vampire with a crossbow, instead of the regular hassle of beating it up and she also takes down several cultists but these rarely cause trouble. Willow and Thingy continue their odd relationship. Anya used her one quote very early in the show but gets a scene to resolve her feelings with Xander, with both of them managing to make Xander look the least gutless he’s been since before the wedding. The principal is still looking to dust Spike, but only if it’s convenient.

And a couple of problems: It’s odd that Andrew can now read a language that previously he thought were only were squiggles. It never occured to him that the squiggles might have some sort of meaning, yet he’s (maybe unconsciously) able to manipulate the vanity of those around him for his video. They seem to be very different levels of perceptiveness. The Seal is constantly refered to as bad, without making the distinction that the seal is actually holding the evil at bay (although leaking). Obviously it’d be better with no seal and everything patched up properly, but I feel that the seal is copping a lot of unecessary flack.

720

This entry was posted by the illustrious Andy Cocker on Thursday, July 10th, 2003. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.