I'm sure
stormwreath will be up with a detailed review at some point. But there's a major development in season 8 regarding the slayer spell. The whole issue ends up being really quite disturbing.
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It landed in my in-box at Amazon early. Catch it if you can. The long series that landed at Epitaph Two would have been *really* good. Sigh.
Spoilers. Personally, I think you should let yourself get spoiled and hop into the mainline discussion where everybody knows. But if you are all about the big surprise, don't read this.
Some thoughts about season 8 in the wake of Turbulence, and in light of the Big Reveal below the cut.
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For unrestrained please see this:
http://buffyforums.net/forums/showpost.p
2.
Some further musings about Aycheb's meta and some speculation sparked thereby below the cut.
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A few thoughts below the cut:
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I've been meh about Dollhouse for a while, but tonight!!! Gah!!
( Spoilery squees below the cut )
Seven episodes left. And lots of balls in the air. Should be fun.
( Just a few paragraphs on how great it is to be a TV fan these days. )
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/fox-we-wi
Dollhouse pulled in good DVR numbers. I had thought it made sense to put a DVR intensive show on Fridays and am glad to hear that's exactly how the executives are thinking.
I have my reservations, but it's great to be able to kick back and enjoy the series in the knowledge that the season isn't going to just get chopped off at the knees.
Flist rankings: Belle Chose, Vows, Instinct
My rankings: Vows, Belle Chose, Instinct
Meanwhile, check out the lyrics to the Bowie Song:
( Lyrics to Oh You Pretty Things )
The more immediate reference of the title?
belle chose:
Beautiful thing , a French borrowing and literary euphemism used by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) and his contemporaries for the vagina . See vagina for synonyms.
The subject of writers' intent comes up a lot in the context of critiques of the show. I very often here the complaint that the writers tell us they were writing something different from the way it came across -- especially when people are complaining about season 6. We were supposed to see Spike as just the bad boyfriend dragging Buffy down, but that's at odds with the far more complex relationship that ended up on the screen.
We could debate all day and all night about what the writers intended. But I keep finding myself puzzled at why. Joss is an existentialist. That means there is no meaning "out there". We are the ones who make meaning. Insofar as Joss is the creator of the Buffyverse, he gets to tell us what happened and what the rules are. But he doesn't get to tell us what it means. If he really is an existentialist, he shouldn't want to tell us what it means. The writers can show us Xander making a speech to Buffy about why she should run after Riley. That's in the text. What's not in the text is any evaluation about whether he's right. That's a judgment call that WE get to make.
Well, does it matter that they comment on Xanders' speech by giving us the big Hollywood running after the helicopter scene with the big music and the dramatic editting? Is that a way of telling us that it is just TRUE that Buffy should have run after Riley? I don't think so. Stuff like that is meant to reflect the characters' POV. Buffy's tragic inability to catch up to Riley is how BUFFY is constructing that event. There's no doubt that Buffy ends up concluding that Xander was right. She constructs the end of B/R as being due to her failure. But that's how Buffy constructs the end of *all* her relationships. Back in season one we were told that Buffy's deepest fear is that Hank left because of her. She's going to see every other leaving through that lens. And that's what the writers are showing us. In Buffy's mind she just played out a tragic, dramatic scene to end her relationship wth Riley. That's all the writers get to tell us.
The evaluation? That's up to the audience. I think Xander was full of crap, mostly talking about his own issues. I think it's a bit sad that Buffy's emotional make-up is such that she was going to buy Xander's crap. I can't work up a hatred of ITW on the grounds that the writers want me to feel something that I don't feel, because I don't think the writers get to tell me how to feel, and I don't think these writers want to dictate to me how I should feel. Marty Noxon might think it's sad that Buffy let Riley get away, but all she gets to write is *that* Riley got away and how Buffy felt about it. I quite like the episode. It gives us a good portrait of the hows and whys of the B/R break-up. It gives us some interesting insight into Riley's character. Spike's role in the episode reminds us just how far Spike is from understanding what love is about, while also suggesting something about his character that grounds the subsequent growth in Spike's understanding of what love is. Best of all, ITW gets Riley gone. And happily the writers don't drag it out in subsequent episodes. Riley doesn't get moped over nearly as much as Parker got moped over, let alone the major epic endless mopage over Angel. That's a portrait of where Buffy is emotionally. We get to make of it what we will.
Pretty darned good. Not sure why I'm not quite to squee. Last year my heart sank every Saturday morning when I saw that the ratings were bad. The ratings were bad again today, and my heart did not sink. I have no idea what's behind my emotional distance. There was an awful lot to like about Vows. Spoilery thoughts follow below the cut:
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The buzz is quite good. I'm looking forward to it. But over the summer, my reservations about the show increased rather than decreased. Thoughts on Epitaph One below the cut.
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Part two of my essay on Lie to Me. The first part can be found here.
( Part Two -- and since I couldn't possibly go more than a post or two without mentioning Spike -- I mention Spike. )
I have a peculiar way of reading BtVS, and the root of that reading is the episode Lie to Me, which was written and directed by Joss and which occupies that all-important #7 slot in the season. The upshot of the tale I will tell here is that in this episode Joss pretty much explicitly tells us to not trust the storyteller in a way that’s an invitation to read against the surface meaning of the show. It's going to take a few parts to get the whole tale out. Part one is a bit of a warm up that also goes to recent discussions on
gabrielleabelle's LJ journal on Bangel and subversion.
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The topic of the day is immortality and whether or not it's a good thing. I tend to think it is not -- at least not if it's the sort that Spike or Angel has to look forward to, i.e. an unlimited number of days.
I don't know why news like this makes me all tingly and happy, but it does: Prospects for Dollhouse are looking good.
"Fox's official decision could go down to the wire before Monday; will post updates this weekend if the winds shift, but as of Friday morning ... the rough draft plan of Fox's fall includes Joss Whedon's show. "
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/05/dollhouse-s
Link courtesy of Whedonesque
