Do I catch up on all the tv I missed? Edit the photos I took in my class last night of some very kind and beautiful and tattooed models? Try to persuade Sugar D to bleach his hair and find a long black trench coat? (He said he rather fancies himself in a black trench coat but only because of The Matrix. Nothing to do with Buffy of course.) Try to start some discussion here about whether Buffy is a feminist icon? Maybe check out the reported season 8 in graphic novel format? Or find Dr. Horrible? I just don't know. It all feels so empty now.
[SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen Buffy]
I'm still feeling kind of raw. Today at work, I had a bunch of meetings, and my mind kept wandering to the series finale and Spike, and my eyes would get all prickly and my chest would get all tight, and I'd have to drag my thoughts back to the room just so I wouldn't make an ass of myself. I just wasn't prepared for Spike dying. I accidentally read somewhere online that Spike continued his role on Angel, so I thought he was the most likely to survive. I'm still clinging to the possibility that he somehow managed to survive.
I'd been planning to take a break before tackling Angel, to recapture some of my life. Maybe even wait until Janna comes home in February (fat chance), but now I'm going to have to watch on the faint hope that Spike will show up later in the series.
Anyways, now you're all free to share your innermost thoughts about Buffy... did you like the way it ended? I think I did. I just wish Spike hadn't been all, "No you don't." And I wish Andrew had died instead of Anya -- although I did really like Andrew.
And since it's Halloween, here is our jack-o-lantern (I think Sugar D outdid himself this year), and our little trick-or-treater.
14 comments:
We never got into Angel, but knew enough of what was happening, especially how it intersected with Buffy. I will resist, however, any information about Spike on Angel. (Which sounds really dirty since I'm too lazy to throw in some html tags right now.)
Definitely find Dr. Horrible. Then check out Firefly. They both have Nathan Fillion in common--I'd switch teams for him.
oh he is so adorable!
Angel!!!
Hubby was determined to watch the series in sync, so we were all switching back and forth between episodes, and for a long time I was always annoyed when we had to forgo a Buffy episode to watch Angel. But seasons 3 and 4 of Angel are amazing - better than even the best Buffy, I think.
i have never seen Buffy or Angel because i live under a rock, apparently...but you are convincing me that maybe i ought to try 'em.
um...but i scare easily. seriously. i am a world class chickenshit...will i need someone to hold my hand watching this stuff?!?
Swee'pea is a fine lion.
I have to admit, I never saw too many Buffy episodes. And no Angels.
Love the pumpkin.. and your little lion is absolutely adorable.
Can you believe that I started watching DVDs of Gilmore Girls (season 1) when I was pregnant with Munchkin, and three years later, I'm not quite done season 3? I'm rationing it. Really carefully.
So I understand your heartsickness. I'm in season one Buffy, but (weird) caught the series finale when it originally aired ...
Angel is really good.
Oh, Swee'pea is VERY cute and your pumpkin looks fantastic!
The genius of Buffy is this (longwinded):
Whedon set out to create a feminist role model in Buffy. In a commentary on that first season he said that he had watched so many horror films where the beautiful girl in the dark alley was attacked. What would happen, he speculated, if she fought back? Thus BTVS was born.
For the next several seasons Buffy kicked serious ass: she defeated convention (the Master and the role of women in the vampire genre, Season 1), the heart (Angel in Season 2), the government (Snyder and the Mayor in Season 3), the military industrial complex and modern science (Season 4), the whimsy of fate and religion (Season 5), and the depravity of the human soul (Season 6). By season 7, Whedon realized (or maybe he realized all along) that he had a problem on his hands. His show and Xena and others like it had created a false feminist icon. What good is it having a strong woman character if she must struggle in isolation? What kind of message does it send when a strong woman's destiny is to fight and kill? How was it that he had created a character and series that defied convention only to be trapped within societal norms for what a woman can and should be?
Cue season 7 with its story arc of defeating the patriarchy. That is what The First is. In order to rescue his series from his own good intentions, Whedon needed Buffy to slay the people that created her in the first place. In Season 7, Whedon metaphorically kills himself--the creator of the Slayer and all that she stood for.
In that final episode when all those women and girls stand up and show small power, local power, the power to change their immediate contexts, when Willow says to Kennedy "you're a Slayer" and Kennedy relies "and you're a goddess", I let out a huge cheer. Whedon had pulled it off. He had indeed made Buffy a feminist icon by removing her as the one solitary icon and by demonstrating that power resides in community--in helping ourselves and in helping others.
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BTW, I notice that "tracking down the original pilot" is not on your list of things to do.
Mad, I love you. And I loved the way Buffy ended, especially since she'd doubted her decision not to take the power that the first watchers had offered her.
As for the original pilot, I found it before I even knew it existed. But when I started watching it Friday night, Swee'pea was still awake and Sugar D was worried about the noise disturbing him. So now I will watch it. It's here, if you're interested: http://buffyworld.com/buffy/season1.php#ep000.
Love you too. BTW, the Season 8 graphic novel is on my Christmas list but then so is a digital SLR. I doubt I'll get both.
Hey, so what's the story with the original pilot anyways?
Also, what's your favourite season of Buffy? The woman who leant me all the dvds said season seven was her favourite, but I'm not sure. I spent a lot of it waiting for something more to happen... I keep coming back to season four because of Hush. That was the first episode that just blew me away. Not only was the episode well done, but I loved that the key plot developments (Tara and Willow connecting, Buffy and Riley discovering the other's secret identity) happened when no-one could speak. I think speech would have cheapened them...
I'll keep in you in mind for season 8, if I get it.
Well, I am still quite fond of seasons 2 and 3 because that's when the show really stole my heart. I agree that season 7 was suspended animation until the finale came along. Instead of favourite seasons, I think I have favourite episodes:
The Puppet Master (Season 1)
The episode when Angel kills Jenny Calendar (Season 2)
Phases (Season 2)
The Zeppo (Season 3)
The Thanksgiving episode in Season 4
Hush (Season 4)
The Body (Season 5)
Once More with Feeling (Season 6)
The one with the veggie burgers in season 6
and, of course, the finale.
I just need to give the man some props for that awesome pumpkin!
(And I know it's the wrong thing to say to someone in the grip of Buffy fever, but I can't weigh in because I never watched it - I loved the movie so much for it's fun, campy quality that I could never imagine watching the series. And it also started while I had no TV, so there's that, too.)
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